THE NATION IN ARMS
When Congress declared that the United States was in a state of war with
Germany, on April 6, 1917, the public opinion of the country was unified
to a far greater extent than at the beginning of any previous war. The
extreme patience displayed by President Wilson had its reward. When the
year opened the majority of citizens doubtless still hoped that peace was
possible. But German actions in February and March had gone far towards
the education of the popular mind, and the final speeches of the President
crystallized conviction. By April there were few Americans, except those
in whom pacifism was a mania, who were not convinced that war with Germany
was the only course consistent with either honor or safety. It is probable
that many did not understand exactly the ideals that actuated Wilson, but
nine persons out of ten believed it absolutely necessary to fight.
But, however firmly united, the country was completely unprepared for war
in a military sense, and must now pay the penalty for President Wilson's
opposition to adequate improvement of the military system in 1915 and for
the half-hearted measures taken in 1916. Total military forces, including
regular army, national guard, and reserves amounted to hardly three
hundred thousand men and less than ten thousand officers. Even the regular
army was by no means ready for immediate participation in the sort of
fighting demanded by the European war; and, even if adequate troops were
raised, the lack of trained officers would create the most serious
difficulties. No wonder that the German General Staff ranked the United
States, from the military point of view, somewhere between Belgium and
Portugal. Furthermore, military experts had been discouraged by the
attitude of the Administration. The Secretary of War, Newton D. Baker, had
failed, either through lack of administrative capacity or because of
pacifistic tendencies, to prepare his department adequately. He had done
nothing to rouse Congress or the nation from its attitude of indifference
towards preparation. By faith a pacifist, he had been opposed to universal
military service. An extreme liberal, he distrusted the professional
military type and was to find it difficult to coöperate with the captains
of industry whose assistance was essential.
Thus with a President and War Secretary, both of whom had been
instinctively opposed to a large army and who had expressed their fear of
the development of a militaristic spirit, and with a majority in Congress
favoring the traditional volunteer system, adherence to which had cost
the British thousands of lives that might better have been used at home,
the building of an effective army seemed a matter of extreme doubt. Great
credit must go to both President Wilson and Secretary Baker for sinking
their natural instincts and seeking, as well as following, the advice of
the military experts, who alone were capable of meeting the problems that
arose from a war for which the nation was not prepared.
The President must face not only the special problems caused by
unreadiness, but also the general difficulties which confront every
American war-President and which had tried nearly to the breaking-point
even the capacity of Lincoln. The President of the United States in time
of war is given the supreme unified command of the army and navy. But
while the responsibility is his, actual control often rests in the hands
of others. Members of Congress always take a keen interest in army
matters; many of them have been or are militia-men. They have always
opposed a single army which could be recruited, trained, and operated as
a unit, and approved the system of State militia which makes for
decentralization and gives to the separate States large influence in the
formation of military policy. Even the President's control of the Federal
army, regulars and volunteers, is limited by the decentralized
organization of the different army bureaus, which depend upon Congress
for their appropriations and which operate as almost independent and
frequently competing units. The creation of a single programme for the
army as a whole is thus a task of extreme difficulty.
President Wilson, as historian, was well aware of the tremendous price
that had been paid in past wars for such decentralization, accompanied as
it was, inevitably, by delays, misunderstandings, and mistakes. He was
determined to create a single coördinating command, and his war policies
were governed from beginning to end by this purpose. He set up no new
machinery, but utilized as his main instrument the General Staff, which
had been created in 1903 as a result of the blunders and confusion that
had been so painfully manifest in the Spanish War. When the United States
entered the World War the General Staff had by no means acquired the
importance expected by those who had created it.[3] But to it the
President turned, and it was this body enlarged in size and influence
that ultimately put into operation Wilson's policy of centralization. It
was in accordance with the advice of the men who composed the General
Staff that the President elaborated the larger lines of the military
programme, and they were the men who supervised the operation of details.
