The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1917-08-09
EVERY IDEA STUDIED
Uncle Sans Bureaus Maintain
"0pen-Mind" Policy.
Men Of High and Low Degree Give
Army Officials Tips on How to
Win the War.

is endeavOring to take advantage Of
every idea that citizen Of the coun-
try may have regarding the proper
method of conducting military affairs.
Regarding this policy, the war depart
ment has made the following state
ment:
Ever since the United States en-
tered the present war 1t has been the
policy of the war department to bring
Its executive personnel as much as pos
sble into contact with the sort of peO-
pie who come to Washington with orig
lnal ideas. This receptive attitude has
been very aptly nlcknamed the open
mind policy, and although it gets the
bureau heads and executive officers
in for Il great deal of extra work, any
body who carries with him the seed
Of useful idea Is welcomed and his
plan given the most thoughtful con-
Sideration. In a word, the war de-
partment wants to make use of the
brains of the American people and is
willing to comb out a great mass of
fancful schemes, knowing as they do
that the thOusand-and-frst idea sub
mitted to them might contain the germ
of radical improvement in our method
of carrying out our end of the world
conflict.
'TO maintain the 'Open-mind' policy
requires a great deal of patience and
fOrbearance on the part of officers who,
ordinarily, would be too busy to listen
to elaborate amateur plans for ending
the war. Many of the propositions
have nothing to recommend them but
the charm of ingenuity and romance. 1t
has been said that the late Jules Verne
thought Of more military innovations
than Zeppelin or Edison ever dreamed
of. But the record for dreaming is
bFld by several of the applicants who,
in the past few weeks, have come with
vast projects to help the government
in It's present crisis.
For instance, one enterprising
young man has brilliant plan to
make the record number of recruits In
piled for permission to walk the
streets clad in a patent suit of clothes
of his own designing. The suit con-
sists of half-in-half effect so built
that if you look at him from the right
side the wearer presents the appear
ance of a khaki-clad private of infan-
| try, but the view from the left side
shows the aStonished spectator a rath-
| cr effeminately clad civilian wearing a
monocle and straw hat. The front
view of this appartion is that of q
man cut into two Unmatched halves
right side, hero; left side, tango liz
ard. The placard to go with this mot
| ley makeup Is, Don't Be Half Man."
Every hour great many men
and some WOmen-COme in with plans
to reOrganize the army, plans to i'm
prove the card-index system of keeping
track of enlisted men, plans to speed
up military efficiency by means Of
numbering the buttons on soldiers
coats. AS fast as the details of each
scheme, are discussed the applicants
are turned over to the proper experts
and the merits or demeritS of each
case carefully considered. The case
of the genius who discovered how to
locate lurking submarines by means Of
flock of sea gulls, trained to hover
and pOuncc upon the hidden monster,
is now matter of record. New sys-
TENS Of army discipline are continu-
ally being offered and rejected on the
grounds that they were found anti
quated before the Civil war.
every day q great many men Of
Importance and responsibility come in
to offer suggestions. Also men, hith-
erto obscure, frequently submit ideas
and inventions of incstimable impor-
tance. In fact, the war department
has profited immensely by its policy Of
the "open mind" and many great plans
quite naturally kept secret-have
been born Of these simple, serious con-
ferenCes with all comers who think
they have found something which may
aid the government"