New-York tribune., 1918-08-27

as one OF the most damnlng instances OF
the prevailing inefficiency in aircraft
production.
Mr.. Ryan's testimony sheds light upon
this question. 1t appears that it had
these De Haviland planes, distribute
them among the various flying fields in
this country and practically fly them to
destruction" in order to find out their de-
fects. But upon General Pershings
cabled demand these planes were sent to
Europe. With the planes went Lieuten-
ant Farwell, and he, with Colonel Dodd,
Of the American expeditionary forces,
was assigned to conduct the trial flights
and report upon them Mr.. Ryan's tes
tmony continues:
at has been generally supposed that
General Pershing's cable was the result
of their finding out all these things over
there, without anybody on this side being
concerned at all, and that we did not know
anything about this. AS matter of fact
Lieutenant Farwell, who was sent for that
very purpose, came back and reported on
the 18th day of June, giving all these de-
fects and setting forth all those troubles,
and stating, practically line for line and
word for word, everything that was set
down in General Pershing's message,
which was dated the 24th of June, ten
days after report was made by our own
man"
There was evidently something out of
gear when a ten thousand word message
was put upon the cables to tell what had
been reported in person in Washington
ten days before by the officer conducting
the test. Aud this apparently is fairly
typical of the degree Of cooperation be-
tween these two branches of the govern
ment service. Speaking with a perhaps
regrettable frankness, General Keny tes-
tilted:
IF you look over the cables you will
find cable from overseas asks for one
thing one day and the next day counter
mands the order, and then the next day
asks for it again, and a week later coun-
termands it,"
Nor will public confidence be especially
enhanced by General Kenly's vivid de-
scription Of the relationship of Mr.. Ryan
and himself. He says:
81 will tell you, sir, exactly what the
relations between Mr.. Ryan and myself
have been. 1t became evident to me that
with an independent head Of production
and independent head of operations
which | am, | have no power to direct
TO do /,
me any directions The success of our
work would be dependent upon the clos
est sort of co0peraton."
SO it seems that Mr.. Ryan and General
Kenly came to an agreement, which was
duly put in writing, and a copy sent to
the chief of staff. 1t was in a general
way that General kenly was to tell Mr..
Ryan what the army wanted and he was
to produce it. But apparently this ar
rangement did not work very we'll. The
generals testimony proceeds:
"Quite recently, due to all sorts of frc-
ton that we found growing up and
lack of cooperation on the part Of subor
dinatcs, particularly along technical and
engineering lines, we have just agreed
to certain arrangement, and | turned
in to the chief of staff this morning
document signed by Mr. RYAN and
myself to this effect: that we would com
bine our engineering sectlons-my tech
nical section and his so-caled engineer
ing section-and they wouc DC stationed
at Dayton for the present and work to-
gcther; that head of that combined sec
tion selected by Mr.. Ryan and agreeable to
me, would take charge of that combined
section, working for both of US, however;
that my technical section would report to
liaison technical officer in my Office, who
was closely associated with a similar man
IN Mr.. Ryan's Office, SO that would get
the operations point of view from my
man weekly; but everything that
came to also laid on the table for
Mr.. Ryan. His man did the same thing
with him. and | saw that that and all our
communications with the engineering sec
tion were sent to Mr.. Ryan and his to me.
SO that our cards are on the table"
General Kenly adds that:
Il have instructed my own technical
men that they have to get along harmoni-
ously out there; that it just has to be
done. 1t would seem unnecessary, per-
haps, to have to say that-but engineers
and men of that type arc very hard to
get along with"
At that point the following exchange
occurred:
THE CHAlRMAN--Thcy have hard
time getting along with each other?
GENERAL KENLY-Yes, sir, they think
their view is right. They are regular
prma donnas
Asked for his opinion as to what
should be done, and especially as to the
creation of separate department of
aeronautics, General Kenly replied: