The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1898-08-30
New York Evening Post


this week, Gen. Miles having added MS
mite IN the shape of .an2 interview given
to Kansas. paper in Porto Rico. With
the Commanding General taking a hama
and the Secretary of War writing apollo
gies to his friends, for publication, 1t is
evident, as one officer stated, that Etnls
campaign of scandal and baekolting
would become as famous as the war JusV
ended, and even conservative and retlcene
officers are finding it difficult 10 Keep ouo
of the heated discussions. According TO
the press reports, the Washington bureau
chiefs are each and every one satlsued
that the fault does not lie in his depart
msnt In another breath 1t is admitted
that an important order as to purchasing
delicacies for the sick was rot promul-
gated for several days. This self-content-
mept is quite characteristic of the bureau
chiefs and officers, according to one OF
the cavalry arm, whose station several
wears ago in Washington gave him an op-
portunity to carefully observe the work.
ings of the staff.
That newspapers which ordinarily give
are getting at the root of thing is shown
by the following extract from the Boston
transcripts:
snow that the war is over let us pre-
pare for another by correcting the abuses
and malformations in our military sys-
tenn which the struggle just ended has
proved to exist. Beginning with the
iohi Sc 1ar ha-
ginning, we ought to bring the now un-
sympathetic departments under the direc-
ton of one officer holding a position
somewhat equivalent to that of Chief of
Staff to thesC Commanding General Meth
or in theory nor in practice today are the
Ouartermaster. Gen eral, the Adjutant-
General, the Commissary- General. the
Surgeon General. and the Paymaster-Gen-
eral directly subordinate and responsible
to the Commanding General of the army
Each of these officers is at the head of
department of his own, which Is protect
ed by legislation from interference by the
general commanding, who, towards
them, is oftenef in the position of an ap.
plicaut than in that of q commander.
Theoretically, they each and all are under
the personal supervision Of the Secretary
of War. Practically, the Secretary OF
War. being usually civilian OF civilian
ante csdents, is at their mercy and be-
comes their Uouthpiece.
1--WE have seen in the present contest
these staff departments working each in
its own Wey, presumably satisfactorily
to the Secretary of War, but unsatlsfac-
torily to the country and to the General
commanding. The unreadiness OF the
staff departments at Washington has
come home to the country strongly this
year, because the collapse has been as
public as the test, but it is no new thing.
Were the staff made up by process OF
selection managed by responsible man,
it's independence, though it would then
be mischievous, would not be SO hamper
ing to the Commanding General as it is
at present for then common efficiency
might instinctively bringaaabout harmony.
Unfortunately, the staff has grown up
quite as much by pulls" as in any other
way. Young officers who have had more
aspirations for a social career than for
military life, 'Coburgs,' in military par
lance, provided with pulls, have looked
tn Washington for staff positions, and if
they had important political relations
have seldom looked III vain. Once IN
Washington nothing but death or the
age limit can ever get such men out OF
their soft places
This is just what progressive officers
have been saying year in and year out.
Is was for saying these things that
Lieut.. PowhataniH. Clarke, Tenth Cav
airy. was publicly reprimandeG in 1892,
and it is for 1ntimating these things in
directly that the reports of several of our
recent military attaches abroad are care
fully and persistently and permanently
hopeful thing that can be said about the
situation is that by 1905 nearly every
officer who served in the regular army
during the Civil Wan will have been
placed on the retired list, thus making
way for younger and more progressive
nearly every officer now holding the rank
od major or above will be of no value. un-
less there be careful and modern legisla-
tson by Congress-
The appointment this week of First
Lieut.. Albert l.. Mills, First Cavalry, as
Superintendent'of West Point furnishes
very plain object lesson of the injustice
and dangers of injudicious. not to say
political, appointments. It is stated that
tine appointment was unsolicited. and
that it Is both a recogniztion of the
younger officers and of Miles bravery at
Santiago. Even if this is true. officers
contend that the appointment should
never have been made, because the COM
mand of West Point is one of the most
important in the army, and has never |
before been given to any officer of lieu
tenants rank, and only once to a cap |
tain. Upon the high Standard OF West |
Point and the keeping up of its splendid |
traditions depends the future of the corps |
og officers, and the army itself, to which |
IT will more and more give it's tone.
Therefore it is held that the first question
to be put to candidate for the position |
ie: Have you the special fitness to become
the president of great national univer-
sity. And the disoontented officers fur
tier say that no young ex-instructor OF
Harvard or Yale would ever be thought |
OF for President Of one Of those universi-
ties because he showed bravery under
fire.
Furthermore, and this is thought by
some the more important argument, there
were stationed at West Point last year
twenty officers who held the rank of CAP
tain or above, and many Of whom will
return this fall to find themselves COM
manded by an officer of inferior rank,
despite his temporary rank of Colonel |
an extraordinary state of affairs. Chief |
among these officers to be commanded by |
his subordinates is the present second In |
command and acting comman dant, |