The Washington herald., 1922-03-04
Soldier Requirements.
To the Editor, The Washington Herald:


The article appearing in Mondays
issue of The Herald is very inter
esting. but not very enlightening to
most of the former service men. Most
OF us have either experienced some
thing akin to such things or at least
have seen numerous instances Of it..
served our beloved Uncle Samuel
myself, wasted two of the best years
of my young life in various army
cantonments In the United States.
The powers above" sent me around
this country from one part to another
during those two years and trans
ferred us from first one branch OF
the service to another. I had served
in four different branches of the serv-
ICE and then about two weeks be-
fore the Prm!stice was assigned to
the c. W. S. (come with a shoveD.
Although ! have nothing in particu-
lar to kick about as far as myself
is concerned. the fact that l Nolun-
teered for line duty and was anxious
to ge: into it and then was given
no NOR. of a job TO whip Fritz than
that of policing up" around the
company barracks. picking up the
cigaret stubs dropped by various
shave tails" (3l5-a-week clerks be-
fore the war), etc, developed new
and not altogether enthusiastic at
titude insofar as this so-called pa
triotism is CONCERNED.
To be quite frank with Sammy and
his pals, can say that l am as de-
void at present of patriotism as q
hen is Of teeth. And why? Not my
fault. l had 1t once. But ! haven't
1t now because had this fact
knocked into my thick pate DUNG
Heine's mad mt. and since: Ninety
nine and nine-tenths Of the prosper
Gus American people are ultra sell
fish. They have no altruistic mo-
tives. emotions or sentiments which
are more than skin deep. They
rave about their patriotism. they
bought Liberty bonds. why not?
The safest investment they could
find for their 400 or 500 per cent
profits that they made on any ne
cessity sold or manufactured by
them. II there had been something
other than mere sounding brass. IL
there had been real honest-to-God
patriotism on the part OF the ma
jority of the people! II was hard
cold fact to dawn on one that there
wasn't
And most nauseating of all. the
people will today grunt and groan
under the taxes (sweet music), and
damn and blame various men who
held positions of trust during the
war (and who had some Of this pa
triotism stuff and cry ineficiency.
Yet all the common sense that was
ever lettered or printed on the sub
ject of preparedness prior to the
war met with almost universal con-
tempt. That the small handful Of
men in the regular army. trained
and sent across to fight as many
, men as they did. was either by a
miracle or the will of God. the pa
cifists who advocated wholesale
shearing of land and naval forces
some ten years ago didn't help.
They were inefficient. get me? They
are the ones responsible for the fact
that / didn't get across. and thou
sands of more like me. so that we
could have ended that war a year
sooner. saved lives. property and
our own self-respect.. What wonder
was II that there was red tape with
accounting officers with no expert
ence. no training in army method 5
of finance ard accounting for prop
erty. and not familiar with the
rigorous system which holds the
bonded quartermaster responsible.
with every particle Of government
property. from a mans shoe laces
to gasoline for aeroplanes? No
wonder we wasted billions. but who
Is responsible? After two years of
bitter cogitation during the war
and four more since. / have very
firm opinion that the average tax
paying, property holder of the
United States Is responsible. For
had the majority of these individ-
uals so willed IL. this nation woulo
never have entered the war tooth
less and there would have been ef-
ficiency and cases of raw deals
would have been extremely rare.
And snow that we have cut down
our navy to 1000 admirais and
one COB. and our army to ten batal-
lions of officers. two second-class
bucks and one mule. we who have
had one raw deal will be very loath
to accept another. And now since
Hon. George w. and his fellow
bandits are no longer heroes bu,
enemies of the king, we will re-
write all our histories so as to be
truthful. And We win ditch the
Star Sra cIcd thfnr nd sing God