CHEMICAL WARFARE IN RELATION TO STRATEGY AND TACTICS[43] =Fundamentals of War.= The underlying fundamental principles of Chemical Warfare are the same as for all other arms. Because of this, it is worth while, and even necessary, to understand the applications of Chemical Warfare, for us to go back and study the work of the masters in war from the dawn of history down to the present. When we do that we find that the underlying fundamental principles of war remain unchanged. They are the same today as they were in the time of Demosthenes, and as they will be 10,000 years from now. It is an axiom that the basis of success in war is the ability to have at the decisive point at the decisive moment a more effective force than that of the enemy. This involves men and materials. It involves courage, fighting ability, and the discrimination and energy of the opposing commanders. [Footnote 43: This material is adapted from a lecture by Gen. Fries before the students of the General Staff College, in Washington, May 11, 1921.] Another fundamental is that no success is achieved without positive action; passive resistance never wins. These are really unchanging fundamentals. We may also say that the vigor of attack, the speed of movement of men and supplies, and the thorough training of men in the use of the weapons of war are unchanging requirements, but outside of these everything is subject to the universal law of change. =Grecian Phalanx and Roman Legion.= The last word in the development of human strength as a battle weapon was illustrated by the Grecian phalanx with its sixteen rows of men, the spears of each row being so adjusted that all reached to the front line. That phalanx could not be stopped by any other human formation that met it face to face. To overcome it required a Roman legion that could open up and take the phalanx in the flank and rear. In the same way, the elephants of the Africans and the chariots of the Romans with their great swords swept all in front of them, until the Roman Legion, opening up into smaller groups allowed the elephants and chariots to pass through only to close in on them from the rear. Then and then only did those engines of war disappear forever. =Frederick the Great.= Frederick the Great, realizing that rapidity of fire would win on the fields of battle where he fought, trained his men to a precision of movement in close order probably never achieved by any other troops in the world and then added to their efficiency by teaching them to load and fire muskets at double the rate of that of his adversaries. He was thus enabled to concentrate at the decisive points a preponderance of power, which swept all his enemies before him.