During recent years the republican tendencies among the people have found vent in socialism. The Spanish socialist leaders belong mostly to the intellectuals, and here again is the weakness of the movement, whether considered as a means of giving Spain a republic or of liberating her political system under monarchical form. Some of the intellectual leaders among the socialists headed straight for philosophic anarchy, while others expended their energies in building castles in the clouds. The substantial socialism of the recent period was, however, based on the workingmen's movement. Before the outbreak of the great war the tendency was to affiliate with the groups in other countries of Europe which advocated socialism as an international creed. But when the German socialists placed their country above internationalism, and the French socialists did the same, and the Italian socialists joined in the agitation to force the government into war to get back territory lost to Austria, the international basis of Spanish socialism disappeared. CHAPTER XV. MODERN WAR METHODS. INDIVIDUAL INITIATIVE AS AGAINST MASS MOVEMENTS--TRENCH WARFARE A GAME OF HIDE AND SEEK--RATS AND DISEASE--SURGERY'S TRIUMPHS--CHANGED TACTICS--ITALIAN MOUNTAIN FIGHTING. Warfare such as carried on in the Great World War is so different from that of any other of the great wars which the world has seen, that it might be described as a method of fighting distinctively unique. Undoubtedly, more ancient methods, and even ancient weapons, have been employed than were used in any of the wars which have changed, from time to time, the boundary lines of nations. The fighting of mass against mass has been practically obliterated, and modern evolutions where the plan is man to man have developed a mode of fighting where terrible execution has resulted. Undoubtedly this means of fighting has developed the personal initiative of the soldiers, and the modern fighting machine of the nations is of a high standard, which, together with death-dealing weapons, has resulted in terrible havoc. Massed movements, such as carried on in the War of the Rebellion, have been practically done away with, and although there have been long and costly sieges, they have been carried on by tedious trench fighting, airships, hand grenades, and massive shells fired from guns of great caliber, and with a range which is really marvellous. Shells are fired, shrapnel in some cases, explosive shells in others, which are timed to the second, so that when fired from guns many miles from the objective point, they explode at a measured distance from the earth. They are exploded within a gauged distance of the target, and the execution is done over a measured area. On the shells are indicators. Within the shrapnel shells are hundreds of small shot. As the shell explodes the shots are scattered over the enemy, and death and destruction are unavoidable.