New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-02-18
England's Experience in Marshalling
Her Economic and Military Forces
Affords a Valuable Lesson
for the United States

Faced with a like emergency Americans,
il seems to me, would be we'll advised in
proceeding somewhat as follows-I am
taking it, of course, for granted that they
would not at once adopt universal and
compulsory military service. Let the Gov
ernor of each state make an immediate
register-it can be done very quickly, with
the help of women-of the names, ad
dresses and occupations of all the men of
military age in the state. Let him agree
in consultation with the military authori-
ties on the best sites in the state for camps
and training grounds. Let him call upon
the Mayors of all the cities in the state to
set aside recruiting halls and to make pro-
vision for housing, feeding, doctoring and
clothing the men. Let all the recruits be
divided into age groups on the Derby model
and let them pass into the hands of the
military to be turned into soldiers when,
and not before, the military are ready to
receive them.
The second great blunder that we, in
common with all the belligerents, made in
the matter of recruiting was this We
took into the army men who would have
been more useful to the nation had they
remained working at their ordinary trades.
This perhaps is mistake that can never
be wholly obviated. But it can be partial
ly obviated if list is drawn up in ad-
vance of the trades in each state in the
order of their military Importance. A man
may have the markings of an excellent SOL
tional strength if he is kept out Of the
army and ordered to go on working as, for
instance, railway man or a munitiOn
maker, or farmer. 1t is not armies alone
that count in modern war. 1t is also the
indispensable trades, services and utilities
behind them.
Then, as to munitions. The war caught
us short of many of the essentials Of up
to-date warfare. | presume that the
United States is similarly i'll provided.
But the deficiency, however great it may
be- can always in time be overcome in the
case of nations with such vast resources
and industrial skill as the United States
and Great Britain.
An Efficient Way
We overcome it on our side OF the At
lantic, % by taking over the entire en-
gineering industry of the kingdom, and
placing it under national control, COM
Wandering all the machine tools, all the
lathes, all the essential metals, and by build
ing up directing organization composed
of the best business brains in the coun-
try; (2) by forbidding or at least severely
restricting the export of machinery, by dis
covery and tapping every available source
of supply in neutral countries and through
out the empire, by splitting Great Britain
into districts and putting each district I'M
der the charge of the leading local manu-
facturers, and by forcibly abolshing under
heavy penalties all trade union practices
and customs that interfered with the max
imum production; (3) by enlisting all
manner of firms that had never previously
even dreamed of making war material, by
simplifying patterns and specifications, by
introducing everywhere the latest auto
matte machines, by having all the cOmpo-
nent parts made as far as possible in sepa-
rate factories, and, above all, by training
women and unskilled men to do the work
that only skilled men used to be thought
capable Of.
In all this there may be hint or two