The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-08-15
ENGLISH OF THE ARMY.
Straight Writing as Much Needed as Straight Shooting.


 Straight Shooting. While the fighting qualities of the
 army are superb, it is open to discussion
 whether it's English is as good as it's
 craftsmanship, generalship and cour-
 age. Can the officers, old and young,
 express their ideas in clear, simple,
 straightforward language? Can they invariably write an order, or para phrase one, so that there can be no
 ambiguity in it's meaning? Nothing could be more essential to successful
 military operations than the mastery of ones mother tongue. The battle of | Chickamauga would not have been lost,
 perhaps, by the Federals had it not | been for that clumsy order which led a certain division commander to open a great gap in the Federal line, through which Longstreet's Confederates poured. The history of war is strewn with catastrophes which are attributed
 to awkward or unintelligent orders. l There is much complaint in the Brit l ish army over the slovenly English of
 young officers, The recent report of the ! military education committee, which was appointed by the war office to in quire into the education and training of British army officers, declares that the
 military witnesses who were called be- 1 fore the committee, and who based their | evidence in the Boer war. testified to the lamentable ignorance shown by young officers generally when called on
 to write and dictate orders to their men, and toScompose reports for the informa-
 tion of the senior officers in the field. Is there any warrant for asking whether a similar criticism applies to the Ameri- can army
 The experience of the republican and i the New York Tribune the last week
 with one of the orders of Secretary Root | seems to justify a little attack on the army's English. Neither paper had be- fore it MT. Roots original order, but a
 kind of paraphrase of the order as made by some army officer in Manila, who
 telegraphed the substance of MT. Roots | instructions around the islands. The
 Manila version read:
 ITO refute statements of misconduct l of troops toward natives in Philippine Islands, Secretary of War Root directs petition of retention of commanders of various organizations and any inforrna- tion within the knowledge of any officer
 on these islands will be wired here" l That two interpretations of that lan- guage, entirely irreconcilable with each other, are possible is evident from the fact that the Republican and the Tri- bune have sharply disagreed as to the meaning of the compound sentence. While neither paper accepts the others interpretation, they agree that the dis patch as sent out from Manila was | Wretchedly composed. The Tribune says: The dispatch was most awk- wardly worded," and the sentence was the bungling attempt of somebody in | Manila to throw into indirect discourse
 the secretary's order"
 There are times when good, straight
 English is as necessary as good, straight shooting. At West Point, doubtless, great pains are taken with l this branch of the cadets education. It is certain, however, that no cadet should be graduated who cannot write
 in a clear, unambiguous style. And l army officers generally, whether they are West Pointers or not, may find in the memoirs of Ulysses s. Grant mod el of simple luminous, terse expression,
 the reading of which once year would constitute a liberal education in the
 proper use of the language for all 'mili- tary purposes. General Grant would have been incapable of writing that dis patch from Manila.-Springfield Re- publican.