The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1927-10-18
Editorial Comment
The Army's Sore Need
New York Timesl


New York Times)
So intelligent and capable an officer as Major
Gen. Surhmerall should be listened to when he
says that "the army is loyal and will do it's best,
but until appropriations are made for our ade-
quate maintenance we can hope for little" To
his attention had been brought the housing con-
ditons at posts in Southern California. 1t was
the old story told in every part Of the country.
True, here and there quarters have been made
habitable and attractive but they are the ex-
ception. Even here in the shadow of the sky
scraper district soldiers have been living in
great discomfort in buildings hastily hammered
together in the World War and fallen into
dilapidation. Officers and their families at
many posts in the South and West are no better
off, and the enlisted men have been underfed on
three meals" day at cost Of thirty-five
cents for them ALL Congress last winter pro-
vided five cents day more. That was all that
could be spared out of the appropriation for
the army.
In making his rounds as Chief of Staff, Gen.
eral Summerall found that the condition of
housing had not greatly improved, although in
August OF last year Congress authorized the ap-
plication Of money derived from the sale of War
Department. surplus property to the building of
new barracks and quarters and reconstruction
OF the old. 1t was estimated that $7,O2O,000
would soon be available. In the following JAN
uary bill appropriating outright $5,O8O,O00
Tor the same purpose was passed and signed by
President Coolidge. About that time Major
Gen. Snow, Chief of Field Artillery, declared
that conditions at Camp Lewis, Fort Sill, Fort
Benning, Fort Bragg, Fort Benjamin Harrison
and Camp Travis were "a shame to the Gov
eminent" He added: Housing for soldiers
touches no purse-string." General Snow was
quite right when he said that sums available
and proposed were inadequate to put officers
and men under the proper kind of shelter That
is still the case. Speaking of what he had seen
in Southern California, General Summerall told
the San Diego Chamber Of Commerce:
Men are living in quarters at Camp
Hearn like workers in logging camp, in
tumbledown shacks on the scale of the i'm
migrant class. If you want an army to
carry on with dignity and the respect of
the nation, it is time that the people of
America walked up and did something. 1t
is up to them.
Aside from good quarters and sufficient
nourishing food, the army needs many things
even for the requirements of peace: The nu-
ceus for expansion to war necessities, as pro-
vlded for in the National Defense act, long ago
was whitfield down. General Pershing pleaded
in vain when Chief of Staff. Better equipment,
requirements, minimum manning of the de-
lenses at Panama the Hawaiian Islands and the
Philippines, should be furnished, but the army
has had to get along as best it could without
them. Officers and men should be decently
housed, fed and uniformed. Morale has sunk
low because they are not.
The country knows General Summerall and
can trust him. 1t should see that Congress
needs his complaints, which are rising in bit
terness. When Congress meets statement of
what has actually been done for the relief of
the army, and what remains to be done, should
be required of the War Department. It's hands
are tied by piecemeal appropriations. The
work of reconstruction is going on too slowly
discontinued army cannot be disciplined by
officers who know there are grievances and arc
themselves victims of neglect. The fundamen-
tai wants OF the service should be supplied.