Chapter XI: Part 11

On February 4 Mr. Gerard was informed by Count Montgelas of the Foreign Office that the Americans taken on the _Yarrowdale_ would be released immediately on the ground that they could not have known at the time of sailing that it was Germany's intention to treat armed merchantmen as ships of war.

Despite this assurance, the prisoners were not released, but some time prior to February 17 the German Minister for Foreign Affairs told the Spanish Ambassador that the American prisoners from the _Yarrowdale_ would be liberated "in a very short time."

[Sidenote: A formal demand for release of _Yarrowdale_ prisoners.]

Upon receipt of this information a formal demand was made through the Spanish Ambassador at Berlin for the immediate release of these men. The message sent the Spanish Ambassador was as follows:

[Sidenote: American prisoners must be released.]

"If _Yarrowdale_ prisoners have not been released, please make formal demand in the name of the United States for their immediate release. If they are not promptly released and allowed to cross the frontier without further delay, please state to the Foreign Minister that this policy of the Imperial Government, if continued, apparently without the slightest justification, will oblige the Government of the United States to consider what measures it may be necessary to take in order to obtain satisfaction for the continued detention of these innocent American citizens."

[Sidenote: _Yarrowdale_ men reach Switzerland.]

On February 25 the American Ambassador at Madrid was informed by the Spanish Foreign Office that the _Yarrowdale_ prisoners had been released on the 16th inst. The foregoing statement appears to have been based on erroneous information. The men finally reached Zurich, Switzerland, on the afternoon of March 11.

[Sidenote: Treatment cruel and heartless.]

Official reports now in the possession of the Department of State indicate that these American sailors were from the moment of their arrival in Germany, on January 3, subjected to the most cruel and heartless treatment. Although the weather was very cold, they were given no suitable clothes, and many of them stood about for hours barefoot in the snow. The food supplied them was utterly inadequate. After one cup of coffee in the morning almost the only article of food given them was boiled frosted cabbage, with mush once a week and beans once a week. One member of the crew states that, without provocation, he was severely kicked in the abdomen by a German officer. He appears still to be suffering severely from this assault. Another sailor is still suffering from a wound caused by shrapnel fired by the Germans at an open boat in which he and his companions had taken refuge after the sinking of the _Georgic_.

[Sidenote: Drowning preferred to German prison.]

All of the men stated that their treatment had been so inhuman that should a submarine be sighted in the course of their voyage home they would prefer to be drowned rather than have any further experience in German prison camps.

It is significant that the inhuman treatment accorded these American sailors occurred a month before the break in relations and while Germany was on every occasion professing the most cordial friendship for the United States.

[Sidenote: Mr. Gerard is deprived of means of communication.]

After the suspension of diplomatic relations the German authorities cut off the telephone at the embassy at Berlin and suppressed Mr. Gerard's communication by telegraph and post. Mr. Gerard was not even permitted to send to American Consular officers in Germany the instructions he had received for them from the Department of State. Neither was he allowed to receive his mail. Just before he left Berlin the telephonic communication at the embassy was restored and some telegrams and letters were delivered. No apologies were offered, however.

[Sidenote: The German note to Mexico.]

The Government of the United States is in possession of instructions addressed by the German Minister for Foreign Affairs to the German Minister to Mexico concerning a proposed alliance of Germany, Japan, and Mexico to make war on the United States. The text of this document is as follows:

"BERLIN, January 19, 1917.

"On the 1st of February we intend to begin submarine warfare unrestricted. In spite of this it is our intention to endeavor to keep neutral the United States of America.

[Sidenote: Basis of alliance proposed to Mexico.]

"If this attempt is not successful, we propose an alliance on the following basis with Mexico: That we shall make war together and together make peace. We shall give general financial support, and it is understood that Mexico is to reconquer the lost territory in New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona. The details are left to you for settlement.

[Sidenote: Japan to be included.]

"You are instructed to inform the President of Mexico of the above in the greatest confidence as soon as it is certain there will be an outbreak of war with the United States, and suggest that the President of Mexico on his own initiative should communicate with Japan suggesting adherence at once to this plan; at the same time offer to mediate between Germany and Japan.

"Please call to the attention of the President of Mexico that the employment of ruthless submarine warfare now promises to compel England to make peace in a few months.

"(Signed) ZIMMERMANN."

* * * * *

The United States was, to a large extent, unprepared for war on the outbreak of hostilities with Germany. But when the step finally was taken, all the industrial, economic, and military resources, of the country, were mobilized. An account of how this was accomplished and the results of these efforts are described in the pages following.

PREPARING FOR WAR

NEWTON D. BAKER

SECRETARY OF WAR

[Sidenote: State of war formally declared.]

[Sidenote: Neutrality had delayed military preparations.]

[Sidenote: Great armies necessary.]

[Sidenote: Organization of finance, agriculture and industry.]

