The Monticellonian., 1917-05-24


 so far as the commissioned ranks were concerned. The army, it is held here. however, will need officers and more officers, and if all the willing men, and men in whom the qualities of command are latent and can be brought out, are sent out with the first forces, 1t Is asked If it is to be expected that out of the ranks of the unwilling the Unit ed States can get officers of spirit and understanding.
 Slackers Not Good Officers.
 Here is what an American soldier has said:
 "NO stacker ever made a good col onel, nor good second lieutenant. nor a good corporal, nor q good private. Sometimes the stacker Is only indlffer- ent in temperament and when he gets into thu service he makes a good sol dier, but he needs proper leadership. He could get it from the men of will ing spirit and adaptability to the les sons of command If all such men had to be taken into the ranks at the first and sent to Europe. there perhaps to be killed or maimed. who would be left to give to the stacker who is only lethargic the proper training to make of him good first line fighter?"
 Some of our troops probably will go quickly to Europe, but enough good soldiers will stay here for training purposes. When the troops of our army erat into fba fnStr1iption paDlpS they will enter school which Is diff ferent in it's instruction and In its methods from the army schools of an- other day On the continent maneu vers, tactics and strategy have shown marked changes from the battle and campaignlngs of other years. Men read daily of entanglements of barbed wire and of obstacles to advance which make the old pointed stake obstruc- tion seem easy going. The American troops will be trained to get over and through things, no matter what they are.
 Wall-scaling is a comparatively easy practice, but walI-sealing is the cas- fest of the things which the recruit soldiers of eight weeks standing will be taught at the American camps of military instruction.
 Generals in Their New Posts
 Maj. Gen. Leonard Wood has gone into headquarters at Charleston, S. C., to take command of the Southeastern department; Maj. Gen. J. Franklin Bell has moved into the quarters just vacated by General Wood at Govern or's Island. and Brig Gen. Clarence R. Edwards has found station and quarters as commander of the New England department with headquar- ters at Boston.
 So it is that May. the moving month of Americans, has seen the first army transportations probably solved. Gen. eral Wood, ranking officer of the Unit ed States army. has gone to his semi subordinate command Ut Charleston with a loyalty to orders and cheer fitness of demeanor that marks the true soldier.
 Major General Bell, who will find that his predecessor, General Wood, has set things in order for him in the big New York department, is soldier of rare experience and rare attain ment It is understood that he feels the responsibility which rests upon his shoulders to make good In a command in which superior officer made good.
 General Edwards, who left his for mer command on the Isthmian Canal Zone two weeks ago, stopped in Wash ington for a day and then went to New York to confer with General Wood, and thence he went ito Boston to take up the problems which will confront him in the newly made de- partment.
 Edwards, like Bell, will discover that Wood has helped him much. General Woods former command included all the eastern part of the United States. The coast problems from the Gulf to East Cape, Maine, were solved in large part by the man who has gone to Charleston.
 New Problems Confront Them.
 It must not be thought, however, that the three general officers now on the eastern coast and the other gen. eral officers Pershing in the South west. Barry In Chicago, Sibert on the Pacific coast and others elsewhere, will not have new problems confront ing them A great army Is to be raised and trained, and attachments of 1t will go into camp at different places throughout the United States. The re- sponsibility for the proper training of these men, for the proper care, and for turning them as quickly as possible in- to good soldiers will rest on the major generals and brigadier generals in whose departments the camps are | pitched.
 The factors in the problem are many. Some of them are prime factors and before the solution comes the proper methods to be followed in arriving at the result must be determined. The general officers of the United States have work in front of them upon