New Britain herald. [microfilm reel] (New Britain, Conn.) 1890-1976, 1917-02-16
j. 5. ARMY SN0bS
HURT EFFICIENCY
Officers Consider PriYateS on Par
With Lowry Worm

New York. Feb. 16-The Ameri-
can army as it exists today is a SER
lous menace to the interests of real
preparedness, according to an article
entitled Our Anachronistic Army"
in THE Forum" for this month The
author Of the article is introduced
as a foremost writer and authority
on military AFFAIRS
"One must have had actual part in
army life,' saws the author ITO be
enabled to realize the extent to which
1t is influenced by un-American sem
t1ment-by class distinctions, by the
spirit of abSOlutism and by a sense
of the rights of the officer as against
the civilian.
IF I have undertaken to speak of
the spirit Of the army-in its social
manifestations-it is as one who was
born in the officers class and who
has all his life been connected with
it through kindred and friends.
'Yet neither habit nor sentiment
can bind me to facts. First among
these. both because of its obviousness
and its significance, is the feeling of
caste which governs the officer in his
relation to the enlisted man, The
American citizen who enlists becomes
thereby in the eyes of the citizen who
holds a commission as officer not
merely subordinate but an inferior
in sense not known in civil life. I
do not put it too strongly when I say
that he has entered into som et1ling
like degradation"
Private Taught His Place.
The writer then cites number of
almost incredible facts to illustrate
the claim that the American army
is permeated by a spirit that is "at
variance with the basic principles of
the nation" He then gives the rea-
son for the inefficiency of the avia-
ton service, and declares that the
American soldier is in a state of re-
bellion.
"a we'll known civilian aviator was
speaking recently of the scandal at
the army aviation field at San Diego
where deplorable conditions were kept
hidden until the tragic deaths of sew
eral men and q young lieutenant
brought them suddenly to light. In
the course of his remarks he gave 1T
as his experience that enlisted men
cannot satisfactorily be taught to fly
by officer instructors.
"'When a man is learning he said,
he naturally likes, after a flight, to go
over the machine with his instructor,
to ask questions and discuss details
which have attracted his notices But
few officers will allow such approach
to familiar intercourse. They think
the private must be taught his place
and kept there. So, when the plane
alights, discussion is discouraged and
the student-soldier has no course but
to put his heels together. salute and
take his departure, carrying his ques-
tons and perplexities with him.
The author then exposes the spirit
of unfairness prevailing in the Engi-
neer corps of the army. He says that
the American army officer in his heart
never admits the right of American
principles to take precedence over the
traditions of the service, and points
out that being undemocratic does not
necessarily make for the success of an
army.
'"That an army can be successful by
all military standards,' the author
writes, when founded on principles
in accord with democratic theories of
the soldiers of France
have proved before the eyes of the
world. If France has succeeded in
evolving an army in the spirit of dem
ocracy. so, too, can we.
and now, belatedly, it is becoming
apparent even to certain army officers
that something must be done if the
army is to survive at all. They have
had an unpleasant surprise in the fact
that a decree of congress announcing
that the army was to be enlarged has
not resulted in enlargement to even
half the number contemplated They
had fondly supposed that recruiting
offices would be crowded. There was
something half pathetic. half ludicrous
in the preparations made by recruit
ing stations to 'acconm odate the rush
and in the bewilderment of the army !,
When the rush failed to occur. But II
is the citizens lack of patriotism upon