New Britain herald., 1916-02-11

of a yelled hint that was lowering
 about the sacred precincts of admil-
 istration circles shortly before the
 Christmas holidays. This merely had
 to do with political conditions in Sec
 retary Garrison's home state. But his
 leaving the Wilson cabinet at this
 particular time must be and can be
 attributed only to the fact that his
 plans for a continental army, or uni-
 versal military service. did not carry;
 that they were not in accord with the
 ideas of President Wilson, nor the
 leaders of both parties in Congress,
 nor of those who have the interest of
 the national guard at heart
 2 One of the main tests of a mans
 ability is the respect accorded him
 by those over whom he exercises au-
 thority. Judged from this, Secretary
 Garrison fulfilled all the duties of his
 office in an excellent manner; for the
 army officers associated with him and
 those in the field were unanimous in
 y
 effort was bent in making the United
 States army bigger and better or
 ganization. His idea of universal, mill itary service was somewhat over and aooVe those of the ordinary army problems, in the American sense. and as such did not really come in under the existing plan which already has profited greatly by his leadership. mere seems to be no other way of divining his reasons for leaving the cabinet than by attributing to him the discoura cement and disgust that comes to man who has labored long ana hard ln fostering a pet scheme and then seeing his castles crun1ble and fall to earth. This has indeed happened to MT. Garrison. He is heartily disappointed in the way his Ideas have been received by the Presi- dent, the Congress, and the nation. Public opinion crushed his Continental army almost before his printed re- port was cold off the press. The nation has shown itself to be not in accord with the principle of univer- sal military service. This form of paredness" many fear will breed too deeply the spirit of militarisnl which has been raised as a ,bugeyboo over the land.
 If there is joy expressed in the | departure of MT. Garrison from the | 'fflce Of secretary of war the real 'eat1ng of tom toms and cymbals will eVerberate from the camp of William jennings Bryan. While these two were seated at the same cabinet able they were ever at odds Garri- on proved to be indeed the secretary f war on Bryan, for everytime the reat pacifist brought forth one of lis grape juice brain children the lead of the army trained all his orces on the vagary and reduced it 0 complete annihilation. Had it not ! ,een for this antagonism of Garrison l against Bryan the Lusitania affair would never be nearing a settlement i n the fashion it is today. So while ; here can be no comparison between 1 he going of Garrison and Bryan, in l ] political sense, the following fact l must be taken into consideration: 1 The Congress of the nation, a Demo- cratic Congress, is directly responsible for the resignation of Secretary Gar rison and the em barrassme of the President of the United States on questions of vital interest to the nation. It is to be regretted that the secretary did not remain long enough to counsel with some of the hot headed and wild-eyed politicians in Congress, His scheme might have been toned down and put on a prac- tical basis in conjunction with other ideas of preparedness.