Richmond daily register. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1917-1978, 1922-05-09
LESSONS OF WAR
IN new Defense
Plan Provides for an Efficient
Staff Trained in Peace
Time.
BARS CENTRALIZED CAMPS
Foundation Work on Great National
Scheme of Mobilization Already
Done-ReguIar Army to Train
hen for War.

II
World war, learned at heavy cost, are
| sharply emphasized in War de-
oartment bulletin, giving the first Of
icial picture. of the new national de-
'e.lse structure projected in the re-
organized army of the United States.
One lesson comes direct from the
battlefields of France 1t is that eff
Gent staff work is vital to modern mil
iitary operations. and with it goes the
corollary that staff functions cannot
be learned over night.
The other comes from the wartime
din end confusion of the centralized
training camps at hone It is that eff.
Gent mobilization of the nations fight.
ing strength can be carried out only
rs a Geeentralized process through
agencies set up in times of peace
Realization that these lessons must
be worked into the new military pol
icy if perilous delay and costly con-
fusion which preceded past mObiliza-
lions were to be avoided has marked
The effort Of the War department.
The bulletin shows that it has attempt
ed to write regulations under the re-
vised national defense act that would
furnish a clean-cut scheme for war
mobilization without violating nation
d traditions against militariSm or Gre
atiDg machinery that would impose
heavy burdens in prSce times upon
the taxpayers.
To Profit by Expe rience.
The project undertaken probably IS
The most far-reaching military effort
the nation has ever attempted in peace
times.
The foundation work has been done.
All over the country decentraliZed ma
chiIiery is being set up capable, its
designers believe, of getting the ma
ton on war footing with little de-
lay and confusion. Yet it is felt that
the nation at large and even the most
important links in the new defense
chain, the regular army, the National
Guard and the Officers Reserve corps
do not appreciate fully what is being
done.
Col. John McA. Palmer, the officer
assigned to aid congress In framing
the legislation making it all possible,
and who has devoted himself to n
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 n means Of preventing misunder-
standing.
Colonel Palmer points out that at
tile conclusion of previous wars. the
United States scrapped all it had
learned in battle and demobilized with
out any attemptsto 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
s:aff work and the handling of mighty
forces with minimum confusion in
and minimum losses in
battle, went back to civil life, he says,
Ind lost ali touch with military mat
tiers. When the war with Spain came
their knowledge was lost to the neil
Of $685. 1t was necessary to build
again from the ground up, and 1917
saw this waste repeated, the bulletin
asserts.
The purpose of the new scheme OF
welding the regulars, the National
Guard and the organized reserves into
the army OF the United States in
peace times is defined by Colonel Pal
NEE as follows:
1T 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 a permanent invest
ment for all time"
Had such system as is now well
advanced toward establishment been
erected after the Civil war, the Off
GER adds, "in 1898 more divisions than
were needed for the war with Spain
could have begun their expansion |
within "a hours after the declaration
Of hostilities."
Centralized Process pemoraIizinl.
"lIobilization in 1917" Colonel Pal !
mer continues, would have proceed |
ed as a decentralization process and I
not as a great centralized process,
upsatting the economic life of the ma
ZION. 1t would not have been necessary
10 spend millions for great concen-
rated training camps or to overbur-
den the railroads with unclassified
personnel and material in order to
organize and train and equip and pro
vide officers all at the same time.
Such a national organization must
have saved months in time and mil
ions in money
Colonel Palmer points out that
Stonewall Jackson alone Of leaders
N either side of the Civil war en-
cred the contest with knowledge of
ghat staff work meant. He mad stud
ell Napoleon's troop orders, and in
lie first battle of the war, Colonel
'almer says, showed that even raw
roops can stand like stone wall Ii
he prevalent rawness does not extend
A. o,,o of !