New-York tribune., 1899-06-12
HOW THE BUREAUS EXPAND
THE WAR DEPARTMENT GROWN INTO
A GIGANTIC MUSHROOM.
CIVILIAN CLERICAL FORCE DOUBLE THAT
EMPLOYED IN THE CIVIL wAR-SoME
EXTRAoRDINARY FACTS.
IaY rELEGRArH ro THE TRIBuNE.l


Washington, June 11.-At first the War Des
partment brigadiers vociferously denied that the
troops in the field endured unnecessary hard
ships. Eventually. however, the fact estab-
lshed by two official Investigations was ad-
mitted and a new line OF defence was taken up.
What of IT," exclaimed the Secretary OF War.
IF some OF the troops did suffer little un.
necessarily wasn't IL glorious victory?"
Then the volunteer staff officers were charged
with stupidity ana ignorance, and even In
subordination. Finally, the mismanagement
was mainly attributed 10 insuficiency Of execu-
tive and clerical force. Only within few weeks
has Surgeon-General Sternberg repeated this
assertion. and also the original charge that
volunteer surgeons we're the chief cause OF the
Medical Bureaus ineffciency.
Both the War Department and Army Register
are conclusive that there was ample force, both
commissioned and clerical to carry forward the
administrative functions OF the bureaus st-
fectvely IL properly directed on any scale re-
quired. The Department was in fact choked
with both. and overfowed into rented quarters.
Fifteen of the STAFF officers were promoted to
the rank OF general and sent to command troops
in the field; in other words. deliberately per-
mltted to abandon the duties to which they
trained.
TENDENCY TOWARD EXPANSION.
But the Department constantly worked &C
cross purposes Even before the volunteers
were mobilized. perhaps stampeded. 1t proceed
ed under the dangerous emergency" pretext
to add great numbers to its already unwieldy
clerical force This exaggerated conception OF
the War Departments requirements on war
footing" excited the amazement, not to say de-
rision. of old attaches OF the Civil War days
There is apparent an accelerated tendency re-
Gently to multiply offices, not only civilian but
military life-tenure places, like those Of General
Answorth and Major Tweedae. already dis
cussed. Since the Civil War several new bu-
reaus have been added to the Department. Un-
der the tutelage Of the staff chiefs, who control
1t despotically, the War Department has spread
out into a great mushroom. 1t Is overloaded
with dead timber" and has become an eyesore
OF extravaganza It requires two men to do the
work OF one American thirty-fve years ago. The
quasi military directors OF the involved ana
feeble staff system. as edtorially charged by
''The Philadelphia Press" lie intrenched behind
the United States Senate. They make II .
careful practice to take care OF the proteges OK
the politicians. Thus Senator Cockrels som
in-law. at first quietly slipped into the Depart
ment as mere clerk, soon developed into
cate under the fostering Of the Missouri
Senator who wields a strong influence over it,
operations.
The staff chiefs fully understand the art OF
placating the lawmakers, and have no hesita-
ton in resorting to 'log-rolling" methods to DO
so An expensive result Of this give -and take
practice Is the quartering OF a large number Of
needy but mainly useless male and female
Army relatives upon the Department rolls.
NO NECESSITY FOR EXPANSION.
In 1863, under the administration OF Edwin
NJ Stanton, the year in which the Civil war
developed to its greatest proportions. when
with a million men in arms the business OF the
National Government was far more extensive
and complicated than ever before or since, the
annual register Of the War Department gave
the following figures Of its civilian clerical forces