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STATISTICAL COMPARISON OF ^JNIVi:i<SAL AND 
 VOLUNTARY MILITARY SERVICE 
 
 PREPARED BY THE WAR COLLEGE DIVISION. GENERAL STAFF CORPS 
 
 AS A SUPPLEMENT TO THE STATEMENT OF A PROPER MILITARY 
 
 POLICY FOR THE UNITED STATES 
 
 WCD 4886-25 
 
 ARMY WAR COLLEGE : WASHINGTON 
 
 NOVEMBER, 1915 
 
 581 
 
 WASHINGTON 
 
 GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 
 
 1916 
 

 War Department, 
 
 Document No. 531. 
 
 Office of the Chief of Staff. 
 
SYNOPSIS 
 
 Page. 
 
 Analysis of Table I 6 
 
 Analysis of Table II 6 
 
 General comments • 8 
 
 30668'— No. 631—15 (3) 
 
 6G7338 
 
STATISTICAL COMPARISON OF UNIVERSAL AND 
 VOLUNTARY MILITARY SERVICE. 
 
 The leading European powers, and Japan, are organized for in- 
 dustrial competition in peace and for full preparedness against war. 
 England and the United States are not so organized. 
 
 The principal " tool " used by the European nations and by Japan 
 in such organization, has been universal military service, an institu- 
 tion extending back into the last century, adopted and made compul- 
 sory by vote of their peoples; and with time so adjusted, developed, 
 and corrected as to coordinate with the industrial, commercial, and 
 financial life of the nation, and make the transition from peace to 
 war conditions least disturbing to the nation. 
 
 By means of this tool, we find, early in 1914, that the war man 
 power of the universal service nations is limited by their respective 
 financial conditions, by the material which is disposable for war, and 
 by the numbers of able-bodied male citizens who can be taken from 
 those interior industries and vocations that are essential to the con- 
 tinuance of the national life and to the prosecution of war; and we 
 find further that some of those nations can place in the field one- 
 tenth of their total population, organized, armed, and equipped, 
 trained and physically fit for actual fighting. 
 
 On the other hand we find, at this time, the two English-speaking 
 nations whose geographical situation, populations, and resources 
 place them in the front rank of w^orld powers, pursuing parallel 
 policies in avoiding any semblance of military strength on land, 
 seeking rather to confine their preparedness to power on the sea ; 
 and hoping when atacked to find defense on land through volun- 
 teers, supplemented in great stress by conscripts. 
 
 The world military situation existing to-day and created by uni- 
 versal service, by which the principal European nations and Japan 
 are able to place the trained masses of their peoples in the fighting 
 fronts, is om.inous, and it makes pertinent a comparison of the uni- 
 versal and voluntary service sj^stems. "With the object of giving a 
 concise statistical view of the situation, the accompanying tables have 
 been prepared, based upon data found in the " Statesman's Year 
 Book, 1915," most of the items pertaining to conditions existing prior 
 to the present European war. 
 
 (5) 
 
 681 
 
ANALYSIS OF TABLE L 
 
 While some of the universal service nations hold their young men 
 to liahiUty for service prior to the age of 20 years, and their older 
 men after the age of 38 years, they do not, as a rule, enroll men for 
 training before the twentieth nor after the thirty-eighth year. This 
 may be explained by the fact of many immature youths of less than 
 20, and to marked depreciation in fitness after 38. 
 
 Generally, therefore, w^e find that training, and actual service as 
 soldiers, begins at the age of 20 and extends through three periods 
 of relative fitness, with average about as f ollow^s : 
 
 {a) A first line period, consisting of two or three years of inten- 
 sive training, followed by seven or eight years of first reserve service, 
 the latter with some training. During this period, physical fitness 
 is considered at the maximum, i. e., from 20 to 30 years. 
 
 (&) A second line period, consisting of about 10 years of second 
 reserve service, with short periods of supplementary training, gener- 
 ally at maneuvers. 
 