On the 6th day of April Congress declared "That the state of war between the United States and the Imperial German Government which had been thrust upon the United States is hereby formally declared." By this declaration and the proclamation of the President pursuant thereto, the United States entered the great conflict which had raged in Europe from August, 1914, as a belligerent power, and began immediately to prepare to defend the rights of the Nation, which for months had been endangered and denied by high-handed and inhuman acts of the German Government both on land and sea. The peaceful ambitions of our people had long postponed our entrance into the conflict; and adherence to a strict neutrality through long months of delicate situations delayed the beginning of active military preparation. At once, however, upon a declaration of a state of war, Congress began the consideration of the measures necessary for the enlargement of the military forces and the coordination of the industrial strength of the Nation. It was understood at the outset that war under modern conditions involved not only larger armies than the United States had ever assembled, but also more far-reaching modifications of our ordinary industrial processes and wider departures from the peace-time activities of the people. The task of the United States was not only immediately to increase its naval and military forces, not only to order the agricultural and industrial life of the Nation to support these enlarged military establishments, but also to bear an increasing financial, industrial, and agricultural burden for the support of those nations which, since 1914, have been in arms against the Imperial German Government and have borne not only the full force of the attack of its great military machine, but also the continuing drain upon their economic resources and their capacity for production which so titanic and long-continued a struggle necessarily entail.

[Sidenote: The whole people wish to help.]

[Sidenote: Benevolent and philanthropic societies.]

The first response from the country to the act of Congress in declaring a state of war came in the form of offers of services from the people, and for weeks there poured into the War Department an almost bewildering stream of letters and visitors offering service of every kind. Without distinction of age, sex, or occupation, without distinction of geographical location or sectional difference, the people arose with but one thought in their mind, that of tendering themselves, their talents, and their substance for the best use the country could make of them in the emergency. Organizations and associations sprang up over night in thousands of places, inspired by the hope that collective offers and aggregations of strength and facilities might be more readily assimilated by the Government; and benevolent and philanthropic societies began to form for the purpose of taking up as far as might be the vicarious griefs which follow in the train of military operations. There was at the outset some inevitable crossing of purposes and duplication of effort, and perhaps there may have been some disappointment that a more instantaneous use could not be made of all this wealth of willingness and patriotic spirit; but it was a superb and inspiring spectacle. Out of the body of a nation devoted to productive and peaceful pursuits, and evidencing its collective spirit only upon occasions for the settlement of domestic and institutional questions, there arose the figure of a national spirit which had lain dormant until summoned by a national emergency; but which, when it emerged, was seen to embody loyalty to our institutions, unity of purpose, and willingness to sacrifice on the part of our entire people as their underlying and dominant character.

[Sidenote: Great national strength in a free people.]

Those who believed that the obvious and daily exhibition of power which takes place in an autocracy is necessary for national strength, discovered that a finer, and freer, and greater national strength subsists in a free people, and that the silent processes of democracy, with their normal accent on the freedom of individuals, nevertheless afford springs of collective action and inspiration for self-sacrifice as wide and effective as they are spontaneous. The several Government departments, the Council of National Defense, and other agencies of a more or less formal character subdivided the work of organization. Congress rapidly perfected its legislative program, and in a few weeks very definite direction began to appear in the work of preparation.

[Sidenote: Act to increase Military Establishment.]

The act of May 18, 1917, entitled "An act to authorize the President to increase temporarily the Military Establishment of the United States," looked to three sources for the Army which it created:

[Sidenote: Regular Army to be increased.]

1. The regular Army, of which the actual strength on June 30, 1917, was 250,157 men and officers. The provisions of the act, however, contemplated an increase of the Regular Army to 18,033 officers and 470,185 enlisted men, the increase being effected by the immediate call of the increments provided in the National Defense Act of 1916, and the raising of all branches of the service to war strength.

[Sidenote: National Guard to be reorganized.]

2. The National Guard, reorganized under the National Defense Act, and containing on the 30th of June, 1917, approximately 3,803 officers and 107,320 enlisted men. The National Guard, however, by recruiting of its numbers and the raising of all arms to war strength, contemplated a total of 13,377 officers and 456,800 enlisted men.

[Sidenote: National Army to be raised by Selective Draft.]

3. In addition to this, the act provided for a National Army, raised by the process of selective conscription or draft, of which the President was empowered to summon two units of 500,000 men each at such time as he should determine wise.

[Sidenote: National Guard training camps.]

On the 3d day of July, 1917, the President by proclamation called into the Federal service and drafted the National Guard of the several States and the District of Columbia. And 16 divisional camps were established for their mobilization and training, as follows:

Charlotte, N. C.; Spartanburg, S. C.; Augusta, Ga.; Anniston, Ala.; Greenville, S. C.; Macon, Ga.; Waco, Tex.; Houston, Tex.; Deming, N. Mex.; Fort Sill, Okla.; Forth Worth, Tex.; Montgomery, Ala.; Hattiesburg, Miss.; Alexandria, La.; Buena Vista, Cal.; Palo Alto, Cal.

[Sidenote: Voluntary enlistment in the Regular Army and National Guard.]

[Sidenote: A spirit of cooperation.]

The principle of voluntary enlistment to fill up the ranks of the Regular Army and the National Guard, and to raise them to war strength was preserved in the act of May 18, 1917, the maximum age for enlistment in both services being fixed at 40 years. Even before the passage of the act, however, very great recruiting activity was shown throughout the country, the total number of enlistments in the Regular Army for the fiscal year 1917 being 160,084. The record of National Guard enlistments has not yet been completely compiled, but the act authorizing a temporary increase in the military establishment provided that any deficiency remaining in either the Regular Army or the National Guard should be made up by selective conscription. The introduction of this new method of enlistment so far affected the whole question of selection for military service that any deductions, either favorable or unfavorable, from the number of voluntary enlistments, would be unwarranted. It is entirely just to say that the States generally showed a most sympathetic spirit of cooperation with the National Government, and the National Guard responded with zeal and enthusiasm to the President's call.

