Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1916-02-02

not ave an adequate army. and we
snail pay so e~NtravagentlN for each
soldier that we can never hope to af-
ford to have one.
Our army has been the piaytlling of
l~,"iltics. 1T has been AN enforced bur
den ON the TAX payers. With an army
administration absolutely honest, the
amount spent for the return received
Is enough to raise the price of sugar to
90 cents Il pound. if applied to the
sugar business, and of lOur to $50 a
barrel, if applied to the lour business.
AS one army officer said: w have
everything i'm u army except SOL
diers n guns Our magnificent
plants are the homes of handfuls of
men. They are like a knitting fac
tory. which ought to have a thousand
looms. running with Il dozen. Mean
while. the United States pays the rent
and upkeep.
rake. Tor example, Governors island,
across from New York, where you all
most have to hunt to find a soldier.
n value of it as a piece of real es-
ate may be judged by that OF the
enormous skyscrapers lust across the
river from it in lower Broadway. A
French or German brigade, if not di-
, vision, could be maintained at Gov
ernors sland. Waste of material and
OF property is the result of our sys-
tenn of garrisoning this and other
posts.
h army officers are not to blame.
Ihey are simply discouraged. Nobody
is TO blame except the American peo-
PIE. They get what congress arranges
for them. and they make congresses.
And congress is not SO wickedly to
blame, as we might think. Congress
Is human. II has been careless. 1t
mas not concentrated patriotically on
the problem.
Perhaps il we apply the present
pubic emotion for preparedness as in
N past. every congressional district
may nave it's own army post. At pres
country The middle west. the Pa
clhc coast. the southwest the
east have their share. The idea has
not been that the army should be an
efficient institution. but that it stood
Tor a certain expenditure of money
n a should be fairly distributed
among n constituencies. 1t is less
a practical army han a system of
largess for communities.
IN europe the army POSTS are dis
rlbute according to tactical plans
FOR quick concentration i'm case Of war
len the prompt concentration in
1914. Germany had 1900, 900 men on
the western from before we could mo-
| billie 100, 900.
Team Play in Europe's Armies.
When an army goes to war all the
parts of 1t must fight together. 1t
is the most complex and most deli
cately adjusted of all organizations be-
u the final test of it's efficiency
is the resolutely facing OF death. While
lack OF team play in a business or
sanlzatlon may mean. business dis
aster. lack OF team play in an army
means national disaster. Team play
is the study of European staffs. They
exist to develop it ready for war.
Any attempt of the United States
army to develop team play is immedi-
ately stifled. Our army organization
Is of the watertight compartment kind.
We shall bring the men from each
compartment who have never met each
other, and chuck artillery. cavalry and
infantry together in . heterogeneous
mass. and then we shall wonder what
Is the matter when there is confusion
and failure If we ever have t. go
against q first class power which will
have an army whose parts have
worked together with all the thorough
ness of "A college football or profess
siOnal baseball team.
At West Point. where we train
young men to be officers, they live to-
gether. drill together. they become a
homogeneous force for four years. But
after their education is finished we
separate them n keep them in
isolated pasts.
such was the misfortune Of the
British army. policing many colonies
but we have not many colonies. Our
officers have no chance to really work
together in the organization Of their
troops as an integral force.
In army post you see a 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 a relic of the
old frontier post days when everybody
was inside a stOckade for protection
officers nor h men nave private life.
The Hard Working European Officer;
The Idle American Officer.
In Europe the officers live away from
the men when they are not on duty
with them.
Taking Go men al an average to q
company, we nave almost three times
the ratio Of officers of any European
army. That ratio is one commissioned
officer to 80 men. which Is generally
accepted in all services as the right
proportion.
We boast that the average American
ts more intelligent than the average
European. That being true, why do
we need more than two Officers for
every 50 men instead Of 0ne? Ii It
because West Point does not turn out
- rood Q type an st. Cyr in France or
laandhurst In England? % It because
the American soldier II more stupid
and take moro time to learn his drill7
No. West Point - the most thorough
l01 military schools. It - because our