Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1917-07-24
General staff In All Business.

through
General Staff In All Business.
In any large business SOU will find
men who are constantly at work study.
ing materials, machines, processes,
competitors successes, whom the gen.
eral manager Of the company directs
and whose advice is very nearly law
to them. Every hospital has on its
staff experts in diagnosis, in bacteriol-
ogy, In this disease and that operation,
who form its general staff. And the
Pasteur institute, the Rockefeller insti-
tute and all the other laboratories
where plans, methods, judgments of
carrying on the warfare against dis
ease are being worked out might fair
ly be called the general STAFF corps of
the nations department Of health. The
general staff principle is, in word.
just this: Use of the best brains avail
able to guide and aid the leaders Of &C.
ton.
The army's need for a general staft
is not SO recent as our civilian igno-
rance Of what war is leads us to sup
pose. It is-to army men a very far
cry from the Indian fighting and Phil
ippine fighting warfare which to YOU
and me (until 1919 war signified. Our
devoted service men land very few
thinkers among the political leaders,
realized many years ago that war Is
not any longer matter OF policing q
few tuberculous bands OF Indians:
It is not just since Aug. 4, 1914, that
our army men have been aware that
war demands officers practiced in
maneuvering with large fleets or large
troop units, demands an organization
firm and flexible, requires a supply de-
partment manned and managed as
soundly as railroad company, calls
for signal corps, field railroad building
corps engineer corps, air service corps
of men highly trained and used to
working together under military dis
cipline. Elihu Root recognized this.
1t is due to his efforts that the general
staff corps of the United States army
was formed. That corps has never ex.
ceeded afty officers A larger corps
would have required larger appropria-
lions, and our congress, which is the
body that decides upon this highly i'm
portant matter, had other plans for
spending.
The peace value of the general staff
is-if that be possible-even greater
80 1,vn fv, w re-
duty of bringing the material-the
guns. supply Of shells and everything
else, from aeroplanes to intrenching
tools-and the pcrsonnel-officers and
troops-up to the highest point Of eff
cheney and finally by planning the op7
erations Of defense with careful knowl-
edge Of all probable theaters, the gen.
eral staff corps makes certain in ad-
vance as far as is humanity possible sew
eral of the factors that will decide the
result Of the great early battles of a
war. It is, Of course, clear that in
modern wars such early battles-as.
for example. the Marne-may settle
the fate Of nations regardless Of all
later efforts. Not French spirit only
could have held the invader at the
Marine. 1t was French preparedness
that saved France and Belgium and
the British empire by the bank of that
river.
Some Subdivisions.
The gist of the United States gen.
oroI cto ~ Tow 10 n n orfler RI TINT cOrI)S
to do exactly what other STATS are ex-
pected to do-to get officers, troops
and all their instruments and sup
plies up to the highest point Of effec-
tiveness for instant war service and
to plan the operations of defense. No
one, however unblessed with sense
Of proportion, will call this a small
order for any corps In any group Of
mon in anv land. When one stops to