[Sidenote: No exact precedent to follow.]

[Sidenote: England finally resorted to draft.]

[Sidenote: Organized industry back of armies.]

In the preparation of the act providing for the temporary increase in the Military Establishment, very earnest consideration was given by the committees of the two Houses of Congress and by the Department to the principles which would be followed in creating a military establishment under modern conditions adequate for the tremendous emergency facing the Nation. Our own history and experience with the volunteer system afforded little precedent because of the new conditions, and the experience of European nations was neither uniform nor wholly adequate. Our adversary, the German Empire, had for many years followed the practice of universal compulsory military training and service, so that it was a nation of trained soldiers. In France the same situation had existed. In England, on the other hand, the volunteer system had continued, and the British army was relatively a small body. The urgency, however, of the British need at the outbreak of the war, and the unbroken traditions of England, were against even the delay necessary to consider the principle upon which action might best be taken, so that England's first effort was reduced to that volunteer system, and her subsequent resort to the draft was made after a long experience in raising vast numbers of men by volunteer enlistment as a result of campaigns of agitation and patriotic appeal. The war in Europe, however, had lasted long enough to make quite clear the character of the contest. It was obviously no such war as had ever before occurred, both in the vast numbers of men necessary to be engaged in strictly military occupations and in the elaborate and far-reaching organization of industrial and civil society of the Nation back of the Army.

Our military legislation was drafted after very earnest consideration, to accomplish the following objects:

1. To provide in successive bodies adequate numbers of men to be trained and used as combatant forces.

2. To select for these armies men of suitable age and strength.

[Sidenote: Universal obligation to service.]

3. To distribute the burden of the military defense of the Nation in the most equitable and democratic manner, and to that end to recognize the universality of the obligation of service.

[Sidenote: Necessary men to be kept in industry.]

4. To reserve to the public authorities power so to control the selection of soldiers as to prevent the absorption of men indispensable to agriculture and industry, and to prevent the loss of national strength involved by the acceptance into military service of men whose greatest usefulness is in scientific pursuits or in production.

5. To select, so far as may be, those men for military service whose families and domestic obligations could best bear their separation from home and dependents, and thus to cause the least possible distress among the families of the Nation which are dependent upon the daily earnings of husbands and fathers for their support.

These considerations, shortly stated, amount to a policy which, recognizing the life of the nation as a whole, and assuming both the obligation and the willingness of the citizen to give the maximum of service, institutes a national process for the expression of our military, industrial, and financial strength, all at their highest, and with the least waste, loss, and distress.

[Sidenote: Regular Army and National Guard increased.]

The act of Congress authorizing the President to increase temporarily the Military Establishment of the United States, approved May 18, 1917, provided for the raising and maintaining by selective draft of increments (in addition to the Regular Army and National Guard) of 500,000 men each, together with recruit training units for the maintenance of such increments at the maximum strength, and the raising, organizing, and maintaining of additional auxiliary forces, and also for raising and maintaining at their maximum strength, by selective draft when necessary, the Regular Army and the National Guard drafted into the service of the United States.

[Sidenote: Male citizens between 21 and 30 years liable to military service.]

It also provided that such draft "shall be based upon liability to military service of all male citizens, or male persons not alien enemies, who have declared their intention to become citizens, between the ages of 21 and 30 years, both inclusive"; that the several States, Territories, and the District of Columbia should furnish their proportionate shares or quotas of the citizen soldiery determined in proportion to the population thereof, with certain credits allowed for volunteer enlistments in branches of the service then organized and existing.

The Nation was confronted with the task of constructing, without delay, an organization by which the selection might be made for the entire country by means of a uniform and regulated system.

[Sidenote: The Provost Marshal General begins registration.]

A suggestion of administration, incomplete because of entirely different conditions, arose from the precedent of the Civil War draft; and on May 22, 1917, the Judge Advocate General was detailed as "Provost Marshal General" and charged with the execution, under the Secretary of War, of so much of the act of May 18 "as relates to the registration and the selective draft." Plans had already been formulated for the operation of the selective draft, and with the formal designation of the Provost Marshal General the work of organization began.

[Sidenote: State organization utilized.]

It was obvious that to build up a new Federal organization would require a greater period of time than was afforded by the military necessity. The existing governmental organizations of the several States presented an available substitute, and the statute authorized their use. This expedient was unprecedented, but its practice has abundantly justified its adoption.

[Sidenote: State registration boards.]

The immediate need was for a comprehensive registration of every male of draft age. To effect this registration each State was divided into districts containing a population of approximately 30,000, in each of which a registration board was appointed by the governor. Usually this board consisted of the sheriff, the county health officer, and the county clerk; and where the county's population, exclusive of cities of more than 30,000 inhabitants, exceeded that number, additional registration boards were appointed. Cities of over 30,000 were treated as separate units. The election district was established as the actual unit for registration in order that the normal election machinery might be utilized, and a registrar for every 800 of population in each voting or election precinct was appointed by the registration board. In cities approximating 30,000 of population, the registration board was made up of city officials, and where the population exceeded the unit number additional registration boards of three members were appointed, one a licensed physician.