 (c) A home defense or auxiliary service period, generally without 
 any training, for men betwen 40 and 45 years. 
 
 Included in this table will be found corresponding figures pertain- 
 ing to Australia and Switzerland, States which have adopted limited 
 compulsory service for home defense only, the results of which have 
 not been tested by war. It must be admitted that the systems of these 
 two States are of doubtful utility to a world power facing the ques- 
 tion of adequate preparedness in all its phases. 
 
 ANALYSIS OF TABLE IL 
 
 That the figures in this table may be understood, it must be borne 
 in mind that not only do financial, industrial, and economic condi- 
 tions, varying in the different nations, seriously affect the cost of 
 military efficiency, but also that in some nations utilities owned by 
 the Government are made use of in military training without corre- 
 sponding charge against the military budget. 
 
 It must be evident that under equal financial and industrial condi- 
 tions, mobilization for training will cost more in an extensive coun- 
 try like Russia than in a compact country like Italy or Japan. 
 
 And, further, it is admitted that a comparative analysis may be 
 misleading, but not vitally so, for the reason that we can not ascer- 
 tain what proportion of the budgets is expended for training proper 
 and what proportion is spent for armament, munitions, and other 
 utilities necessary for the prevention or the prosecution of war. 
 
 With reference to man power, it appears that the total number of 
 males of military age in a nation fit for service is about one-sixth of 
 the total population. All, however, are not equally fit for service 
 
 631 
 
in the fighting line, and a large proportion could be used only for 
 service of tlie interior. In addition many exemptions must be made, 
 owing to tlie inadvisability of withdrawing men from those indus- 
 tries and vocations that are essential to the life of the nation, and 
 that proceed in many cases with acceleration during war. 
 
 For tliese and other reasons the proportion of one-sixth that are 
 fit for service dwindles to about one-tenth, and this is the proportion 
 that experience shows as representing the maximum man power 
 which any nation, however farsighted or methodical its statesmen, 
 has been able to place in the fighting fronts or actual operations at 
 the outbreak of war. 
 
 In attempting to prepare a trustworthy comparative estimate of 
 the actual man power of the principal nations in terms of men fully 
 trained, organized, armed, equipped, and fit for actual fighting it 
 has been found that most nations hold secret much of the information 
 required. Therefore estimates must rest upon a comparison of vari- 
 ous factors that are known, the principal ones being as follows: 
 
 (a) The extent and effectiveness of the peace training system and 
 the length of time the system has been in operation : 
 
 In a nation where a thorough system of universal training has 
 been long established, where the extent and effectiveness of training 
 is properly coordinated with financial conditions, and w^here the 
 training system has through experience been so corrected and ad- 
 justed that it minimizes interference with, while taking full advan- 
 tage of, industrial, educational, and other features essential to the 
 national life, we are justified in the conclusion that a full maximum 
 of man power can be developed. 
 
 On the other hand, a nation that stints or maladministers its 
 training system, or that has not long applied such a system, must suf- 
 fer a material reduction in a comparative statement of its trained 
 man power. 
 
 (h) Limitations of organization, armament, equipment, and mobil- 
 ization. These essentials to preparedness can not, like mushrooms, 
 spring up during the night. A nation with an available man power 
 of ten millions, but which limits the total of its organizations ready 
 for war to but one-half of that number, must be estimated as having 
 but five millions of man power. 
 
 Similarly, reductions must be made to correspond to what a na- 
 tion actually has in armament, munitions, and equipment. 
 
 And if details of mobilization are not worked out by peace prac- 
 tice, defective results will be expected in the placing of men and 
 materials at the fighting fronts at the outbreak of war. There will 
 then be a corresponding decrease in the effective man power. 
 
 (c) Proportionate exemption of those that are unfit, unworthy, 
 or of those that are fit, but can not be spared from the industries or 
 
 531 
 
8 
 
 vocations essential to national life and to the prosecution of war. 
 And to this must be added the elimination of those no longer fit for 
 actual fighting. These exemptions and eliminations, with a nation 
 aiming at the development of its maximum man power, result in a 
 man power of not more than one-tentli of the total population. If 
 the essential conditions are not fully organized, a further reduction 
 of man power will result. 
 
