The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-08-09
ARMY AND NAVY

fionl tHe DelToih. Free IIeSs.
 While Secretary Daniels is endeavoring to organize a civilian board of inventors to develop the resources of the navy de- pertinent and bring the establishment up to date, and while he is thereby in- timating that the officers and experts educated at Annapolis are unequal to the
 pared them at great expense and to which they are devoting their lives, it is instructive to consider how the muni-
 tons manufacturers of the country are turning to the American army for their expert organizers and managers. And this they are doing because they are un- able to find elsewhere the sort of assist ants and experts they need.
 Why is it that private enterprise is drawing eagerly from the army while the head of the navy department feels he must have civilian help to maintain and develop his fleet according to modern
 standards? Is it because West Point is a better training school or obtains bet ter material than Annapolis? We think not. And if are to take literally all the high sounding and sometimes fulsome
 eulogies of American naval efficiency de- livered orally and in writing by the Sec | retary of the Navy, if we are to believe the departmental announcement that the fleet is the finest university afloat-pro- fessored, of course, by experts-neither in his heart does Secretary Daniels think so.
 MT Garrison never has bragged a quar- ter as much about the condition of the army as his colleague has bragged about the status of the navy. Yet he seems well satisfied with the work of his off cers and MT. Garrison is one of the level- headed men in the present cabinet. The Secretary of War Is, indeed, so confident of the capabilities of his experts that in l the public interest he has decided to ac-
 cept the resignations of certain ordnance | experts who wish to take positions with private concerns, because he believes the
 aid these men can give the country by | building up plants will be of greater value in case of war than anything they
 could accomplish in their present field
 of action. In other words, MT. Garrison
 agrees with the manufacturers of mu-
 nitions, that the carefully prepared gov. ernment expert is the man who has the | up-to- -dateness and efficiency in matters relating to war.
 1 Again, why the difference?
 1 We believe it is to be found principally | in the respective minds of MT. Daniels
 and MT. Garrison. One man is visionary
 and rhetorical; the other is clear-sighted
 and practical. MT. Daniels wants tc
 splurge and dazzle the country with his
 ideas and devices. MT. Garrison is con | tent to saw wood Doubtless he under.
 stands very we'll the great value of some of the inventions of men in civil life, but
 remembering how poorly civilian ant military ideas mix, he probably under | stands also that these men have theil
 best usefulness where they are, outsid, I the military establishments.
 l If MT. Daniels could take the sam,
 view, and would devote to encouraging | the admirals and captains and lieuten | ants and ensigns the energy he is now devoting to the promotion of doubtful ] experiment there is no reason to suppos, | he would fail were he to search in thu
 navy department for men capable O. ] paralleling the work of General Goe 1 thals and General Gorgas. There would
 be no need for a civil board of inventor.
 that has no authority in law