The Colorado statesman., 1919-07-05

trulmnR, Dut IL certainly WOulu huect
the size of the standing army.
The plan of the general staff for
army reorganization which was sub
mitted at the last session involved the
recruiting of regular army of n lit
tie more than half u million men. This
plan, although 1t received no attention
at the last session, forms In part the
basis Of present discussion. and out OF
1t eventually will be brought the new
organization scheme, whatever 1t may
be, Il scheme which If adopted may go
by the board as soon as the League of
Nations becomes a reality.
Fight over General Staff Plan.
1t would be untruthful to say that
the majority of representatives and
senators believes that even with
peace-among-all-natio pact the
strength of the regular army of the
United States should be diminished
close to the vanishing point. The Re
publicans, 1t Is said, intend to give the
country standing army of diminished
numbers. Whether or not they will
sanction universal military training Of
course yet remains to bo determined.
1t is useless to try to hide the fact
that there is n pretty row going on
among the ranking officials of the reg
ular army today. The general staff,
close corporation. The charge is that
the staffs intention is, if it can secure
congressional sanction for its general
plan, to make the general staff the all
mall of army administration. The
chiefs of army departments and bu-
reaus as they exist today are antag-
onistic, bitterly so, to many of the
plans which the general staff is trying
to put into effect with legislative sane
ton. Congress must determine tie
right in the matter.
Army officers who are opposed to the
staff plan say that If 1t is put into
effect it will mean the complete sub
ordination of the views of men who
know their business to the views of
men who only think they know their
business. 1t would be a tedious and
thankless job to go into the details of
the things which the general staff
seems to want to accomplish. Putting
it broadly, the staff critics say that 1t
wants to run the army; that it wants
to be chief of artillery, chief of in
fantry, chief of engineers, chief of
ordnance and chief of everything else.
unless it be the medical corps.
Officers May Criticize Freely.
Within the next few weeks, If the
purveyors of the news consider the
matter of Importance enough, the
country will learn that army officers
of high rank are not afraid to speak
their opinions when the shield of con-
gress is thrown about them. An army
officer giving his views before n COM
mittee of congress is protected In his
right to criticize the doings Of his su-
periors, although, of course, he Is ex-
pected to keep away from personalities
that are personalities only.
Discipline and a feeling Of loyalty
to the service have kept scores Of
ranking officers of the army quiet dar-
ing the past few months. An immense
amount of bitterness of feeling has
been engendered by the reorganiza-
ton plans of the general staff. The
staff will defend itself and officers Of
other bureaus will attack.
Women's Legion of Great War.
Washington is taking the initiative
in organizing the wives, mothers and
daughters of men who fought In the
great war. An association has been
completed in the District of Columbia.
1t is to be known as the American
Women's Legion of the Great War.
This is local organization. but the
belief here is that eventually the scope
of the work will be nation wide. In
fact, some of the friends of the move
ment believe the women of the coun-
try who have close relatives In the
war should undertake to form an or
ganization somewhat like that of the
American Legion recently formed in
ST. Louis, and which has for Its OBJ
ject the banding together in fellow
ship of the soldiers who fought against
Germany
1t is true that the American Legion
will admit to membership women who
did war work of a certain kind. 1t
does not contemplate, however, the ad-
mission to membership of women sim
ply because they were either the
wives, mothers, daughters or sisters
of active combatants.
The Washington organization offers
membership to the female next of
kin" to veterans of the war. The
wives, mothers and daughters of en-
listed men are just as welcome as are
the women relatives of officers. The
intention is to make the thing thor
oughly democratic. Representative
women have the organization in
charge, and for a time will conduct its
activities. 1t is likely that before
long officers of the organization will