THE BALANCE SHEET
What did the war cost America? It may be that an accurate answer to
that question will never be given. Certainly it cannot be given now,
when the stocks of surplus materials are still being sold and the final
settlements of the more difficult claims are still being made. Still,
we can arrive at a fair approximation of what the war cost the War
Department alone. In doing so we must deal with billions of dollars in
our columns, and therefore errors and differences of a few millions,
or even of a few hundred millions, have no important effect upon the
totals. Even if all costs and credits could be figured out to the
penny, the result would not be much unlike the estimates which follow.
As a starting point we can take the appropriations for the Army made
by Congress, since all the war costs of the War Department must be
included within those appropriations. And we find that for the Army
Congress appropriated in all, for every war purpose, the sum of
$24,373,274,223.67. But not all these appropriations were expended.
Some were made late in the war, and none of the money authorized
by these acts to be spent was even obligated before the armistice
terminated all proposed new projects. Congress hastened to repeal
the untouched appropriations, and the various repeal acts canceled
authorizations to the amount of $7,703,448,569.36. Therefore, the net
amount made available to the War Department by the war appropriations
was $16,669,825,654.31.
This figure still does not represent the gross war cost of maintaining
the War Department, but it is close to it. Since final expenditures and
reimbursements have not yet been determined, but are still growing, as
claims are paid and surplus property is sold, it is necessary that we
accept a date somewhere and examine the ledger on that day, and from
this examination we may be able to estimate closely the final figures.
The date chosen here is April 17, 1920,--a day far enough this side
of the armistice to bring the figures fairly close to their ultimate
and conclusive form. By that day the Army was almost completely
demobilized, the liquidation of the Army’s foreign affairs was
virtually complete, the demobilization of the domestic war industry was
approaching the end, and the greater part of the surplus war supplies
had been sold.
On April 17, 1920, then, we find that the actual expenditures of the
War Department had reached the total of $16,276,288,337.19. This was
within $400,000,000 of the net war appropriations, the difference, of
course, being in the Treasury as unexpended balances available to those
paying the final war bills of the War Department. Yet this expenditure
cannot be labeled the cash cost of the war to the Army. We must first
make several large deductions for money derived from sales of materials
and, especially, for the property on hand set aside for the permanent
Army and for the military readiness of the United States.
The foreign liquidation, as we have seen, recovered into the Treasury
approximately $757,000,000. On April 17, 1920, the sales of military
property in the United States had brought in the sum of $641,261,000.
Transfers of army property for use by other departments of the
Government--a proper credit--involved materials valued at $42,096,000.
On the date selected there still remained in the United States surplus,
but unsold, army property valued at $600,000,000. The average recovery
from the sale of surplus within the United States was about 75 per cent
of the cost. Assuming that this ratio would hold throughout the entire
liquidation, we can anticipate a cash recovery of $450,000,000 from the
surplus still existing on April 17, 1920.[16]
These reimbursements, however, even in the aggregate, constitute a
minor credit when compared with the value of the equipment left by the
war enterprise to be the inheritance of the permanent establishment
and to be insurance of the continued safety of the United States
in a world not yet willing to lay down its arms. The property of
the War Department at the beginning of the war with Germany was
estimated to be worth $500,000,000. At the end of the demobilization
the property of the War Department was worth, at a rough estimate,
$6,000,000,000. It is evident, therefore, that this increment in
value--$5,500,000,000--represents present useful property, and that
it must be subtracted from the expenditures in order to arrive at
the net cost of the war itself. This valuation of property on hand,
incidentally, does not include the value of real estate and buildings
acquired during the war and retained in use afterwards, since it has
never been fully determined as yet which of these installations will be
kept.
The deductions, then, on account of sales and on account of property
retained, amount to $7,390,000,000, and this is the gross credit on
the war page of the army ledger. To find the net cost of the war
proper, we must subtract this from the gross expenditures, and we must
do this roughly; because with transactions so large, indefinite, and
complicated, it becomes absurd to reduce the figures to cents or even
to thousands of dollars. The rough subtraction gives us the figure
$8,885,000,000, which is not many millions away from the actual net
cost. This, of course, represents cost to the War Department alone.
It does not include the Navy’s costs, nor those of the United States
Shipping Board, nor of the United States Railroad Administration, nor
any costs of other great and expensive war enterprises which properly
must be added in to give the full score of the cost of the war to the
United States.
This net cost, this sum of $8,885,000,000, represents what the
Government paid in transporting the 4,000,000 men of the Army, in
feeding them, clothing them, and providing them with all other sorts
of expendable supplies which they actually consumed, and in paying the
troops their wages. The supply cost, of course, includes the cost of
the industrial liquidation after the armistice and the losses from the
shrinkages and wastes of war. The whole bill comes out at about $2,200
a man.
This, too, is but the direct cash cost, the cost in money. The
intangible costs, which are never brought into a tabulation of this
kind, are, after all, the true costs of war. They include the 50,000
American soldiers killed in battle in Europe. They include also the
200,000 Americans who were wounded in the fighting--some of them still,
two and a half years after the armistice, in hospitals and thousands
of them facing life with permanently impaired bodies. These usually
unreckoned costs, too, include the 57,000 who died of disease or
accident while in the service.
