The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1902-11-29
NEED OF ORDNANCE OFFICERS


Gen. Crozier's Plan for Supplying
Them.
Those who read the annual report of
the chief of ordnance of the army will be
impressed with the Importance of the
passage devoted to a discussion of the
personnel of the ordnance department.
The situation is a serious one and the
department is confronted with the in
creasing vacancies without the means,
present or prospective, of filling them.
This is due to the provision of the army
law of February 2, 1901, since the opera
ton of which there have been Is
vacancies in the grade of LIST lieuten-
ant in the ordnance department, only
three of which places were filled.
There remains, therefore, IL vacancies,
for which, says Gen Crozier, there are
no applicants, and to make the matter
more serious there is likely to be none.
Gen. Crozier courageously applies him.
self to the problem of relief. 1t is
imperative that this department shall
not anguish under the provisions of a
law which perpetrates a calamity. The
act makes SUCH requirements in the
scheme of detailing line officers to the
ordnance department as deprives duty
In that direction of all attractions
Something must be done IL the ord
nance department Is to maintain it's
personnel with the numerical strength
and professional qualifications which
are absolutely necessary for the eff
mi fTaff af 1Yf1, ,ay,t
officers cannot. be expected to ask for
detail to staff corps which demands
Of them high technical ability and
training, which offers no special induce
ment for the arduous task and which
finds them after certain period thrust
back into the line, with the requirement
that they shall serve there two years
before they are again eligible to ord
nance duty. This system of inter-
mittent service, with its periodical in
terruptions in the ordnance career of
the efficiency of the department and
hazardous to the development of iidi-
vidual training.
Gen. Crozier, in an attempt to provide
for his department the officers so
urgently needed, finds himself con-
fronted with three means of relief
Something would be effected toward
the desired end by lowering the stand
ard of admission, by making the en-
trance examination less stringent than
it is now, although the examination has
been one which officers at present in
the corps were able to pass and which
an ordnance officer hereafter might
properly be expected to find reasonably
lenient. The present standard has been
imposed with due regard to what Is
required OF ordnance officers, and any
proposition to lower the standard must
be regarded as a specious subterfuge.
AS a remedy of existing ills it is the
veriest nostrum of relief, the sort of
cure that suicide is. and must be dis
missed as would be any other fool
hardy and Improbable plan.
Very much the same contempt must
be bestowed upon the prosposition
which contemplates making arbitrary
details of line officers to the ordnance
department, and requiring officers to
perform technical duty for which they
have no liking If they are fitted and in
matter very little whether such arbitrary
detail is made with or without exmina-
ton. In the former case the ordnance
department would obtain officers who
would meet the qualifications, but who
might not have an interest in the work,
and in the latter case the danger would
be in getting officers who are incom-
,petent. In either case such system
would be unjust to the department
and a hardship to the individual, and
dangerous idea Of lowering standards.
With these two unavailable propositions
eliminated. as they must be under any
Judgment which considers definite and
wholesome results, there is left third
alternative, that of surrounding army
ordnance duty with conditions which
will make details to the department
attractice to I'd lieutenants of the line,
and along this line Gen Crozier has
made a recommendation which seems
to settle the troublesome question. He
would have available I'd leutenants
transferred to the ordnance depart
ment with the rank of first lieu
tenants. He would have such officers
return to the line for one years inter-
val Of service only. He believes that in
the case of the ordnance officer service
with the troops who handle the pro-
duct of the department would be valu-
, able, but" he says, 1.-THE principle
should be followed Of regarding such
| service as an incident of the practice
of the profession Of the ordnance engi-
neer rather than to attempt such prac-
tice as an incident of service in the
| line"
The relief from the situation proposed