The twice-a-week Twin Falls times. (Twin Falls, Idaho) 1916-1918, 1917-07-31
PERSHING FINDS RED TAPE
HAMPERS PROGRESS IN HIS
WORK IN FRANCE
Has Got Many Things
Down to System
Nc Money Specially Appropriated
for Hiring Civil Clerks-Army
Men Work Hard Under Unfav-
orable Conditions.
(By c. f. Bertelli, international News
Service Staff Correspondent

partment will give General Pershing a
free hand with regard to the expendi-
ture of absolutely necessary amounts
and not attempt to regulate the Euro
pean theater of action from Washing
ton, a blunder that cost the British
forces dearly and tied the hands of
their commander in chief with red
tape Will have been avoided.
Though there has been some i'm
pTovement over the Spanjsh-American
war methods, there is too much of the
red tape of peace still prevalent to
secure the highest efficiency.
AS member of the generals staff
has aptly put it, what we need is a
war department and not a peace de-
partment." For example, shortly after
the declaration of wal by the United
States a colonel in charge of one of
the bureaus abroad found that it was
physically impossible to handle the
Work with his present staff.
Without taking the precaution of
cabling to Washington for permission
he engaged an extra stenographer at
the moderate salary Of SIS a week.
A. the end of the month his
as usual, were sent to Washington to
be audited and paid. After some de-
lay the colonel received a note from
some adjutant general or assistant to
the quartermaster general. in which
that official declared he could find
no record of an authorization from
Washington for the engaging of an
other stenographer in the bureau.
Since that was so, he regretted, ETC.,
bur found that the salary OF the ste
nographer would have to be charged
against the colonel. and accordingly
the amount would be deducted from
his monthly pay heck. The colonel
found that such was the case. AL
though he had been engaged upon i'm
portant government work because of
the p-enuriOusness of Officialdom he
was forced to pay for his own zeal
in completing his labor as rapidly as
possible.
General Pershing has asked for a
large amount or appropriation for the
maintenance of a comprehensive in
telligence bureau which Will be sec
Ond to one not even Germany's. 1t
is hoped at staff headquarters that
congress and Washington Will realize
the importance of the work that falls
under the scope of the intelligence Of
flee.
Some of the best trained minds Of
two continents Will be employed to
meet, cope with and stamp out as far
as possible the insidiOus spy system
that Germany has built up throughout
the whole of Europe. 1t is an open
secret and IN endless cause for wor-
ry in rance and England that news
of important events and maneuvers
has found its way into the hands OF
the enemy twenty-four hours after the
plans were conceived in the inventors
brain.
To cope with such a system no or
binary methods can ever suffice. Any
counter attempt must be solidly back
ed by both men and money in suffi-
cicnt degree to eat the enemy at his
own game.
Another example on the question of
expenditures may be seen in the gov
ernmentis Instructions sent to Paris
shortly before the arrival of General
Pershing and his staff. The orders
instructed the Paris men to prepare
accommodations for twenty-five men
and perhaps thirty clerks"
However, the Paris end went ahead
and made its preparations for fifty
men and sixty clerks. engaging quar-
.ters that might accommodate them
with a little squeezing. When he
general did arrive it was discovered
hat his immediate staff consisted of
fifty-six officers and sixty-nine clerks
to say nothing of s~ixty-six enlisted
men and the group of other officers
that had already preceded him to Eu-
rope.
Now, by turning the kitchens of the
two small twO-stOry houses at 81 and
81 Rue de Constantine into workshops.
by moving some of the officers out
into the back yard with their type
writer's ~(machines) and Orderlies, or.
as n officer put it. by sitting on
each others desks and writing on the
sCles of their feet" they are able to
get some work accomplished.
1t that, some of the members of the
staff are apprehensive as to what
Washington will say when it comes
to casting its eye over the expense
sheets and notes that two houses have
been engaged instead of one, that ac-
commodations for 100 men have been
arranged for instead of fifty, and that
the bill for repairs and installment of
furniture will probably be twice what
il was originally figured, although the
equipment of the houses consists of
nothing but kitchen chairs and tables.
electric lights and telephones.
There is not even carpet on the
floor, nor curtains to the windows.
The highest men in the French gov
m and all the allied govern
ments call to pay their respects to the
American commander and 20 away
wondering at the simplicity of the
American equipment, setting it down
rather as a ribute to American prac-
ticality than to the short sightedness
of our war department.
During the past week General Per