The news & observer., 1898-05-21
WHAT OTHERS SAY.
THE SECRETARY OF WAR.
New Yerk Times.


New Yerk Times
IL this war is to be seriously conducted
it behooves the President to provide him
self with Il serious Secretary of War. He
carried for Il year the burden of Il super
annuated Secretary of State, and finally
relieved his Administration of it only
when it had come very near to bringing
about serious complications with foreign
powers. 1t is necessary that a much
more summary course should be taken
in the case Of Secretary Alger than was
taken in the case of Secretary sherman.
Secretary Alger has now been Secre-
tary of War for month in time of war,
and that is a month too long.
1t would be quite sufficient to say that
nobody ever would have dreamed of
making Gen. Alger Secretary of War III
view of war to show that the actual oc-
currence of war ought to he the occasion
of substituting person who better com
mandS the confidence Of the country as
"a War Minister. But that is not the
whole ease. The contrast between the
Navy and the War Departments has
been instructive. Secretary Long is a
civilian. but his department has been adj
mirably administered. Doubtless much
of its efficiency has been due to the en-
ergy and capacity of his Assistant Sec
retary. But it has mainly consisted in
the fact that the department has been
managed in accordance with the best in
telligence of the navy. 1t is notorious
that the War Department has been man
aged not only not in accordance with but
i'm large measure in opposition to the best
intelligence of the army. Expert opinion
has been taken in the one case and re-
jected in the other
If Secretary Alger had been Il mere
civilian he might have been a more eff
cient Secretary 1t is his 'little knoWl-
edge" that has been the dangerous
thing His experience of a generation
ago has induced him to believe that the
precedents of 1861, when the army OH
each side was Il mob at the beginning.
were safe to follow in war of aggres
sion against power which had Il regu-
lar army. He has assented to projects
for the organization of the army which
no professional soldier could have sane
toned, and in putting them into elfee,
he has shown a capacity for muddling
and blundering which has been thrown
into stronger relief by contrast with the
efficient work of the other service. The
stan appointments OF raw clYlllanS over
the heads of competent and trained Off
GERS have constituted a public scandal
Nothing could have tended more strong
ly to demOraliZe the army at its fCrma-
ton and make its officers believe that
promotion was to go by favor and not by
desert. And finally. il is believed that
personal grudge Of the Secretary against
the second officer on the active list OF
the army has prevented the assignment
of that officer TO congenial duty which
in the judgment Of the experts. he is the
fttest man to perform, and has brought
about his assignment to take command
of an expedition which was so constitute
ed as to be foredoomed to failure.
It is 50 all-important that the Secreta-
ryship of War should be filled by n
competent man that it would be crime
not to use plainness of speech in point
ing out the incompetency Of the present
incumbent. If the President desires, as
of course he earnestly does. to promote
the efficiency Of the army, he must have
Il new Secretary of War. who will COM
mand the confidence of the army and of
the country.