The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1918-01-31
GREAT AMERICAN ARMY Will
Be SENT TO FRANCE, SAYS BAKER
Secretary of War Bares Military Secrets in
Statement Before Congressmen.-
To Charges Against Government

| NdSuluSIOu, Jan 20. IAiioA AS@A
will have an army of half million
men in France early this year, with a
million more trained and equipped
ready to follow as quickly as ships
can be provided to carry them and the
outlook for ships is not unpromising.
Secretary Baker gave this informa-
tion to the nation and to the world
today in a statement before the SEN
ate military committee barring much
that until now has been carefully
guarded with the army's military Sc
crets, in answering charges that the
government has broken down.
From early morning until late al
ternoon the secretary addressed the
committee and crowd including
many members Of both houses of con-
gress 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 a million and
half, answering 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 ques-
tions were asked and MIR. Baker from
time to time had assistants to the
unobserved staff of 13 or 20 or 20
young men, the most brilliant men
| in the French army-strategists, me-
chanical experts, experts in arms, ex-
perts in supplies, experts in indus
trv and manufactures, and they told
us not merely the formal and military
problems, but they brought over with
them men who were in from the be-
ginning, in their reorganizations OF
their industries; in their mobilization
of their industrial plants and we sat
down with them in little groups until
finally we collated and collected and
extracted all the information which
they could give us from their respect
i've countries. And every country
which has been brought in the war
has brought that sort, or sent us that
sort of staff of experts and it has
been necessary to compare notes and
with this as basis to form such an
idea as might be formed of what was
the thing for us to do over there.
Story Grew Old.
"But that was not enough. They
admitted that it was impossible to
draw that picture. They could de-
scribe to us and bring the specifica-
tions and drawings for piece of ar
tillery but they could not tell us why
the British theory of the use of ar
tillery was by the British preferred
| to that of the French. They could
not picture to us barrage of heavy
howitzers as compared to barrage
| of 75mm guns. They could not pic
ture to us the association of aircraft,
balloons and mobile aircraft with ar
tillery use. They could tell us about
it but even while they told us the
story grew old.
"The thing they told us from the
very beginning to the end was that
this war of all others was not static
thing; that our adversary was a
veritable and agile adversary; that
every day he revamped and changed
his weapons of attack and his meth
DDS of defense; that the stories they
were telling us were true when they
| left England and France, but an en-
tirely different thing was probably
taking place there now and they told
US of large supplies of one kind and
another which they had developed in
France and England and which, ev-
en- before they got them manufacture
ed in sufficient quantity to take them
from the industrial plants to the
front, were superseded by new ideas
and had to be thrown into the scrap
heap.
''They said to us this is moving
picture, it is something that nobody
can paint and give us an idea of it..
1t is not static thing.
''Therefore, it became necessary
for us to have ENJOYS there in instant
and immediate communication and
we sent over General Pershing and
we sent with him not merely a di-
vision of troops-to that | shall refer
! in a moment-but we sent with him
perhaps | can safely say the major
part of the trained, expert personnel
of the army. You know the size OF
the official corps of the regular ar
nv in this country when the war
l. i c--1