The Monticellonian., 1917-12-14
SYSTEM NOW RULES
 IN ARMY BUREAUS
BUSINESS MEN ARE BRINGING CELEBRITY AND ORDER INTO
 PLAY IN WASHINGTON.
HAVE NO USE FOR RED TAPE
Improvements in the Work of the Ord nance Department and Quartermas ter's Corps Are Examples of What Is Being Accomplished.
By EDWARD 8. CLARK.

" OSllllE Elot4=DtSlIG u t4O luii idAN by ones country, hearts desire to be optimistic where optimism is pos Sihle and d general desire to be en- tirely fair to officials struggling to bring order out of disorder, have led thousands of persons here in Wash ington, writers of the days doinss and others. to give the administration the benefit of every doubt. There has been some indefiniteness concerning the real facts of preparations, which has handicapped endeavor to get at the truth in every case.
 The clouds are breaking away to- day and 1t is possible to see spots and patches of light on the war prepara- tion methods of the government. It may be that semi-obscurity will no longer rule the day.
 Today it appears that something like system is making itself evident in nearly every one of the many d6- partments, bureaus and branches in which the wheels of war activities are supposed to be whirling. In many of the offices tlere was seemingly hope less con6ition for long time. Gradu- ally attempts to Straishten matters out nave been successful and now so fur as several of the more important war bureaus are concerned the strengthening out process seems to be about completed.
 Sodi-rs of Business.
 When big business men gave Up their work to come down here to as sist the government in its endeayers to carry on the war properly they came to take positions in bureaus ad- ditional.' that is in the shipping boards, coal boards, fuel boards, and other boards necessary for the supple menting of the activities of what are actually war boards. Today there are present in Washington, some of them just arrived. additional big business men who have been given or are about to be given commissions as junior officers in the United States army.
 These men will be soldiers of busi- ness in the war department, and while fighting soldiers will do the fighting these men, aided by hundreds of young lieutenants. many of them brought in from other occupations. will so sys- tematize and expedite the great army supply and warehouse businesses of the country that soon there will be no delay in getting to the forces of the country in the field, here and abroad, the things for which there is instant need.
 The chief difficulties of the War and navy departments have not arisen in the fields of what may be called the actual fighting service. Men have been raised and sent to their respec- tive posts without great trouble or de- lay In considerable part. in the main part perhaps, these men have received their supplies of food. clothing and other neceSsarieS with commendable promptness, but the daily demands and the demands of the future grew so rapidly that the war department III equipped with men of great busi- ness training, found itself rapidly get ting out of it's depths.
 System Begins to Prevail.
 Things are different now. Take the ordnance department for instance. It is in working order. There are men in this department today wearing the leaves of majors or the bars of cap tains who only a short time ago were drawing five times their present pay as syStematiZers of great businesses. It was not the fault of the ordnance department that its affairs were not conducted as rapidly as should have been the case.
 The quartermasterss corps is in charge of the great storeheuses of the army Things have not been running as well in the quartermaster' corps as they would have been running if General Sharpe originally had been in command of force ten times the size of the one under his control Into the quartermaster's corps recently have gone men who know big business in all it's notifications They know short cuts to this thing and to that thing. They are men who have con tempt for red tape and who will not be bound by it.
 Three Important Moves.
 The District of Columbia has been declared what Is in effect military zone, and every German male subject over the age of fourteen years has been ordered to take himself else where.
 It is believed that soon scores of re- strieted districts in the United States in which shipping docks, intuition plants, or the food warehouses are To- cated, will be put under martial law so that punishment by military court martial can be meted out to German spies or American traitors who at tempt to commit depredations there in.
 It is believed that not long after con gress comes together declarations of war will be made against Austria. Bull garia and perhaps Turkey.
 There is an impression in military circles also that before lsng plan for unified drive of all the Allied forces