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.]