Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-07-29
BY ISAAC F. MARCOSSoN.

q WAS on my way to the first line
trenches. and our party had al
ready entered the domain of
death. Overhead was the inter-
,nittent shrek of whizzing shells; the
horizon famed. the earth shook with
g mighty bombardment. The motor
car was picking its way down a side
road. stopping now and then to let
detachment of troops move up.
Suddenly we came to a sharp turn and
] heard. high above the clatter of guns
and gun carriages. a sharp English
voice call out:
Keep moving there
1 looked ahead. At the crossroads
stood a tall. erect Tommy in khaki.
with red brassard on his left sleeve
marked Traffic" He was one of
scores that | had seen that day and
many days before; part of the small
army of military policemen that you
find behind the front in France. He
seemed strangely out of place amid
the wild tumult of war Yet he was
part of the war machine. In plain
American vernacular. he was traffic
cop on the job.
I watched him at work. He lodged
between racing motors filled with staff
officers: he seemed lost for minutes in
the noisy shuttle of Gathering ammu-
milton conveys. No matter how urgent
was the need of shot and shell or how
keen the cry for ambulances, the traffic
on that highway of war. on all the
others. was regulated as rigidly as if
that deadly impeachment of destruc-
ton were the procession of peace up
and down 9Th avenue or Broadway in
New York.
This traffic supervision strikes the
visitor 10 the front as one of the many
extraordinary manifestations of the
highly developed Organization which
conducts modern warfare. For war.
today. is the most perfectly organized
business in the world. Killing is not
only matter of precise science, but
the whole machine behind destruction
is as admirably composed as if it were
dedicated to the manufacture of cloth
ing or the operation of a railroad
Strip away the glamour of fighting
and you merely have merchandising
with men instead of goods Every
consecutive phase of business evolu-
ton is represented. Instead of con-
verting pig iron into motor cars: you
have raw human material converted into
expert fighting men. In the operations
of armies YOU have the scientific in
carnation of the greatest of all bust
ness MISUNDERSTANDING In dis
shoes in the markets of the world
tributing safety raZors or soap or
there is what business men call the
overhead cost. In war you have the
same sort of manipulation with troops,
and in their case the overhead cost is
injury or the price of life itself.
When you bring war down to the
last ANALYSIS you find that it is simply
competition between nations. 1t is the
exact prototype of the keenly devel-
oped commercial rivalry of peace.
Hence. the chief of
nothing more or less than a master
sales manager. His work is to employ
his human output where il can smash
the hardest When he plans a great
observation-disclosures war is now a sue
cession of engagements-he is like the
general manager of huge corpora
ton arranging spring or fall selling
campaign.
This is one reason why Field Mar
shall Sir Douglas Haig is invested with
peculiar interest for all Americans.
No matter how many troops we send to
France. our armies must inevitably be
co-ordinated with those of our allies.
Although there is A peculiar and dis
tinct sentimental bond between Amer
ica and France, the larger fact obtains
that the British are our own race and
there will be a closer social and fight
ing affinity with the English speaking
forces. Since Haig is field marshal,
ne WILL outrank any American gem
eral
What sort of man is Haig; what does
he look like; how does he carry on the
supreme game of which he is the mas
ter player? In the answer lies the
whole explanation OF how a war in
volving millions of men and covering
q vast area. is carried on.
Haigs career. like his conduct of
the war, has been a matter Of patient
progression At oxford. for example
where he studied at Rrasenose Col
lege. he definitely decided TO become
Z professional soldier. In those DAYS
to be officer was more of a luxury
than profession in England The
army. SO far as its officers were con-
cerned. an annex of society A
well bred and weil-to-do young man
regarded few years in the service as
part of his experience in life, to be
INDUCED in before he took over his
properties and really and truly began
his real occupation. which was to hunt