The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1917-06-01
Who Shall Run, the War?

~ AN X Ed - a peace cStdDllohtlicnt cannon
IVA run war, says the Philadelphia Public Led
ger The departments at Washington, including
those Of the war and navy have hitherto been or
ganized on peace basis. Ii they are not Still
wholly organized for peace it is nevertheless true
that their entire conception and functioning are
Numerically at variance with the idea OF meeting
the modern needs Of modifying nation. For
those needs every department Of the government
should be a war department. 1.-The departments of
agriculture, the interior, labor, commerce and the
postoffice quite as much as that over which New
ton ID. Baker presides- and new departments
should spring into being ta
The war department is OF the antiquated model
which Great Britain began to throw into the dis
card in the Boer War, and which resolved itself
into junk after Liege, Namur and Mons. The
American naval organization is also Of the outworn
British type. s,4
Undoubtedly good men, tried and true, expert
cneed IN pre-war tactics and inaneuvers and thor
oughly conversant with the old ways of getting
something accomplished through maze Of legal
1echnicalities have shown their value in the mill
tary departments. With such officials, perforce,
men like Hoover, Scott and Goethals, Stettinius.
Schwab, Baruch, and Rosenwald and Coffin, should
and must take counsel. the civilian leaders heed
the counsels OF the naval and military experts
sent to America from England and France, it is
because our own officials lacking the fresh and
powerful experiences Of the German war, and inn
mersed in administrative details which have allow
ed them no time to form board OF major strategy,
must also learn their lessons at second hand Of
their European teachers
The giants OF modern industry who are to bear
the American war on their shoulders are not men
TO take orders from bureau heads. Yet they are
The men, if any, who will grasp the reins of pro-
duction and distribution, who can direct the Dig
ging in the mines, the making in the factories the
carrying on the railroads TO the consumers of the
nation and the shipping by rail and water TO our
Allies of the volumes OF food and fuel necessary to
the armies that are hurting destruction into the
sitals of the German imperial monster
These men are not intent solely upon doing moth
ing that may possibly endanger the holding OF their
jobs. The government will never pay them what
the private station pays them. They will work
periodically at loss and return to their private
work with relief while bureaucracy tries, as it has
always tried, to maintain itself in place. In all
that contributes to the task Of organizing great
civilian bodies and supplies these Civilian captains
should have not only advisory power, they should
commandi, Ayafs turn on the pivot of executive
,ower. What department OF our old bureaucracy
can understandingly dominate the railroads? Are
not the great shpbuilders the natural masters Of
the new shipping which, II produced fast enough,
will battle Germanys vital stroke Of war? The
business organizers of America are not anxious for
new dignities they do not seek seats in the Pres-
dents cabinet But they must have the real au-
thority 10 make things move. To win the war the
government must give them authority