Show gcce NEEDS OF THE ARMY Sternberg Says the Medical Brnnch Is Inadequate Washington Dec liSureon General Gen-eral Sternberg of the armywas heard by the house committee on military af fairs today concerning the proposed Increase In-crease in the army In the main the hearing was confined to the bureau needs with reference to the recent war General Sternberg said that the medIcal medI-cal branch or the army at no time had been adequttte even In time of 11eace i i ii it tr Now that it was proposc to expand I the army fourfold the medical branch I should be expanded at least threefold three-fold He urged that the most essential need of the medical corps was to llaYC experienced men quickly available for emergencies The want of experienced medical officers had been the main trouble in the recent war TIle surgeon general he believed should be given the rank of general although al-though he hardly expeete this to be done He was ready to go on until retirement re-tirement on the present basis himself and merely urged the rank as a matter mat-ter oJf proper organization He approved ap-proved the appointment of trained pharmacists The subject of complaints and the Santiago campaign was brought up by lIr Hay of Virginia who asked a number of questions General Sternberg said the mllltary situation was responsible for what occurred oc-curred General Wilson chief of engineers was heard on the needs of that branch of the service He kept closely to the work of the bureau declining to be led into discussions on the conduct of the war He pointed out the extent of the work done by the army engineers coy ering not only army operations but also the vast river and harbor improvements im-provements lighthouse boards Mississippi Missis-sippi river commissions |