The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-12-01
GENERAL STAFF
Is AGAIN URGED
Secretary of War Would Sub
ordinate Senior Officer.
CASE OF TOO MUCH DIGNITY
SCOTT AND SHERMAN LEFT
ON ACCOUNT OF TT.
CASE OF TOO MUCH DIGNITY

II; AsHINGToN, Nov. SO.-The report
wv of the secretary Of war. made
public this morning. is a docu-
ment of great length and an ex-
the department in recent years.
Among the more important recon-
mendations is the creation of a general
staff which would leave the senior
general shorn of the dignity of COM
handing officer. Secretary Root says:
The most important thing to be done
now for the regular army is the Gre
alton of a general staff. 1 beg to call
attention to the remarks made upon
! this subject under the head of I'm
! prOVement of Army Organiza ton in
/ the report for 1889 and under the head
| of General Staff in the report for
1901 Since the report for 1899 was
| made many of the important meas
ures then recommended for the greater
efficiency of the army have been ac-
complished or are in course of ac-
| cOmplishment under authority con-
ferred by legislation.
Defective on Top.
Our military system is, however, still
exceedingly defective at the top. We
have a personnel unsurpassed any,
where, and 2 population ready to re-
spond to drafts for the increase of
the personnel in case of need up to
the full limit at which il is possible
to transport and subsist an army. We
have wealth and a present Willingness
! to expend ii reasonably for the pro-
curement of supplies and material of
war as plentiful and as good as any
country in the world has We have
the different branches of the military
service well organized. each within it
self for the performance of its duties
Our administrative staff and supply de-
partments, as a rule, have at their
heads good and competent men. faith
ful to their duties, each attending as
siduously to the business of his de-
partment
Neither our political nor our military
system makes it suitable that we
should have general staff organized
like the German general staff or the
French general staff; but the common
experience of mankind is thai the
things which those general stats do,
have to be done in every well man
aged and well directed army, and they
have to be done by a body of men
especially assigned to do them. We
should have such a body of men
selected and organized in our own
way and in accordance with our own
system to do those essential things
The most ineligible way to describe
such body of men. however selected
and organized. is by calling it a gen.
eral staff, because its duties are staff
duties and are general in their char
acter.
Duties of Staff.
The duties of such body of officers
can be illustrated by taking for ex-
ample an invasion of Cuba, such as
we were all thinking about a few years
ago. 1t is easy for a president or
a general acting under his direction,
to order that $4,000 or 160, 600 men pro-
coed to Cuba and capture Havana. To
make an order which has any reason
able chance of being executed he must
do a great deal more than that. He
must determine how many men shall
be sent and how they shall be di-
vided among the different arms of
the service, and how they shall be
armed and equipped, and to do that
he must get all the informa ton los
sible about the defenses of the place
to be captured and the strength and
character and armament of the forces
to be met He must determine at
what points and by what routes the
points his troops shall land in Cuba;
and for this purpose he must be in
formed about the various harbors of
the island and the depth of their chan
nels; what classes of vessels can en-
ter them; what the facilities for land
ing are; how they are defended; the
character of the roads leading from
them to the place to be attacked: the
character of the intervening country;
how far it is healthful or unhealth-
full; what the climate is liable to be
at the season of the proposed move
ment: the temper and Sympathies of
the inhabitants; the quantity and kind
of supplies that can be obtained from
the country; the extent to which
transportation can be obtained, and
a great variety of other things which
will go to determine whether it is bet
ter to make the approach from one
point or from another, and to de-
termine what it will be necessary for
the army to carry with it in order
to succeed in moving and living and
fighting.
Chief of staff.
In creating a general staff I think
we should change the designation OF
the officer whom we have called the
commanding general of the army to
chief of staff, and at the same time
enlarge his powers by giving him the
immediate direction of the supply de-
partments. which are now independent
OF the commanding general of the
army. and report directly to the secre-
tary of war. The position of the COM
handing general of the army is not
created by statute. 1t depends en-
tireiy upon executive order, and it
could be abolished at any time by the
president, and the position of chief
of STAFF could be created in its place.
Legislative action, however, is desira-
Bile in two directions. One is to pro
vide for the performance of duties of
the president of the beard of ordnance
and fertilization and the president of
the board of commissioners of the Sol
dieTs' home. both CT which nave been
attached by statute to the position OF
the commanding general of the army.
The other line of legislative action
needed is to authorize the control of
the secretary of war over the supply
departments to be exercised through
the chief of staff. This probably could
not be done except by congress.
The change of title from command
ing general of the army" TO "chief of
staff" would be of little consequence
were il not that the titles denote and
imply in the officers bearing them the
existence of widely different kinds of
authority When an officer is ap-
pointed to the position of commanding
general of the army" he naturally ex-