The Chattanooga news. [volume] (Chattanooga, Tenn.) 1891-1939, 1918-02-23
C0ETHALS MAKES
THINGS co RIGHT
Quartermaster Corps of United
States Army Reorganized
in Six Weeks.
(By David Lawrence.)


copyrighted, 1913, by New York Eve
| ming Post Company
Washington, Feb. 23.-Usually it is
the things that go wrong that are
chronicled, the abnormal or the ex-
treme. This is a story of things that
are going right, a survey of the quar-
termaster corps of the United States
organized, in the last six weeks, by
| Gen. George w. Goetha1s, the man who
built the Panama canal.
In the first place Secretary Baker has
given Gen. Goethals a free hand.
Whatever. the quartermaster- general
has asked for has been granted. His
grouping of bureaus and consolidation
of divisions has been fully approved.
Gen. Goethals, for instance, thought
that the cantonment division should
properly be in charge of the engineer
ing corps since it involved construc-
tion. The transfer has been made. The
quartermaster-g general promptly re-
charted his department. He organized
"a general administrative bureau,
quartemaster supply control and a per-
sonnel and planning staff. Under
these fall the supply and equippage di-
vision; reclamation bureau which
takes care of waste fuel and forage;
subsistence division, remount bureau
and motors division. e'@-4
Several other subdivisions Of the bus
reaus were created. On paper they are
no less inspiring to the layman than
dozens of other charts in other govern
ment departments. But when one ex-
amines the personnel, the Importance
of the divisions is obvious. For exam
pie. r. j. Thorne, of the big mail order
house of Montgomery, Ward G. Co.,
handles requirements and distribution:
]. T. Lilley the steamship man, is in
charge of the embarkation at New
York: A. L. Scott. one of the best
known New England merchants. is di-
rector of supplies; f. B. Wentz, coal
operator, is at the head of the fuel di-
vision, and H. M. Adams. of the Mis-
souri, Pacific. is in charge of the inter-
nal transportation division.
Gen. GoethaIs has recruited some
of the most capable business men
in the country, commissioned ther
majors and captains and put them
in active charge Of important bu-
reaus. Much Of the agitation for a
ministry Of munitions has been
based on the idea that regular
army officers have not had the op.
the handling Of large quantities Of
supplies.
The reorganization in the quarter !
master corps is exactly along the lines |
in the sense that it will provide the |
/ nthe sense that it will provide the |!
avenues for information and activity |
which the hearings revealed as
lacking.
General GoethaIs has speeded up the
work all along the line, with the result
that today all the clothing which our
has been provided for, and the con-
tracts are being let for overeoats, uni
forms and equipment for next winter.
Again, Gen. Goethals Is not going to
depend upon the railroads to get his
supplies to American camps. Bad
weather and freight congestion. due to
the movement of raw materials, fire.
quently has upset the best laid plans.
He has already extended on large
scale the warehousing system.
Huge stocks of reserve supplies are
10 be placed in all the cantonments un-
der the supervision Of officers Of the
quartermaster corps. A division of
storage has been organized. There
will also. be huge warehouses at At.
lantic ports so that a cable from Gen.
Pershing for needed supplies can be
answered the same day by the actual
of the supplies needed.
They will be ready always at sea-
board. In other words, Gen. Goethals
has already begun to increase his re-
serves in such quantities that there
will be no danger of shortage again.
OF course, much of the difficulty up
10 the present has beens the lack of ,
plans among the allies. Sudden changes
,aused Gen. Pershing to take almost a
years supply of equipment for his
,wn forces, thus leaving the troops in
America to get along as best they
Gould.
Unity of command will tend to pre-
rent a recurrence of these happenings, |
md, judging from the laudatory re- |
marks OF. Premier Lloyd George about
he memorandum Of Gen. Tasker H.
Bliss as to the organization of the Ver-
direct part in the planning OF the :
var.
To do this every man with a gun in
lis hand must have several back of
lin making things, and fetching them
lp to a point where they can be used.
Ialf of Gernany's efficiency is her
upply system.
Secretary Baker picked Gen.
Goethals because he did tremen-
dous piece Of organization work in
building the Panama American ca
nal, task on which other nations
had fallen down. The interesting
thing TO record about Gen. Goe-
thals today is not that he is mere
" planning" to do things. He has
already done them. Our supply
system is beginning to function
smootLb