The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1916-01-01
Officers Are Branch Managers
and Soldiers Take Place
Of Office Employees.
tsY AssoelATto rrrsr

A TOWN IN SIBERIA, Jan. IA
general 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 stero-
typed garb there Is no better reason
than that combatants, according TO
military law, must indicate their
status distinction of dress. Beyond
that general headquarters Is not a
military instruction in the popular
conception Of that term. 1t is purely
an administrative office constantly
organizing and recognizing.
War on a scale as the European
struggle has reached becomes, by the
huge demands 1t makes. by the press
ure 1t exerts upon participating indi-
viduals, and the recurrence Of the ne
cessity for doing a certain thing, n
business. Even the head OF the
group, the commander, the tactician
and strategist, is again and again
confronted with the same demands OF
the military situation; there are
times when he must leave minor tao
teal details to his staff officers, and
all phases OF his work which recur too
often, and are, therefore, commonest,
he must leave in the hands OF su-
bordinates altogether. General head
quarters is. in other words, an aggre-
gate Of trained managers and work.
ers, which could successfully run any
enterprise, and which, by virtue OF It's
discipline among all concerned, would
be a dangerous competitor to clvi-
liam organization in the same field.
No Friction.
Such is the impression that one
gains at the general headquarters Of
Field Marshall Won Mackensen, prs-
siding general Of the Austro-Hungarl-
an-German gorces in Serbia. In this
establishment everything moves
nolselessly, frictionless, positively, at
n speed which is not expressed in rev.
olutions of machinery, but in
pulsebeats Of great, expansion
seeking, and seemingly inexhaustible
force.
The character OF an army is best
Judged by conditions prevailing at
base headquarters. The captain in
charge, young man of about 49,,
presided in an inner office. Several
non-commissioned officers sat at ia
bles In an outer room. Officers ana
men came for this and that, usually
addressing a sergeant. The brusk de-
meanor towards subordinates with
which the German officer has been as
ISOLATED 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 wagon. no mat
ter how. This attitude took the case
out Of the sergeant's hands. Just
then the base commander entered the
outer room. The officer turned to
him with an introduction Of himself
by himself and vigorous clack OF
his heels.
Very sorry! Have no wagons
here just now" said the base chief
in friendly tone which for all of It's
warmth told the other that the infor-
nation given by the sergeant 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 hillside,
but whose juice would be welcome
to the wounded in the hospitals. II
seemed that he had caused large
and suitable cellar to be cleared for
the barrels in which the juice was to
be stored. During the night cav
airy organization had needed shelter
for Its horses and had used the cellar
for this purpose. The major was in
dignant,
THAT will happen" said the cap
tain. Get the cellar cleaned again
and then we will station guard
there"
Send for Men.
The incident was settled. But the
major had more trouble. He did not
have men enough to gather the
grapes and what men he had were
none too proficient.
very we'll! We can fix that. Ask
Berlin to send you a hundred or so OF
landsturm men from some town in
the Palatinate or along the Rhine.
They would enjoy the trip"
The major said he would do that
and left fully satisfied.
The campaign in Serbia has been
disagreeable enough to have soured
the disposition of anybody. Rains
have fallen constantly, and men fig
ure no longer on the absence of mud,
but on how little there Is. Everybody
rejoices when the mud Is only ankle
deep, and roads are called bad only
when the slush runs into the top
boots from above.
Conversation at the table in the
mess started and ended with mud, A
train officer knew his business in
coping with the thick, adhesive Ser
bian "gumbo" to the last detail.
Somebody wanted to know OF him