Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-11-16

an army of the size fixed by Congress
Tor the purposes determined by the
policy. This division has nothing
whatever to do in regard to the pro-
for the army. 1t only fixes kinds and
quantities. and 1t is. in fact. only a
| branch of the operating division In
the stan. The head of this operat-
ing division IL a military officer, and
it is proposed that he should be a
of operations.
If now, parallel to this operations
divisions. there be created division
Of army supply. with q deputy chief
to the chief Of STAFF. there is afforded
coordination between the operating
and the supply divisions. both COM
ing directly under the chief of stan.
This is sound organization. But this
Is not Mr.. Crowelrs plan. He would
pendent of the chief OF STAFF. The
! spokesman of the general staff would
have nothing whatever to do with the
procurement of supplies or with their
delivery. but instead there would be
dual system, under which the army
other-of army operations and sup
ply. The result would certainly
| breed confusion and the inevitable
shifting of responsibility.
For these and other more complex
reasons the progressive element Of
! the Army favors the creation OF
division OF supply headed by deputy
chief of staff and charged with super
| vision of the purchase. storage and
distribution of Army supply and
equipment. They argue that through
he Secretary Of War this division
would be in liaison with the secretary
Of national defense and so with the
production of the country They are
urging earnestly that there is no need
of going outside of the Army to md
competent business men; and cite with
| some little pride that civilians are
not offering the big positions to Army
| men who are unable TO make good IN
| active life But they go farther and
assert that the civilian who has not
| had special training in military mat
tiers cannot meet the necessities Oh
Army procurement in the same way
that men who have lived the Army
| life can sense the things that the
! Army must have. For instance. there
were in the United States in 1918 any
! number of men of business capacity
| on parity with that of Maj. Gen. Goe-
| halls, but not one of them could have
| filled his place as director of 2. S. and
| T. as he did. because his Army expe-
rience had given him the sense OF
what an Army must have and he knew
| the methods of the Army and how to
l uidhC w. A'S 80
them.
Business men familiar with the
business methods of the big organiza-
tons of this and other countries op-
pose the general proposition to re-
store Army purchasing to the bureaus
they say, the invariable custom. based
upon sound principles, to concentrate
all the purchasing under one man and
to hold him responsible for the en-
tire system of corporate purchasing
He Of course must act through many
dependent of his supervision. and his
directors hold him strictly RESPONSE
bit for every purchase that is made
for the corporation. The conclusion
seems to be not without some degree
Of support in the fact that before the
war the English were relying upon
a civilian purchasing agency for the
army. 1t was not identical with the
plan proposed by Mr.. Crowell: but it
was scrapped when that nation got
into the war.
Army officers point out that in ad-
dition to the work done here by of
ficers like Goethals. r. E. Wood. Burr
Hines and many others, that done by
Harbord, - ley and many others
on the oil. side shows that Army
officers may become very good bust
ness men.
X X
Both military committees of Con-
gress have been using every effort
to obtain the
The Forthcoming views Of soldiers
Army Measure. that vii, throw -
light on the vexed
question OF adopting a policy and at
the same time efrecting such a re-
organisation Of the War Department