But beyond these losses of life there were other profound penalties
which the people paid and are still paying. These, too, must be set
down to the account of war in any complete reckoning. One of them was
the greatly increased cost of almost everything necessary to sustain
life and render it pleasant, including particularly an increase of
rentals, bringing with it, as a natural consequence, the overcrowding
of living quarters, to the detriment of the health of those existing in
such conditions. The high costs of living are aggravated by the special
war taxes laid everywhere, taxes which, in one form or another, must be
imposed for many years to come in order to pay for the losses of the
war.
There were, moreover, spiritual losses--an incredible moral slump from
the national exaltation of the war to the bickering and bitterness of
the demobilization. Governments fell as the war-ridden peoples of the
earth blindly and brutishly vented their spleen and irritation for
the hardships they had experienced upon those who chanced to be in
power. Erstwhile statesmanship lapsed into a narrow, advantage-seeking
partizanship that regarded not, it sometimes seemed in this country,
even the fate of the world. The United States turned its back upon the
League of Nations, which was the most ambitious attempt ever made by
the nations of the earth to substitute a rule of reason for the rule of
force.
But if we recite these and other intangible and indirect costs that
might be named, then we are equally justified in looking for the
benefits derived from our participation in the war; and we find these
benefits to be great ones. First of all, we gained the victory;
and that alone, and especially so because the cause of America was
righteous, was worth all it cost in blood and money and burdens
shouldered for the future. We gained, moreover, a state of preparedness
for war that would have been impossible of attainment under any other
circumstances. In the reserves of supplies we have equipment ready
to arm 1,000,000 men as rapidly as they can take the field. In the
reserves of machinery we have a potential war industry capable of
maintaining such an army until industry generally can take up the
manufacture of munitions. Not again during the existence of the present
generation should we, if the emergency came, have to experience the
uncertainties and delays of 1917 in the production of supplies. We have
within our war reserves the machinery and the materials for producing
all the more difficult sorts of munitions, and we have, moreover,
preserved records of how to produce them.
Then, again, the health of the nation has presumably gained a benefit
from the experience. Hundreds of thousands of young men were removed
from sedentary occupations and placed in the vigorous, ordered,
athletic regimen of camp life. Several months of this, on the average,
did not fail to have its effect, and the medical records of the Army
showed a marked increase in the average weight of soldiers during the
war. Akin to this consideration is the fact that men were picked up
from farms, villages, and city neighborhoods and transported to distant
parts of the earth. This travel broadened thousands of them, quickened
their ambition, and strengthened their life purposes. Moreover, the
men of the Army were thoroughly mixed in the ranks and services. The
boy from Maine fraternized with the one from Arizona, and Illinois
and Virginia sent their sons to be comrades. Sectional, national, and
even racial lines disappeared in the ranks. This extensive regional
interacquaintanceship is to-day a national asset. The infiltration of
4,000,000 men who secured these individual benefits into the civilian
life of America is calculated to elevate the physical, mental, and
moral tone of the whole nation and to improve America’s homogeneity.
Other benefits might be named. The principle of selective military
service has been established by the precedent set in the World War.
As long as that experience is remembered there will be no danger
that America would ever return, in any serious emergency, to the
unscientific volunteer system that takes the brave and the enterprising
and leaves behind the indolent and timorous. Above all, we must count
as gain from the war the confirmation it gave us in our faith in
our ability to continue our existence as a nation. The experience
demonstrated that our national resources include not only valor in arms
in boundless quantity, but also the ability to organize effectively a
nation as great as ours for a purpose as complicated as modern war has
come to be. The experience in 1917 and 1918 gave us a firm foundation
for national self-confidence.
These are all benefits and gains which may properly be set off against
the intangible costs of the war. Among the benefits secured, however,
is not yet one which we might, in 1917 and 1918, have expected to
find there. The American host which crossed to France went, almost
to a man, uplifted and made heroic by the feeling that it was an
army of crusaders fighting to end wars forever. No mere instinct of
self-preservation, no simple prospect of a victory over a strange,
foreign enemy in gray uniforms, could have inspired the morale of
the American Expeditionary Forces, nor yet that of the forces in
training in the United States, nor that of American industry in its
eager, headlong devotion to the national undertaking. This was to
be Armageddon, the last of wars, the war to make safe the unwarlike
peoples of the world; and no cynical dictum that man is still too near
his neolithic savagery to rely on anything other than might in his
international contentions, no Chauvinistic picture of new migrations
of Asiatic hordes, can change the fundamental fact that America went
to war in the belief that its chiefest object was to end war forever.
Until we have made some national attempt to secure that benefit, the
page will not balance.
FOOTNOTES
[1] In this the system differed from that in use in the United States.
Not the Quartermaster Corps but the Embarkation Service in the United
States prepared the overseas troops for the voyage and embarked them
on the transports. The Embarkation Service also operated many of the
transports. After the armistice the Embarkation Service, now merged
into the Transportation Service, continued to manage the Army’s ocean
shipping facilities, and it also attended to the details of debarking
troops at the ports in this country; but its jurisdiction over those
troops began only after they had boarded the ships in France.