[Footnote 3: In April, 1917, the General Staff consisted of fifty-one
officers, only nineteen of whom were on duty in Washington. Of these,
eight were occupied with routine business, leaving but eleven free for
the real purpose for which the staff had been created--"the study of
military problems, the preparation of plans for national defense, and
utilization of the military forces in time of war."]
None of the processes which marked the transition of the United States
from a peace to a war basis are comprehensible unless we remember that
the President was constantly working to overcome the forces of
decentralization, and also that the military programme was always on an
emergency basis, shifting almost from week to week in accordance with
developments in Europe.
The original programme did not provide for an expeditionary force in
France. During the early days of participation in the war it was generally
believed that the chief contributions of the United States to Allied
victory would not be directly upon the fighting front. If the United
States concentrated its efforts upon financing the Allies, furnishing them
with food, shipping, and the munitions which had been promised--so many
persons argued--it would be doing far better than if it weakened
assistance of that sort by attempting to set up and maintain a large
fighting force of its own. The impression was unfortunately prevalent in
civilian circles that Germany was on her last legs, and that the outcome
of the war would be favorably settled before the United States could put
an effective army in the field. Military experts, on the other hand, more
thoroughly convinced of German strength, believed that the final campaigns
could not come before the summer of 1919, and did not expect to provide a
great expeditionary force previous to the spring of that year if indeed it
were ever sent. Thus from opposite points of view the amateur and the
professional deprecated haste in dispatching an army to France. From the
moment the United States entered the war, President Wilson certainly
seems to have resolved upon the preparation of an effective fighting
force, if we may judge from his insistence upon the selective draft,
although he did not expect that it would be used abroad. But it may be
asked whether he did not hope for the arrangement of a negotiated peace,
which if not "without victory" would at least leave Germany uncrushed. It
is probable that he did not yet perceive that "force to the utmost" would
be necessary before peace could be secured; that realization was to come
only in the dark days of 1918.
A few weeks after America's declaration of war, however, France and Great
Britain dispatched missions led by Balfour, Viviani, and Joffre, to
request earnestly that at least a small American force be sent overseas
at once for the moral effect upon dispirited France. The plea determined
the President to send General Pershing immediately with a force of about
two thousand, who were followed in June and July, 1917, by sufficient
additional forces to make up a division. Wilson had been authorized by
Congress, under the Selective Service Act, to send four volunteer
divisions abroad under the command of Roosevelt. But he refused to
interfere with the plans of the military experts, who strongly objected
to any volunteer forces whatever. Neither the valiant ex-President nor
the prospective volunteers were trained for the warfare of the moment,
and their presence in France would bring no practical good to the Allied
cause; moreover the officers whom Roosevelt requested were sorely needed
in American training camps.
General Pershing, to whom was now entrusted the military fortunes of the
American army abroad, was an officer fifty-seven years old, who had
undergone wide military and administrative experience in Cuba and the
Philippines; he had been given extraordinary promotion by President
Roosevelt, who had jumped him from the rank of captain to that of
Brigadier General; and he had been selected to lead the punitive force
dispatched in pursuit of Villa in the spring of 1916. Distinguished in
appearance, with superb carriage, thin lips, and squarely-chiselled chin,
he possessed military gifts of a sound rather than brilliant character. A
strict disciplinarian, he failed to win from his troops that affection
which the _poilus_ gave to Pétain, while he never displayed the genius
that compelled universal admiration for Foch. Neither ultimate success
nor the stories of his dramatic remarks (as at the grave of La Fayette:
"La Fayette, we are here!") succeeded in investing him with the heroic
halo that ought to come to a victorious commander. As time passes,
however, Pershing takes higher rank. His insistence upon soldierly
qualities, his unyielding determination to create American armies under
an independent command, his skill in building up a great organization,
his successful operations at St. Mihiel and in the Meuse-Argonne drive,
despite faulty staff work--all these facts become more plain as we
acquire perspective. If historians refuse to recognize him as a great
general, they will surely describe his talents as more than adequate to
the exigencies of the military situation.
