The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1919-09-18
GREAT LESSON Of
WAR OVERLOOKED
CHIEF FAULT IN THE GENERAL
STAFF ARMY BILL POINTED
OUT BY THE EXPERTS.
BUREAU HEADS ARE SHIFTING
Army Officers Are Admittedly Not
Good at Business, Yet Would Be
Called On to Handle Big Industrial
and Financial Affairs.
BY EDWARD 3. CLARK.

| BY EDWARD B. CLARK.
| Washington.-Th general staff has
sent to congress bill for the reor-
| ganization of the regular army. AS Il
matter of fact this bill outlines for the
United States such future military
| policy as the authorities of the war
department would like to see enacted
into law.
| There are many reasons today why
a bill for the reorganization of the reg
ular army should be of vitality greater
interest to the people of the United
| States than ever before. The country
is divided into various camps of opin-
ion on the subject of the army of the
| future. The army has its viewpoint;
labor has its viewpoint; the man who
| believes in sane preparedness has his
viewpoint; the pacifist has his view
point. and the so-called antimlltarlsts
have their viewpoint. The army bill
as finally adopted will have a marked
influence in the next presidential
campaign for the good or evil of this
candidate or that candidate.
1t is not proper for one who has had
comparatively little military service
and is far from being an expert along
any military lines 10 attempt to pass
| Judgment on technical matters as they
appear in this proposed legislation,
hut there has been one lesson drawn
from this great war, and which it has
been supposed everybody had learned
that seems on the face of things, it
is said, TO have been ignored by the
army authorities who drew this legis-
lation and sent 1t TO congress.
One Great Lesson Ignored.
| If there was one thing which this
war taught more sharply and specif
ically than it taught anything else 1t
was that army officers with their
| training are not necessarily good bust
ness men. An American army officer
as the records of the regulars will
show from the time that the records
| began, are good fighters, but that they
! have business heads of the leaders of
great corporations no one need de-
ceive themselves IN believing for n
! moment. The officers themselves say
they are not good at business" 1t is
| proposed in the bill now before CON
! gress that the chiefs or heads of all
bureaus, and this means technical bu-
reaus as wei. 40 others, shall be line
otiicers-cavalrymen, artillerymen, in
fantrymen. etc. without any fixed time
to remain in office and consequently
subject TO removal at any time.
Now. what does this mean? 1t means
that the duties of the Judge advocate
generals department, the finance de-
partment the motor transport corps.
the ordnance department, the chem
ical warfare service, the duties of the
signal corps, the tank corps and the
quartermaster corps are to be per
formed by detail from the active fight
ing service, and that the men so de-
tailed are TO hold their positions per
haps just loo enough to become eff
cient, and then possibly are to go back
To the work from which they were
called.
Heretofore in the service the only
fixed departments. SO far as their per.
sonnet was concerned, were those of
surgery and medicine and the engi-
neer corps. 1t Is held by army Off
GERS and civilians who have studied
the lessons of the war that there are
other departments of the army which
require a personnel which shall be
fixed In its tenure of office.
Domestic Problem Most Pressing.
A shadow came over the League Of
Nations and the peace pact stu
alton in the United States senate
on the day that President Wilson
wrote his answer and appeal to
the railroad shopmen Interest In the
League of Nations had been at the high
water mark for weeks Suddenly the
shadow passed over IT and, temporarily
at least, eclipsed ii, for every official in
Washington realized serious domes-
tic situation had arisen which demand
ed immediate attention and, If posi-
ble remedy.
The views concerning the matter of
increased wages for the multitude Of
Americans who today are serving the
government, Indirectly at lenst, be-
cause Uncle Sam has taken hold Of
certain hitherto prlvately-run corpora
tons, are various but no one Is to be
found who does not admit that the
wage must be equal TO the demands
of living comfortably and well. as an
| American citizen should live. II is
recognized, however, I'm Washington
that II does not make any difference
20 man. so far as his power to save
Is concerned, II he Is getting $40 per
day and Is spending 80, or Is getting
So per day and IL spending 80, pro-
yided, OF course, that the two ex-
pendltures bring exactly the same re-
turn.
Advancing wages and advancing high
costs of living have been called a
vicious circle. The desire OF the legls-
lators Is, of course, TO clip the wings
of soaring prices and yet keep wages
where year by year the wage-earner
can save little more money. II is
said by some legislators In Washing.
ton today that the sellers Of necessl-
Balancing Trade.
Where one country exports exten.