Two Times Two

This week General George Marshall, Chief of Staff and Commander of the U.S. field forces, went hard to work at his most important job: the preservation of the Army of 1,448,500 which his officers were still training, which was not yet fully equipped. Fortnight before, he had asked that Congress extend the one-year terms of service of draftees, National Guard and Reserve officers. He had also laid out the alternative: disbanding the Army before it is a trained field force.

If Soldier Marshall had expected that Congress would hop to this suggestion, he was mistaken. In the week following his report, Congress kicked up enough rumpus to convince even the most unpolitical of soldiers that General Marshall's suggestion would have tough sledding. The Republican minority in both houses let newsmen know that they were against any extension of service, particularly for draftees. Certain Administration leaders said they too were against holding the draftees.

This week Franklin Roosevelt invited nine members of the House and Senate (including Republicans Austin of Vermont and Wadsworth of New York) to the White House, sat them down to listen to General Marshall. What they heard they kept generally to themselves. But anybody could guess it. The blunt fact was that only two of the Army's 33 divisions (the First and Third) could be kept relatively intact if the U.S.'s one-year soldiers were sent home. The other regular outfits would have to start all over again. Draftees would have to be lugged back from Honolulu, Manila, Alaska and the Caribbean as their terms expired, National Guard outfits would be closed out by divisions. Most outfits would be all but denuded of officers.'

At the conference's close, bumbling Alben Barkley told newsmen that the Administration would go after Congressional approval of a resolution for extending the service term, added: "When the need for legislation becomes apparent I believe Congress will in no way shirk its duty."

If a two-times-two demonstration of such an elementary military necessity was needed, George Marshall was ready to give it.

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