Criminal Types by V. M. (Vincent Myron) Masten

Author:V. M. (Vincent Myron) Masten [Masten, V. M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781479449439
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Wildside Press
Published: 2019-01-06T00:00:00+00:00

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VIII

“EXCESS PROPHETS”

We are beridden by excess prophets.

Washington Star.

Nature builds some men bigger than any office or title. Theodore Roosevelt was such a man, whose wont it was to coin cutting saws such as, “The shots that hit are the shots that count.”

Taken for what it was meant to convey, that epigram needs no champion; yet the implied negative of it may or may not hold water. That will depend upon the ratio of hits to misses.

Missed shots prolong conflict, multiply fatalties, and pile up huge waste of the materials of war. Hence, largely, the staggering toll taken by the World War in priceless young manhood, and of the going resources of the nations engaged.

It goes without saying that a fighting force must be an expert force in the care and use of the tools it employs; but that is of the primary exactions. The master key to victory, alike in business and battle, is moulded of leadership; leadership that envisages the tactical machine made up of units of balanced efficiency.

The American military system essentially does and must presuppose the squad leader to be as efficient in his domain, as is the commanding general in his. Indeed, an American army made up of prime privates, and the more petty leaders, might pound through, in a pinch, even though faultily disposed betimes by the bestarred and besilvered; whereas, under the reverse circumstance, it would almost certainly suffer defeat at the hands of an evenly-schooled foe.

But a properly trained, led, and served army would not necessarily close a given case. Assume such an army at points on the field with an inferior enemy, and the hazard might still be settled by swivel-chair soldiers, as it very nearly was in the War of the Rebellion; also very nearly was by round-table strategists who insisted that Foch should keep his general reserves massed where he knew he could not use them to advantage, as he had planned, to pummel the German divisions, piled up in a close pocket, where they were glaringly open to raking flank fire.

Fortunately, that issue was settled by the purblind German General Staff, which was so obsessed by the idea of the spectacular capture of Paris, that it could not see Amiens; Amiens, seen at the time by all of the Allied leaders as plainly the objective of the German grand plan of attack. Whether or no Hindenburg now lashes himself thereof in order to spare his former imperial masters, false leadership defeated Germany; and it came right close to spoiling the battle broth for the Allies.

So much of seeming diversion is employed to set off the fact that social and prison progress has been held up in America, particularly during the last three decades, by “false leadership.”

For example, consider this master stroke, framed by a much-quoted minister of the gospel: “Possibly something is to be granted to punishment as a deterrent. No doubt some people are to some extent restrained from wrong doing by fear of punishment.”

The person

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