New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-11-20
CRITICISM OF THE STAFF.
RESENTED BY ADJUTANT GENERAL COR.
BIN IN HIS ANNUAL REPORT.

sprxrRs-rHE ABsURDITY OF THE CHARGE
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES scHoFIELp
AND SENATOR PROCTOR AGAINST
GENERAL CoRBIN.
Washington. Nov 10 (speciaD.-so surely a.
the Staff Department Is seriously criticised the
motives Of the critic are at once called in ques-
tion nv its officers or their apologsts. They
enter upon no discussion Of the merits OF
the objections raised but content themselves
nv waving the matter off with the retort that
tho cornnIainant is disappointed" Office
seeLer or perhaps discharged" employe OF
tho War Department II may be thought this
diverts public attention or belittles the objec-
tons raised by discrediting their author. People
holding life tenure places with large emolu-
ments often object to discussion or the system
under which they hold office. Recently there
have been special reasons for this objection In
the War Department.
But with the disappearance OF Eagan and with
Carter In prison the bureaucracy % the war
Department has resumed It's confidence. The
annual report Of the Adjutant General Is
radical departure from the "dignihed silence
policy. though he falls naturally into the rou-
tine practice Of asserting that the criticisms
OF our staff Department are too often the re-
sult OF disappointment" adding this WHISPERED
tale: Seldom has there one appeared IN print
whose author has not been long standing ap-
nIicant for place In one Of the stan corps or de-
partments."
General Corbin. or some subordinate whom ne
more probably intrusted with the routine duty
~ collating material for the report here falis
into error Was it not going beyond ofncfal re-
curement to make such assertions? Had these
paragraphs been fully weighed in their relation
70 the facts before letting them go into what
nurports to be a mere routine report OF the
pureau,s onerations? General Corbin is too big
a man 10 load himself thus needlessly with the
burden of the staff II is Of no service to him.
He would have been big man under any sys'
tem-far bigger without connection with the
system whose flower was Eagan.
CoRBIN BELIEVES IN HIS SYSTEM
General Corbin's loyalty to his caste is to be
admired He conscientiously believes, DOUBT
loss that the staff system as now constituted
10 the best in the world. and practically above
criticism: that past criticism was wholly un-
unsuitable and born of malice. But does not
the Adiutant General know that the most telling
testimony against 1t has come not from disap-
nointed office seekers. but from the military
establishment itself? Will anybody say that
lieutenant General Schoheld. Major Generals
Miles and Merritt and many other officers
If high rank. most OF whom have been in
tho Regular Army from their boyhood GAYS
and hold it dear are disappointed long stand
ing applicants for place under him or sons
other staff chief? Does he not know that nearly
every general officer in the Army ASIDE from
the numerous staff brigadiers ara tnose VINO
have been promoted directly from the STAN
Is In favor Of its radical reorganizatiop'
Where does he think the almost universal press
criticism Of the staff had its origin?
OF course these high officers have made no
direct specific complaints; they love ana re-
spect their profession too highly TO discredit ns
fair fame before the world by openly animal.
yerting upon the derections and inehclencies
of any branch OF IT, Notwithstanding their rec
ognition of the fact that the Stan Department
long since ceased to be an integral part OF the
Army But their opinion is none the less POSI-
tive and significant in Its depreciation Oh the
present staff system. II these veteran generals
of two wars believed the present Organization
which is all head without any tail. subject to
nobody. irresponsible. as practice has SHOWN 10
everybody. even itself-had demonstrated It's
efficiency and usefulness in the test OF all our
wars" as the jealous Adjutant General asserts
would they so strongly and almost universally
recommend that It be discarded and something
radically different substituted? Yet that IS pre-
cisey what they have done and continue 10 90
in the most decided language.
THE DEFECTS OF THE STAFF SYSTEM.
The essential faults of the Staff Department
are it's lack of relation to the Army: the indepen
dence Of each bureau to all the others ana tne
independence of the whole to any competent
military authorty-to the General commahuiis'
Lieutenant General Schofeld went before inc
House Military Committee In the last session
of Congress, while the defunct Hull bill. DRAFTED
to consolidate, enlarge and perpetuate lnoen
nitely the present incongruous staff system
was being considered, and gave IT as his earhes'
Judgment that the heads of all the staff bureau,
should be subordinated to the General In Cnie'
of the Army Such an opinion from such
source is of peculiar value. General schohei'
is Democrat In politics. He is supposed 70
be personally hostile to General Miles. the
Commanding General Besides. he is not onV
West Point graduate. commander Of long es'
perlence in the field as well as the bureau 9u,.
more than all, he has been Secretary Oh wa
and of;entimes Acting Secretary Ihus, uy .,
tual contact with the cumbrous stan system ~
all its wonderful ramifcations General Scho-
field Is fully conversant with all Its virtues %
well as faults, and Is therefore well equlppeu
to give correct Judgment upon the whole au ss.
ton OF course 1t is absurd to say that tn,s
officer who has been in the Army FOR n,V
years is a critic OF the present stan system Is
cause OF disappointment" Unquestonaoly .ns
change he urged Congress TO make was no'
only wise but one made wholly from disinesi
ested motives other than personal desire W'
the welfare Of his profession. a..
Before the same committee Of Congress, at US
request the Commanding General OF the Army
Miles outlined plan for the radical reoTeah,.,
cation Of the staff department, which ne urssu
as necessary Instead of having officers perIna-
reNtly appointed to staff bureaus as now no
proposed that officers be detailed from the llhe
to the several bureaus. TO serve for hxed Terms
sued with eminent success in the Navy II
argued that this would Immediately brins lhe
staff back into close relations with the nne,
and again make II what IL long since ceased 10