The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1915. ONE POINT OF VIEW.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIII, Issue 17, 18 September 1915, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1915. ONE POINT OF VIEW.

Rather quaintly an English journal discusses organisation, and the way in which the necessity for organised effort is being drilled into the British mind just now. The writer of the article in question states that a certain school of directors of public opinion assure their fellows that organisation is the highest outcome of his-| toric .growth or social life just as ifi organisation were an end in itself,! and not a mere means to an end. For ( the present, the favorite use of the term amongst the general public is as a solution of the problem why the Germans have so uniformly long held out against the combined forces of the Allies. A good many explanations have from time to time been put forward—general unpreparedness in a military sense on the part of the Allies so that "organisation" always gets the best of it. "We have been assured," the writer says, "that it is Teutonic organisation which is our deadly foe; that nothing can be done

without organisation; and that we must fcake warning of this awful Rjsson for if we do not possess organisation, too, it may be all over with the Allies, as with gallant France in 1871. We do not doubt for one moment that there may he a great deal that is meant, and the extent to of serious truth in all this, and all agitation founded on the text is indeed especially needed by a 'Wait and See' nation like ourselves. But "the value of the exhortations would certainly he enhanced if they were only a little more distinct (indistinct while

emanating from the legal mind), and more definite in indicating what is implied by organisation, and how a satisfactory basis of the word is to be' attained. The truth is that whether, organisation is a good or had thing depends upon the kind of which it is carried. We take it that in itself it simply means the provision! and arrangement of organs with ' a 'view to the performance of differen; functions' in a co-operative manner; and it is easy to conceive a form of organisation so elaborate and compli-' cated as to defeat the very objects for '• which it was contrived. It is always well to hear in mind the learned man who put so many books on top of his head that he could not think, the weight of the books oppressed his brain, and left it no freedom of operation. In the same way, one can fancy a man, or even a nation, making so many arrangements before hand for a particular purpose, swathi ing themselves in so tremendous an equipment, and overloading with so many implements and accoutrements as to leave progress more or less shackled. In spite of matchless Cerman organisation, what a different bearing upon the war was produced by the fact of their ever-ready army being held up for so many days at Liege, and how is it that such a possibility was. not calculated upon by German organisers ?"