[2] Deadweight tonnage represents the weight of cargo it takes to sink
a vessel in the water from her light-load line to her deep-load line.
[3] In the spring of 1919 the Transportation Service brought back to
America from Archangel the American troops, about 4,500 in number,
sent to northern Russia in September, 1918, to combat the Bolsheviki.
It also, in late 1919 and early 1920, transported from Vladivostok to
American Pacific ports about 10,000 American troops who had been sent
to Siberia at different times to aid Czecho-Slovak, Japanese, and other
Allied forces in operations against German and Austrian troops aiding
the hostile native Russians in Siberia. In 1920 the Transportation
Service, acting as an independent contractor, undertook to repatriate
30,000 of the Czecho-Slovak Siberian troops cut off from escape to
the Balkans by the successes of the Bolsheviki in southern Russia.
To the government of Czecho-Slovakia the Service named the price of
$12,000,000 for this work, a price criticized in this country as too
low. The last of the 30,000 Czecho-Slovaks were landed at Trieste
about January 1, 1921, and the whole job had been carried through
at a cost of approximately $8,000,000. The Service employed twelve
U. S. transports for one or more trips in the movement of the Czech
expedition, and two of them--the _America_ and the _President Grant_,
both ex-German liners--circumnavigated the globe in the process of
the work, proceeding from New York to Vladivostok _via_ Panama and
thence to Trieste _via_ the Indian Ocean and the Suez Canal, and
from Trieste to New York _via_ Gibraltar. The Czechs traveled under
American military discipline with what that implies in cleanliness and
sanitation, and therefore moved without the epidemics of disease that
have usually accompanied the progress of Balkan forces.
[4] The disability discovered in these examinations was surprisingly
small, affecting a little more than 5 per cent of the soldiers
examined. Since the so-called limited-service men--soldiers suffering
from physical disability at the time of their induction and accepted
for military duties with the proviso that they should serve in
capacities where their physical shortcomings would not impair
their value to the Government--since these men also went to the
demobilization centers for discharge, it is evident that, to show a
true picture of the physical condition of the Army at demobilization,
the limited-service troops must be subtracted from the totals. With
such subtraction made, it is estimated that less than 5 per cent of
the men called to arms and accepted for service incurred physical
disability of any sort by reason of their experience.
[5] This work was practically all done after the date of the armistice
and before the advent of spring in 1919--in other words, during the
time of the year when the days are short and the nights long.
[6] The financing of war factories, and particularly of those which
had to make large and expensive plant additions before manufacturing
could proceed, was effectively aided by the War Credits Board of the
War Department. In the autumn of 1917 Congress authorized the War
Department to advance to contractors amounts up to 30 per cent of the
total contract obligations. The War Credits Board administered this
work. In all, it lent to war department contractors about $250,000,000.
On June 1, 1921, it had recouped all but $14,500,000 of these loans.
Its total losses were not expected to run over $150,000, while the
profits (interest, of which $8,000,000 had been collected) were
estimated at $12,000,000.
[7] The A. E. F. importations include all American-made guns shipped to
France, these same guns also being included among the 6,663 units noted
as built in the United States.
[8] This and other special artillery plants since sold to private
buyers are regarded as military assets. In the event of another great
war they would undoubtedly be used once more for the work their walls
encompassed in 1918.
[9] Includes surplus for sale.
[10] Sufficient to equip engineer troops with army of 825,000 men.
[11] _Chemical Warfare._ By Fries and West; the McGraw-Hill Company.
[12] Abridged from the discussion in _Chemical Warfare_. By Fries and
West; the McGraw-Hill Company.
[13] Under the contract France and England must at any time lease this
or some other cross-Channel cable to the United States upon the request
of this country.
[14] The French Government later converted the plant into a railroad
car repair shop.
[15] This sum was much more than offset in our favor by the decline in
sterling exchange during the time bills were unpaid.
[16] Due to the slump in business and prices in 1921, this estimate is
probably too high.
