The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1917-07-21
National Army Officers.

All officers of the national army abov'
the grade of lieutenant-colonel will b.
taken from the regular army, politica
pressure from far and near to the con
trary notwithstanding. Assurances from
the war department are our authority
for this forecast. There the determine
ton is declared to be irrefragable that
commission in the army in time of wal
shall not again degenerate from formal
authorization to command men into Ii.
cense to get them killed. The colonies
will be promoted to generals as the OPP
portunity arises and as their service at
the front justifies. The pledge is posi-
tive, and the prayer viii be general that
its fulfllment will be complete. In OPP
posing any departure from this plan,
Governor Beeckman Of Rhode Island and
Governor Milliken of Maine are voicing,
as we believe, the sentiment not only OF
their own states, but of all New Eng
land If the other New England gov
errors have adopted different course we
hope that the secretary of war will make
short shrift Of their recommendations.
Finding lieutenant colonies for the ma
tional army is a problem which has not
yet been solved. To take all of the Off
GERS required in this grade from the reg
ular army would very much weaken that
arm, and few if any can be secured from
the training camps for reserve officers.
Their graduates will be commissioned in
the lower grades, In the higher grades,
though it is of course desirable that the
sort of training which is given the Off
GERS should have been obtained some
where, it is not necessary that it should
have been obtained at one of the 10
Plattsburg camps. Take, for example,
an officer of the army who, after gradu-
alton from West Point, remained in the
service for ten years or more and then
went out either to practice a profession
or to become a leader in the business
world. II is altogether unlikely that he
will go through training camp and
submit his qualifications for a commits
sion to the judgment of men Is years
his junior and without the equivalent OF
his military education and experience.
Why should her Yet his past training,
if supplemented by business or profess
sional experience, particularly if that
has involved handling men, would prob
ably make him better lieutenant-colo-
mel than a somewhat younger man who
had reached the grade of first lieutenant
or junior captain in the army. Sherman
and Grant were probably both helped by |
their excursion into civil life, and the |
general commanding the Canadian troops
in France to-day is in times of peace a
successful real estate man in Vancouver.
He has worked up to his job and won it
Dy demonstration at the front of his fit
ness for it. General Curry, however,
lad had considerable, but not continuous,
military experience before the war be-
yan, and his case viii probably be dupli-
,ated by that of West Point graduates
whose ten years more of active service
n the army was followed by large sue
ess in civil life.
In the selection of lieutenant colonies,
However, every care must be exercised to
Eliminate the harassing interference by
,ork- barrel politicians with those en-
rusted with the appointing power. If
his job can be left wholly within the
ands of the general staff, we shall have
eason to hope and believe that the new
lieutenant colonies, recommended not by I
enators, congressman and governors, but '
" their record at West Point, in the !
rmy and in civil life, win prove them
elves worthy Of their commissions and
hereby vindicate the system of their Sc :
sction. To date, so far as the public
as been permitted 10 see. the war de- 7
srtment has been singularly free from q
be influence Of politics in the distribu
Ion Of army commissions. The Platts- '
urgers have been given the preference, s
espite several attempts at political in
midation on behalf Of political favor q
es. Had the department been equally n
zee from certain army prejudiees and 6
-om bureaucratic stupidities. the nation B
Guild not b - far behind in its readi- o
ess for actual warfare as the fourth Il
Ioufh az the conflict finds it.-Bost0n e
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