The Washington times., 1917-09-19
j. S. TROOPS MAY
GET INTO TRENCHES
BEFORE CHRISTMAS
By DAVID LAWRENCE.


this autumn, the troops now on the
! ground In France will not be a bic to
do their share' in relieving as early
as had been expected. the British and
French contingents that have been
training them.
Foreign officers here have not hest
tated to point out to the American Of
hcers that only by actual lighting can
any new force discover the merits or
defects of Its system OF training.
1t is declared, for instance, thar the
first big battle OF the Somrpe had for
its object a thorough test OF the
fighting ability Of the British army.
While the British suffered heavy loss-
es through the failure of infantry and
artillery TO- support each other. it. did
serve to demonstrate the stamina and
capacity 'of the British fighting man.
Results Of Experisnee. 2
The results Of thi4 experience have
been laid before the United states
Government and steps have been
taken to avoid the. mistakes made.
While appreciating the arguments
made by foreign experts, there have
been many persons Of responsibility
in the American Government who
have favored holding the. pUnited
States army back until 1t is large
enough for an. American offensive"
Such, a campaign, howeve-@ could
not be launched Until sprtng at the
earliest, hence the growing eonvlc-
tion among military men that Rdvan-
tage should be taken OF the presence
of trained troops. so as to find out
just what they can and cannot do.
and incidentally use the results OF
that experience In training the.larger
contingents that are to follow. But
1t is safe to assume that any mart OF
the battle line taken over by the
American troops will be held perma-
nently.
This raises question as to the re.
endorsements that can be transported
in quantities sufficiently large not TO
cause the generals in command behind
the line to hasten the dispatch OF raw
troops to the front lines.
Reserves Are Essential.
Conservative opinion here has al
ways maintained that the United
States army should never take its
place on the line until several times
the number in equally good men was
ready to supply reserves.
General Pershing's recent statement
to the newspaper correspondents sta
toned with him rather indicated such
a purpose, but either a sufficient num-
ber of troops has arrived to make
possible an early start or the train
ing is proceeding much more rapidly
than had been anticipated even by
the military men themselves. -..
Naturally the censorship prevents
the War Department from throwing
any light on these points, because,
while intensely interesting to the
American people, the German general
staff probably would like to know
about II, too.
incidentally, Secretary Baker ought
to have an interesting announcement
to make in few days on the question
OF personnel Major General Scott re-
tires as chief OF staff on account Of age
on Friday. He will be continued In
active service, but very probably not
as chief of staff. Gen. Tasker H.
Bliss, who is assistant chief of stan.
and has been acting for General Scott
while the latter was In Russia, Will
succeed his superior automatically.
Kuhn May Get Post.
But General Bliss is due to. retire
in December, and everybody IS pre-
dieting that Maj. Gen. Joseph E. Kuhn
will become the active head OF the1
American army. General Kuhn him
self is sincerely anxious to go to
France. He is, however, the most ex-
perIenced OF all the stan officers. He
has seen more of war than any OF
them. He served as military observer
with the Japanese army in the Rus
sian-Japanese war and was on the
German battlefront as military at
tache OF the American embassy In
Berlin during the present war. On
his return from Germany, he became
president OF the Army War College
and is now in command OF the troops
at Camp Meade, Md. No man in the
American army Is said to be as IA
miliar with the German system OF or
ganization as General Kuhn. Natur-
ally he wants to get into the fight
ing himself, but the prevailing
opinion Is that he will be drafted to
take charge of organization In tho
United States, with the possibility OF
active service II the war Is prolonged
or any casualties befalI the high OF.