INDEX
Aberdeen Proving Ground, 176
Abuse of Uniform, 109–110
Agriculture, Department of:
Army supplies transferred to, 43, 275–276
Army surplus nitrate sold by, 274
Aircraft:
Production, 199–203
Storage, 208
Aircraft Board, 204
Aircraft Industrial Demobilization, 204–207
Airplane Engines:
Returned by A. E. F., 210
Sale of surplus, 280
War production, 202–203, 206
Airplane Lumber, 280
Airplane Lumber Claim, 293–294
Airplanes:
Burning of unserviceable, 211–213
Contracts, 199
Production, 202, 206
Returned by A. E. F., 210–211
Sale of surplus, 280
Air Service: Demobilization of, 50, 133, 204, 207, 280–281
Air Service Claims Board, 204
Air Service of A. E. F.:
Demobilization, 210–213
Maintenance cost, 203
Allies: Business settlement with, 287–288, 313–314
Allotments, 71–72
Amatol Arsenal, 188
American Brake Shoe & Foundry Co.: Builders of Erie Howitzer Plant,
171
American Car & Foundry Co.:
Claim of, 156
Post-armistice production by, 179
American Cyanamid Co.: Process of, at Muscle Shoals fixation plant,
184
American Expeditionary Forces:
Identification of dead of, 85, 89–91
Repatriation of, 38–42
Strength of, 1
Welfare activities in, 92–97
American Legion:
And abuse of uniform, 110
And bonus, 69
And disabled veterans, 104
American Red Cross:
Bonus payment aided by, 69
Demobilization camp banks of, 110
Soldier reëmployment campaign aided by, 109
Ammonium Nitrate, 274
Ammunition, Artillery: Disposal of, 188–190
Anglo-American Tank Project, 298–300
Anglo-American Tanks: Purchase of British parts for, 300–301
Animals: _See_ Horses and Mules
Appel, Monte: Claims against French settled by, 295
Appraisers, War Department Board of, 142
Army:
Status of demobilization, February 28, 1919, 50
Strength, 1
Army Retail Stores, 282–285
Army Subsistence School, 247–248
Artillery Carriages: Demobilization of industry producing, 174–175
Artillery, Field:
Production, 164, 175, 176
Reserve manufacturing facilities for, 168, 172
Reserves of, 175, 176
Artillery, Motorization of, 194
Artillery, Railway: Demobilization of industry producing, 176–180
Assistant Secretary of War, The:
As president of War Department Claims Board, 135
Purchase of cantonment sites ordered by, 265
Attorney General: Ruling of, against commission agents, 123
Ayer, Lieut. Col. F. R.: On Ordnance Claims Board, 147
Babcock, Col. Conrad S.: “Pershing’s Own Regiment” trained by, 94
Baggage, Military, 74–75
_See also_ Lost Baggage
Baggage Service, 75–78
Baldridge, Private C. LeRoy: On _Stars and Stripes_, 96
Balloons, 203, 206, 213
Barnes, Lieut. Col. A. V.: Chief of Baltimore ordnance district, 149
Bausch & Lomb Optical Co.: Optical glass produced by, 192–193
Beaune, University of, 93
Belgian Government: Supplies sold to, 189, 216, 241, 252
Belgian Relief Commission, 241
Benson, Admiral William S.: And German passenger vessels, 36
Billy, M. Édouard de: On French Liquidation Commission, 294
Bonus, 51, 69–70
Boosters and Adapters, 186
Bordeaux: As port of embarkation for A. E. F., 11, 12, 16, 19–24, 25,
28
Boston: As port of debarkation, 54
Bound Brook Tetranitroaniline Plant, 182
Boy Scouts: Walnut trees hunted by, 157
Brashear Co., J. A.: Prisms for panoramic sights produced by, 191
Brass, 277
Brest: As port of embarkation for A. E. F., 11, 12, 16, 17, 24–25, 29
Briggs & Turivas: Senter tetryl plant bought by, 182
Briggs, Lieut. Col. M. F.: On Ordnance Claims Board, 147
British Army: Unidentified dead of, 84
British Government:
American claims paid by, 294
American surplus aircraft sold by, 213
Ships of, withdrawn from American service, 31
Britt, Field Clerk James A.: On _Stars and Stripes_, 95
Browns: Number of, in Army, 70
Bryant, Waldo C.: Chief of Bridgeport ordnance district, 148
_Buford_, U. S. A. T.: Conversion of, 35
Bulk Sale of A. E. F. Property, 309–312
Bullard Engineering Works: Demobilization of ordnance work at, 165–167
Burr, Maj. Gen. G. W.:
British claims settled by, 303–304
On War Department Claims Board, 135
Burr-Niemeyer Agreement, 303–304
Bush Terminal Co.: Cartridge cloth sold by, 280
Camphor, 285
Camps, Sale of, 261–264
Candles, Toxic, 223–226
Cantonments: Purchase of sites of, 264–266
_Cape May_, U. S. A. C. T.: Loading record of, 40
Cargo: Quantity of A. E. F., returned, 42–43
Cargo Transports, Conversion of, 32, 34–35
Cartridge Cloth, 278–280
Castor Bean Case, 208–210
Cemeteries, American, in Europe, 86–89
Charleston: As port of debarkation, 54
Châteauroux Tank Plant, 195
Chemical Warfare Service:
Demobilization activities of, 133, 220–227, 282
Nitrogen fixation plant built for, 184–185
Chicago Storage Depot, 187
Claims, Soldiers’, 70–73
