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Show kW OFFICERS CHAFE . . V OVER GENERAL STAFF Criticism cf List Chosen Under Hew Bill From the Quartermaster's Department WASHINGTON. April 14. There is already a great howl among army officers of-ficers over the men chosen fof the general gen-eral staff under the new army bllL It proceeds from the fact that there la only one quartermaster officer In the whole Hat. The greenest civilian will remember that the Jam of men and supplies sup-plies at Tampa, which delayed the departure de-parture of the army for Cuba, resulted from the lack of experienced quartermasters. quarter-masters. Th- men In charge of the transportation of supplies, as a rule, did not know the difference. between a flying switch and the , automatic air equipment. Another feature that is considerably criticised is th predominance of the . Adjutant-General's office in the proposed pro-posed body. Of the first ten officers six 1 are from Adjt.-Gen. . Corbln's office. I There are ten staff departments, so r- that If Corbin's department had only I Its quota there would be only one ln-1 ln-1 stead of six from the body that is sup- posed to perform only the clerical duties du-ties of the army. There are a number of men selected for the honor of being members of the first general staff who have very fine records. For instance, l there Is Capt. Hugh J. Gallagher of the Commissary department. He was chief commissary of the China expedition, and his record .as such made him known to officers of all the armies in the world. ' Another fine officer is Maj. Shaler of Pittsburg, who was Secretary Roofs second choice when he had to select a chief of the ordnance department. The only quartermaster offloer on the staff la CoL J. Crosby Miller, who was the Secretary's second choice for quartermaster. quar-termaster. . Miller and Capt. Fred Smith are the only men selected who are not West Point men. But as Gen. S. B. M. Young Is to be the first chief and Gen. Corbin the second, the men who did not graduate grad-uate from that institution have no reason rea-son for objecting. Gen. Miles is recognised In a way in . the reorganization of the staff machinery machin-ery of the army to the extent of having hav-ing Capt. Reber, his son-in-law and chief of staff, made a member. Reber gets the place as a member, not because be-cause he is the General's son-in-law, but because he is a fine signal officer. There is in the list a reminder of the Santiago campaign in the person of Maj. McClemand. He waa Shatter's chief of staff. . Before these men become be-come members their selection by a board, of which Gen. Young is the president, pres-ident, must be approved by Secretary Root. His approval will be given with-out with-out the change of a name. |