The Green Forest tribune., 1917-05-25

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.
 SIackers Not Good Officers.
 Here is what an American soldier has said:
 ''No stacker ever made a good col onel, nor a good second lieutenant nor 2 good corporal. nor good private Sometimes the slacker is only tndirfer- o0t in temperament and when he gets iato the service he makes q good sol Her tut he needs proper leadership. H. could get if from the men of will ing spirit and aGaptaMlity to the les ] sons of command If all such men haG to be taken into the ranks at the 5tt sa9 seHt to Europe, there perhaps za Ae Killed or maimod, who would be i Ha'r ta give te the elacEpe who is only i aarhafgtc the proper training to make at him goad first line fahter?'
 Some of our troops probably will go .'' t-t-. v. .fE- I'iL s.|i'..t--tl t-N''''t soldiers VIII stay here for training TlposaS. When the troops of our any eat into the instruction camps i th'r azH atar a school which is diff Herai ia ,ts instruction and in it's ue5= from the army schools of an- ] aH,lar day. On the continent maneu- arrs taeti"s and strategy have shown marked changes from tHe battle and eMaHHiguinas of other years. Men e-aH daily of cutaHslements of barbed i 'Hire aHd of obstacles to advance which make the old pointed stake obstrue- i tjna seem easy going The American troops will be trained to get over and through things. nc matter what they are.
 Wall-scaling is a comparatively easy practice. hut wall-scaling is the cas- lest 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 l departmcnt; Maj Gen. J. Franklin Bell has moved into the quarters just vacated by General Wood at Govern or's Island. and Brig. Gen. Clarence F. 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 l of Americans, has seen the first army transnortations probably solved. Gen eral Wood, ranking officer of the Unit ed States army, has gone to his semi subordinate command at Charleston with q loyalty to orders and a 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 q 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 q 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 q day and then went to New York to confer with General Wood, and thence he went to Boston to take up the problems which will confront him in the newly made de i parment.
 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 1 Charleston.
 New Problems Confront Them.
 It must not he thought, however, that the three general officers now on the eastern coast and the other gen erat officers. Pershing in the South weqe. Barry in Chicago. Sibert on the Pacific coast and others elsewhere, win not have new problems confront ing them \ great agmy is to be raised and trained. and attachments of it will eo into camp at different places thrauahout the United States. The re- epoasfhilty for the proper training of these men. for the proper care, and for turning them as quickly as possible in- t0 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 which may depend victory or defeat for democracy's war against despot- ism.
 i Washington already is beginning to speculate upon promotions for the higher ranking officers of the army. It seems to be assured that as soon as great army is raised and gets into service trim congress will revive the grade of lieutenant general and the president will he asked to name off cers for promotion to a rank which to- day, except on the retired1nst, is non- existent.
 It seems to be generally agreed that if three lieutenant generals are named the rank will be given to Wood, Bell and Barry and that if by any chance