Classification Board, 142
Coffin, Howard E.: As chairman of Aircraft Board, 204
Combat Troops, Embarkation of, 13
Commerce, Secretary of: War contract conference called by, 117
Construction Division, 257–266
Construction Division Claims Board, 260
Construction in France, 214, 215
Contract Adjustment, Board of:
Function, 124, 137
Informal contracts settled by, 140–141
Contractors, Ordnance, 159–162
Contract Review, Superior Board of, 122–124
Contracts: _See_ Cost-plus Contracts _and_ War Contracts
Contracts and Adjustments, Board of, 237
Contracts, Class A, 140
Contracts, Class B, 140
Contracts, Informal, 126–128, 139–141
Contracts, Surveyor of, 121
Copper, 274
Cost-plus Contracts, 114–116, 117–121, 124–125
Council of National Defense, 106–107, 248
Cross-Channel Cable, A. E. F., 229
Cupro-nickel, 277–278
Cuthell Board, 288–296
Cuthell, Chester W.: Activities of, in settlement of international
claims, 290–296
Cuthell Board organized by, 288
Cuthell-Inverforth Agreement, 291, 293
Czecho-Slovakia: Supplies bought by, 242
Czecho-Slovak Siberian Troops, 46 (footnote)
_Daily Mail_, London: _Stars and Stripes_ printed in plant of, 95
Dawes, Brig. Gen. Charles G.: On United States Liquidation
Commission, 296, 297
Debarkation Camps, 55–57
Deceased Soldiers’ Effects, 80–83
Delano, Col. F. A.: French railroad transportation claim settled by,
308
Delousing, 17–19, 57
Demobilization Centers, 49
Demobilization Problems, 3, 4–8
Dent Act, 128, 140
Diphenolchlorarsine, 223–226
Disability in Service, 63 (footnote)
Dodge Brothers:
Recuperator plant of, 172–174
Truck contracts with, 232
Dorr, G. H.:
On War Department Claims Board, 135
Dravo, Ralph M.: Chief of Pittsburg ordnance district, 150
Du Pont Powder Co.:
Claim of, 156
Dyes manufactured by, 182
Early, Capt. Stephen T.: On _Stars and Stripes_, 96
Eddystone Rifle Plant, 196
Effects Bureau, 80–83
Embarkation Camps, A. E. F., 16–17
Embarkation Service:
Merged in Transportation Service, 57
Employment Service, United States, 106–108
Engineer Claims Board, 219
Engineer Department, 50, 213–219, 281–282
Engineering Supplies, 216–218
Equipment, Soldier’s, 21
Erie Howitzer Plant, 167, 171
Erie Proving Ground, 176
Eustis, Camp Abraham, 177
Expeditionary Bases, Disposal of, 45–46, 258
Final-payment rolls, 66
Finance, Director of:
And final payment to officers, 67–69
And wounded soldiers, 65–66
Finance Service, 64–69, 133, 266
First Censor and Press Company, 96
First Division, 29, 59–62
Fisher, Harry A.: On Cuthell Board, 294
Fisher, William: On Cuthell Board, 294
Fixed Nitrogen Commission, 183, 185
Food Administration, United States: Contract settlements of, 141
Ford Motor Co.:
Tank contracts with, 195
Truck contracts with, 232
Forest Service: Supplies turned over to, 228
_Forward to the Farm! Why Not?_: In reëmployment campaign, 110
Frankford Arsenal: Machinery concentrated at, 181, 187, 191, 192, 198
French Claims, 306–308
French Government:
American supplies purchased by, 190, 213, 216, 229, 230, 238–240,
242, 245, 252, 281, 311–313
Claims negotiations with, 217, 295, 306–309
French Liquidation Commission, 294
Gas Defense Division, 220
Gas, Toxic, 220–222, 226–227
General Sales Agent and Board, 240, 241
General Vehicle Co.: French contract with, settled, 295
Genicart, Camp, 23
German Passenger Ships, 35–36
Goethals, Maj. Gen. G. W.: Purchase, Storage, and Traffic Division
built around, 234
Graham, Col. J. H.:
A. E. F. property inventoried by, 309–310
Grand Central Palace Debarkation Hospital, 99
Graves Registration Service, 85–91
_Great Northern_, U. S. A. T., 39
Greenhut Building Debarkation Hospital, 99
Greenwood, Levi H.: Chief of Boston ordnance district, 148
Gun Plants, 167–168
Gwinn, Ralph W.: Work of, on Cuthell Board, 291, 292
Harness, 286
Harrisburg Manufacturing & Boiler Co.: Railway artillery produced
after armistice by, 178, 179
Harrison, C. L.: Chief of Cincinnati ordnance district, 150
Hawley, Private Hudson: On _Stars and Stripes_, 95
Hidden-loss Claim, British, 302–303
Hill, Camp, 55
Hines, Brig. Gen. Frank T.:
As chief of Transportation Service, 57
Foreign passenger vessels secured by, 36
Plan of, for repatriation of A. E. F., 30–32
Hoboken Casual Companies, 56
Hollis, Hon. Henry F.: On United States Liquidation Commission, 296,
297
Hoover, Herbert: Surplus food purchased by, 241
Horses and Mules, 244–246, 253–255
Horse Shows in A. E. F., 94
Hospital Trains, 99–100
Howe, Richard F.: On Aircraft Board, 204
Humphreys, Camp, 268
_Imperator_, S. S., 36
Imperial Munitions Board: American contracts in Canada settled by,
140, 142, 148
Informal Contracts: _See_ Contracts, Informal
