The Prescott daily news., 1918-01-29
WAR PLANS IF
 J. 5. BARED IN
 BAKERS REPLY
To Have 5OO,0OO Men in France Early in 191S-More Than 100000 There Now-1, 5OO, ,0OO Are Ready.

nave an army or 500,000 men in France early this year, with 100000 more trained and equipped, ready to follow as quickly as ships can be pro- vided to carry them-and the outlook for ships is not unpromising.
 Secretary Baker gave this informa- tion today in statement before the Senate military committee, barring much that until now has been care fully guarded with the army's mili- tary secrets in answering charges that the government has broken down pre- pairing for war.
 From early morning until late af- ternoon the secretary addressed the committee and a crowd, including | many memfers of both houses of congress, gathered in big hearing room of the Senate office building. He spoke extemporaneously, beginning with details of the mammoth task of building an army of 1,500,00O, answer ing such complaints of inefficiency as were cited by Senator Chamberlain in his recent speech, and declaring that such instances were isolated and not general. Some questions were asked and MT. Baker, from time to time, had assistants go to the telephone for reports on specific questions.
 Then toward the close of the day the secretary delivered a dramatic general statement of the American war plan, telling of the coming of the allied missions, of the day and night conferences with men from the scene of battle, in which the plans now be- ing executed were adopted. and of success beyond the most sanguine ex- pectations in building the army and it's industrial supports at home, trans porting men across the ocean, con. structing railroads in France and pre- pairing to strike the enemy with every resource at the country's command
 When MT. Baker closed it was ap- parent he had created a profound im- pression. Chairman Chamberlain said so before he left the stand. There was no attempt at cross examination. The chairman proposed that the secretary be given a rest and it practically was agreed to recall him for further exam ination later, after the committee has completed it's hearings of officers of the medical corps, aviation section and other branches of the service.
 The committee was frankly amazed when told that the men of 32 National Guard and National army divisional camps are ready to go today at need. When members wanted to know why such things had not been given pub licity before, Mir. Baker spoke of the reluctance of military men to reveal their war plans and quoted German remarks about America's advertise ment of her preparations.
 Emphasizing that he was not there to defend himself or anybody else, the secretary urged the committee again and again to lay bare any short coming or failure of the department that it might be corrected. Frequently he paused to seek stronger language to describe the devotion of his asso- ciates in the department, military and civilian.
 "For one reason or another" he said, "the impression has gone out into the country, to some extent at least, that the War Department has fallen down.
 "It would be tragical thing if this tremendous effort, this wholly unpre- cedented sacrifice made by men, were to turn out to deserve the comment that it had fallen down."
 Never in the history of time, he declared ,shas an army of it's size been raised, equipped, trained and prepared for battle as had that of the United States. MT. Baker took responsibility for getting men under training before their equipment was ready "to the last shoe button" Such officers as Mai. Gen. Leonard Wodd, he said, had urged this policy. He described con