The sending of the Pershing expedition did not at once alter
fundamentally the original programme for raising an army of about a
million men to be kept in the United States, as a reserve in case of
emergency. There was no intention of sending to France more troops than
would be needed to keep filled the ranks of the small expeditionary
force. But the urgent representations of the Allies and reports from
American officers induced a radical change in policy. The latter
emphasized the unsound military position of our Allies and insisted that
the deadlock could be broken and the war won only by putting a really
effective American army beside the French and British by the summer of
1918. A programme was drawn up in France and sent to the War Department,
according to which an army of thirty divisions should be sent abroad
before the end of that year. Throughout 1917 this plan remained rather a
hope than a definite programme and it was not until early in 1918 that it
was officially approved. It was thus of an emergency character and this
fact combined with the indefiniteness prevalent during the autumn of 1917
to produce extreme confusion. In July, 1918, an eighty-division programme
was adopted and more confusion resulted. Furthermore the entire problem
was complicated by the question as to whether or not ships could be found
for transportation. It had been assumed that it would take six months to
transport five hundred thousand troops. But in May, 1918, and thereafter
nearly three hundred thousand troops a month were carried to France,
largely through tonnage obtained from the British. Such a development of
transportation facilities was not and could not be foreseen. It increased
the confusion. In the face of such difficulties, the problems of
man-power, training, and supplies had to be met and ultimately solved,
largely through the centralization carried into effect by the General
Staff.
The problem of man-power had been carefully considered during the weeks
that preceded our entrance into the war and the declaration of war found
the Government prepared with a plan for a selective draft. On the 7th of
April, the day after the declaration of war, President Wilson insisted
that "the safety of the nation depended upon the measure."
Congress, however, was slow to accept the principle of conscription, and
the President encountered fierce opposition on the part of the advocates
of the volunteer system, who were led by men of such influence as Speaker
Champ Clark, House Leader Claude Kitchin, and the chairman of the House
Committee on Military Affairs, Stanley H. Dent. The President was
inflexible, declaring that the Administration would not "yield an inch of
any essential parts of the programme for raising an army by conscription,"
and exercised his personal influence to its fullest extent in order to
secure a favorable vote. He was ably seconded by Julius Kahn, the ranking
Republican member of the House Military Committee, who was himself born in
Germany. The failure of House and Senate to agree on the matter of age
liability delayed action for some weeks. Finally, on May 18, 1917, what
is popularly known as the Selective Service Act became law.
This Act gave to the President power to raise the regular army by
enlistment to 287,000 men, to take into the Federal service all members
of the national guard, and to raise by selective draft, in two
installments, a force of a million troops. All men between the ages of
twenty-one and thirty, both inclusive, were registered on the 5th of
June; this with the subsequent registration of men coming of age later,
produced an available body of more than ten millions. And when in the
following year, the draft age was extended to include all men between the
ages of eighteen and forty-five, both inclusive, thirteen millions more
were added. From this body the names of those who were to serve were
drawn by lot. All men registered were carefully classified, in order that
the first chosen might be those not merely best fitted for fighting, but
those whose absence on the firing line would least disturb the essential
economic life of the nation. Liberal exemptions were accorded, including
artisans employed in industries necessary to war production and men upon
whom others were dependent. On the 20th of July the first drawings were
made, and by the end of the year about half a million of the drafted men,
now called the National Army, were mustered in. In the meantime
enlistments in the regular army and the national guard had raised the
total number of troops to about a million and a quarter and of officers
to more than one hundred thousand. Less than a year later, when the
armistice was signed, the army included over three and a half millions,
of whom nearly two millions were in France.
The real military contribution of the United States to allied victory lay
in man-power. It could not of its own resources transport the troops nor
equip them completely, but the raising of an enormous number of fresh
forces, partially trained, it is true, but of excellent fighting caliber,
made possible the maneuvers of Foch that brought disaster to German arms.
When once these armies arrived in numbers on the battle-line in France,
the realization of the inexhaustible man-power of America did more than
anything else to revive the spirit of the Allies and discourage the
enemy.
