CHAPTER X. The Preparation Of The Army

When one compares the conditions under which the Spanish American
War was fought with those of the Great War, he feels himself
living in a different age. Twenty years ago hysteria and sudden
panics swept the nation. Cheers and waving handkerchiefs and
laughing girls sped the troops on their way. It cannot be denied
that the most popular song of the war time was "There'll be a hot
time in the old town to-night," though it may be believed that
the energy and swing of the music rather than the words made it
so. The atmosphere of the country was one of a great national
picnic where each one was expected to carry his own lunch. There
was apparent none of the concentration of effort and of the calm
foresight so necessary for efficiency in modern warfare. For
youth the Spanish American War was a great adventure; for the
nation it was a diversion sanctioned by a high purpose.

This abandon was doubtless in part due to a comfortable
consciousness of the vast disparity in resources between Spain
and the United States, which, it was supposed, meant
automatically a corresponding difference in fighting strength.
The United States did, indeed, have vast superiorities which
rendered unnecessary any worry over many of the essentials which
gripped the popular mind during the Great War. People believed
that the country could supply the munitions needed, and that of
facilities for transport it had enough. If the United States did
not have at hand exactly the munitions needed, if the
transportation system had not been built to launch an army into
Cuba, it was popularly supposed that the wealth of the country