[Sidenote: The scheme of organization.]

Governors and mayors were given considerable latitude in making geographical divisions of the States and cities for the purpose of defining registration jurisdictions; the only limitation being that approximately 30,000 inhabitants should be included within the confines of a district. The general scheme was that the board of three should exercise supervision over the precinct registrars, the governors supervising the work of the registration boards, while the mayors of cities containing 30,000 or more inhabitants acted as intermediaries between governors and registration boards. Each State was constituted a separate unit and each governor was charged with the execution of the law in his State.

[Sidenote: Ten million young men register.]

By proclamation of the President, dated May 18, 1917, Tuesday, June 5, 1917, was designated as registration day throughout the United States, with the exception of Alaska, Hawaii, and Porto Rico; and, due to the fact that registration organization of the States had been so quickly and thoroughly completed, about 10,000,000 male citizens of the designated ages were registered on the day set, and the first step in the operation of the selective service law was accomplished.

Registration consisted in entering on a card essential facts necessary to a complete identification of the registrant and a preliminary survey of his domestic and economic circumstances.

[Sidenote: Citizens carry out registration.]

It is noteworthy that this registration throughout the entire country was carried out in the main by the voluntary and energetic efforts of citizens, and the Government was thereby saved a very great expense through the efficient organization which had been constructed and furnished with all necessary materials during the short period of sixteen days.

[Sidenote: Examination, selection, and mobilization.]

[Sidenote: Representative citizens of each community employed.]

With registration completed there followed the operation of examination, selection, and mobilization. The unit jurisdiction of approximately 30,000 of population was maintained as far as possible, and for each district or division a local board of three members was appointed by the President upon the recommendation of the governor. The board members were residents of the districts they served, and the personnel comprised representative and responsible citizens of the community, including usually a licensed physician. In many cases registration boards were reappointed local boards. Such boards exercised original jurisdiction in all cases except claims for discharge on account of engagement in industry or agriculture.

In every Federal judicial district one or more district boards were organized, consisting usually of five but in some cases of a larger number of members, comprising leading citizens of the community and appointed by the President upon the recommendation of the governor. District boards exercised appellate jurisdiction over local boards and original jurisdiction in industrial and agricultural claims.

[Sidenote: The order of liability of registrants.]

[Sidenote: Numbered cards.]

[Sidenote: The drawing in Washington on July 20, 1917.]

The initial step in the process of examination and selection was to establish the order of liability of each of the 10,000,000 registrants to be called for service. The cards within the jurisdiction of each local board, taken as a unit, had been serially numbered when completed and filed; and duplicates of the cards so numbered were deposited with the governor and with the district boards. The average number of registrants within the jurisdiction of a local board was about 2,500, the highest being 10,319. In order to establish the order of liability of each registrant in relation to the other registrants within the jurisdiction of the same local board, a drawing was held July 20, 1917, in the Public Hearing Room of the Senate Office Building in Washington, as a result of which every registrant was given an order number and his liability to be called for examination and selection determined by the order number.

The official lists of the numbers drawn by lot were furnished to every local board and from these lists the boards made up the availability order list of all registrants within their respective jurisdictions.

[Sidenote: Physical examination and elimination.]

The determination of the order of availability left only the process of physical examination and elimination. The War Department, through the Provost Marshal General's Office, had already determined and given notice of the number of men to be furnished by each State, and at the date of the drawing practically every State had ascertained and notified its local boards of the number required to complete their respective quotas for the first draft. The calculations of the War Department and of the States for the quotas were based upon section 2 of the act of May 18.

Immediately upon the completion of the order of call lists, the local boards began to summon for physical examination, beginning with the man who was No. 1 on the list, and continuing in numerical sequence, a sufficient number of registrants to fill their quotas. The average number summoned for the first examination was about twice the number required--i. e., if a board's quota was 105, the first 210 registrants of that jurisdiction were called for physical examination.

[Sidenote: Certain officials and classes exempted.]

The Selective Service Law required certain persons to be exempted from military service, including Federal and State legislative, executive, and judicial officers, ministers of religion, students of divinity, persons in the military or naval service of the United States, and certain aliens. The law further authorized the discharge from draft, under such regulations as the President might prescribe, of county and municipal officers, customhouse clerks and other persons employed by the United States in certain classes of work, pilots and mariners, and, within prescribed limitations, registrants in a status with respect to persons dependent upon them for support, and persons found physically or morally unfit. Exemption from combatant service only was authorized in the case of persons found to be members of any well-recognized religious sect or organization whose existing creed or principles forbid its members to participate in war in any form, and whose religious convictions are against war or participation therein.

[Sidenote: Rules governing discharges.]

On June 30, 1917, the President promulgated rules and regulations as authorized by the law prescribing the reasons for and manner of granting discharges, and the procedure of local and district boards.

The selective service system required the 4,557 local boards to conduct the physical examination of registrants within their jurisdictions, and to determine and dispose of claims of exemption and discharge in the first instance, excepting industrial and agricultural claims.

[Sidenote: The power of the district boards.]