Infinitely more difficult than the problem of man-power were those of
training and supplies. As we have seen, these problems were complicated
by the decision to send abroad an effective fighting force, a decision
which completely changed the entire military situation. The original
plan of maintaining an army only in the United States, as a reserve,
permitted the questions of camps, supplies, equipment, munitions, and
training to be undertaken at comparative leisure. But if a large army was
to be placed in France by 1918, these problems must be solved immediately
and upon an emergency basis. Hence resulted the confusion and expense
which nearly led to the breakdown of the whole programme in the winter of
1917-18. The War Department faced a dilemma. If it waited until supplies
were ready, the period of training would be too short. On the other hand,
if it threw the new draft armies immediately into the camps, assuming
that the camps could be prepared, the troops would lack the wool uniforms
and blankets necessary for protection, as well as the equipment with
which to drill. The second alternative appeared the less dangerous, and
in September the first draft calls were made and by December the camps
were filled.[4]
[Footnote 4: The size of the army raised in 1917 demanded the building of
enormous cantonments. Within three months of the first drawings sixteen
complete cities of barracks had sprung up, each to accommodate 40,000
inhabitants. They had their officers' quarters, hospitals, sewage
systems, filter plants, and garbage incinerators, electric lighting
plants, libraries, theaters. By the 4th of September the National Army
cantonments were ready for 430,000 men, two-thirds of the first draft. A
single camp involved the expenditure of approximately $11,000,000. Camp
Grant, at Rockford, Illinois, included 1600 buildings with space for
45,000 men and 12,000 horses. The water, which before use was tested and
filtered, was supplied from six huge wells drilled 175 feet deep, carried
through 38 miles of water main, and stored in reservoir tanks holding
550,000 gallons. For lighting purposes there were 1450 miles of electric
wire, 1200 poles, 35,000 incandescent lamps. During the period of
construction, 50 carloads of building material were daily unloaded, and
for several weeks an average of 500,000 board feet of lumber set up
daily. The entire construction of the camp demanded 50,000,000 feet of
lumber, 700 tons of nails, 4,000,000 feet of roofing, and 3,000,000
square feet of wall board.]
Many apprehensions were fulfilled in fact, when the terrible winter
weather came, the worst in years. The northern camps faced it with
insufficient clothing. Pneumonia made its invasion. Artillerymen were
trained with wooden guns; infantrymen with wooden rifles or antiquated
Krags. But all the time the essential training proceeded and the calls
for replacements sent by General Pershing in France were met.
The first and vital need was for officers to train the willing but
inexperienced recruits. To meet this need a series of officers' training
camps had been established in the spring of 1917 and continued for a year.
Each camp lasted for three months, where during twelve hours a day the
candidates for commissions, chiefly college graduates and young business
men, were put through the most intensive drill and withering study. All
told, more than eighty thousand commissions were granted through the
camps, and the story of the battlefields proved at once the caliber of
these amateur officers and the effectiveness of their training. Special
camps, such as the school of fire at Fort Sill, carried the officers a
step further, and when they went overseas they received in schools in
France instruction in the latest experience of the Allied armies. The
colleges of the country were also formed into training schools and
ultimately about 170,000 young men, under military age, in five hundred
institutions of learning, joined the Students' Army Training Corps.
In all the army schools French and British officers coöperated as
instructors and gave the value of their three years' experience on the
fighting front. But the traditions of the American regular army,
formulated in the Indian and frontier fights, rather than the siege
methods of the trenches, formed the basic principles of the instruction;
General Pershing was insistent that an offensive spirit must be instilled
into the new troops, a policy which received the enthusiastic endorsement
of the President. The development of "a self-reliant infantry by thorough
drill in the use of a rifle and in the tactics of open warfare" was always
uppermost in the mind of the commander of the expeditionary force, who
from first to last refused to approve the extreme specialization in trench
warfare that was advised by the British and the French.
The emergency nature of the military programme, resulting from the sudden
decision to send a large army to France, the decentralization of army
affairs, and the failure to prepare adequately in the years preceding
entrance into the war--all these factors made a shortage of supplies in
the training camps inevitable.
