The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-01-28
For First Time Baker Diyulges
Military Secret.
Appeals for Support of Public
Opinion in Reply.
ANSWER CHAMBERLAIN ATTACK
Defects characteristic Rather
Than OCCASIONAL Not True.
u. s. Will Have Million and
Half for France in 1918.

n,
thousand troops in France early this
year-and a million and half ready
to go-ful1y equipped and with the
artillery to support them This was
the answer Secretary Baker today
gave the senate military committee to
the charge of inefficiency and break
down in the military establishment.
This great fight force, probably lit
tie expected by the German general
staff itself. will be composed of the
men now with General Pershing, the
thirty-two divisions of troops now in
cantonments and camps in the United
States and ready to move, Secretary
Baker said, and by the next increments
to be drawn and trained this spring
under the selective service law.
Elemental equipment of the men
from the United States is assured and
the artillery necessary to their support
will come from the British and French
governments, which have such an eX-
cess of ordinance that they have on
their own initiative offered to supply
the guns and save ships which would
be used for their transport.
Mr.. Baker described t., the commit
tee how the American army has built
great lines of railroads, one of them
500 miles long, up to its headquarters
| in France; how ports and terminals
have been constructed to handle the
great quantities of supplies and equip
ment which the army will need on Il:
LIZ ilIe- All lnlS ndS DeeH QOi1c
by Americans and since General
Pershing's troops landed last June.
Discusses War Plans.
Leaning forward and addressing the
senators earnestly, the secretary of
| war told a story the German general
staff probably would have given much
to know long before. He approached
the subject by departing from the
answer to criticisms and referring to-
4 q L, r1lr fx.,- &f,z
think S. 1 understand Senator
Chamberlain felt there was, not any
plan.'' said Secretary Baker. Il don't
know how the committee. and the
country felt about it but 1 want to
say there is a plan. It's the only pos
sible plan under the circumstances.
1t was not for to decide the
theater of war. That theater was in
France. 1t was not for US to decide
the line of communication. 1t was
5000 miles away, with one end in
tested with submarines. 1t was not
for US to decide whether maneuvers
in the open should be attempted. Men
already were in the trenches in a
death grapple.
Problem-Get at Enemy.
.Our problem was and is to get
over and get at the enemy. 1t was
, not for us to map out, at the war col
Iege an ideal plan of campaign-a
theoretical plan. Our problem was to
get into cooperation with Great Brit
ain and France and our other friends
in the most immediate and most eff
cient way"
That problem could not be decided
here 1t can't be described in words.
1t is so extraordinary and so vast that
it must be seen and studied on the
ground before it can be comprehended
at ALL General Pershing now reports
daily in cablegrams that run into hun
S.
he added.
I'VE are using the eyes there to
keep up to what they want US to do:
| The startling progress of the war IN
| the development of munitions will be
shown, he said, by the fact that weap-
ons devised by American experts dur
| ing the last few months have been
/ discarded
Answers t. RS Criticisms
Theh taking up, a copy of the Met
ropolitan Ma agazines from last August,
| Mr.. Baker read a protest in its edi-
| torial columns against the supposed
| policy of the government to make its
! contribution to the war financial and
/ industrial; ITO hold off until the al
lies win the war for u.s.
i A question brought out that Colo
mel Roosevelt was then associate edi-
tor of the magazine, which urged that
every nerve be strained to get 1900
, to 1000 men to France in 1917.
! 81 am disclosing no secret" Secre--
/ tary Baker said, pausing, when 1 say
that we exceeded that maximum in
| 1917"
f, Senator Chamberlain asked if the
maximum had not been exceeded by
August, 1917.
Not the maximum. replied Secre-
tary Baker 1.-The minimum was ex-
! ceedcd.''
I'VE will have 100000, men in
France early in 1913" he added, "and
/ we will have a million and a half more
ready to ship to France during 1919
I Didn't Have Manuscript.
! Without prepared manuscript and in
! a frank conversational manner the
| secretary of war told the senators he
came to defend no mistakes or short
coming, but to insist most emphatical-
ly that deficiencies where disclosed
had promptly been modified, that they
were the exception rather than the
/ rule and that the very magnitude of
Americas undertaking made errors of
| judgment and mistakes likely
| incidentally in defending the war
! machinery against the charge of in
efficiency and lack of initiative to pre-
pare for war when war was assured,
the secretary of war disclosed some
/ facts. hitherto held confidential
/ Soldiers Have Rifles
Every American soldier who can use
] a rifle. Secretary Baker told the sena-
! tors, already has been provided with
one and the rate of manufacture as
sures steady supply as troops become
| ready to use them
Lewis machine guns he said, althe
! Continued on Page Two)