Inland Traffic Service, 57
Interallied Maritime Transport Council, 36
Interdepartmental Conference, 117–121
Interior, Secretary of: Army lands sold by, 267
Invalid Contracts: _See_ Contracts, Informal
Inventory and Appraisal of A. E. F. Property, 309–311
Inverforth, Lord: Empowered to deal with Cuthell Board, 290–291
Italian Government: American claims paid by, 295
Jackling, D. C.: Nitro powder plant contracts adjusted by, 142–143
Jadwin, Brig. Gen. Edgar: A. E. F. installations appraised by, 310
Jadwin Report, 310
Japan Paper Co.: Ordnance claim of, 158
Johnson, Homer H.: On United States Liquidation Commission, 296, 297
Jones, John C.: Chief of Philadelphia Ordnance district, 149
Keuffel & Esser: Optical glass produced by, 192–193
Labor, Department of: War industry terminated on advice of, 131, 132
Lamont, Col. R. P.: On Ordnance Claims Board, 147
La Pallice, 12
Layton, W. T.: On Inverforth Commission, 291
League of Nations, 318
Leather, 286
Le Havre, 12
Le Mans: Embarkation area at, 13–15, 23, 24, 28, 53–54
Lewis, Capt. W. Lee: Lewisite invented by, 223
Lewisite, 223, 226
Liberty Engine Claim, 292, 293
Liquidation Commission, United States:
Claims settled by, 217, 298–303, 304–305, 306–309
Creation, function, and policies of, 288–290, 296
Property sold by, 210, 240, 309–313
Loading Plants, 188
Lost Baggage, 72, 75–77, 79–80
Lost Baggage Bureau, 75, 76–77, 78–79
Loucheur, M. Louis: Refusal of, to pay Anglo-American tank claim, 300
Lumber, 273
Mahogany, 280
Marion Steam Shovel Co.: Railway artillery produced after armistice
by, 178
Marlin-Rockwell Corp.: Ordnance claim of, 156
Marseilles, 12
Marshall, Waldo H.: On Ordnance Claims Board, 147
_Maui_, U. S. A. C. T., 39–40
Maxwell-Chalmers Co.: Tractors produced by, 194
Mayor’s Committee of Welcome, 55
_McClellan_, U. S. A. T., 25
McLane Silk Co.: Cartridge cloth sold by, 280
Meade, Camp, 62
Medical Department: Demobilization activities of, 49, 61–64, 97–101
Medical Supplies, 232, 233
Meigs, Camp, 66
Meloney, Major William Brown: Reëmployment pamphlet written by, 108
Merritt, Camp, 55–56
Midvale Steel & Ordnance Co.:
Howitzer plant of, 179–180
Rifle plant of, 196
“Mill” at Bordeaux, 19–23
Mills, Camp, 55, 56
Mines, Bureau of: Nitrogen fixation plant built by, 184–185
Mobile Repair Shops, 195
Morel, M. Paul: A. E. F. property purchased for France by, 311–312
Morgan Engineering Co.: Post-armistice production of railway
artillery by, 178–179
Motor Transport Corps, 49, 230–232
Motor Vehicles, 230–232
Mules: _See_ Horses and Mules
Muscle Shoals Nitrogen Plant, 183, 184, 185
National Defense Act, 114
National Defense, Council of, 106–107, 248
Navy Department:
Army property turned over to, 180, 275
Operation of troopships relinquished by, 33
U. S. A. T. _Northern Pacific_ repaired by, 42
Warships used as troopships by, 36
Nebraska Aircraft Corp.: Army airplanes bought by, 280
Nervous and Mental Cases in Army, 102
Neuve, Camp, 23
Neville Island Gun Plant, 180
New York: As port of debarkation, 54
New York Air Brake Co.: Ordnance claims of, 156
Newport News: Debarkation at, 54, 99
Newport News Shipbuilding Co.: Use of, by Transportation Service, 34
Nitrate of Soda, 274
Nitrogen Fixation Plants, 183–185
Nitro Powder Plant, 142–143, 182, 262, 276
Noble, Frank S.: Chief of Rochester ordnance district, 149
_Northern Pacific_, U. S. A. T., 42
Northwestern Ordnance Co.: Machinery of, transferred to Erie Howitzer
Plant, 171
Officers:
Final payments to, 67–69
Transportation of, from France, 41–42
Old Hickory Powder Plant, 181
Operations Division, 259
Optical Glass, 192–194
Optical Instruments, 192
Ordnance Claims Board, 146–147
Ordnance Contractors, 159–162
Ordnance Department: Demobilization activities of, 133, 146, 147–159,
163, 164–165
Ordnance Industry, 145–146
Ordnance Plants, 276
Ordnance Salvage Board, 275–280
Otis Elevator Co.: Recuperator plant of, 173, 174
Parker, Edwin B.: Chairman of United States Liquidation Commission,
296, 297
Peirce, Brig. Gen. W. S.: Chief of Ordnance Claims Board, 147
Perryville Ammonium Nitrate Plant, 182
Pershing, Gen. J. J.:
A. E. F. disbanded by, 12, 37
Armistice announced by, 1
Departure of, from France, 29
Parades with First Division, 59–61
_Stars and Stripes_ supported by, 95, 96–97
“Pershing’s Own Regiment,” 94
Pershing Stadium, 94, 215
Physiotherapy, 100–101
Picatinny Arsenal: Machinery concentrated at, 181, 187, 188
Picric Acid Plants, 182
Pittsburg Plate Glass Co.: Optical glass produced by, 192–193
Platinum, 277
Polish Relief Corp., 242
Pontanezen, Camp, 16–17
Ports of Embarkation, A. E. F., 10–11, 12, 39