The first appropriation bill which was to provide the funds to purchase
clothing, blankets, and other necessities was not passed until the 15th of
June, leaving a pitifully brief space of time for the placing of contracts
and the manufacture and transport of supplies. Many factories had to be
built, and many delays resulted from the expansion of the Quartermaster
Department, which had not been manned or equipped for such an emergency.
The shortage of clothing was felt the more because of the extreme severity
of the winter. After the initial difficulties had been passed supplies of
this kind were furnished in profusion; but lack of preparation on the
part of the War Department and the slowness of Congress to appropriate
promptly produced a temporary situation of extreme discomfort and worse.
The provision of food supplies was arranged more successfully. Soldiers
would not be soldiers if they did not complain of their "chow." But the
quality and variety of the food given to the new troops reached a higher
degree than was reasonably to have been expected. The average soldier
gained from ten to twelve pounds after entering the service. Provision was
also made for his entertainment. Vaudeville, concerts, moving pictures
formed an element of camp life, much to the surprise of the visiting
French officers and Civil War veterans.
Americans naturally look back with pride to the making of their new army.
The draft was accomplished smoothly and rapidly. Demonstrations against
conscription, which in view of the Civil War draft riots had caused some
apprehension, were almost unheard of and never serious. Of the three
million called for service on the first draft, all but 150,000 were
accounted for, and of those missing most were aliens who had left to
enlist in their own armies. The problem of the slacker and of the
conscientious objector, although vexatious, was never serious. The
educative effect of the training upon the country was very considerable.
All ranks and classes were gathered in, representing at least fifty-six
different nationalities; artisans, millionaires, and hoboes bunked side by
side; the youthful plutocrat saw life from a new angle, the wild
mountaineer learned to read, the alien immigrant to speak English. Finally
the purpose of the training was achieved, for America sent over a force
that could fight successfully at the moment of crisis.
Amateur critics had assumed that the problem of raising an effective
number of troops would prove far more difficult than that of producing
the necessary equipment and munitions. It was generally believed that the
industrial genius of America was such that American factories could
provide all the artillery, small-arms, and aircraft that the armies could
use. The most fantastic prophecies were indulged in. Experience showed,
however, that it is easier to raise, train, and organize troops of
superior sort in a brief period than it is to arm them. It stands as a
matter of record that foreign artillery and machine guns alone made
possible the attack on the St. Mihiel salient and the advance in the
Argonne. As for military airplanes, had the Government relied upon those
of American manufacture there would have been no American squadrons
flying over the German lines previous to August, 1918, and not many
between then and the signing of the armistice.
Such a statement should not imply blanket criticism of the Ordnance
Department. The Government was perhaps slow, even after the United States
entered the war, to realize the serious character of the military
situation abroad and to appreciate the extent to which American aid would
be necessary to allied victory. Hence the changes in the military
programme which inevitably created confusion. But the decision to ensure
against unforeseen disaster by preparing heavily for 1919 and 1920 and
partially disregarding 1918 was based upon sound strategical reasoning.
The war was brought to a close sooner than had been expected; hence the
period of actual hostilities was devoted to laying down the foundations
of a munitions industry, and the munitions actually produced, in the
words of Assistant Secretary Crowell, "might almost be termed casual to
the main enterprise, pilots of the quantities to come." Such a policy was
possible because of the surplus production of the Allies. The latter
stated that their production of artillery was such that they could equip
all American divisions as they arrived in France during the year
1918.[5] This gave time "to build manufacturing capacity on a grand scale
without the necessity of immediate production, time to secure the best in
design, time to attain quality in the enormous outputs to come later as
opposed to early quantities of indifferent class."
[Footnote 5: As a result of the agreement thus made the United States
shipped overseas between the time of the declaration of war and the
signing of the armistice only 815 complete pieces of mobile artillery,
including all produced for France and Great Britain as well as for
American troops. Of the 75's only 181 complete units were shipped abroad,
the American Expeditionary Force securing 1828 from the French. Of the
155 millimeter howitzers none of American manufacture reached the front.
