El Nuevo mexicano., 1918-02-14
Must Play
Game According to
Rules, Including Baker
New York Tribune.)

iNcW 1OIh lllbuhC.J
Nothing calamitous had yet come to pass.
That was why many things were not more
swiftly done, and why q great deal Of
%ptecious time could be plausibly wasted. II
the Germans we're committing bnrbaritIes
upon our hearthstohes ihstehd Of torpedoing
our transports. we should not be taking the
lt'ino to cross examine the secretary OF war
on the conduct Of his job.
We shall pull it all out; we shall make up
tue time we have lost; we shall yet deliver
tne world, il that task be really reserved
for ue--all provided we do not lose control
Of our nerves.
The administration must not suffer criti-
cism to touch It's nerves. 1t is bound to-be
criticised, for that is the immemorial way
of the very democracy 1t believes in.
Every one engaged in the conduct of the
war must expect to be criticised and per-
haps to be sacrificed. That happens even
In Germany.
The test of men is how they take it. Some
take it weakly, in a personal manner and
invite u losing feud with the multitude. They
are destroyed. Strong men take 1t objective
~. in the impersonal manner.
The rules are imfnutable. 1t is like the
game of hearts. The way to win is willing
lly tc take what is honestly coming TO You.
one Who tiles to take less will lose in the
eld.
MORE OF MR.. BAKER.
The evidence obtained yesterday by the
senate committee on military affairs by its
cross examination of Mr.. Baker is of no
intrinsic value. 1t comes to nothing at all.
Nobody knows yet on what the secretary Of
war based that estimate of the number of
troops we could send to France this year
which Senator Hitchcock has called Willy
prcposterous. 1t is very doubtful If the sec
ietary himself knows. BE now admits the
probability that he spoke without p~articn-
lars. 1at
What he does know well is how his own
mind works. This was revealed in a siitgu-
lar statement here reproduced verbatum but
with a certain typographical arrangement,
as follows:
want to make a suggestion IL
may. The misfortune for
Me, II
may call it such, in
My first statement to the committee, lay
in the fact that
attempted to give opinions of the broad
general situation as
! saw 1t, when the information lay In de-
tails that ought to have been gotten
from the experts in direct charge or in
statistics giving specific survey. 1t was
a misfortune for
Me to do that.
think it better to give the committee
specific statements.
Several things from this appear.
Most men think c1ncreiely of objects.
When they say transports they thiaG O.
q ship with boz and stern, a funnel for
smoke and a dett to cslk on; when they
of transports and troops he thinks abstractly
of principles and situations.
That is why he can not be held to any
thing. He did n say. for example, that
a certain great nuIaber OF troops could be
sent to FRANCE ia 1918. He said that num-
her would be "aviilable,' and that tho I,os-
Ipect of transporil.E then was no unprJfl.
sing"
It is apparent, In short, that Mr., Baker
sees things intellectually, without edges. He
Is an intellectual in the job OF a doer. His
misfortune lies there, and not, as he said,
in the fact that at first he ATTEMPTED to
give opinions of the broad general situation"
Mr.. Baker is a very remarkable person,
with a mind OF unusual refinement. He
would make, perhaps, a great attorney gen
eral or secretary of state.
Also he is a great egotist, and continues
to believe that Investigations are personal.
People are much less interested in Mr..
Baker than he perhaps will ever know. They
are interested in the conduct Of the war
ICONCRETELY.