New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-06-24
Baruch Likely To Be
Buyer Of All Supplies
Real Plans for Conduct of
War Ignored in Effort to
Bring About Order
By c. w. Gilbert


formation comes from member Of the
Cabinet who is also a member of the
council.
In the reorganization the Advisory
Commission will be pushed more or
less into the background, and the coun-
Gil proper, made up Of six Cabinet
members, will become the dominating
/ factor, and under this council will be
three or four executives who will con-
stitute board that will transact most
of the work Of preparing for war.
These executives will be a controller
of transportation, a controller OF mu-
/ nitions and a general purchasing agent,
/ perhaps also controller of raw ma
terials. The general purchasing agent
may be chairman of this new board of
executives.
President Willard of the Baltimore
e. Ohio Railroad, now a member of the
Advisory Commission, is likely to be
transportation controller; Frank Scott,
chairman Of the Board of Munitions,
is likely be munitions controller,
and Bernard NJ. Baruch, of the Ad-
visory Commission, is likely TO be the
general purchasing agent. 1t will be
seen that this takes two of its most
/ important members out Of the Ad-
visory Commission.
Commission Purely Advisory
Another important member, Howard
Coffin, has his hands full as chairman
of the Aircraft Board, which is trying
TO build huge air feet for this coun-
try. Thus there is very little left of
the Advisory Commission, and it is
pointed out that in the future its func-
, tions will be purely advisory"
The balance has swung away from
the appendage to the council, which
brought to its deliberations knowledge
of the business and its rods, and
which in the beginning threatened to
outweigh the council itself, to the po-
litical element in the combination. This
is natural. The Cabinet members are
jealous of their powers and wish no
rivals.
The work OF getting ready for war
will now be done by agents of the Cab
met members in the Council of Ma
tionsl Defence. The vast array Of
committees and subcommittee and
subcommittee of subcommittee
which has grown up here will be sorted
over and the useful bodies will prob
ably be grouped under the various con-
trollers and purchasing agents, who
will act as executives of the Council Of
National Defence. The rest may con-
tinue in some advisory" capacity. The
same thing is likely to happen to the
host Of assistant directors who now
throng the Munsey Building here.
In word, this reorganization is an
attempt to bring order out of chaos,
10 create a war organization that is
worthy Of the name, in response TO
criticism of the existing confusion.
presented in these columns and heard
wherever patriotic citizens informad
about conditions down here get to-
gether and discuss the conduct of the
war. 1t is as good a reorganization as
can be got from Cabinet members jesl-
Gus Of their own prerogatives and
anxious to increase them, and from
President who has what is always q
vice in an executive, a desire to do
everything himself
Big War Problems Ignored
The big fault of this new organiza-
tion is that il concerns only prepara-
ton for war. There is no one organiza-
ton here that thinks about the con-
duct Of the war. Big problems Of war
making policy 90 by default just as
completely as have up till now the
problems of price for materials in the
preparation for war.
Another fault of the reorganization
is that it emphasizes a body that IS
not itself efficient that is to say,
Council of National Defence consisting
of Cabinet members. In the hrst place
there is no unity in this body. IL Is
not n council in any true sense OF the
word The members have not cor
rorato noint of view. They think as
units. as separate executives, heads OF
departments with utterly unrelated
, The membership of the council is not
osnecially strong. Outside OF Secretary
lane there is not first class man IN II.
And moreover, every member is too
busy with the administrative duties OF
his own department to make an ef-
fcctiye member of the council, and mas
tho usual human weakness OF being un-
willing to lay down one form OF power
as he takes up another.
Ru, when all this has been SAID the
denomination marks step IN advance
J II viii bs the first concentration OF eN-
ocu,ivc authority 70 take place: how
oreat a concentration only practice viii
Ge,ermine, for IT still remains to be
econ how much Of the substance OF
authority will pass from the Jealous
hands of the President through the
Jealous hands of the Cabinet member
council into the possession OF the new
executives.
One of the first duties Of the new ex-
.cutives will undoubtedly be 20 put into
eqec, some policy about prices. The