Evening star., 1916-01-09

the western front before we could get
$4,000 to the Atlantic seaboard. She
could put 100000 on board transports
before we could mobilize 100000.
When an army goes to war all the
parts of it must fight together. 1t is
| the most complex and most delicately
adjusted of all organizations because
the final test of it's efficiency is the
| resolute facing of death. While lack
| of team play in a business organiza-
! tion may mean business disaster. lack
, of team play in the army means ma
| tional disaster. Team play is the study
velop it ready for war.
Any attempt of the United states
| army to develop team play is immedi-
ately stified. Our army organization
We shall bring the men from each
compartment who have never met
each other. and chuck artillery. cav
airy and infantry together in hetro-
geneous mass. and then we shall won
der what is the matter when there is
confusion and failure if we ever have
| to go against a first-class power which
Will have an army whose parts nave
worked together with all the thorough
ness of a college foot ball or profess
sional base ball team
Diverse Duties of officers.
At West Point. where we train young
drill together; they become a homo
geneous force for four years. But after
their education is finished we separate
them and keep them in isolated posts.
Such was the misfortune of the Brit
ish army. policing many colonies-but
we have not many colonies. Our Of
ficers have no chance to really work
together in the organization OF their
troops as an integral force.
In every army post you see lot of
soldiers cleaning up lawns and doing
different kinds of fatigue duty The
men live in barracks across from the
officers houses. That is relic of the
old frontier post days, when everybody
was inside a stockade for protection
against Indian attacks. Neither the Of
ficers nor the men have private life.
In Europe the officers live away from
the men when they are not on duty
with them.
Taking sixty-fve men as an average
to company. we have almost three
pean army. That ratio is or commits
| stoned officer to fifty men, which is
generally accepted in all services as the
right proportion.
| is more intelligent than the average
European. That being true, why do we
need more than two officers for every
F, fifty men instead of one? Is il because
West Point does not turn out as good
a type as ST. Cyr in France or Sand
4 hurst in England? Is II because the
American soldier is more stupid and
takes more time to learn his drill? No.
West Point is the most thorough of
military schools. 1t is because our
ly stultihed by the experience of this
great war.
European Officers Must Work.
| When our officers who have been
with the French or German army re-
turn home they always say: You
have no idea how hard those fellows
work on the other side"
They must. The nation demands it
| of them. They must, in order to keep
| up with modern requirements. They
cannot escape working. 1t Is the Gus
| tom, the requirement. Before this war
the German officer and the French Of
/ ficer worked eight hours a day. There
| is not more than three hours work a
day for the average infantry officer in
an American post. Any additional IN
dustry is due to his individual initia-
tive. The amazing thing Is that he can
retain any at all It, is not his fault.
| let 1t be said again but that of the
! system which, in nation OF l00.oo0.
| 900 people. flies in the face of all the
experience of Europe. for Europe does
!
I learn industrial efficiency from US, but
we can learn war efficiency from her.
| Our officers would be the most indus
trious in the world-it is the Ameri-
can nature-if they had anything to
be industrious with.
They get about double the pay OF
British officers. about three times the
pay of French and German officers. A
boy of sixteen can go penniless to West
Point and from the day he enters ii
does not cost his parents cent. II
he went to Harvard or Yale they would
be paying five or six thousand dollars
for him before he was equipped for
any profession Yet there has been nc
great rush of young men to West
Point. The army has not been popu-
lar with our youth.
, Livelihood Is Assured.
| From the day young man is gradu-
ated from West Point ne is secure, sc
far as a livelihood is concerned He