The 156 district boards which were established as above stated, proved to be the fulcrum of balance between the local boards and the registrants. In practically every instance their members have been chosen from among the most able and conspicuous representatives of the legal and medical professions, and from the fields of industry, commerce, and labor.

[Sidenote: Appeal agents appointed.]

By regulation the case of every person discharged from the operation of the selective service law by a local board on the ground of dependency was automatically taken to the district board for review, the appeal being noted by Government appeal agents appointed by the Provost Marshal General.

[Sidenote: Dependency cases the most difficult.]

Registrants whose claims were disallowed by local boards appealed in large numbers to district boards. Thus was obtained a high degree of uniformity of decisions in dependency cases, which were by far the most difficult of determination and disposition, as well as the most numerous, of the classes of cases throughout the first draft.

Cases involving claims for discharge on agricultural and industrial grounds, of which district boards have original jurisdiction, are appealable to the President, and to date approximately 20,000 of these have been received and indexed, of which about 80 per cent are claims for discharge based on agricultural grounds and 20 per cent on industrial grounds. Of cases already disposed of on appeal from the district boards less than 7 per cent have been reversed. The pending of an appeal to the President does not operate as a stay of induction into military service except where the district board has expressly so directed, and the number of such stays is negligible.

[Sidenote: The total cost of the draft.]

The total cost of the draft can not be estimated accurately at this time, but, based upon the data at hand, the total registration and selection of the first 687,000 men has amounted to an approximate expenditure of $5,600,000, or about $8.11 unit cost.

[Sidenote: Universal willingness to serve.]

[Sidenote: High quality of men obtained.]

The unprecedented character of this undertaking is a matter of common knowledge. Congress, in the consideration of the act which authorized it, entertained grave doubts as to whether a plan could be devised which would apply so new a principle of selection for national service without much misunderstanding and unhappiness. But the results have been of a most inspiring kind and have demonstrated the universal willingness of our people to serve in the defense of our liberties and to commit the selection of the Nation's defenders to the Nation itself. The men selected have reported to the camps and are in course of training. They constitute as fine a body of raw material as were ever trained in military science. They are already acquiring the smartness and soldierly bearing characteristic of American troops, and those who once thought that the volunteer spirit was necessary to insure contentment and zeal in soldiers now freely admit that the men selected under this act have these qualities in high degree and that it proceeds out of a patriotic willingness on the part of the men to bear their part of the national burden and to do their duty at the Nation's call.

[Sidenote: Ability of Provost Marshal General.]

[Sidenote: This mode of selection made necessary by conditions of modern war.]

[Sidenote: The democratic fairness of the plan.]

The success of this great undertaking is, of course, primarily due to the painstaking forethought and the statesmanlike breadth of view with which the Provost Marshal General and his associates organized the machinery for its execution. But other elements have contributed to its success, and first among these was the determination to rely upon the cooperation of the governors of States and State agencies in the assembling of the registration and exemption boards. By reason of this association of State and local agencies with the National Government the law came as no outside mandate enforced by soldiers, but as a working of the home institutions in the hands of neighbors and acquaintances pursuing a clear process of selection, and resulting in a gift by the States to the Nation of a body of men to be trained. The press of the country cooperated in a most helpful way, drawing the obvious distinctions between this mode of selection and those punitive drafts which have sometimes been resorted to after the failure of volunteering, and pointing out the young men of the country that the changed conditions of warfare made necessary a mode of selection which would preserve the industrial life of the Nation as a foundation for successful military operations. Indeed, the country seemed generally to have caught enough of the lessons of the European war to have realized the necessity of this procedure, and from the very beginning criticism was silenced and doubt answered by the obvious wisdom of the law. Moreover, the unquestioned fairness of the arrangements, the absence of all power of substitution, the fact that the processes of the law were worked out publicly, all cooperated to surround the draft with assurances of fairness and equality, so that throughout the whole country the attitude of the people toward the law was one of approval and confidence, and I feel very sure that those who at the beginning had any doubts would now with one accord agree that the selective service act provides not only a necessary mode of selecting the great armies needed under modern conditions, but that it provides a better and more democratic and a fairer method of distributing the burden of national defense than any other system as yet suggested.

[Sidenote: Fundamental questions settled.]

[Sidenote: Unity of spirit of American people.]

This does not mean, of course, that the law is perfect either in its language or in its execution, nor does it mean that improvements may not be made as our experience grows and as the need for more intense national efforts increases; but such amendments as may hereafter be required will proceed with the fundamental questions settled and we have now only to consider changes which may be required to a better ordering of our military strength and a more efficient maintenance of our industrial and agricultural life during the stress of war. The passage and execution of this law may be regarded as a milestone in our progress toward self-consciousness and national strength. Its acceptance shows the unity of spirit of our people, and its operation shows that a democracy has in its institutions the concentrated energy necessary to great national activities however much they may be scattered and dispersed, in the interest of the preservation of individual liberty, in time of peace.

[Sidenote: The Officer's Reserve Corps.]

[Sidenote: Physicians commissioned in the Medical Department.]

[Sidenote: Men from the Plattsburg training camps.]

