The San Francisco call., 1906-04-04
His Reorganization
Plans Not Yet
Completed.
New Secretary Is
Popular With
Masses.
Special Dispatch to The Call.


LONDON, April 3.-England has at
last found the right man to reorganize
her army. That is what nearly every
body is saying of Richard Burden
Haldane the new Liberal Secretary OF
State for War. There could be no more
striking evidence of his extraordinary
capacity to impress others with con-
fidence in his ability to perform the
hercuIean task he has undertaken than
the chorus OF approvals from political
friends and foes alike which greeted
his speech in the House of Commons
introducing the army estimates.
Though representing an administra-
tion pledged to retrenchment and re-
form, he has reduced the empires army
bill only by a beggarly $4,000 and de-
mands Sl4S,9SO,0OO to keep it going
another year. In almost any other man
that would have been regarded as a
confession Of failure But with Hal
dane it is different.
I am convinced that if I do any
thing in a hurry" he frankly told the
House, 4 shall do it badly"
The nation has had enough Of army
reforms in a hurry. After listening TO
Haldane's statement of the principles
taat will guide him in remodeling the
army, by an overwhelming Parliamen-
tary ma jority he has received man
date to go ahead with his scheme After
all, it is not the big bill which the
country pays for its army that causes
so much dissatisfaction, as the know
ledge that it fails so lamentably in get
ting an army that comes within meas
urable distance of being worth what it
costs. What Jackie" Fisher has done
in the Admiralty, it is believed that
Haldane viii do in the War ONCE. Any
how, the country is willing to wait
and give him a fair chance to make
good
THINKER AND PHILOSOPHERS.
Not many people in America, prob
ably had ever heard of Haldane before
he was made Secretary of War, but he
arrived" here several years ago. Like
most Of the members of the Cabinet, he
is by birth a Scotchman. He was first
elected TO Parliament in 1885, and had
long been marked out for high Office by
those in the inner secrets of the Liberal
party Physically he is man of
considerable substance; intellectually
he is one of the giants of politics. BY
profession he is a lawyer, and one of
the ablest at the bar.
Like Balfour, he finds recreation in
philosophy-he has translated Schopen-
hauer, and published Studies in Phil
osophic Criticism'-but in almost every
other respect, physically and mentally,
he is the antithesis of the ex-Prime
Minister.
He is man of strong convictions
with a gift of clear statement. Nobody
ever has TO ask twice what he means.
Square of shoulder and comfortably
rotund there is little of the student
and nothing of the ascetic in his ap-
pearance And yet the broad. master
full, clean-shaven face. with its high
full forehead, over which there curves
a little hook of a curl, the miniature Of
that which adorned the brow of the
greatest of all militarists, tells Of great
mental force. He is a prodigious work
er with a great capacity for mastering
/ facts. and a memory that retains them
/ without the aid of notes.
As a lawyer, he was once involved
/ in a famous trial concerning cordite. He
( emerged from that with such thor
/ ough knowledge of explosives that he
was given a seat on the explosives COM
/ mittee of the War Office, and there he
/ astonished the departmental experts.
/ He has an inexhaustible fount of ora
! tory He speaks at the rate of two
! hundred words a minute, and is never
/ at a loss for facts. illustrations and apt
/ phrases He is too big man to care
/ for small triumphs, and never goes out
Of his way to make a political opponent
J
4 chockfull of boyish enthusiasm and is
! one Of the most popular men in the
House.
HIS SCHEME OF REFORM.
For the economical reorganization of
the regular army, Haldane maintains
it is essential that there should be be-
hind il some power of expansion for
great emergencies He looks, in the
! first place, to an improved militia, with
/ Il fun STANDING
it's own basis, and not 'bled white" to
| provide recruits and drafts for the
( army Behind that he expects to estab-
! lish great citizen force in close touch
4! with the national life and with the
local life Of each part of the country
a nation under arms" on voluntary
/ lines.
The organization and administration
| of that force, he suggests, should be
1 left TO some form of military local
/ government connected with the existing
units of local administration. It's train
| ing is to be admittedly a rudimentary
| one; intended only to produce a large
number of men practiced to such q
| point in the elements of soldering that
they can, on the outbreak of war. be
rapidly brought up TO real military
! efficiency.
/ He accepts the blue water" principle
that the navy is capable of defending
the shores against invasion, and pro-
poses to effect many economies by act
ing on that assumption.
Various points along the coast" he
says, are defended by forts which ir
many cases are absolutely unjustifiable
and goo of them are going as fast as
they can be got rid Of" Several othel
things are going. under Haldane's
1 scheme on which money has been reck-
lessly squandered in the past, and g
lot of red tape with them.
Unlike other great nations" he says
Eve have never established thinking
| department for the British army" The
establishment of a competent thinking
department" lies at the root of his
scheme of reform. 1t is expected thai
it will put an end to the costly hodge
podge methods of the past. and lead
10 the adoption of a settled and continu.
Gus policy such as obtains in the navy
EmbegzIer Taken to Prison.
INDIANAPOLIS, April 3-David E
Sherrick, convicted of the embezzle.
ment Of State funds to the amount OF
$120, 900. was taken to the Denitentiary