The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1920-01-24
THEHASKINLETTER
DENOTED HEROES
BY FREDERIC ]. HASKIN.

WASHINGTON, d. c., Jan. 24.-There
is still war in the war department He
roes are no longer falling in battle, but
they are falling in rank, and many of
them seem to find their falls more
painful than the casualties of conflict
Many q man who took bullet in his
| leg with equaninity seems inclined to
howl like the traditional wolf when he
is hit in the dignity A man who has
his head taken off by German shell
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 it,
OF course this business of demoting
the men who fought their country's bat
ties is essentially a sad one. 1t should
not be treated facetiously The shrink
ing of brigadier- general into a major
is not at all humorous to the individual
who does the shrinking, especially since
his pay shrinks at the same time. But
we can not go on supporting 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 1100C officers who remain in
the service, nearly every one of whom
must be reduced. Nearly every one
may be depended upon to look upon
his reduction 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 szzle
with heat when he finds them. With
task so complicated and with the cir
cumStances under which officers are
assigned so different, it is impossible
to make the reductions equal and stimuli
taneOus, and so most officers are likely
to find cases that lead them to seeing
crimson. Thus it develops that there
is much unrest in the war department.
In t1.l,1
seas, for instance the officers of the
regular army who commanded troops
and who deported themselves with gal
lantry and credit There are many of
them who had the wartime rank of
major general, or Of brigadier- general
There are men who commanded divi-
sions, even army corps. They are back
In the states now, and their commands
have disappeared like snow in the
spring. The duties of those days of
war are gone for them forever. 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
consideration. which found itself sitting
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
look ed about them and found that there
were certain other officers Of high rank,
holding staff jobs or bureau Jobs, some
of them men who had not been over
seas at ALL but who were still enjoy
ing their wartime rank and the in
creased pay that appertains thereto.
Some of these officers accepted the sit
uation philosophically, as becomes one
who consecrates himself to career in
the army, but others conscentiouslN OBJ
jected, believed themselves outraged
1t is said of one such officer that he
tore the decorations from his heaving
chest without so much as stopping to
unclasp them. thereby doing much dam
age to the uniform.
The apparent injustice in this situa-
ton. however. was capable of being eX-
planned away. The assignment under
which an officer commanded troops no
longer existed when his organiza ton |
was disbanded There was no longer
any preteXt under which he might re-
tain his wartime rank. The same was |
not true of certain bureau and staff |
assignments The men in the purchase, |
storage and traffic division of the gen. |
eral staff for instance, had to clean |
mp the whole matter of dSposing 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. Mil |
itary 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 completed 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
to those who had STAYED at
home. Some of them were inclined to
The view that failure TO get overseas
service indicated lack OF ability. There
was "A tendency to cast aspersions on
he desk soldier of the army OF the Po-
omac. And here was the desk soldier
holding war rank after the fighting SOL
Her had been reduced
This man who stayed at home will
lrgue that II was over here that the
var was won. that here the army was
organized and trained. here the task
n production was mastered, here the
munitions were made, here the problem
II transporting materials and troops
we're mastered. II was a simple mat
.er. he holds. to fight troops with all