The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1916-04-24

not been confronted with any obviou,
military dangers. But in my opinion
there is an obvious military danger al
present and the navy department should
be organized to meet il.
"The organization which other navies
and all armies of great powers employ
to meet this danger is known in English
| by the phrase general staff In differ.
ent languages of course the words are
different, but the meaning is the same
In Great Britain, it is called the board
of admiralty This general STAFF has
as its first duty preparation for war, and
as its second duty the conduct of war
when it comes.
I'm making preparation for war the
general staff makes war plans. These
war plans are of two kinds, general and
specific. The general plans are simply
analyses of what should be the general
conduct of the navy in case of war; and
the specific plans are worked out in de-
tail.
Besides these general and specific
plans, however, the general staff devises
means whereby information regarding
these general and specific plans shall be
given to the various executive bureaus
and divisions, corrected up to date; and
whereby the various executive bureaus
and divisions shall always be compelled
to be ready to carry the various parts of
those plans into immediate effect.
"l2 In directing the conduct of
war the general staff under the direc
tion of the minister sees to it that all
information Is kept up to date and sup
piled to the various commanders and
that all machinery for carrying out their
decisions is kept in working order.
Machinery Is Lacking
"13. Our navy department has no ma
chinery for doing what general staff
does. The closest approach to il is the
general board, which, as a part of its nu-
duties shall devise measures and
plans for the effective preparation and
of the fleet for war and /
shall prepare and submit to the secre-
tary-of the navy plans of campaign etc. !
"The general board does carry out
these duties, but the plans that it makes |
are general and elementary. 1t exists |
AZ an advisory board to the sec |
rotary of the navy. II is highly val |
liable; but, as its name indicates. it is /
,nlv a general board II does hardly /
! per cent of the duties that general
staff would do.
Having no executive authority and no
and being called upon to
10 great variety of work, it has not the
lime t. prepare specific plans and has
10 means TO sec that even its general
plans are ever carried out. If we com
iare our general board with the general
tar Of any other country or with the
admiralty Of Great Britain. and when we
ee what those general stats have been
accomplishing during the past three
months we must be convinced that un-
ess We 60 on the theory that we shall
lways have peace We shall be whipped
T we ever are brought into war with
ny one OF the great naval powers Of Eu-
ope or Asia. We shall be like the law
-er who has not prepared his case when 2
itted against the lawyer who has pre- q
AIRED his case. We shall ~ as the '
'rench were before the Germans in 1870. :
IA The performance Of the German 2
rmy during the last three months j. the I
reatest triumph Of the human mind and 9
he human viii that has ever been ac- {
lmplished. Il is not the triumph Of one
lind or one viii but the triumph of 4
sveral million minds and several million 4 B
ills. eo-ordinated by a general stat a