New-York tribune., 1919-12-01
Secretary i'm Annual Report
Urges Reorganization of
Military Establishment
and W ar Department
Plans Training Up to 10
Says Force Should Be Big
Enough for Emergencies
and Teach Citizenship

WASHINGTON, Nov. 3O-War cx-
perience plainly shows the necessity
for fundamental reorganization Of the
army and Of the War Department it.
self, Secretary Baker declared to-day
IN his annual report. He recommended
that the emergency organization, re.
duced to peace time size, be made per
manent. and approved the General
staff bill for regular establishment,
adequate in size to be the nucleus OF
any great military mobilization the
country may be called upon to make,
and backed up by system Of universal
training
'ln such policy" Mr. Baker said
the accent is upon the citizen and not
the soldier, the officers becoming per-
manent corps of experts and the men &
body temporarily devoting a portion OF
their time to military training in or
der that they may enter civil life with
sense Of national service and with
superior equipment for success"
Kind, Not Size, He Says
at is difficult to believe" he said
denying any danger of militarism
that an army could be formed Of
Americans, educated in our common
schools, raised in the free and demo
cratic atmosphere of our institutions
which would still be hostile to those in
stitutions and liberties. The world war
has shown quite clearly that armies re-
feet the spirit of the people from
whom they come, rather than create a
spirit of their own, so that the size of
the army is not SO important from the
point of view now under consideration
as the kind of an army"
The selective service law was ac-
cepted as a fair means Of assigning
men to military service in time of war,
Mr.. Baker said, but compulsory service
stitute for the volunteer principle,
properly applied" Raising a standing
army by financial inducement is too
costly to contemplate, he added, leav-
ing only the method Of "making en-
lstment in the army an educational
opportunity" to furnish the troops.
The recommendation for an increased
standing army he declared, should not
be taken to indicate a disinclination
toward the prospect of disarmament.
Must Have Efficient Force
"Those who know the spirit of the
Ameriman Army" the Secretary said,
"will not ascribe to it any provocative
temper. There is glory left in the ca
reer and the sacrifice of the soldier, but
the mild and spectacular contests of
an earlier age have become a stern and
cruel business, and, while there is
cheerful willingness to encounter the
privations and make the sacrifices
which war demands, the men of the
American Army are abreast with en-
lightened men everywhere in the hope
that more humane sand rational proc
esses of adjustment will supersede the
waste and loss of armed conflict. They
are however, of the belief that so long
as it is nece ssary for us to maintain an
army at all we are not justified in hav
ing an inefficient army, and their rec
concentrations are to be viewed as set
ting them apart as men who, by reason
Of their experience, are qualified to
speak upon the provision which should
be made for the common good and the
common protection should the test of
war become unavoidable"
The plan recommended, Mr.. Baker
said looks to the establishment of sys-
TENS of schools teaching the formal
branches of education and adding to
them the skilled trades, $50 that at the
end of term of enlistment the young
man entering in his nineteenth year
cal set-up which the open, athletic life
of the army gives, and with the cduca-
tion and training which will make him
more valuable in civil pursuits than he
could otherwise have been" Social and
recreatlonal opportunities also must be
supplied, he said, so that the graduate
from the army will bring back with
him the social virtues which result
from education of mind and hand ac-
qured in an environment made stimu
lating by the presence of high pur-
pose and sense of service and generous
association with his fellows"
Means New Army
"The military policy recommended by
the War Department, therefore, in
wolves a new army created with new
spirit, having wide civic usefulness,
and Of such size and organization as to
need the report said.
Mr.. Baker said the operations in
France would be dealt with in the
special report being prepared by Cen
eral Pershing. Not even the Allied
War Council, he said, had realized the
effect upon Germany of the accelerated
movement of troops and supplies from
the United States. and all plans had
been prepared for vigorous campaign
in the spring of 1919
HAD not the great troop movement
of the summer of 1918 been c,rried d
out" he said, "the practically con-
tinus battle on the Western front from
March to November would not have
~been possible. The saving to the
NNrld in thus shortening the war is
indalculablc alike in life and treasure"
The text of the initial order to Gen
eral Pershing, which is quoted shows
he was instructed to keep the Ameri-
can army "a separate and distinct com
ponent of the combined forces, the
identity of which must be preserved -
The method of cooperation with the
Allies was left to his discretion, and,
Mr.. Baker added. that the authority
thus conferred was never in any par
tfcular modified or diminished.'
Problem Was Difficult
There were elements in the problem
which might we'll have caused grave
/ apprehension" the report said. "The