The Monticellonian., 1917-11-23

Lack of Team Work Deplored.
 Washington for months has had within its borders representatives of the armed forces of all the allies. 1t is held generally by the military ex- perts that the plan of campaign of each individual war office as it affects its own front has been in the main excellent. From the first, however, there has been uneasiness among the students of strategy because no grand plan of co-ordinated campaign for the final crushing of Germany and Austria has been evolved.
 It is known to be somewhat of disappointment to American military authorities that at the allied confer ence in Paris the war offices are not to be more fully represented. To considerable extent the conference on the conduct of the war will be civil ian affair, but there will be a sufficient military leavep in the meeting to af- feet it's deliberations and finally prob ably to produce the strategic result desired.
 Something has been said concerning the belief that the war is to be long one. If plan of grand strategy in which all the allied nations shall take part Is evolved, adopted and put into operation, 1t will mean probably that for months the conflict seemingly will be at q virtual standstill except at parts of certain fronts where progress even under preparation conditions is possible. If the endorsement of comprehensive plan of "coalesced war fare" is secured from the war offices of each of the allied countries, the preparations for putting the grand plan into operation must be adequate and all embracing. Food, munitions, men, supplies of all kinds at the fronts and at the bases back of the fronts must be provided so that there may be no excuse at any point of the thou sands of circling miles for the now familiar plea that retreat here or there came because the necessaries in the case were lacking.
 Retired Officers Back in Harness.
 Scenes in London during the early part of the war are being duplicated In Washington. The streets, of course, here are full of soldiers as they were in the British capital in the fall of 1914, but one striking thing here, as there, is the presence of many men, erect and sturdy, but aged, who are wearing the uniform of their country and doing active work at time of life when they had the right to expect to be resting on their laurels for the rest of their existence.
 There are old officers in this town from the rank of lieutenant general down to that of second lieutenant in full uniform. all of them working for the government and the juniors, many of them, ranking in age scores of major generals and brigadier gener- als still in the active service.
 Lieut.. Gen. $. E. NJ. Young, aged seventy-seyen years, is in harness again as commanding officer of the Soldiers Home located on the heights above Washington and in which are many hundreds of former regulars who are ineapacitated for service. The placing of General Young in this po- sition released for field service younger officer of the line.
 The instant that war broke out Gen eral Young, despite his age, offered his services to the government. His im- mediate ranking officer, also lieu tenant general, Nelson A. Miles, of fered his services at the same time. Except in an advisory capacity Gen eral Miles services have not yet been required.
 Many Retired Officers Working. There are in the war department to- day retired army officers working away for dear life whose shoulder straps have the open field denoting second lieutenant rank, or the bar of the first lieutenant, or the double bar of q captain. Some of these men If they had stayed in the service would be major generals today, and numbers of them in fact already have reached the age when retirement would have been compulsory under the sixty-four years clause.
 Some of these officers were retired l because of wounds received in the early Indian wars. Some of them so far recovered from the effects of their wounds that if the law had al- lowed they would have been able to return to active service in days of peace, but the law makes no such pro- vision. When war comes the services of all men are needed and these an- cient ones of the cavalry and infantry who fought the Arapahoes, the Kiowas, i the Apaches and the Sioux on the plains and in the mountains in the 1 days long gone by are undergoing | training in what to an old campaigner are actually new duties, those of desk work at headquarters.
 It seems curious to meet in full uni- form on the street a second lieutenant who has reached the Psalmist's al- lotted span of life, three score years and ten, and yet there are several such here. The younger men of the active service even though they rank the older ones, always salute them first, for they are quick to recognize the veteran regular, even though he wears no insignia higher than that of lieutenant.
 | Mo Wander