 (d) Relative financial and economic conditions of nations. 
 
 The development of efi'ective man power for war is inseparably 
 connected with these features. Where these features are defective, 
 or where the peace training system does not interweave therewith, 
 there will result strains and limitations, with corresponding reduc- 
 tions of man power. 
 
 (e) Psychological fitness of the people of a nation for war. 
 
 A nation which for generations has directed all its energies to 
 commercialism will be found peopled with those whose mental at- 
 tributes unfit them for effective collective action in war ; and such a 
 nation can not for a considerable period develop for war an effective 
 peace-trained man power. On the other hand, a nation that has 
 directed its energies toward military efficiency will be found with 
 people mentally equipped for and capable of united action in war; 
 and such a nation develops readily a full man power by its peace 
 training. 
 
 It will be noted that the yearly cost per effective of man power 
 is very much less in those nations that have universal service. This 
 is but the natural result of the policy pursued. The English- 
 speaking nations go into the labor market in wage competition for 
 their professional soldiers. On the other hand, the nations with 
 universal service coordinate their training with industrial and finan- 
 cial conditions; and pay their men under training a nominal sum, 
 sufficient only for their minor wants and for the contentment of the 
 average man. 
 
 GENERAL COMMENTS. 
 
 Broadly speaking, universal service, being maintained by a tax 
 upon manhood as well as upon wealth, it distributes more reasonably 
 the effort of government; supplementing the universal system of 
 education, which it rounds out, it broadens and educates the youth 
 of the nation individually and in duty to the State, offsetting the 
 harmful influences of crowded modern conditions of life, it im- 
 proves and builds up the physical characteristics of the people of a 
 nation; and finally, when coordinated with other essential features 
 of national life — and it is inseparably connected with them — it 
 improves every condition thereof, and harmoniously secures the 
 
 531 
 
9 
 
 maximum of military preparedness now so essential to the very 
 existence of the modern nation in peace as well as in war. 
 
 Although not included in the tables herewith, it is pertinent in 
 connection with thought of Pan Americanism, which must now be 
 recognized as a great fact, to state that Argentina, Chile, and Brazil, 
 which may be considered as the leading nations of South America, 
 have all adopted compulsory military service. 
 
 Each of these nations has been divided into military districts for 
 peace training and for war, and each expends annually an average 
 of 10 per cent of its total budget, at an average cost of $1 per in- 
 habitant, for military preparedness. 
 
 It is evident that a nation first adopting universal service to secure 
 military efficiency will not begin at once to reap its benefits. Sev- 
 eral years' trial, with corresponding years of adjustments and cor- 
 rections to meet conditions, are necessary, if a nation would secure 
 the full benefits arising from a well-devised, well-maintained pro- 
 gram of uniA'ersal service. 
 
 Table I. — Universal service — Liability and enrollment. 
 
 Nation. 
 
 Universal-service nations: 
 
 Austria-Hungary 
 
 France 
 
 Germany 
 
 Italy 
 
 Japan 
 
 Russia 
 
 Limited compulsory-service nations 
 
 Australia 
 
 Switzerland 
 
 Voluntary-ser\ice nations: 
 
 United Kinjrdom 
 
 United States 
 
 531 
 
 Liability. 
 
 19-42 
 
 24 
 
 20-18 
 
 29 
 
 17-45 
 
 29 
 
 20-38 
 
 19 
 
 17-10 
 
 24 
 
 20-43 
 
 24 
 
 19-26 
 17-48 
 
 18-45 
 18^5 
 
 32 
 
 Actual enrollment for service. 
 
 First 
 period. 
 
 Second 
 period. 
 
 12 
 14 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 7§ 
 18 
 
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 2J 
 
 2 
 
 2J 
 
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