The problem presented involved not merely the selection of forces to be trained into armies but officers to do the training. By the provisions of the national defense act of June 3, 1916, Officers' Reserve Corps had been authorized. Rules and regulations for their organization were promulgated in July, 1916, and amended in March, 1917. Immediately upon the passage of the act, the building up of lists of reserve officers in the various sections of the Military Establishment was undertaken, with the result that at the end of the fiscal year some of the branches of the service had substantial lists of men available for duty in the event of call. The largest number of commissions were issued in the technical services, for which professional nonmilitary training was the principal requisite. The largest reserve corps was that in the Medical Department, in which more than 12,000 physicians were commissioned. The expansion of these technical services proceeded easily upon the basis of the reserve corps beginning, but the number of applicants for commissions in the strictly military or combatant branches of the service was relatively small. They consisted of men who had had military experience either in the Regular Army or the National Guard, and men who were graduates of schools and colleges affording military training, and of the training camps which for several years had been maintained at Plattsburg and throughout the country. Their number, however, was wholly inadequate, and their experience, while it had afforded the elements of military discipline, had not been such as was plainly required to train men for participation in the European war with its changed methods and conditions. The virtue of the law authorizing the Officers' Reserve Corps, however, became instantly apparent upon the declaration of war, as it enabled the department to establish officers' training camps for the rapid production of officers.

[Sidenote: A series of officers training camps.]

[Sidenote: Officers commissioned.]

Accepting the Plattsburg experiment as the basis and using funds appropriated by Congress for an enlargement of the Plattsburg system of training, the department established a series of training camps, sixteen in number, which were opened on the 15th of May, 1917. The camps were scattered throughout the United States so as to afford the opportunity of entrance and training with the least inconvenience and expense of travel to prepare throughout the entire country. Officers previously commissioned in the reserve corps were required to attend the camps, and, in addition, approximately 30,000 selected candidates were accepted from among the much greater number who applied for admission. These camps were organized and conducted under the supervision of department commanders; applicants were required to state their qualifications and a rough apportionment was attempted among the candidates to the several States. At the conclusion of the camp, 27,341 officers were commissioned and directed to report at the places selected for the training of the new army. By this process, we supplied not only the officers needed for the National Army but filled the roster of the Regular Army, to which substantial additions were necessary by reason of the addition of the full number of increments provided by the National Defense Act of 1916.

[Sidenote: The second series of officers' training camps.]

[Sidenote: Officers needed also for staff duties.]

[Sidenote: Constant experimentation necessary.]

[Sidenote: Victory rests on science as much as on soldiers.]

The results of the first series of camps were most satisfactory and, anticipating the calling of further increments of the National Army, a second series of camps was authorized, to begin August 27, 1917, under rules for the selection of candidates and their apportionment throughout the country which were much more searching and embodied those improvements which are always possible in the light of experience. Approximately 20,000 candidates are now attending this second series of camps, and those found qualified will shortly be commissioned and absorbed into the Army for the performance of the expanding volume of duties which the progress of preparation daily brings about. It is to be remembered that the need for officers exists not only in connection with the actual training of troops in camp and the leadership of troops in the field, but a vast number of officers must constantly be employed in staff duties, and great numbers must as constantly be engaged in military research and in specialized forms of training associated with the use of newly developed arms and appliances. In other words, we must maintain not merely the special-service schools which are required to perfect the training of officers in the special arms of the service, but we must constantly experiment with new devices and reduce to practical use the discoveries of science and the new applications of mechanical and scientific arts, both for offensive and defensive purposes. It would be out of place here to enumerate or describe in any detail the service of science in this war, but when the history of the struggle comes to be written it will be found that the masters of the chemical and physical sciences have thrown their talents and their ingenuity into the service, that their researches have been at the very basis of military progress, and that the victory rests as much upon a nation's supremacy in the researches and adaptations of science as it does upon the number and valor of its soldiers. Indeed, this is but one of the many evidences of the fact that modern war engages all of the resources of nations and that that nation will emerge victorious which has most completely used and coordinated all the intellectual, moral, and physical forces of its people.

[Sidenote: Fundamentals of military discipline do not change.]

[Sidenote: Professional soldiers still needed.]

It would be a national loss for me to fail to record in this place a just estimate of the value to the Nation of these training camps for officers. They disclosed an unsuspected source of military strength. Nobody will suppose that, with the growing intricacy of military science and the industrial arts related to it, a country can dispense with trained professional soldiers. The fundamentals of military discipline remain substantially unchanged and, in order that we may assemble rapidly and effectively adequate military forces, there must always be in the country a body of men to whom the life of a soldier is a career and who have acquired from their youth those qualities which have, from the beginning, distinguished the graduates of the Military Academy at West Point: the disciplined honor, the unfaltering courage, the comprehension of sacrifice, and that knowing obedience which proceeds from constant demonstrations of the fact that effective cooperation in war requires instant compliance with the command of authority, the sort of obedience which knows that a battle field is no place for a parliament. Added to these mental and moral qualities, the body of professional soldiers must devote themselves unremittingly to the development of the arts of war, and when the emergency arises must be familiar with the uses of science and the applications of industry in military enterprise. But these training camps have taught us that, given this relatively small body of professional soldiers, the Nation has at hand an apparently inexhaustible body of splendid material which can be rapidly made to supplement the professional soldier.

[Sidenote: Athletes from the colleges.]

[Sidenote: Adaptability of American youth.]

[Sidenote: Atmosphere of industrial and commercial democracy.]