Portugal: A. E. F. supplies bought by, 242
Post Office Department: Supplies turned over to, 228
Powder Plants, 181, 182
Preparedness: American post-armistice state of, 319
Public Health Service, 101–102, 103–104, 252, 275
Pullman Car Co.: Post-armistice production of railway artillery
_matériel_ by, 179
Purchase Claims Board, 247
Purchase, Director of, 133, 235, 246–248, 252–253
Purchase, Storage, and Traffic, Division of:
Industrial demobilization controlled by, 134–135
Purchasing functions of, 219, 234–235
War contracts controlled by, 121
Quartermaster Department, 50, 234–235
Quartermaster Supplies:
Demobilization of industry producing, 246–247
Purchases of, in Europe, 235–236
Sales of:
To French Government, 238–240
To other purchasers, 240–243
Storage of, 251–252
Termination of European contracts for, 237
Value of A. E. F. surplus of, 243
Racine trinitrotoluol Plant, 142
Railroad Administration, United States: Cut rates to discharged
soldiers granted by, 51–52
Railroad Claim, French, 217
Railway Passenger Equipment, Army, 57–58
Raritan Arsenal, 176
Raw Materials Division, 248
Ray, John H., Jr.: On Cuthell Board, 294
Real Estate Service, 267–268
Recording & Computing Machines Co.: Optical instruments produced by,
192
Recuperators, 172
Reeves, Col. Ira L.: President of Beaune University, 93
Remount Service, 244–246, 253–255
Reo Motor Co.: Tractors produced by, 194
Ritchey, Dr. G. W.: Optical workers trained by, 191
Roads, Bureau of Public: Supplies furnished to, 217, 252, 282
Roberts, George J.: Chief of New York ordnance district, 149
Robinson, Fred J.: Chief of Detroit ordnance district, 149
Rochester Gun Plant, 167, 170–171
Rock Island Arsenal:
Artillery stored at, 176
Machinery concentrated at, 172, 174–175, 197
Post-armistice production:
Recuperators, 173
36-ton tanks, 195
Roosevelt, Theodore: Attitude of, toward burial of soldiers in
France, 84
Ross, Private Harold W.: As editor of _Stars and Stripes_, 96
Roumania: Supplies bought by, 242
Russell, E. A.: Chief of Chicago ordnance district, 149
Russell, Fort D. A.: Artillery stored at, 176
Sales Branch, 269, 271–275
Sales, Director of, 269–270, 276
Salvage, 24, 243–244
Savanna Proving Ground, 176
School System of A. E. F., 92–93
Scovil, Samuel:
Chief of Cleveland ordnance district, 149
Selective Service Men, Entrainment of, 1, 47–48
Senter Tetryl Plant, 182
Seventy-seventh Division, 59, 67
Sheffield Nitrogen Plant, 183–184, 185
Shell:
Demobilization of Industry producing, 185–187
Disposal of A. E. F. stocks of, 188–190
Shell, Gas, 222–223
Shelton, Charles B.: On Cuthell Board, 294
Sights and Fire-control Instruments, 190–193
Signal Corps, 227–229
Singer Manufacturing Co.: Post-armistice production of recuperators
by, 172, 173
Singleton, Marvin E.: Chief of St. Louis ordnance district, 150
Small Arms: Demobilization of industry producing, 195–197
Small-arms Ammunition, 197–198
Smith, Dan: Reëmployment poster painted by, 109
Smith, Sergeant John W. Rixey: On _Stars and Stripes_, 96
Smiths: Number of, in Army, 70
Smoke, Toxic, 223–226
Soldier Dead: Place of burial of remains of, 83–84, 91
Spencer Lens Co.: Optical glass made by, 192
Springfield Armory: Machinery stored at, 197
Spruce Production Corp., 143, 281
Standard B Trucks, 231
Standard Contract Provisions, 122–124
Standards, Bureau of: Optical glass manufacture by, 192, 193–194
_Stars and Stripes_, 9–10, 94–97
Steel, 277
Steever, Miller D.: Work of, on Cuthell Board, 291, 292–293
Stettinius, Edward R.: Activities of, in settling foreign industrial
claims, 297, 298, 305–306
Stewart, Col. G. H.: On Ordnance Claims Board, 147
St. Nazaire: As port of embarkation for A. E. F., 11, 12, 16, 25, 28
Storage, Director of, 251
Storage Service, 250–252
Stuart, Camp, 55
Sulphur, 274
Surplus Army Supplies, 270–271
Surplus Property Division, 285–286
Symington-Anderson Co.:
Chicago shell factory of, retained as stand-by plant, 187
Rochester Gun Plant built by, 170
Tank Claim, British, 301
Tanks, 195
Tardieu, M. André: In negotiations leading to bulk purchase of
A. E. F. stocks, 311
Thayer, Harry B.: On Aircraft Board, 204
Theatrical Performances, Soldiers’, 94
Thirty-third Division, 59
Tires, Automobile, 286
Toluol Plants, 182–183
Training Camps:
Demobilization of troops in, 48–50
Use of, as debarkation camps, 55
Transportation Service:
Air service squadrons in England repatriated by, 38
Cargo transports redelivered by, 43–45
Conversion of cargo transports by, 34–35
Creation of, 57
First Division transported by, 59–60
German passenger vessels secured by, 36
Military passengers carried by, after armistice, 59
