The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-08-28

the fault is chargeable to duty in
efhciently performed and not to the
system whose limit of elasticity has
never yet been reached.
That all of the acts of these various
officers to whom authority for expen-
ditures Is delegated may be correlated
and the appropriations therefor not
exceeded, there has recently been de-
vised a system of accounting which
enables the secretary of war to know
at any time the exact state of the vari-
Gus appropriations. In what way it
has restricted or hampered depart
ment commanders, General Carter has
not shown. 1t has, however, supplied
long felt want and with its extern
sion, as anticipated, will be made to
mt any condition and meet any emer-
gency 1t may be called upon to stand.
At this point it is interesting to note
that the system of accounting in its
present form became operative July
l, 1906, the same date as the report
which SO freely condemns It.
Referring to the subject of decen-
tralization. General Carter states:
1T does seem, however, with list
OF such competent Quartermasters to
draw up, that board of officers might
be appointed who could devise some
system of decentralization which would
admit OF department. commanders and
chief quartermaster's being entrusted
in peace with the business which
would fall to them in war, and at the
same time reduce the amount of paper
work and correspondence with the war
department" Department comman-
ders and chief quartermasters are now
performing exactly the same acts re-
lative to supply that they will be
called upon to perform in time of war.
They are buying their supplies needed
for immediate consumption; they are
making ordinary emergency pur-
chases and repairs; they are acting
on acquisitions for clothing and
equipment and forwarding them to
the depots of supply to be shipped, and
they are reporting their acts in a man
ner more economical as to time than
has ever before been devised.
In time of war dependence must be
had on purchasing officers in the rear
to keep such supplies coming forward
as cannot be procured locally which
means the majority of all needed To
delegate entire authority to a COM
manding general and his chief quar-
termaster in time of peace simply
means this burden would fall like a
mantel on others as soon as troops
took the field and not the converse
az General Carter seems to think.
Since the advent of the present quar-
termaster general, Brigadier General
c. F. Humphrey. more has been done
towards decentralization than has been
accomplished in many years. And
from his we'll known views on the
subject, 1t is assumed that more will
be done just as rapidly as the de-
tails OF each problem can be worked
out
As soldier during the civil war, as
line officer subsequent thereto, as
post Quartermaster and staff officer,
in the subordinate grades. as chief
quartermaster of the Santiago cam
paign and the relief expedition to
China, as chief quartermaster of the
division of the Philippines, General
Humphrey has brought to the Office he
now holds the ripened experience of
an active life. Coupled with this are
his we'll known ideas as to the needs
of the line and the constant sympathy
and support which characterize his eff
forts to improve their supplies.
Constant vigilance to avoid exceed
ing appropriations is enjoined upon
him and as these appropriations are
decreasing each year while the de-
mands thereon are increasing, it is
only by detailed supervision that the
object to be attained is accomplished.