[Sidenote: Many officers assigned to training of troops from their homes.]

When the first camp was opened, the colleges, military schools, and high schools of the country poured out a stream of young men whose minds had been trained in the classroom and whose bodies had been made supple and virile on the athletic field. They came with intelligence, energy, and enthusiasm and, under a course of intensive training, rapidly took on the added discipline and capacities necessary to equip them for the duties of officers. They have taken their places in the training camps and are daily demonstrating the value of their education and the adaptability of the spirit of American youth. A more salutary result would be impossible to imagine. The trained professional soldiers of the Army received this great body of youthful enthusiasm and capacity with hospitality and quickly impressed upon it a soldierly character. The young men brought to their training habits which they had formed for success as civilians, but which their patriotic enthusiasm rendered easily available in new lines of endeavor for the service of the country. They brought, too, another element of great value. They were assembled from all parts of the country; they were accustomed to the democracy of the college and high school; they recognized themselves as new and temporary adventurers in a military life; and they, therefore, reflected into our military preparation the fresh and invigorating atmosphere of our industrial and commercial democracy. This has undoubtedly contributed to the establishment of a happy spirit which prevails throughout the Army and has made it easy for the young men chosen under the selective service act to fall in with the training and mode of life which the military training camp requires. An effort was made by the department as far as possible to assign these young officers to the training of troops assembled from their own homes. By this means, a preexisting sympathy was used, and admiration and respect between officer and man was transferred from the home to the camp.

[Sidenote: The three divisions of the Army.]

[Sidenote: Enlistments may be for the period of the war.]

[Sidenote: Men anxious to get to France soon.]

[Sidenote: Traditions of military organizations preserved.]

The three divisions of the Army, namely, the Regular Army, the National Guard, and the National Army, were very different organizations as we contemplated them at the time of the passage of the act for the temporary increase of the Military Establishment. The Regular Army was a veteran establishment of professional soldiers; the National Guard a volunteer organization of local origin maintained primarily for the preservation of domestic order in the several States, with an emergency duty toward the national defense; the National Army an unknown quantity, made up of men to be selected arbitrarily by tests and rules as yet to be formulated, unorganized, untrained, existing only in theory and, therefore, problematical as to its spirit and the length of time necessary to fit it for use. Congress, however, most wisely provided as far as possible for an elimination of these differences. Enlistments in the Regular Army and National Guard were authorized to be made for the period of the war rather than for fixed terms; the maximum and minimum ages of enlistment in the Regular Army and National Guard were assimilated; the rights and privileges of members of the three forces were made largely identical. Indeed, the act created but one army, selected by three processes. The wisdom of Congress in this course became instantly apparent. Spirited young men throughout the country began at once to enlist in the Regular Army and National Guard who might have been deterred from such enlistment had their obligation been for a fixed period rather than for the duration of the war. Many men asked themselves but one question: "By which avenue of service will I earliest get to France?" The men in the National Army soon caught this spirit and, while the department is endeavoring to preserve as far as possible in the National Guard and the National Army those intimacies which belong to men who come from the same city or town, and to preserve the honorable traditions of military organizations which have histories of service to the country in other wars, the fact still remains that the army is rapidly becoming the army of the United States, with the sense of origin from a particular State, or association with a particular neighborhood, more and more submerged by the rising sense of national service and national identity.

[Sidenote: Sites selected for cantonments.]

[Sidenote: Sixteen divisional cantonments.]

[Sidenote: Emergency construction division established.]

I have described above the process of the execution of the selective service law. The preparation of places for the training of the recruits thus brought into the service was a task of unparalleled magnitude. On the 7th of May, 1917, the commanding generals of the several departments were directed to select sites for the construction of cantonments for the training of the mobilized National Guard and the National Army. The original intention was the construction of 32 cantonments. The appropriations made by Congress for this purpose were soon seen to be insufficient, and further study of the problem seemed to show that it would be unwise so seriously to engage the resources of the country, particularly in view of the fact that the National Guard was ready to be mobilized, that its training by reason of service on the Mexican border was substantial, and that its early use abroad in conjunction with the Regular Army would render permanent camps less important. The number was, therefore, cut to 16 divisional cantonments, and the National Guard was mobilized in camps for the most part under canvas, with only certain divisional storehouses and quarters for special uses constructed of wood. Because of the open weather during the winter months, the National Guard camps were located in the southern States. The National Army cantonments were located within the lines of the military division. A special division of the Quartermaster General's Department was established, known as the emergency construction division, and to it was given the task of erecting the cantonment buildings and such buildings as should be necessary for the National Guard.

On May 17, 1917, Col. I. W. Littell, of the Regular Army, was detailed to assemble and direct an organization to be known as the cantonment division of the Quartermaster Corps, whose duties were to consist of providing quarters and camps for the training and housing of the New National Army, which was to be selected by conscription as provided in the act of Congress dated May 18, 1917.

Able assistance was rendered by the following members of the committee on emergency construction and contracts, a subcommittee of the Munitions Board of the Council of National Defense:

Major W. A. Starrett, chairman; Major William Kelly; C. M. Lundoff; M. C. Tuttle; F. L. Olmsted; J. B. Talmadge, secretary.

[Sidenote: Specialists in purchasing and constructing secured.]

