The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1920-04-25

In accordance with my habitual
practice I applied the system of plac
ing responsibility upon my carefully
selected heads of departments, giving
them commensurate authority, and
holding them to account for results.
Because the task was such a great
one. this the only possible way in
which the operations of the force could
have been successful conducted. ]
say. successfully conducted, because in
a business" of this kind good
enough" and tomorrow may mean
disaster; that it, it is a case of keep
ing both information and operations up
to the minute. If the personnel and
equipment OF the staff are not COM
pletely capable of this, it is more than
q partial failure, and the result is an
ever present danger. There were men
"a this great war who went to pieces
simply because they tried to do every
thing themselves.
This administrative vice of at
tempting to control every detail even
Insignificant ones, to which military
men seem particularly addicted, 1t had
always been my policy to avoid. Bust
ness at Grosvenor Gardens developed
to such an extent that about 1000
z our office or sent from it: and of
these so per cent were in code. Obvi-
ously ii was impossible for the Force
Commander to keep constantly at his
finger ends all these details, were Sc
lected because they were officers who
could he depended upon to handle
these matters and make divisions indie
pendently; they were all strong men,
and il is to their combined efforts that
the success of our operations was
due.
Subordinates Were Trusted.
You would have to search long
time among the navies of the world
before you could find an ADLER convoy
officer than Captain Byron A. Long,
an ADLER naval constructor than L. B.
Mcbride, an ADLER man to have charge
of the finances of our naval forces, the
purchase of supplies and all kinds of
material than Captain Is. c. Eugene
C. Tobey, ADLER aviation officers than
Captain II. 1. Cone and Lieutenant
Commander w. A. Edwards ADLER
chief of operations than Captain r.
H. Leigh. o., an ADLER intelligence Of
ficer than Commander j. V. Babcock
These men, and others of the four
teen departmental heads, acted as a
kind of cabinet Many of them han
died matters which though wholly
essential to the success of the forces
were quite outside of my personal
knowledge or experience, and conse-
quently they had to be men in whose
ability to guide me in such matters ]
could place complete confidence. AS
an example of this l may cite one OF
the duties of Captain Tobey. Nearly
all of the very considerable financial
transactions he was entrusted with
al e. lNNrA he l.aI ONLY,
rs show me the right place on the nu-
merous documents, and / signed my
name in absolute confidence that the
interests, of the government were Sc
cure Communications.
All cables, reports. and other COM
munications were referred each day to
the department which they concerned
The head of each department studied
them. attended TO the great majority
on his own responsibility, and select
ed the few that needed more careful
attention. A meeting of the Chief OF
Staff and all department heads was
held each day, at which these few Sc
lected matters were discussed in coun-
ell and decisions made. The final re-
suits of these deliberations were the
only matters that were referred to me-
This system of subdividing response
biIity and authority not only promoted
efficiency but ii left the Force Com
mander time TO attend to vitality i'm
portant questions of general policy, 10
keep in personal touch with the high
command of the allies navies, to attend
the Allied naval councils. and i'm gen.
eral, 10 keep his finger constantly on
the pulse OF the whole war situation
Officers of our own and other navies
who Were always coming in from the
outlying stations and who could imfne-
diately be placed in touch with the one
man who could answer all their ques-
tons and give immediate decisions
testified 20 the efficient condition il
which American headquarters wa:
maintained.
One of our departments was Il
novel. and performed such valuable
service, that / must describe it in som'
detail. We took over into our Lon
don organization an idea that is ad
vantageously used in many American
Industrial esta bills hments' and had !
Planning Section. the first, l think