Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1939-07-02
The Army Gets a Ne,u Chief
Marshall Takes Over High Command at Critical Period

The meeting was not even announced
in advance to the press, but for the Army
1t marked the beginning OF a new era.
In a large. high-ceilinged room off the
west corridor of the State, War and Navy
Building marked Chief of Staff" last
week stood small group of officers in
civilian dress A few words, hand
shake, repeated while the neWsreel
cameras recorded another advance sub
ject for release, and it was all over
The significance of the scene lay in the
fact that the United States, in the light
of threatening world situation, has
adopted policy of preparedness. In the
midst of the group was Gen. Malin
Craig, the retiring chief of staff. who,
like many of his predecessors through
the years, had spent years planning for
just that occasion. Beside him stood his
deputy chief of staff, Maj Gen. George
Catlett Marshall, who succeeded him as
acting chief of staff yesterday and will
assume the post officially on Gen. Craig's
retirement August 81. He is the sixth
chief of staff not West Point graduate.
The epic nature of the handshake and
the few words spoken can be realized
only against the background of the Ma
tons military policy, which from the
time our history as Nation began has
been one of unpreparedness. In a
treatise on this subject, to which Elihu
Root while Secretary of War wrote the
preface, Bvt. Maj. Gen. Emory Upton
wrote:
Our military policy, or as many would
affirm, our want of it, has now been
tested during more than a century. 1t
has been tried in foreign, domestic and
Indian wars, and while military men,
from painful experience, are united as
to its defects and dangers, our final sue
cess in each conflict has so blinded the
popular mind as to induce the belief that
as a Nation we are invincible" He re-
called Washington's admonition after the
disastrous battle of Camden that What
we need is good army, not large one"
He declared that 1000 well-trained, we'll
equipped, Regular troops at the first
battle of Bull Run would have routed
the insurgents, settled the question of
military resistance and relieved us from
the pain and suspense of four years of
war"
Battles Not Only on Field.
Although his treatise was written In
1880 and not published until 1907, por-
tons of it are singularly modern in tone.
I'm every civilized country success in
war depends upon the organization and
application of its military resources 80
(consisting) of men, material and money.
- Battles are not lost alone on the
field; they may be lost beneath the dome
of the Capitol, they may be lost in the
cabinet, or they may be lost in the pri-
~ate Office of the Secretary Of War"
The doldrums which settled over the
Army after the World War, as it has
after all our previous wars, began to lift
during the depth of the depression large
ly as result of economic conditions. AS
part of a Nation wide construction pro-
gram money was made available for i'm
proving the Army's physical plant, bar
racks, quarters, warehouses and hos
pitfalls long needed Something was added
to equipment, principally in the Air
Corps. Now, largely as result Of
threats to international peace, money is
being poured out with a lavish hand
for equipment for all arms, more bar
racks, new airbases, in the Nations
outstanding attempt at preparedness in
time of peace.
The man placed by circumstances and
the President of the United States IN
charge of this huge military under
taking, calling for the expenditure of
millions of dollars in undermining the
Army, is tall, broad-shouldered, with
the lean, wiry frame of an athlete and
thin, graying hair over his broad fore
head. He is known as good mixer, an
expert tennis player and horseman.
He tried golf, but gave it up because
he didn't have time to learn to play
it as we'll as he wanted to. He has
reputation for possessing an infinite
capacity for hard work, whether study
ing at the Army School of the Line at
Fort Leavenworth or directing the oper-
ations of an Army division in the
Meuse- Argonne. Probably no man cho-
sen for the place could have been more
familiar with his present job. AS chief
of staff of the war plans division OF
the general staff, he knows the aims
of the preparedness program. AS deputy
chief of staff, he worked with Gen. Craig
in formulating it. AS chief of staff he
will have an opportunity to administer
it. Yet as youth probably no one had
less idea that he would ever be chief
of staff of the Army, or even that he
would be a professional soldier, than
George Catlett Marshall.
He Went to v. M. 1.
Because of the unsettled conditions in
Kentucky during the Civil War, Gen.
Marshalrs family moved to Pennsyl-
vania. The only service his father had
seen was with the Home Guard of the
Union Army as boy of Is, no inspira-
ton for a military career for his sons.
But when it was time to send Gen. Mar
shalls older brother, Stuart B. Mar
SHALL away to school, Col. Charles Mar
shall, aide to Gen. Robert E. Lee during
almost the entire Civil War and dis
tant relative, persuaded his parents to
send him to Virginia Military Institute
at Lexington, Va. He was graduated in
the class of "a and returned to civil life
He is now living In Washington. A few