The famous war correspondent, Mr. Caspar Whitney, has returned from the front so that he might avoid our fatuous and sinister censorship, and tell our people the truth about our army in France. He shows that this army, which, Secretary Baker had just assured our people, was admirably equipped, in reality had no cannon or machine guns except those it had borrowed from the hard-pressed French; that there was a lamentable shortage of shoes; that the motor cars were poor; that we had no airplanes. From another source it appeared that many thousand coffins had been sent over. Our troops had no shoes, but they had plenty of coffins. Their ammunition was defective, and they had neither cannon nor auto rifles; but they had plenty of coffins.
At the same time the death of gallant Major Gardner from pneumonia called sharp attention to the evil health conditions in most of our home training camps, and the Senate investigating committee showed a really appalling slackness and inefficiency in the management of the War Department under Mr. Baker. There is no particular reason to blame Mr. Baker; he did not appoint himself; he did not seek the office. Logwood cannon and wooden auto rifles are mostly incidental features of the inevitable outcome.
All this was done in the face of repeated and explicit warnings from the best authority. Major-General Leonard Wood told the military committee of the Senate and of the House in detail about our shortcomings two years ago, and again one year ago. The Administration not only refused to remedy these shortcomings, but has spitefully punished General Wood ever since.
Criticism should be both truthful and constructive. I have told not the whole truth, but the minimum truth absolutely necessary in order that we may, before it is too late, speed up the war, and in order that we may insist on the passage of the Chamberlain Bill, so that never again may we be caught utterly and shamefully unprepared. Let us insist that the truth be told. The truth only harms weaklings. The American people wish the truth, and can stand the truth.
JUSTIFICATION OF CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM
January 28, 1918
Senator Chamberlain and his excellent committee have already seen the justification of their investigation. They have forced the appointment of Mr. Stettinius, a trained and capable expert, as head of the war supplies purchasing department. The fact that the appointment is made in order to obviate the need of following Senator Chamberlain’s more thoroughgoing programme does not alter the fact that it represents a certain advance and that this advance is primarily due to the investigation by Senator Chamberlain’s committee. It is a striking tribute to the necessity for and the good results of that investigation.
The investigation has been wholly non-partisan. It has been conducted with an eye single to the needs of the army and of our country. Senator Chamberlain is a Democrat, just as Secretary Baker is a Democrat. The committee has fearlessly exposed very grave abuses and shortcomings and has taken constructive action to remedy them. Secretary Baker’s testimony shows that, to use the language of Senator Chamberlain, the President has been misled as to the facts. His statements as to the satisfactory condition of things in the camps are not in accord with the facts. It is, of course, exceedingly difficult to get testimony from army officers because they have vividly before their eyes the signal punishment inflicted by the Administration on General Wood for fearlessly telling the truth, and those of us who have examined conditions and know how bad they are cannot give our authorities in many cases because we will not expose good officers to punishment in order to save ourselves from contradiction.
But certain vitally important facts are easily attainable. At the very time that Secretary Baker was testifying that the army had enough rifles, the governor of Mississippi in the public press on January 17 stated that he had been helpless to prevent the burning alive of a negro because the home guards had no rifles and because “there are over five hundred national guardsmen at Camp Jackson, but they are equally helpless because they have no rifles.” Many deficiencies can be covered up or their existence denied, but some cannot thus be concealed. Any one can see the wooden cannon and wooden machine guns in the training camps, every one knows that our army at the front has French cannon and French machine guns. Will not Secretary Baker state frankly when our own cannon and machine guns will be ready? After one year of war we have none. Must we wait another year before getting them? Caspar Whitney, a responsible man, has stated lamentable shortcomings of our army at the front. Will not the Secretary advise us what steps he has taken to investigate this statement and remedy the shortcomings?
The appointment of Mr. Stettinius is a good thing, but it does not represent even a half step toward bringing order out of the administrative chaos at Washington. Drastic action is needed to secure a plan providing for coördination, responsibility and efficiency, and above all, for securing the right men to administer the plan.