Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1918-01-31

conducting war against its adversary. but
we were coming into a war which had
been going on for two and half years, in
which the greatest military experts. all
the inventive genius, all Of the industrial
capacity Of these great countries in the
world had for two and one-half years been
solving the problem Of what kind Of war
1t was to be and where 1t was to be waged.
ut was not thing for us to decide
where our theatre of war should be- The
theatre Of war was France. 1t was not
for us to decide our line Of communica-
tons. Our line of communications was
across three thousand miles Of ocean, one
end Of 1t infested with submarines. It was
not for us to decide whether we would
have the manouvering Of large bodies Of
troops in the open. There lay the antagon-
lists on opposite sides Of No Mans Land in
the trenches at a death grapple with one
| another. Our antagonist was on the other
side Of that line, and our problem was
and is to get over there and get him.
AN EXTRAORDINARY SITUATION.
1T was not the problem Of doing 1t
our way and letting everybody else
take care of himself. In the first
place, we were going to fight in France.
| not on our own soil, and not on our
! adversary's soil. and therefore at the
very beginning 1t was obvious that the
thing we had to do was not to map out
an ideal plan Of campaign. not to have
the war college with its speculative
studies Of Napoleon and everybody else.
map out the theoretically best way to
get at some other country. but 1t was
the problem Of studying the then ex-
listing situation and bringing the finan-
cial. the industrial and the military
strength Of the United States into CO.
| operation with that Of Great Britain
and France in the most immediate and
effective way. That problem could not
be decided here. I fancy in this audi
ence there are men who have been in
the trenches. The altogether unprece-
denied character of that problem, is the
thing which every returning visitor
tells us cannot be described in words.
! cannot be put down in reports; 1t Is q
| thing SO different from anything else
! that ever went on in the world. SO vast
| in its desolation. 80 extraordinary in
it's uniqueness that 1t must be seen and
studied on the ground in order to be
comprehended at all.
ut Is easily imagined that we might
| have perfected an army over here and
| carried 1t across the ocean and found
1t wholly unadapted to its task. and
1t might we'll have been that the army
| that we sent over was just one thing
that they did not need. and that some
other thing which we might have sup
J piled would have been the thing essen
tial to their success.
A QUESTION OF STUDY.
$50 that from the very beginning 1t was
not q question Of abstract speculation
here, but q question of study there to find
out where our shoulder to the wheel
could be put.
"They realized that, and. SO Great
Britain sent over to US Mr.. Balfour
and General Bridges and staff Of ex-
perts. They came over here and you
saw Mr.. Balfour in the House Of Con-
gress and at the White House and In
public meetings at one place and another
but the group of experts whom they
brought over with them you did not SEE
much of, and yet they distributed them
selves through the war department and
their ordnance experts sat down with
General Croker. their supply experts with
| General Sharpe and his assistants. theil
strategists sat down with the army wal
college and all over this city there were
these confidential groups exchanging in
formation, telling how the thing was over
there, what we could do. what they ad'
vised US to do; what experience they had
had in developing this. that and the Other
implement or supply. how certain plant
which one might naturally have evolved
out of the past experience Of the world
had been tried there and found not te
work at all.
AND THEN CAME JOFFRE.
"They were exchanging information
giving US all that they thought was help
full. And then came Joffrs. with hi
wonderful reputation and his great and
charming personality. and he made
great figure here and we welcomed him
It was tremendous inspiration to SCI
the hero Of the Marine: but. with hin
came this unobserved stan Of Ii or q
or Is young men, the most brilliant mer
In the French army, strategists. mechani'
cal experts. experts in arms. experts II
supplies. experts in industry and manu-
facture. and they told us not merely thu
formal ana military problems, but the,
brought over with them men who were ir
from the beginning, In their reorganixa
lions OF their industries in their mobili
xation OF their Industrial plants. and w
sat down with them in little groups unit
finally we collated. and collected and OK
tracted all the information which they
could give US from their respective coun
tries. And every country which has beer
, brought In the war, has brought US thai
sort. or sent US that sort of stan Of
experts. and 1t has been necessary to com
, pare notes. ana with this a. basis. Il
form such an idea as might be formed o.
what was the thing for US to do ovsl
there.
COULDN'T VISUALIZE BARRAoN.
But that was not enough. They ad
: mitted that It was impossible to draw
: that picture. They could describe to vi
and bring the specifications and drawingi
for piece Of artillery, but they could