February 23, 1917

A morning paper closes an editorial with this sentence: "That is to say less conscription of men means more conscription of money. That at bottom is the choice before the country". Most of those who believe in a minimum amount of compulsory training for every able bodied male citizen between certain ages will be inclined to accept this statement. In the great struggle between Rome and Carthage the men of Rome prevailed over the money of Carthage in spite of the genius of Hannibal. After the Punio war the Romans pressed on to conquer the world through the use of their own citizen soldiers and the mercenary soldiers of the east were easy picking for the Roman legions. After the ancient world had been coquered however the policy gradually shifted. The wealth of the Empire was used to maintain the legions who established their fortified camps along the Rhine the Danube and the Euphrates. When these legionaries were mustered out after several years of paid service they frequently made the best farmers and vine dressers along the slope of the Apenines. It was a conscription of money not of men and it worked just as the editorial suggests but under this system though peace was maintained the defence of the Empire as everybody knows gradually weakened. Finally about the middle of the sixteenth century the last remnant Con stantinople fell before the valorous Turks while the last Emperor endeavored to defend his capital by the use of mercenaries secured with money obtained by "taxing" the gold and silver offerings in the churches. The record of history shows that a mercenary army is a poor substitute for a people bound together through the ties of a common training for a common defenses.