New-York tribune., 1918-05-02
Discovery

To-day the Secretary of War will lay
before Congress the Administrations
plan to go headlong into war, with all
the country's man power.
According to The Associated Press
dispatch, "he is expected to disclose that
the War Department has reason to be-
1ieve it can handle during the present
year at least double the existing force
under arms of approximately 100000
men. That would mean total of 81
100000 soldiers, for whom clothing and
equipment and transportation are now
in sight,
The first feeling will be one of intense
satisfaction. This is bound to be fol-
lowed by bitter reflections.
When did all this clothing and equip
ment and transportation come into
sight?
Did it fall out of the sky?
And why is it that all the man power
provided for under the existing draft
law is not yet modified?
There is one answer to all of these
questions. The War Department has
wasted precious time. 1t has not be-
lieved until now that it was necessary to
win the war with American troops at
Armageddon.
When in the last quarter of an hour
of which Clemenceau speaks the fate of
democracy in the world shall be decided,
the miracle will be wrought not by faith
aldne, but by the presence at particular
place Of enough men to overcome the
enemy at the apex of his strength.
The preponderance for God and man.
kind may be very slight-a division more
or less.
The time and place are unknown.
What one knows for certain is that
faith without heroic haste in works is
futile.
Yet in a country overrunning with po-
tential man power, where to raise and
equip and dispatch an unlimited army is
ar undertaking that presents technical
difficulties only, it has been necessary
continually to importune the War De-
partment to enlarge it's plans.
This has been so from the beginning.
It's answer until recently was that
troops could not be sent faster because
there were not the ships to send them
in, more than were being sent, wherefore
there was no need of calling up a greater
army. The War Department could not
make the ships.
But when the great offensive started
last March, and the Allies called for men,
ships were found. In forty days the
rate at which troops can be sent abroad
has been trebled. 1t does not matter how
this'was made possible. The point is that
it became possible, thereby invalidating
the War. Departments calculation that
the potential man power was being mob
ilized as fast as it could be exported
Last January in his testimony before
the Senate Committee on Military At
fairs Secretary Baker said: General
Leonard Wood came to my office-I
have forgotten when, but it was early
and suggested to me the advisability of
instantly calling out larger army. I
said: But, general, we have not the,
clothes and we have not the weapons for
them.'"
This was to show that General Woods
complaint that munitions and equipment
had not been provided fast enough was
unreasonable because he had himself sug-
Gested calling up men faster. The i'm
plication was that if this had been done,
the shortage. in munitions and equip
ment would have been even greater than
it was. On the next page of his testi-
mony he defended the Ordnance Depart
ment for having taken months to perfect
rife, On the ground that perfect
weapons were ready as fast as troops
were ready to receive them.
TWAS of no use to call up soldiers faster,
because the weapons were not ready
and then it was of no use to worry about
the time lost in refusing to adopt the
British Enfield rifle, because soldiers
were not being called up faster than they
could be armed!
For long time after America entered
the war Mr.. Baker was unable to
imagine an army abroad
Testifying before the Senate Commit
tee on Military Affairs on January 28, he
said that as late as July, 1917 flour
months after the declaration of war;, .sit
was the confident expectation of every
body in this country that the sending of
troops in lar2A numbers to France was