The times., 1898-06-06
cAusT1c CRITICISM
Respects Paid to Amateur Generals
and Ornamental STATS


New York, June 5.-The Herald print:
the following letter from Poultney Bige
low. the correspondent of the London
Times, at Tampa, Fla:
DO not laugh good warrior friends oi
the regular army. This is not written
for you, ] am addressing only major gen.
/ erals of recent creation, and amateur
soldiers generally. who are playing havoc
| with the health and welfare of our
brave army. The state of that army at
Tampa can be compared to a set of mod
| ern electric machinery dumped upon the
! beach Of an African sultan The machin-
cry is magnificent but no one can put il
together. At Tampa is an army of in
| Vasion estimated by the tens of thou
| sands. 1t contains Individual men and
! officers unequaled in the armies OF
| Europe for physique military training
ana courage, yet these elements are rem
| oered impotent because the direction of
them is intrusted to men unfit for com
| mand.
Suppose now. We set to work to turn
the incompetent men out of the army. 1t
| will make tremendous void. but il must
| De done before the army can move sue
| cessfuliy We must begin at the to-.
Who Is in command? Today no one
knows.
Let US determine that Immediately. Let
the President name some general as COM
Hiahder oil the troops, and let il be under
stood that henceforth he, and he alone.
shall be held accountable for the conduct
or the campaign. What would we think
| OF ship with three or four captains
aboard? Yet our little army has been
distracted for the last month with half
a dozen commanders-in-c chief
There should. then. be no more back
stairs intrigue against the head of the
army. Gen. Miles would consult Gen.
Schoiield if he saw fit, but the papers
would not henceforth be printing para
graphs TO the effect that the President
was getting advice from Schofeld and ig-
noring that of the nominal commander of
the army
I do not say that Miles is the best gen
erai IN the United States. If vote were
taken among officers of the regular SER
vice the choice might fall upon Wesley
Merritt, whom Secretary AIger has de-
ported TO the Philippines But any general
at the head is better than this present
rule OF chaos. Amy order is better than
no order. Nothing is worse for soldiers
than to feel that they are without a lead
er Once we have head at the army the
first thing he Will do If he has the cour
age win be to appoint a board TO inotire
into the fitness for command Of the many
who have been recently pushed into high
military places by political or money in
huence- This board will weed out per-
haps 10 per cent. of the total recently an
pointed, and that will make room for good
men
After the battle of Jena, in 1906 nearly
every fortress commander of Prussia was
court-martialed for cowardice and incom-
potency. But that was a mistake. The
one to have been court-martialed was the
king, who allowed incompetent old men
10 remain in office. No earthly power can
give man brains or courage. but there
are many ways of Kidding the service of
those who have neither And this is bet
ter done before a battle than after it.
The armies of Europe have all been re-
modelled since the F'ranco-German war
Ihe most important element in their pres
ent efficiency is that no officer remains in
a given grade more than certain num-
Der OF years and that no promotions take
place excepting after proof of compe-
tency. Thus if a man has been a can
tain for few years and is not promoted
when his turn comes he is expected 70
resign for unfitness
sNoyr fbay
Army who have been in that grade since
the Civil War. They are grandfathers
and have lost the nerve necessary for
their work. As locomotive drivers they
would long ago have ceased to be useful
on anything but local train or a freight
er They are presumably unfit for high
command, or they would long ago have
been made generals. AT least that would
be the presumption in Germany. Such
old men, after forty years of army life.
are still doing the work of boys. Their
sphere is limited to the petty daily wants
of fifty or hundred privates to see that
they are clean that they are in fighting
shape. The officer who cannot rise to
something beyond this after five or ten
years OF service should be forced to re-
tire and make way for young blood
THE commander-in-chief will look about
Tor the generals who are to command the !
brigades, divisions and army corps AS
you know. the captain commands a COM
Dany. which here means. perhaps a hun |
dred men, The colonel commands reg
lment which may mean anywhere from |
five hundred to twelve hundred men. In |
Germany the regiment is three thousand |
Heretofore our army has been scattered
all about the country. so that the regi-
ment has been about the largest military |
unit ever seen together at a parade. |
Now, however, we have suddenly brought
dozens of regiments together and conse- !
quently colonies must give way to COM !
manders of larger military units. We |
club two or three regiments together and /
call it a brigade This we place in |
charge of a brigade.
Now, men of practical business habits |
think that the best man to command a |
brigade is the officer who has proved a /
good commander of a regiment So think /
all soldiers. But not SO our acephaIous |
War Department in Washington | see /
men who left the army when they were
lleutenants now thrust back again over
the heads of officers who have remained |
with their regiments. / see !
men made brigadier generals who on any
KIND OF test examination would be unfit /
to take charge of a company. Can we |
expect soldiers to fight with enthusiasm
under generals whom they do not respect?
The French catastrophe at Sedan was
largely due to political jobbery in the
army. There Is a little of this in the
Spanish army, but not so much as in our
own. Besides in Spain, the soldiers do
not read the papers so freely as with US.
and are not accustomed to our ways of |
doing things. In any other trade than
soldering the men would strike by rea-