Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1917-04-24

" pSAAVh III Will LAlc 1euSIdllZSu OutiA us
There are the l9en who will get COM
missions because Trey have passed or
will pass the examinations necessary
to receive commissions in the officers
reserve corps.
Take them all together, still it will
be necessary to find men fit to COM
mand the forces of the United States,
green men CT men who have received
at best only primary instruction in
the art of war.
The understanding is today that
there are some 10000 or 1900 men
who have passed or who supposedly
can pass the somewhat rigid examina-
lions for commissions In the officers
reserve corps. The examinations for
the reserve corps are sufficiently
strict and comprehensive to make it
certain that no man who is not exceed
ingly intelligent and more than fair
ly well informed can pass them.
Thousands Have Offered.
There viii not be enough of these re-
serve corps candidates to meet the
governments need. There is q provi-
sion Of the law, section SO of the act
approved June 8, 1916, which allows
the age limit to be waived and makes
provision for the appointment of COM
mlssioned officers who have seen serv-
Ice or who have received military In
struction in schools and who are past
the age ordinarily fixed, for commits
sions In the various grades. How
many men over forty-five years of age
The government will find physically fit
for commissions 1t is hard to say, but
1t Is known definitely that thousands
of men who have commanded troops
or who have served long enough either
In the regular army or in the National
Guard to enable them with slight ad-
ditional instruction to enter the COM
missioned ranks, already have offered
their services to the military authori-
ties.
The United States government can
get plenty Of men willing to be officers,
but the question is whether they will
be able to meet quickly the require
ments of field duty. In other words,
while the soldiers are being trained in
foot movements, the manual of arms,
extended order drill and battle maneu-
vers, will the newly appointed officers
have time to acquire that knowledge Of
men and military affairs which is es-
sential not only to the drilling and the
disciplining of men, but to the talk
ing care of them under all conditions
of field work?
This policy twill involve the i'm
mediate full equipment of the navy
in all respects, but particularly in
supplying it with the best means of
dealing with the enemy's submarines"
This statement in the presidents adj
dress to congress, Washington thinks,
was significant of great things that
must be done, of real master strategy,
of great operations of which perhaps
the nonmilitary mind probably has no
complete sense.
In another place in his address to
congress the president said that the
practical duty of the United States
would be:
ITO supply the nations already at
war with Germany with the materials
which they can obtain only from us or
by our assistance. They are in the
field and We should help them in every
way to be effective there"
The navy department has concern
ed itself with means to make effective
these two plans to which Woodrow
Wilson gave public consideration In
his address and appeal to the law
makers of the United States.
Naval officers realize the intimate
connection between the two extracts
from the presidents address here
given. Our navy today is charged in
part with the duty of clearing the en-
emy's submarines from the depths and
the surface of the waters. 1t Is a
huge job.
Navy Tackles a Big Task.
It follows as q wake follows tor
pedo that if the navy of the United
States, added to the naEies of Great
Britain and France, cannot clear the
waters of enemy submarines, the la
Dor Of carrying out the second sugges-
ton made in quotation from the presi-
dents address will be so difficult of
accomplishment that the navy mind,
If it were not a militant mind, might
Stagger at it.
Every department of the govern
ment today is working to fulfill the
terms of the presidents word to con-
gress to the effect that they would
submit measures for the accomplish
ment of the various war objects which
he had mentioned. One Of the main
things to be done, Of course, Is to
prepare this country, and today there
are material evidences that the work
of Industrial and Of army and navy
preparedness, so far as 1t affects sup
plies and means to obtain them, is well
in hand. This matter concerns itself,
according to the president, not only
with our own preparation, but with
that for continuing to supply the al
lied nations of Europe with "the ma
terial which they can obtain only
from us or by our assistance"
These materials for use abroad must
be sent abroad. The naval experts are
confronted with a problem which
never, before the breaking out of the
present war, faced any nation on
earth. In fact, the problem as 1t con-
fronts the navy men is one Of per-
picking perils. The submarine is a
factor in the problem which must be
eliminated.
The Bee-Martin's Trick.