Inquiries were immediately made and all available means used by telegraph, correspondence, and consultation to get in touch with the ablest constructors, engineers, draftsmen, purchasing agents, and other specialists of broad experience in their respective vocations from which an efficient and experienced organization could be selected.

All of those selected who became attached to the organization in an official capacity gave up responsible and remunerative positions to give the Government the benefit of their services. They all being over the draft-age limit and representative technical men of repute and standing in their community, a splendid precedent of patriotism was established.

The assembling of an organization and the planning and execution of the work was undertaken with a view of accomplishing all that human ingenuity, engineering, and constructing skill could devise in the brief time available.

[Sidenote: The plans formulated.]

[Sidenote: Magnitude of the task.]

Plans were formulated by engineers, architects, and town planners who had given much thought to the particular problems involved. Camp sites comprising from 2,000 to 11,000 acres each were selected by a board of Army officers under the direction of the department commanders. Names of responsible contracting firms were secured and every effort made to perfect an organization competent to carry out the work of completing the camps at the earliest possible moment. The magnitude of assembling an organization for carrying on the work and securing the labor and materials therefor can in some measure be realized by reference to the following table, showing quantities of the principal materials estimated to be used in the construction of the National Army cantonments.

[Sidenote: Approximate quantities of materials.]

The approximate quantities of principal materials used in the construction of the various National Army camps are shown in the following tables. This does not include National Guard, embarkation, or training camps.

Quantity.
Lumber (feet b. m.) 450,000,000
Roofing paper (square feet) 76,000,000
Doors 140,000
Window sash 700,000
Wall board (square feet) 29,500,000
Shower heads 40,000
Water-closet bowls 54,000
Tank heaters and tanks 11,000
Heating boilers 1,800
Radiation (square feet) 4,200,000
Cannon stoves 20,000
Room heaters 20,000
Kitchen stoves and ranges 10,000
Wood pipe for water supply (feet) 1,000,000
Cast-iron supply pipe (feet) 470,000
Wire, all kinds and sizes (miles) 5,500
Wood tanks (aggregate capacity) 8,300,000
Hose carts 600
Fire engines 90
Fire extinguishers 4,700
Fire hose (feet) 392,500
Fire hydrants 3,600
Hand-pump tanks 12,700
Fire pails 163,000
Cots 721,000

Sixteen National Army camps were constructed in various parts of the United States at points selected by the War Department. The camps were carefully laid out by experienced town planners and engineers to give best results considering all viewpoints.

[Sidenote: Extent of a typical National Army cantonment.]

[Sidenote: Roads constructed and improvements installed.]

A typical cantonment city will house 40,000 men. Each barrack building will house 150 men and provide 500 cubic feet of air space per man. Such a cantonment complete contains between 1,000 and 1,200 buildings and covers about 2,000 acres. In addition, each cantonment has a rifle range, drill, parade, and maneuver grounds of about 2,000 acres. In many cases all or a large part of the entire site had to be cleared of woods and stumps. The various military units were located on principal or primary roads--a regiment being treated as a primary unit. About 25 miles of roads were constructed at each cantonment, and sewers, water supply, lighting facilities, and other improvements installed.

[Sidenote: The special buildings required.]

An infantry regiment requires 22 barrack buildings, 6 for officers' quarters, 2 storehouses, 1 infirmary building, 28 lavatories, with hot and cold shower baths, or a total of 59 buildings. In addition to the buildings necessary for the regimental units, each cantonment has buildings for divisional headquarters, quartermaster depots, laundry receiving and distributing stations, base hospitals having 1,000 beds, post exchanges, and other buildings for general use.

[Sidenote: Remount stations.]

At several of the cantonments remount stations have been provided, some of them having a capacity to maintain 12,000 horses.

[Sidenote: Other necessary camps.]

In addition to the National Army camps, plans were made for the construction of 16 National Guard, two embarkation and one quartermaster training camp, but the construction of these items did not involve so large an expenditure as the National Army camps, as provision was made for fewer units and only tentage quarters for the men in the National Guard camps was provided. Modern storehouses, kitchens, mess shelters, lavatories, shower baths, base hospitals, and remount depots were built, and water, sewerage, heating, and light systems installed at an expenditure of about $1,900,000 for each camp.

[Sidenote: The demand for construction and supplies.]

[Sidenote: Savings effected by standardization.]

With the advent of the United States into the war, there has appeared not only one of the world's greatest builders, but the world's greatest customer for supplies and human necessaries. We have not only to equip, house, and supply our own army, but meet the demands arising from the drainage of the resources of the entente allies. Small shopping and bargaining are out of the question. Enormous savings were, however, effected, due to the fact that materials were purchased in large quantities and consequently at a much reduced price. Standardization of sizes saved from $5 to $6 per thousand feet b. m. on lumber, and a further saving of from $3 to $11 over prevailing prices was effected by the lumber subcommittee of the Council of National Defense. The Raw Materials Committee effected similar savings in prepared roofing, nails, and other construction materials. The lead subcommittee procured 500 tons of lead for caulking pipe at 3 cents less than market price. When it is considered that this construction work is, next to the Panama Canal, the largest ever undertaken by the United States, the country is to be congratulated on having available the men and materials to accomplish the feat of providing for the maintenance of the newly organized army in so short a period.

[Sidenote: Extensive construction work for National Army.]