Rockingham post-dispatch. [volume] (Rockingham, N.C.) 1917-1965, 1919-09-18
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 q. CLARK.

ganization of the regular army. AS a
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 antimilitarists
have their viewpoint. The army bill
as finally adopted will have marked
influence in the next presidential
campaign for the good or evil Of this
candidate or that candidate.
AS service men view the bill, its
weaknesses or its strengths do not lie
50 much in the question Of what size
the army is to be, but rather in the
method of its formation and of its
government.
1t Is not proper for one who has had
comparatively little military service
and is far from being an expert along
any military lines to attempt to pass
judgment on technical matters as they
appear In this proposed legislation.
but there has been one lesson drawn
from this great war, and which 1t has
been supposed everybody had learned,
that seems on the face of things, 1t
is said, to have been ignored by the
army authorities who drew this legis-
lation and sent 1t to congress.
One Great Lesson Ignored.
II there was one thing which this
war taught more sharply and specif-
ically than 1t 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 a
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 well as others, shall be line
officers-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 long enough to become eff
cient, and then possibly are to go back
to the work flom 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.
What Happened Early In the War.
Presumably all Americans know
what happened In some of the sup
ply organizations in the army of the
United States shortly after the war
broke out. Men who had been trained
for line officer work were In charge
temporarily of supply departments.
Senators, representatives and army Of
ficers say they did their work well
enough while these departments were
called upon to supply only the needs
of our small standing army. All at
once the cavalrymen, artillerymen and
others who were holding these tenn
porary places were called upon to
make good in work which would tax
the qualities Of the greatest captains
of industry and finance in the United
States.
. The contention is that when men
are detailed for ordnance, signal corps,
air service or chemical warfare work
they should be men chosen for their
qualifications along the necessary lines
and should be kept in the service TO
which they show an aptitude. Me
here who seem to have learned til
lessons Of the recent war say that this
Is the only method to be employed Il
efficiency and preparedness are to be
assured. AS It has been put strongly
but in brief by one known as an au.
thority In army and war matters:
"The personnel of the supply and
technical corps should be permanent
with DroyIef0ns for emnI0vin4 AZ