Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1903-01-15
The New Army Bill.

| This bill, which passed the House on
the 9th inst, establishes a general staff
to he composed of officers detailed from
the army at large. whose duties it shall
be to prepare plans for the national de-
Tense, investigate and report on all qucs-
| tons affecting the efficiency of the army
and act as agents in co-ordnating diff
ferent departments under the supervision
of the chief of staff.
| The general staff corps is TO consist of
one chief of staff and two general officers,
to be detailed by the President from OFF,
GERS not below the grade of brigader- gen
eral; four colonies, six lieutenant colonies
and twelve majors to be detailed from
the corresponding grades in the army. and
twenty captains. Details will be for peri
DDS of four years, and upon being relieved
officers return to the branch of the army
in which they hold commissions.
The chief of staff, under direct ion of the
| President, is to have supervision of all
the troops of the line and of the adiutant-
generals, inspector generals. judge advo-
Gates, quartermaster' subsistence, medi-
cal, pay and ordinance departments, the
corps of engineers and the signal corps.
The bill is part of the plan for the re
organization and Improvement of the
army which Senator Proctor Secretary
| Root and other leading men have been
urging. Secretary Root in the hearing on
| the bill said:
The two great duties of the general staff
will be first. to acquire information and
| ttNt, oil t,l.
plans of operation. SO that an order can
be intelligently made. and. second, when
the order has been made, to exercise con-
stant supervision that does not mean com
mand, but to inform and advise all the
different persons who must conspire to
the execution of the order of how every
other ono il going on with his work. 1t
is because we have never had in The
! American army body of men charged
with that sole duty that we have seen
the great confusion that existed AT the
time of the Civil War and at the outbreak
of the war with Spain. a very careful
study of the conditions that existed III
the spring of 1898 has led me II the con-
clusion that there never was more faith
ful ana devoted set of men than were en-
gagged in our administrative STAFF depart
ments a that time every man doing his
very best, with capacity and with devo-
ton to duty III the performance of his par
ticular work; but there was no adequate
force to see that their work went pari
paSSU. That same thing exists to-day in
the peace work of the army. Men doing
work of the highest character h!ndered,
delayed INSTRUCTED, having the efficiency
of their work decreased for the lack of
some one to see that they move together
and that one does not have to wait for the
other until his opportunity to do the
work has passed
If We should go to war tomorrow You
would find the same kind of confusion
which existed at Tampa, and if you do not
learn to act upon the lesson that We have
had furnished to us by our past expert
cuCe, whenever we go to war the same
kind Of confusion will exist; it will cost
many thousands of lives and many mil
lions of dollars. and it may cause hut
initiating defeat
The waste of money that is involved in
having all the different branches of Of
fort under the war department go on
each by itself. without any co-ordinatinl
force except the single civilian secretary
Of war, is enormous. 1t is not the bust
ness of the commissary- general to deter
mine what the movement of troops is II
be- it is his business to see that they
are supplied. Who is to tell him how
much bacon, how much flour, how mucl
beef are to be sent across the Pacific, Of
to the West Indies, or to Alaska, or t'
any portion Of this great country? Wh(
is to give him that information?
il is the business of a co-ordnatini
body, commonly known as the genera
stan, to see that the views of the mill
tary authorities who are carrying out thu
r plans OF the Frcsident-that is, the com
/ mandine officers who are carrying on
the plans of the President regarding tn
future movements of troops-are com
municated or their result is communicate
to the commissary- general, instead of do
, ing as We have done many a time havin,
great quantities of provisions sent L
places where, with the best information
2 he could get, they would he needed, ant
E finding that the troops had gone some
a where else,
The best modern armies, those of Eng
0 land and the United States excepted, hav
E such n general staff. The need of such
t corps for the English army was clearl
shown in the South African war: and
is time that this country should proVd
itself with such an instrument OF har
e mony and efficiency.
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