The Washington herald., 1914-12-11
DEFENSE OF j. 5.
Cabinet MENACE
Differences Of Opinion Of Sec
retaries Proving Stun
bling Block.
RESERVATIONS PREDICTED
Publication of Report of Secretary
Garrison Starts Speculation
on Outcome.
RESERVATIONS PREDICTED

What effect the obvious differences be.
tween Secretaries Garrison, Daniels and
Bryan on the question of national de.
fensss will have, upon the personnel ol
President Wilson'S Cabinet is an inter.
esting subject for conjecture in Washing.
ton at present, following the publication
of Secretary Garrison's annual report
The relations of the three Cabinet Of
ficers may be best understood by consider
ing Bryan on one side, Garrison on the
other, with Josephus Daniels in between.
Mr. Daniels is decidedly the most uncom-
Portable of the three, and there are al
ready indications that he is realizing that
fact.
Mr.. Bryan is the great apostle of the
movement against armaments, honest
ly believing that to be one of the main
roads to his ideal of universal peace.
His chief. and perhaps only satisfac-
ton in his present position is the
thought that he can further the ad-
vance toward this ideal by his ac-
tions as Secretary of State.
Garrison's Long study.
Mr.. Garrison. on the other hand. is
the mental antithesis of Mr.. Bryan. and
has no dreams which he is seeking to
bring into realization through his oc-
cupRncy of a Cabinet position. Pos
sessed Of a mind unusually keen, in
cisive, and clear, he has been accus-
toned by his long service on the
bench. to adduce the facts and base
his conclusions thereon.
Finding himself responsible for the
War Department and the army. he has
spent twenty months investigating its
adequacy and needs, and his report,
published yesterday. is the clear. crys-
talliZed result of such study. He rec
ogniZes that the United States army
is inadequate for the defense Of the
country and recommends measures for
improvement of the situation.
Mr.. Daniels. on the other hand. is
neither the one nor the other. An en-
thusiastic admirer of Mr.. Bryan, and
sincere lover OF peace and all that the
idea suggests. he has found himself
suddenly intrusted with responsibility
for the navy. The chief criticism made
against his administration by the serv-
Ice has been that he has used the navy
as a laboratory in which to try out his
political notions and theories as to a
properly ordered social system. Navy
men feel also that he is at heart not
at all in sympathy with the navy. that
he refuses to accept the fundamental
purposes for which navies are created
as the basis OF his policy. but endeavors
instead. to turn it to this and that sub
sidiary purpose.
Daniels Ia Divided.
Consequently, it is no surprise here
that Mr.. Daniels. pressed on the one
side by his devotion to all Mr.. Bryan
stands for. and on the other by the
naval service with all its facts and
theories so contrary to those Mr.. Bryan
believes in, finds himself in a difficult
position, and in entire agreement with
neither one side nor the other.
Predictions that Bryan and Daniels are
to leave the Cabinet in the near future
are not much credited here. 1t is more
expected that Mr.. Garrison will be the
one TO retire IL there are any Cabinet
changes as a result of this situation.
Mr.. Garrison is the type OF man who
will withdraw from a position exactly
the moment he finds it incompatible with
his self-respeCt.
But, on the other hand. differences be-
tween his views and those OF Bryan and
Daniels will not disturb Mr.. Garrison in
the least, so long as he Is assured his
official conduct is satisfactory to the
President and his relations with his chief
are agreeable.
Mr.. Garrison's report was in the Presi-
dents hands long before the latter's an
nual message to Congress was given
out for distribution to the press.