The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-02-06
By Leased Wire to The Tribune.

BY Leased Wire TO The Tribune.
WASHINGTON, D. c., Feb. 5.--It
hardly describes the real situation to
say that military circles, not only here
but throughout the country generally,
are much perturbcd and upset over
Secretary Of War Dickinson IS recon-
mendations 20 President Taft for Ger
tain radical changes and reforms in the
regular army. And what makes the
anxiety of the interested ones all the
more keen and intense, is the well
known fact that President Taft en-
do ses and approves the secretary S rec
concentrations, and has already notified
congress of his intention to submit TO
it ere long special message on mill
tary matters. Then, 10 add zcst to the
'Gs,'cment the general staff of the army
before losing it's present chief by OK
pi,oll/.n Of term of detail, doubtless
feeling tit it should give some .tangi-
bic evidence of the quiet work 1T mas
been doing in the past year or two,
rcspcctin military organization mat
lie :, from both the war and peace
points of view. is now vigorously back.
ing mp and advocating all the reforms
which tho secretary and the president
viii ask congress to make in army af-
fairs. In fact, each new proposition
if not originally recommended by, the
general st-f at least has its Official
approval Added TO these general prop
ositiors of reform, there are also more
or less urgent recommendations from
nearly every head OF each separate
staff bureau end department in the
army concerning the needs Of his par
ticular brancs of the military service,
of IN ryl
the personnel OF each branch; and last,
bui far from being least in vital I'M |
poet 10 the army and its personnel arc
the vigorous aad ouspokcn reports of |
thu surgeon general and tho adIutant
general. whose sweeping reviews of mil
itary conditions from year TO year in !
this country, gives spur TO the study of
regular army affairs
Stirring Up of the Stumps
It may be safely asserted therefor,
that never before in its history and
long reign of those traditional service !
customs and methods which have given
TO the American army a distinctiveness
altogether its own. 'lnS our regular mil
itary establishment had such stirring
up of the stumps, so TO speak. as all
these recent pungent reports with their
numerous radical recommendations have
caused. And. aside from the real wis
changes, the confused laymen may well
ponder that if all these reforms and
corrections are indeed so imperatively
needed in our much reyered little army
now, in these piping times of peace,
what In heaven s name would become
of our army, the sole reliance for our
initial protection in time Of war, If
congress should fail, rs congress, IN the
opinion OF well-informed men, un
doubtedly will for the present at least,
fail 10 legislate all the recommended
reforms into army law.
Two Sides to Question.
Besides it goes without saying that
even if congress were inclined, now
or soon, to undertake the task of army
reform it would find that there arc
now, as nearly always, two sides to
every military question, and military
men whose military views are entitled
TO serious and respectful considera
ton, are by no means united in favor
of all the changes now proposed. In
deed some pretty staunch and militant
critics refer pontedly to the interesting
fact that not long ago congress and the
war department under Secretary Root s
wise and brilliant dlrectorship, went
very carefully into the needs Of the
army, and after reyolutionizing the es
tabilshed military organization and old
methods, the secretary
in a formal report 20 congress an.
nounccd that all that would be there
after needed for some years for the
army was TO let il alone, and that over
and above all there should be no fur.
her congressional legislation regarding
II. view in which congress at that
llmc seemed 10 fully concur But. as
all know, il was not long after Secre-
tary Root bad passed from the war to
the state department. that some impor.
lant specific legislation was found to
be lmperativcly needed for the army,
and indeed even some of the most
cherished radical things done by him