Daily Kennebec journal., 1916-01-01
ASSOCIATED Press Correspondence

A Town in Serbia, Dec. ia gen.
eral headquarters in the field Of the
German army resembles closely the
management Of a large business. The
officers are branch managers whom
convention and necessity has stuck
into uniforms. and the private soldiers
take the place Of employees about the
office. For their stereotyped garb there
is no better reason than that COM
batants, according to military law.
must indicate their status by distinc-
tive dress. Beyond that a general
headquarters is not a military instruc-
ton in the popular conception of that
term. 1t is purely an administrative
office constantly organizing and reor-
.ganizing. @
War on a scale, as the European
struggle has reached becomes, by the
huge demands. it makes, by the pres
sure it exerts upon participating in
dividuals, and by the recurrence Of the
necessity for doing a certain thing. a
business. Even the head of the group,
the commander, the tactician and STRAIT
egist is again and again confronted
with the same demands of the military
situation; there are times when he
must leave minor tactical details to his
staff officers. and all phases of his work
which recur too often, and are, there
fore, commonest, he must leave in the
hands. of subordinates altogether. Gen.
eral headquarters is, in other words, an
aggregate of trained managers and
workers, which could successfully run
any enterprise, and which, by virtue of
its discipline among all concerned.
would be dangerous competitor to
civilian organization in the same field.
Such is the impression one gains at
the general headquarters of Field
Marshal Won Mackensen, presiding
genius of the Austro- o-Hungarian-Ger-
man forces in Serbia. In this estab-
lishment everything m0ves noiselessly.
frictionless. positively, at speed
which is not expressed in revolutions
Of machinery, but in the pulsebeats of
great, expansion seeking, and SEEM
ingly inexhaustible force.
The character of an army is best
Judged by conditions prevailing at base
headquarters. The Associated Press
correspondent spent two hours at the
one in question. The captain IN
charge. a young man of about st, pre-
sided in an inner office. Several non
commissioned officers sat at tables IN
an outer room officers and men came
for~%his and that, usually addressing
sergeant. The brusk demeanor towards
subordinates with which the German
officer has been associated was wholly
absent. Several officers wanted wheel
transportation.
Sorry, sir. None available at this
moment" the sergeant would say.
One of the officers thought he would
have to get a wagon, no matter now.
This attitude took the case out OF the
sergeant's hands. Just then the DaSe
commander entered the outer room.
The officer turned to him with an in
PRODUCTION of himself ~ himself ana a
vigorous clack of hN ll4els.
VERY sorry. HavSSno wagons here
lust now" said thefbase chief in a
friendly tone which for all of its
warmth told the other that the IN
forma ton given by theSsergeant should
have sufficed. ~.
A major entered. He had been sent
from Berlin to superintend the harvest
of the grapes which were on the verge
of rotting on the hillsides, but whose
mice would be welcome to the wound
ed in the hospitals. It seemed that he
had caused a large and suitable cellar
to be cleared for the barrels in which
the iuice was to be stored. During the
night a cavalry organization had need
ed shelter for it's horses and had used
the cellar for this purpose. The major
was indignant.
THAT will happen" said the captain.