Evening star., 1951-04-16

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high command: his troops were
bombarded by their own artillery.
Gen. Macarthur rose to the
rank Of brigadier general and. at
This is the eighth in series from John
Gunthers new book, The Riddle oi
Macarthur.
last. became commander of the
division he helped create. One Of
his officers for a time. though he
never met him, was a Missourian
named Harry Truman. The Gen.
eral fought at st. Mihiel, Wouvre.
and Sedan. The after the ar
Imistice. he got his first taste of
military occupation and the ad-
Iministration of a defeated enemy
by serving briefly at Bonn. now
the capital of Western Germany
Back home. he worked in the
office Of the Chief of Staff, and
then for three years -tl919-22)
was superintendent of West Point.
Twice he returned to the Philip
pines for brief tours 1923 and
1929. and in the United States
he successfully commanded the
~, III. and TX Corps Areas, un-
til he was appointed Chief OF
Staff in November. 1880. In this
post he won both loyal friends
and unrelenting enemies. He
pressed for bigger Army appro-
priations. gave heed to the prob
lens of unified command, and
preached for mechanization, mo-
blllty, and the vital Importance of
air and armored warfare. Normal
ly his term would have expired in
1884, but President Roosevelt
kept him on till October. 1895.
Macarthur Furious With Douglas.
Lewis Douglas, Mr.. Roosevelt S
first director of the budget (who
many years later became Ameri-
can Ambassador to London), had
the job of pairing down Govern
ment expenditures Is per cent.
Gen. Macarthur came to a budget
hearing, to resist cuts in the
Army appropriation, and spoke for
an hour strenuously. Then Mr..
Douglas quietly asked him, Gen
eral. do you expect a serious cpl
demic OF dysentery in the U. S.
Army?" Gen. Macarthur, taken
aback, said, mo"
Mr.. Douglas then inquired why
his budget for toilet paper
among other things-was so ex-
traordinarily high; he had gone
through all the Army figures, and
thought that they were padded.
Gen. Macarthur was.-so furious
that he stopped his testimony
forthwith and bluntly left the
room. A year or so later Mr.
Douglas ran into him. and apollo
gized for the way he had put the
question. Then Gen. Macarthur
handsomely apologized too.
Under President Hoover, Gen
Macarthur had been the focus oi
i a bitter controversy because he
evicted the bonus marchers from
Anacostia Flats in Washington
D. c. Photographs showing him
in suavely shined boots and bril-.
liant, glittering uniform as hi
directed this unfortunate business
did not do him much good. But
he himself was not responsible fol
the eviction: the order came tt
him from higher up, through
Secretary of War Hurley, and HI
had no choice but to obey. There
has never been an instance ir
Gen. MacArthur's history o1
specific refusal to obey an order
But it has taken him long time
to live down what seemed an out
rageously harsh and flowery dis.
play of force against a hungry
miserable group of fellow citizens
/ Retired From Army in 1887.
Gen.. Macarthur didn't know
quite where to turn when he fin.
ished his tour as Chief of Staf
in 1885. He had reached the top;
he was only SIS, ambitious, and il
perfect health. The political at.
mosphere in Washington was no
congenial. So when his old friene
Manuel Quezon. president of the
Philippines. suggested that he &c
out to Manila as military adviser
to the Commonwealth. with the
unprecedented rank of Field Mar.
shal. he accepted. He retired
from the United States Army ir
1887, and devoted himself exclu.
sively to the Philippines (his
fourth term of service there) TO,
the next four years.
He liked the life of Manila
and worked at his job-the or
ganization Of Philippine defenses
on a long-range basis-with yea
and acumen. He hoped if the
Japanese gave him time, to trair
10000 men annually for 10 years
build up a small feet of patro
torpedo boats and create a sea
soned air force. His basic tene
WAS to equip the islands so tina
an attack would cost an enem.
more than the value received, h
told me in Manila once. He wa
convinced that there were onl.
two. beaches in the archipelag,
where an enemy could land, AMI
(again if he had time) that tn
invaders could be held. Like prac
tically everybody else. he under
} estimated the japanese.