Weekly journal-miner., 1918-01-30
Secretary of War De- nies Charges of Inef- ficiency and Details Great Progress Made In Preparing for War.
By Associated Press.

WASHINGTON, D. C., Jan. 2S.- Secretary Baker today replied tC Senator Chamberlain charges of in efficiency in the war department at ; public hearing before the senate mill tary committee. The secretary be. gan making a verbal statement with out manuscript.
 MT. Baker said his statement was not exactly supplementary to his re- cent one on the committee, but com prehensive statement on all army acti- vities in the war, especially replying to the charge that the war depart ment had fallen down"
 At the outset the secretary said he thought much criticism came from impatience of the American people ito do this great thing greatly
 He conceded freely that in so great an enterprise it was impossible that there should not be delays and short cornings." The confidence of the country, however, he said, was neces- sary to the tremendous effort
 The mistakes cited in Senator Chamberlain's speech, -ro'f-y Baker declared, gave disproportion- ate aspect Without intent. he said, the effect of the senator's speech was to give the country the impression that the deficiencies "were character istic rather than occasional
 He said he was not there to de- fend individuals or deny delays and false starts.
 But I think can say in confi- dence that in them we have sought the remedy
 That there are more than million men under arms in this country was stated by Secretary Baker in refer ring to the cases of alleged neglect ot the dead in camp cited by Senator Chamberlain.
 The American Springfield rifle, Secretary Baker said, was admittedly the fest military rifle developed by any country when this decision was reached. There were in stock about 6OO.O00 of them.
 It was not then known, Secretary Baker contended, whether the Amerl- can troops would fight beside the British or the French. The British used a rim cartridge rifle of one cali Ire and the French Q rim cartridge ot another calibre The British govern ment had been prepared to rearm the entire British army with the Enfield when the war broke out m l9l4 The excellence O fthe American wea- pon was so well known that the Brit ish decided to remodel their guns, but the suddenness of the war pre- vented them making the change.
 Regarding Senator Chamberlain's statement that rifles originally sent to camp were a motley collection, Secretary Baker said he did not ob- ;ect to the term, but the facts were that i've had about 100000 Spring field rifles and something over lOO,- GOO Krags.
 Turning to the machine gun ques- ton. Mir. Baker said that up to last April the Lewis gun had not been satisfactorily tested with American ammunition. although widely used by England. The French, he said' never took the Lewis gun in any large numbers.
 Turning from the delays in the war. Secretary Baker spoke ot what he said was plan for the war. He said there was a plan, but 1t was so extraordinary that it had to be studied abroad.
 Secretary Baker described how great American railroad systems, one 600 miles long, ports, terminals, sup ply warehouses and other facilities on an enormous scale have been built tor the army in France.
 When Baker closed, it was apparent that he had created a profound nm nression. Chairman Chamberlain said so. There was no attempt at cross-examination by the committee. The gathering was amazed when he told of how the men of 3 national guards organizations and national army camps were ready to go when needed. Baker took the personal re- sponsibility for getting the men un-