Marshall for Craig

On the second floor of the State, War & Navy Building in Washington is the office of the Chief of Staff, U. S. Army. The man who now works and broods there is weary beyond his years, so tired that at times the water in his eyes seems to be tears. After 41 years in the Army, three years and seven months as its topmost officer, General Malin Craig is ready to retire before his tour expires August 31.

On Governors Island in New York Harbor is the headquarters of the Commanding General, Second Corps Area. Hugh Aloysius Drum at 59 is the ranking major general of the Army. He is vigorous, keen, ambitious to go on to the top after holding six high commands, including Hawaii. Until last week, most Army men would have bet that "Drummie" was about to go on to Malin Craig's job.

Commander-in-Chief Franklin Roosevelt last week dipped down past Hugh Drum and the 33 next-ranking officers of the Army. For his next Chief of Staff he chose a man who was a colonel until 1936, has been a real Brass Hat only since last July. Brigadier General George Catlett Marshall, Deputy Chief of Staff, at 58 becomes the only full general on active service, the first non-West Pointer since 1914 to be Chief of Staff. The last was Leonard Wood, who began as an Army doctor.

Army mores have changed profoundly since Wood's time, and particularly since Malin Craig became Chief of Staff. Indeed, the contest for his place demolished the tradition that only West Pointers can get big Army jobs. West Point produced not one of the three officers who were seriously considered. By President McKinley's dispensation Hugh Drum went directly into the Army as a second lieutenant at 18--because his Army father was killed at San Juan. And the third man considered--Major General DeWitt, who now commands the War College--enlisted in the war against Spain.

George Marshall also began as a private (in 1902). But he had graduated from Virginia Military Institute, which in the Army is next best to West Point (or birth into an Army family). His great-great-grand-uncle was interested in coal and coke mines near Uniontown, Pa., where George Marshall was born on the last day of 1880; his great-great-grand uncle was John Marshall, greatest U. S. Chief Justice. Soldier Marshall was a mere first lieutenant in 1916. During the World War he got a temporary colonelcy, a chance to demonstrate his brilliance at staff direction, finally an assignment as Pershing's aide.

Now he is an intensely quiet six-footer with blue eyes, greying hair, lean frame. He hunts, fishes, rides when he has the chance (although always an infantryman), devours history and biography. He loathes big Army parties, prefers to go picnicking with his second wife and her children. On duty he is severe, demands top-flight work in short hours. "Nobody ever has an original thought after 3 p. m.," he says.

In anger he is cold and biting, but he never explodes in barrack bluster. A sure way to anger George Marshall is to ask him to change his mind when he has once made it up. No fretter, he can be so blunt as to offend strangers who mistake his abrupt decisiveness for insult. Yet his colleagues account him a warm and friendly fellow.

As soon as Congress adjourns, Malin Craig will gladly surrender to George Marshall the responsibility for an Army which he has ably prepared to be the biggest in peacetime U. S. history. The new Army necessarily must give more relative importance than did the old to the ever-expanding Air Corps (see col. 3). But Army men do not doubt that air-minded Infantryman Marshall will get along well with the Air Corps chief, Major General Henry H. Arnold.

Buttressed by his new prestige, able George Marshall will turn diplomatist shortly. He is soon going to South America, where uniforms and titles are esteemed, to further military cooperation with the Brazilian Army, whose Chief of Staff he may invite to Washington.

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