The Colorado statesman., 1922-09-09

army Is nervous because no one knows
where the boards lightning will strike.
The reduction In the commissioned
personnel is made necessary by the
terms of the army appropriation bill.
When the army reorganization act
of June 4, 1920, was drawn 1t author
lied strength of 17,726 commissioned
officers for the regular or permanent
military establishment. This number
of officers was decidedly far more than
would be needed simply to supply ofii-
GERS for the various tactical organlza-
tions of the army or for Its normal
peace-tlme administration and over
head. But it was recognized that the
commissioned personnel Is the only
permanent part of the regular army,
us the enlisted men come and go with
their varying terms of enlistment. II
was the theory of the law that num-
ber of officers varying with the needs
of the time would be detailed to duty
with troops or for administration ana
overhead, that others would be sent
to the various service schools of the
army, others still to various duties and
responsibilities which are by law
placed under the War department,
such as rivers and harbors work, for
one instance, and that the body OF
commissioned officers remaining would
be utilized in the various agencies
concerned in the training of civilians
and civilian or nonprofesslonal mill
tary organizations as already indl-
Gated.
It was the idea of the law that the
officers would be kept In circulation
throughout these activities, serving for
period with troops; then perhaps go
ing to a service school to acquire ad-
ditional proficiency in their profess
sion; then detailed once more to some
administration, staff, or other over
head duty; then to the agencies or
civilian training if fitted for that par
ticular duty; and so on, roundabout
going back to troops frequently in
order always to be close in touch
with the actual army and its every
day life and necessities.
1t is the theory of the law that eX-
perience in these duties is essential
to the army and that officers in peace
duties but in administration, staff
work, and similar responsibilities
which experience shows will instantly
be enormously enlarged and com
plicated upon the outbreak of war
and the raising of millions of men in
citizen armies to take the field. 1t is
the theory of the law, moreover, that
while the small number of regular Off
GERS maintained over and above the
exact requirements of the number OF
troops in the peace-time standing army
cannot be anywhere sufficient to fill
the higher grades in n wartime army,
it is a number that will go quite far
by sprinkling through the great war
time army and helping to leaven the
whole lump with some of the neces-
sary ideas of military science and dis
cipline, fill many of the most respon-
sible high commands for which suf-
ficient number of citizen soldiers are
not then prepared, and in general help
raise, equip and train the soldiers of
the wartime army during the organi-
zation period, as was demonstrated
during the recent war.
Mistaken Way of Estimating.
In attempting to estimate the num-
ber of commissioned officers necessary
to an army it is a mistake to divide
the number of enlisted men by the
total number of officers and then to
argue that we have an army made up
of lone officer to so many enlisted
men," The commissioned personnel
of an army does not stand in any
such ratio to the enlisted men. The
various tactical organizations are not
ofiicered alike, some requiring many
more officers than others, and many
military functions are necessarily per-
formed by officers who are not at
tached to troops at all.
Accordingly, when the army reor-
ganfzation act became law it provid-
ed for an increase in the commissioned
personnel Of all grades, and under the
terms of the law several thousand
former emergency officers in the
World war were inducted into the
regular army in various grades, and
the remaining vacancies were illeu by
promotions of the regulars already in
the service. AS matter of fact,
however, it developed that not a suf-
ficient number of emergency officers
and other civilians applied for or were
found qualified for admission into the
regular army to fill all the vacancies
created by the army reorganization
act.