Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1918-02-07
CHANDERLIN is NOW
CHARGED WITH DELAY
IN WAR OPERATION
As Chairman Of Military Af-
fairs Senator Cut War APP
preparations Says Glass


Washington, Feb. 7--Hurling sting
ing criticisms at Senator Chamberlain
for his attack on the war department,
Representative Carter Glass, Virginia,
IN the house today, asserted that the
oregon senator has exaggerated
faults and suppressed achievements. I"
"The war machine,' Glass said, "is
driving ahead at a pace that has
amazed the European nations in arms
We have nearly ten times as many
troops abroad as the French and Eng
lish military missions expected we
could &c in the time required and we
are training an army far beyond the
original estimates"
The Virginia representative, who
made the first carefully prepared de-
fense of Secretary Baker in either
house, placed a large share of the
blame for America IS unpreparedness
when the United States entered the
war at the door of Chamberlain as
chairman of the military affairs com
mittee.
Glass took the "highlights" of
Chamberlain s address and tried to
show that expert testimony contra.
dicted every one of the charges.
"And how obliged to Mr.. Chamber
lain and his kindred spirits" Glass
scathingly said, "will the kaiser and
his kindred spirits be for thus publicly
confirming their contemptous opinion
of American capacitl to fight for
American freedom9
"The military establishment, Cham
berlain said, was a myth. That 3 what
Reventlow and Tirpitz have been
teaching. By that speech the declin-
ing morale of the German citizens and
soldiers will be retrieved. Thousands
of American boys who might have
escaped may be MANNED in battle and
other thousands who might have sur
vived may find their resting place on
the plains of Flanders or the heights
of Argonne.
"I suppose these expositors of
calamity imagine that by these critic
isms they wash their hands of the
blood of American citizens.
"But they will wash, and wash, and
wash again to no purpose. The
damned spot will not out ."
In answer to the senator's charges
that there was little preparation by the
war department while the war ragged in
tEurope prior to the entrance of the
United States, Glass pointed in scorn
to the Hpitifully small appropriations
for war work. several of which, he
said, during 1915, and 1916, were cut
by Chamberlain Is committee.
| Il
functioning as Chamberlain charged, il
was Chamberlain who did not func.
tion," Glass declared.
Pointing out that ten years before
the war the appropriation for small
arms was 100000, Glass, in defending
General Crozier, said in 1915 it was
only S250,000 and that the "men who
now affect preknowledge of future
events did not increase by one dollar
the trifling appropriation, but reduced
it from the preceding year by nearly
so per cent.
81 cite circumstance now that pain
fully accentuates Chamberlain IS re-
sponsibility for our lack of prepara'
ton. The house in 1915, long after
the war began, passed an appropriation
of $4,000 for motor trucks for the
army; but trifling as was the sum
contemplate as it must have seemed
to anyone who was reasonably certain
that the United States was on the
brink of the war, the distinguished
OregoHian had it cut to $25,000.''
Characterizing as fvicious pathos >
the war critics assertions that Amer
lea had to spend on "poor, bleeding
France" for guns, Glass pointed tc
statements of Marshal Joffre when
! here on the war mission.
Turning to the machine gun contro
} versy, Glass said Chamberlain had
been upholding the Lewis gun, despite
= the fact that. General Pershing saio
that the gun could not be used for land
fighting and that the United States
marines who went to France with this
gun had to be re-armed.
The rifle delay had been more than
compensated for, Glass believes.
Attacking Chamberlain's Indictment
of hospital conditions, Glass character
lied the senator's charge as a 'hid
eous nightmare" and said that the wal
department could not investigate the
isolated instances mentioned, because
the senator until he made them public
in his address, kept them in his vest
pocket as confidential information. .
Referring to Congressman Medill Nc.
Cormick's testimony before the senate
committee, Glass said:
''The idle tittle-tattle of irrespons
ible camp spectators has wed for grave
consideration with the startling i'm.
partations of the British prime min.
lister to an itinerant American congress,
man who, unable to contain the con
fidential revelations of the great man
leaked in the presence of the gov
eminent IS adversaries