New Chiefs

Peak of Army ambition is to become Chief of Staff; of ambition in the Marine Corps, to be Commandant. On Nov. 20 the office of Chief of Staff becomes vacant when age (64) forces the retirement of General Charles Pelot Summerall. The office of Marine Corps Commandant has been empty since the death last month of Maj.-General Wendell Cushing Neville. Last week President Hoover ended much muffled excitement within the services by picking two new chiefs.

Army. To tall, slender, handsome Maj.-General Douglas MacArthur, 50, youngest of first-rank officers, the President gave the appointment of Chief of Staff for a four-year tour of duty. With the job goes the courtesy rank of full general (four silver shoulder stars, a salute of 17 guns). Soldierly son of a Civil War father (Lieut.-General Arthur MacArthur), the new Chief was born in barracks at Little Rock, Ark., went to West Point as soon as he could. There he was senior-year (1903) cadet-captain, popular, a baseball adept. Graduated into the Corps of Engineers, he engaged in rivers-&-harbors work, experience which must have weighed heavily with the engineering President. But also of importance was the wide variety of other services General MacArthur has seen: aide (1908) to President Roosevelt, General Staff Officer (1913-15), press information officer in Washington during the Mexican Punitive Expedition; Wartime commander of the 42nd (Rainbow) Division in France, twice wounded, many times decorated for bravery in action; Superintendent (1919) at the U. S. Military Academy. In 1928 he was chairman of the American Olympic Games Committee. He is unmarried (his divorced wife, the onetime Mrs. Walter Brooks, is now Actor Lionel Atwill's wife).

Disappointed at the selection were friends of Maj.-Generals John Leonard Hines, William Lassiter, Hanson Edward Ely, Fred Winchester Sladen, William Ruthven Smith, who all outrank General MacArthur in seniority and who all will retire within 18 months, never to have a chance to be full generals. The proud & pleased friends of General MacArthur pointed out that his youth is an advantage, that since the office was created in 1903 seven Chiefs of Staff have been advanced to it over their seniors' heads.

They recalled that Newton Diehl Baker, Wartime Secretary of War, had said: "Why, I wouldn't hesitate a minute to make MacArthur Chief of Staff notwithstanding his youth. And I predict he will be. . . ." President Hoover last week commented: "There are several very eminent generals who rank General MacArthur, but none of them could serve more than a year and a half of the full term."

Marine Corps. To blue-eyed, white-haired, leather-skinned Brig.-General Ben Hebard Fuller, 60, sent top command of the Marine Corps. On Secretary Adams' recommendation, President Hoover elevated him above all the Major-Generals of Marines. Most notable head over which he passed was that of colorful Maj.-General Smedley Darlington Butler, 49, famed for his (1924-25) attempted moral cleanup in Philadelphia, his recent outspoken description of Marine methods in the Caribbean. Many a friend of General Butler thought his utterances had prevented his elevation and pointed bitterly to the Santo Domingo record of General Fuller, who commanded the 2nd Provisional Brigade of Marines there (1918-20) while also serving as the Dominican Secretary of State, Secretary of War, Secretary of the Navy, Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of Police.

In 1920 Santo Domingo went almost bankrupt; General Fuller was transferred to the Naval War College at Newport, R. I. Both appointments await final confirmation by the Senate next December. Political observers last week thought General MacArthur would have little trouble with the legislators, but that over General Fuller's Santo Domingo record (a sore State Department point) there might be senatorial war.

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