The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-01-15
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN, Director.
washington, D. G.
DENOTED HEROES.
Washington, D. c.

war in the war department, Heroes
are no longer falling IN battle, but
they are falling in rank. and many of
them seem to find their falls more
painful that the casualties of conflict.
Many man who took bullet in his
leg with equanimity seems inclined to
howl like the traditional wolf when
he is hit in the dignity. A man who
has his head taken off by a German
probably suffers nothing, but many
whose heads are taken off by the sec
rotary of war suffer acutely and tell
all of their friends about 1t.
OF course this business of demoting
the men who fought their country,s
battles is essentially a sad one. 1t
should not be treated facetiously. The
shrinking of a brigadier general into
major is not at all humorous to the
individual who does the shrinking,
especially since his pay shrinks at the
same time. But we cannot go on sup
porting a large corps of generals in
time of peace. This demotion is
bound to take place.
Especially delicate is the issue of
rank among the seventeen thousand
officers who remain in the service,
nearly every one of whom must be re-
duced. Nearly every one may be de-
pended upon to look upon his reduc-
ton as an injustice, to look about for
other individuals who have suffered
less in getting back to pre-war status
than has he and to sizzle with heat
when he finds them. With task so
complicated and with the circum-
stances under which officers are as
signed so different Il is impossible to
make the reductions equal and stimuli
taneous, and so most officers are like
~ to find cases that lead them to see
ing crimson. Thus it develops that
there is much unrest in the war de-
partment.
There are the men who were over
seas, for instance, the officers Of the
regular army who commanded troops
and who deported themselves with
gallantry and credit. There are many
of them who had the wartime rank
OF major general, or of bI.gadier gem
eral. There are men who commanded
divisions. even army corps. They are
back in the states now, and their COM
mands have disappeared like snow in
the spring. The duties Of those days
They are back to the humdrum days
of 1914 with their assignments of post
duty, staff duty, and attendance at
service schools.
There is one considerable group of
these men who commanded troops in
France and who were inclined to re-
gard themselves as entitled to special
considera ton, which found itself sit
ting high and dry as long ago as last
fall. The brigadier generals of this
group were reduced to majors. and
| the major generals to colonies. and
were ordered to report to the Army
War college.
Arriving in Washington, these men
looked about them and found that
| there were certain other officers of
] high rank, holding staff Jobs or bu-
reau jobs, some of them men who had
not been overseas at all, but who were
still enjoying their wartime rank and
| the increased pay that appertains
| thereto. Some of these officers ac-
| cepted the situation philosophically,
| as becomes one who eonsecrates him
| SELF to a career in the army. but 9TH
ers conscientiously objected, believed
themselves outraged. 1t is said of one
such officer that he tore the decora-
| tions from his heaving chest without
so much as stopping to unclasp them,
thereby doing much damage to the
uniform.
The apparent injustice in this situa-
ton. however, was capable of being
explained away. The assignment I'M
der which an officer commanded
| troops no longer existed when his Or
ganization was disbanded There was
no longer any pretext under which he
might retain his wartime rank. The
same was not true of certain bureau
and staff assignments. The men in
the purchase. storage { nd traffic divi-
| sion of the general staff. for instance.
| had to clean up the whole matter of
disposing of war materials and settling
war bills. = The construction division
had scores of great enterprises under
way and the problem OF what to do
with them. Military intelligence was
still busy with mulling over world
/ problems, such as the menace of the
| reds, and was far from the pre-war
status. There were officers in these
services whose tasks were not com
pleted as were those of the men who
had commanded troops in the field.
| The men who had been overseas,
who had done the fighting, were not
always charitable to those who had
| stayed at home. Some of them were
1 inclined to the view that failure to
get overseas service indicated lack OF
ability. There was a tendency to cast
aspersions on the desk soldier of the
| the desk soldier holding war rank
after the fighting soldier had been re-
! duced.
This man who stayed at home will
argue that it was over here that the
war was won, that here the army was
| organized and trained, here the task
| of production was mastered. here the
munitions were made. here the prob
/ lem Of transporting materials and
| troops were mastered. It was
| simple matter he holds, to fight troops
| with all these details provided. He
will cite many examples of men who
| failed over here being sent to Europe
| that their tasks might be placed in
| competent hands. There was one case
| of the organization of the differeRt
! branches of one of the complicated
services. There were two majors each
of whom was chief of one of these
| branches. One of them had genius
for organization. The other had not.
| Observation-Disclosures