Evening star., 1916-01-16
strangers to take charge Of q technical

| maCnlne.
The first step should be a permanent
assistant secretary Of war. man who
has probably worked his way up In the
department.. as the chief Of the con-
sular service has in the state Depart,
ment. Then the Secretary Of War and
the Secretary Of the Navy will have the
com animation Of a civilian mind with ex-
perience in military affairs for his as
| sistance and guidance.
| I think that in my time I have heard
half a dozen Secretaries Of the Navy.
after they had been in the Office six
months. give an account OF the educa i.
tion they had received as the result of
their tenure. They had learned few
of the simple essentials Of the navy or
ganization. including the fact that
ships foated, but had to be built first,
and dreadnaughts were complicated
! machines.
/ One quite distinguished Secretary of
War informed me. after he had been in
| office a year. that he had learned that
| the spirit of service was an important
factor in army efficiency! 1t Is the one
guard from the start. as every military
man or civilian who has lived with
| armies or navies must realize.
Secretary Does Not Know the Army.
Now. in our desire to avoid the con-
tinental European precedent Of an ex-
pert in charge of experts. the result
Is that the Secretary of War or the
Secretary Of the Navy has very lit
tie actual authority himself. The Ger
man secretary of war is head of the
German army, but our Secretary of
| War is not a head Of our army except
in name. The German knows the
army and knows the pitfalls in an
army organization just as a judge,
being a lawyer himself. knows law
yers. The American Secretary does not
| know. And efficiency Is wholly diff
| ferent thing from militarism. If it
were not, the French would not have
put in Gallieni as minister of war
For if there are any one people on
earth-and this does not exclude the
! United States-who are true democ-
| racy and against militarism and autoc-
| racy, it is the French.
| Our civilian Secretary of War signs
| innumerabie orders. not to mention re-
ports. which he does not write. He
hardly understands what they mean.
He falls into the hands sometimes Of
a clique. sometimes Of single facile.
| influential officer. who has the faculty
| Of winning his favor or of appearing.
as they say, to know how to get
things done" He is af1abie to con-
not in it. Once there was man who
soldiers and civilians would have
| agreed was particularly suited to be
assistant secretary of war, who had
| some private income anu oHeTeu uiiu-
self for the position, in. the hope that
he could be of some real service to the
| nation. The answer was practically
that he had no votes If the people
of the United States had taken real
| interest in their army that answer
| would have been sufficient to have in
sured his appointment through their
| pressure.
| There is no use appropriating i'm
mense sums for the navy i It Is to be
l dc LA N nj
For months we kept our battleship
feet in tropical harbor. Every day
it was there meant lost day: For a
battleship fleet has only one object in
tie. which means not only gun drills,
| but battle maneuvers Of every kind
However small or large fleet 1t
should be kept efficient. That is the
duty of Congress. the Secretary Of the
Navy and the nation. When ship is
| not in dock it ought to be at sea. at
| work, making ready for battle. For
that it is built; for that its officers and
men are paid.
| In the sense Of the British navy. we
have no staff in our navy. 1t would be
em mbarrassing congressional interfer-
| ence with the navy work But our navy
| is better than our army In that all the
officers in charge in Washington come
UP from the line and return to the me:
They go back to the ships. and they
| learn what is needed on board the
ships.
Staff Theory VS.. Practice.
| There is no naval bureaucracy in
the sense that we have established an
| army bureaucracy, by keeping the
chief of each different department per-
manently. While European STATS are
| learning how to maneuver troops. the
! American staff has no troops to ma :
| neuyer Those we have are scattered
all over the United States While
European war colleges are WORKING
out problems of practical warfare 1or
the defense of their country, our war
| college must. more or less, indulge IN
theory, for it does not know what II
| has to do with and for. The staff is
engaged more or less in the routine
business of seeing that the flow of led
tape is kept UP to the different army
posts. It doesn't know what II means
| to take out even 100000 men every
year in grand maneuvers. which are
| the only real drill for war on II big
| scale. One French ofiicer said about
| the battle OF the Marne: This is t"st
the spring training season is to ball
! team maneuvers are to war. ana more.
If we are going 10 defend this coun.
try with 100000 men, we must have
something like 100000 men to inaneu-
YER In order to know how to handle
them in case Of war In ,nanenvers
] Inc fellUW VINO mas ScfHieu " u Il
/ good leader is proved a bad one: the
! ouiet. unnoticed man uneNpectenls' ne
| selops There is "sha xc-ap. which
reveals the ability IF tie officers On
| gagged.
And what preparations have our
| staff made for war? How is 1t pre-
pared for the use of the material re.
sources of this country in case or
| emergency?
We criticised the British for not hay
ing been prepared. but before the Brit
ish expeditionary force went to France
the British staff not only knew exactly
what ships were to be used, where
they were. how soon they could get
| to the points of rendezvous, how the
! troops were to be moved to the point
| of embarkation, what supplies they
needed. how the flow of supplies could
/ be kept continuous. how the ships were
! to be prepared in few hours TO &c
| conmodate guns and horses. The name
and residence of every army reservist
was known. The number of motor
toned and how to have every ore IN
it's place at the right time had been
carefully calculated. Even the postal
clerks who were to go to the army had
their official positions as a part Of the
| expeditionary force and had only to
| be summoned. In sixteen days from
the beginning of the war England had
transferred nearly 100000 men. with
all their guns and equipment. to
! France and they were fighting the bat
! tie Of Mons.
| But our national policy seems to be
that IL the staff made any prepara-
tiCns like these 1t would be an incite-
men. to war. Therefore. our staff was
never consulted during the Mexican