New-York tribune., 1918-01-28
More Bakerisrn

Surgeon General Gorgas's testimony
before the Senate Military Affairs Com
lnittee is another shock to confidence in the
present administration of the War Depart
ment. 1t offers sorry comfort to those
who would like to share Secretary Bakers
optimism and approve his all's-well-with-
e-War-Department attitude. Mr. Baker
has gone to the country with the PROPOSE
ton, not that things might have gone
worse in the business Of military prepara-
ton, but that they could hardly have gone
any better. Such proposition imposes a
strain on credulity. 1t promotes skepti-
cism. 1t savors of extravagant self-praise.
And when the light is let in on the real
situation there comes revulson of sen
timent which produces distrust of depart
mental and bureau of publicity outglvings,
focuses attention on mistakes and short
comings and inclines the public to with
hold credit even for that part of the de-
partments work which has been we'll done.
General Gorgas's testimony shows clear
ly that the War Department took chances
in opening the cantonments before sufii-
cient hospital accommodations had been
provided, as well as in crowding them
dangerously after they were opened. The
head of the medical department wanted to
have the hospitals built and fitted out first
Our unfortunate experience in the Span
;sh war justified that demand. Our ex-
perience so far in this war has also JUS
titled it. But the War Department, for
reasons of its own, rules that hospitals
and hospital accommodate tions must wait
As result, when camp diseases broke out
the hospital service was inadequate. AS
General Gorgas frankly said, "Some very
important things, like water and steam
heat and sewage, had not been put in."
And most of the hospital orderlies availa-
bic were untrained-"only country boys"
as the surgeon general described them. In
one of the letters read in the Senate last
Thursday by Mr.. Chamberlain it was
stated that an orderly of this sort tried
to give a very sick soldier water to drink
by pouring it through funnel made out
of a newspaper.
The surgeon general expressed the
opinion that Mr.. Bakers decision to rush
camp construction and delay work on hos
Oitals was due to what the Secretary con-
sidered military exigency. This may be
granted. But the public has had to take
the military exigency on faith. Mr.. Baker
has given the public so far no reasons
which excuse his disapproval of the sur
geon generals recommendations. If he
was willing to take chance on assembling
the troops in cantonments before hospitals
were constructed to care for the sick, then
he ought to have explained that he was
choosing the lesser Of two evils. 1t may
have been wiser in his opinion to try to
assemble first contingents and deliver
them in France without waiting for hos
pital accommodations than it was to sub
nit to the delay which hospital construc-
ton would have occasioned. Yet the fact
remains that the first contingents have
gone and the cantonments here are now
titled with troops not ready to 60 who
still suffer from reversal of the order Of
procedure suggested by General Gorgas.
Why are hospital accommodations at
the camps still so far below proper re-
Guirements? The Secretary will probably
say that the War Department could not do
everything it was expected to do. The
same answer might be made with respect
to deficiencies in heavy guns, field guns,
machine guns, rifles, clothes, shoes and
other war material On the testimony
which the Senate Committee on Mil;tarv
Affairs has adduced from the heads of
var Department bureaus, such admissions
have to be made all along the line. But
ii they are made. what becomes of the
compacent alls-well-with-t the War De-
partment theory?
When on the witness stand the Secre-
tary of War undertook to treasure" the
country. He committed himself to the
proposition that there 'is substantial
army already in France" and that "its
initial rush needs have been satisfied" AS
very one now knows, those needs were
atisf;ed only by the most extensive bor-
rowlngs from the French-in heavy and
!lght artillery, in machine guns, bombs.
ajrplanes, gasolene and labor behind the
lines. Clothes and blankets had to be bought
abroad. Gas masks were borrowed from
the British. Instead of conceding the full
extent of our dependence on our allies for
war material Mr.. Baker CLOSED it over.
And to cap the climax of his suppression of
which the public ought to
now about and which it is gradually dis
-overing, he said in answer to the oues-
ion whether or not sAe was satisfied with