The New York herald., 1921-10-30
LESSONS OF WAR
IN NEW DEFENCE
Plan Provides First for an Eff.
ficient Staff Trained in
Peace Time.
NO CENTRALIZED CAMPS
Foundation Work on Great
National Scheme Of Mobili-
zStion Already Done.

WASHINGTON. Oct. 2s.--Two lessons
Of the world war. learned at heavy cost.
arc sharply emphasized In q War De-
partment bulletin soon to be issued CIV
ing tho first Official picture Of tho new
national defence structure projected in
the reorganized army Of the United
States.
Ono lesson comes direct from the
battlefields Of france. It Is that eff
cient staff work is vital to modern mill
tary operations. ana with Z goes the
corrolary that staff functions cannot be
learned over night.
The other. comes from the wartime din
and confusion + the centralized training
camps at home. It Is at efficient
mobilization OF the nations fighting
strength can be carried out only as a
decentralaEed process through agencies
set up In times OF peace.
Realization that these lessf ms must bc
worked into the new military policy IL
perilous delav and costly confusion
which preceded past n,obilizations were
to be avoided has marked the effort Of
e 0ulleIln
shows that 1t has attempted to write
regulations under the revised National
Defence act that would furnish q clean
cut scheme for war mobilize ton without
violating national traditions against
nilitarism or creating machinery that
would impose heavy burdens in peace
times upon the taxpayers.
To Profit By Experience.
The project undertaken probably is
the most far reaching military effort the
nation has ever attempted in peace
times.
Tho foundation work has been done.
All over the country decentralized ma
chinery is being set up capable, its de-
signers believe, Of getting the nation
on war footing with little delay and
confusion. Yet it Is felt that the ma
ton at large and even the most impor-
tan links In he new defence chain, the
Regular Army, the National Guard and
tho Offccrs' Reserve Corps do not ap.
prcciate fully what is being done.
Col John McA. Palmer, the officer as
signed to aid Congress in framing the
legislation making 1t all possible, and
who has devoted himself to a. study OF
| the subject. was called upon TO furnish
the document, and his work is to go to
all parts Of the new army as a means
OF preventing misunderstanding.
! Col. Palmer points out that at the con-
clusion Of previous wars tho United
States scrapped all it had learned in
battle and demobilized without any at
tempt to carry those costly lessons on to
younger generations for their protection
and aid in time Of war. Veterans Of the
civil war, schooled in soldier craft,
skilled In staff work and the handling
Of mighty forces with minimum confu-
sion in movement and minimum losses
in battle. went back to civil life, he says,
and lost all touch with military matters.
When the war with Spain came their
knowledge was lost to the men of 1898.
IL was necessary to build again from the
ground UP, and 1917 saw this waste re-
peated, the bulletin asserts.
The purpose of the new scheme of
welding the regulars, the National Guard
and the organized reserves into the
Army of tine United States In peace
times is defined BY Col. Palmer as fol-
lows:
'It is primarily the object OF our
| new law to perpetuate the framework
of the organization developed in the
world war. so that its tremendous cost
can be funded as q permanent invest
nent for all time
| Had such system as is now we'll ad-
| vanced toward establishment been
erected after the civil war. the officer
adds. ''in 1898 more divisions than were
needed for the war with Spain could
have begun their expansion within twen-
| ty-four hours after the declaration OF
hostilities."
Centralized Process Demoralfxing.
Mobilization in 1917" Col Palmer
continues, would have proceeded as a
decentralization process and not as O
great centralized process. upsetting the
economic life of tine nation. It would
not have been necessary to spend mill
| ions for great concentrated training
camps or to overburden the railroads
with unclassified personnel and material
in order to organize and train and equip
and provide officers all at the same
time. Such a national organization must
have saved months in time and million.
in money"
Col Palmer points out that Stonewall
Jackson alone of leaders on either side
in the civil war entered the contest
with knowledge of what staff work
meant. He had studied Napoleon's troor
orders. and in the first battle Of the
war. Col Palmer says, Showed that even
raw troops cen stand like a stone wal
If the prevalent rawness does not ex-
tend to the craftsmanship Of the COM
mander."