Morale of, 32–33, 38–39
News bureau of, 55
_Personnel_ adjutants of, 41
Port facilities disposed of by, 45–46
Pre-armistice stoppage of embarkation by, 37
Reserve of troopships created by, 45
Russian and Siberian expeditionary troops repatriated by, 46
(footnote)
Sick and wounded transported by, 58–59
Troopships diverted by, 54
Troopships operated by, 33
Transports, 43 _See also_ Cargo Transports _and_ Troopships
Travel Allowance, 51
Treasury, Comptroller of: Decision of, invalidating informal
contracts, 127
Trinitrotoluol Plants, 183
Troop-movement Section, 47–48
Troopships, 31, 34, 36–37, 45
Trucks, Motor, 199, 286
Tuberculosis, 102
Tullytown Bag-loading Plant, 188
_Tuscania_, S. S.: Identification of effects of soldiers lost in
sinking of, 82–83
Twenty-eighth Division, 59
Twenty-seventh Division, 59
United States Aëronautical Engine Plant, 207
Universities, Foreign: A. E. F. soldiers in, 93–94
Upton, Camp, 55, 56
Vessel owners: Demand of, for redelivery of chartered tonnage, 33–34
Veterans:
Employment campaign for, 104–111
Generosity of Government to, 104
Victory Parades, 59
Vocational Education, Federal Board for, 101, 102–104
Wah Chang Trading Corp.: Ordnance claim of, 158
Wallgren, Private A. B.: On _Stars and Stripes_, 96
Walnut Timber, 156–157
War Camp Community Service: Reëmployment campaign of, 109
War Contracts:
Extent of, 112–113, 128–129
Standardization of, 122–124
Termination and liquidation of, 129–132, 138
_See also_ Cost-plus Contracts
War Credits Board, 119–120 (footnote)
War Department:
Contract liquidation system of, 135–136, 138
Contractors paid in advance by, 137–138, 141
Contractual obligations of, 112–113, 128–129
Cost of war to, 315–318
Effect of 1917 organization of, upon contracts, 116–117
Expansion of plant of, 256–257
Policies of:
In burying soldier dead, 83–84
In discharging troops, 49–51, 52–53, 105–106
Real Estate Service of, 266–267
Reëmployment campaign of, 104–105
Reorganization of, in 1918, 121
War contracting powers of, 114
War Department Claims Board:
Castor bean case settled by, 208–210
Creation and _personnel_ of, 135
Growth of, 141
Informal contracts settled by, 140
Record of, 143–144
War Industries Board:
Australasian wool purchased by, 248
Contracts made by, 141
Function of, 248
Termination of war industry aided by, 131, 132
War Industry:
Extent of, 2–4
Liquidation of, 132, 133–137
Warner & Swasey: Panoramic sights produced by, 191
War Risk Insurance, Bureau of:
Amalgamation of, with other veterans’ bureaus, 103–104
Disability compensation paid by, 63
Function of, 101
War, Secretary of:
Order of, as to post-armistice production, 131
Powers under Dent Act delegated by, 140
War Department Claims Board created by, 135
Watertown Arsenal:
Expansion of, 168, 169–170, 174, 180
Machinery concentrated at, 178, 179, 180
Watervliet Arsenal:
Expansion of, 168–170, 174
Machinery concentrated at, 180
Watson, Major Mark: On _Stars and Stripes_, 96
Weems, F. C.: On Cuthell Board, 291
West Indian Laborers, 257
_Where Do We Go from Here?_: Booklet used in reëmployment campaign,
108–109
White & Co., J. G.: Settlement of French contract with, 295
Willys-Overland, Inc.: 75-mm. gun carriages produced by, 173
Wilson, Woodrow, President of the United States: And Italian
delegates to Peace Conference, 290
Winterich, Corporal John T.: On _Stars and Stripes_, 95
Woods, Col. Arthur: Reëmployment campaign conducted by, 107
Wool Administrator, 248
Wool Pool, Liquidation of, 248–250
Woollcott, Sergeant Alexander: On _Stars and Stripes_, 96
World War: Costs and benefits of, 315–321
Wounded Soldiers:
Payment of, 65–66
Transportation of, 58–59
Wright-Martin Aircraft Corp.: Engine plant of, retained, 207
Young Men’s Christian Association: Schools of, in A. E. F., 93
Zinc, 277
Zone Finance Officer at Washington: Bonus paid by, 69
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Transcriber’s Notes
Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a
predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they
were not changed.
Simple typographical errors were corrected; unbalanced quotation
marks were remedied when the change was obvious, and otherwise left
unbalanced.
Illustrations in this eBook have been positioned between paragraphs
and outside quotations. In versions of this eBook that support
hyperlinks, the page references in the List of Illustrations lead to
the corresponding illustrations.
Footnotes, originally at the bottoms of pages, have been sequentially
renumbered and moved to just before the Index.
The index was not checked for proper alphabetization or correct page
references.