French deliveries amounted to 747.--_America's Munitions_, 1917-1918
(Report of Benedict Crowell, Assistant Secretary of War), p. 90.]
The lack of preparation in the matter of machine guns has received wide
publicity. In this, as in artillery, the deficiency was made good by the
Allies up to the final weeks of the war. In April, 1917, the army
possessed only a small number of machine guns entirely inadequate even
for the training of the new troops and half of which would not take
American service cartridges. Less than seven hundred machine rifles were
on hand. Manufacturing facilities for machine guns were limited; there
were only two factories in the United States actually producing in
quantity. Orders for four thousand Vickers had been placed the preceding
December, but deliveries had not been made by the beginning of April.
Either because of jealousy in the department, or because of justifiable
technical reasons, various experts demanded a better machine gun than any
used by the Allies, and Secretary Baker took the responsibility of
delaying matters so as to hold the competition recommended by a board of
investigation. This competition was planned for May 1, 1917, with the
result that we entered the war without having decided upon any type of
machine gun, and it was not until some weeks later that the Browning was
approved.
First deliveries of this gun could not be made until April, 1918, a year
after the declaration of war. In the meantime, the War Department
utilized existing facilities to the limit, and placed large orders for
Colt, Lewis, and Vickers machine guns. But the heavy machine guns and
automatic rifles used by our troops in the field were furnished by the
French and the British until May, 1918. During that month and June the
eleven American divisions that sailed were provided with American-made
Vickers, although they still used the French-made Chauchat automatic
rifles. After June, all American troops to sail received a full equipment
of Brownings, both heavy machine guns and automatic rifles. Altogether
27,000 heavy Brownings and 29,000 light Brownings were shipped to the
American Expeditionary Force, sufficient by the time of the armistice to
equip completely all the American troops in France. They were not used in
combat until the Meuse-Argonne battle, where they amply justified the
faith of General Pershing.
The policy of delaying production in order to obtain the best quality was
not followed in the case of the rifle, and the results unquestionably
justified the plan, ultimately adopted, of accepting a slightly inferior
type which could be produced at once in quantity. The American army
rifle, the Springfield, was generally regarded as the most accurate the
world had seen. Unfortunately there was little hope of expanding the
production of Springfields sufficiently to meet the necessities of the
new National Army. For several years previous to 1917 the Government,
with myopic vision, had cut down expenditures for the manufacture of
small-arms and ammunition, with the result that artisans skilled in
making Springfields had been scattered. Even if the two factories that
had been turning out Springfields could be restaffed, their combined
production would be insufficient. Private plants could not be utilized
for early quantity production, because of the time that would be taken in
building up an adequate manufacturing equipment and training the
artisans. Fortune intervened. It happened that three large American firms
were about to complete important contracts for supplying Enfield rifles
to the British Government. Their plants and skilled labor might be turned
to account, but the Enfield was not regarded as satisfactory, principally
because its ammunition was inferior to that taken by the Springfield. The
War Department decided to attempt a change in the bore of the Enfield so
that it would use Springfield cartridges, and to make other minor
simplifications and improvements. The experiment proved successful to the
highest degree. The modified Enfields were reported to be only slightly
inferior to the Springfields and by the end of December, 1917, five
thousand a day were being turned out. Altogether American manufactories
produced during the war about two and a half million rifles, of which all
but three hundred thousand were modified Enfields.
In the matter of airplane production the record is far less satisfactory.
It is, perhaps, too early to distribute with justice the blame for the
delays in production, and full cognizance should be taken of the
difficulties which had to be overcome. But whatever explanations are to be
found, it is an undeniable fact that not until August, 1918, three months
before the armistice, was an American squadron equipped with American
planes. The Allies had looked to America for the production of combat
planes in quantity and Congress, responding to popular enthusiasm, had in
the first days of the war appropriated more than half a billion dollars
for their manufacture. An Aircraft Production Board was organized, with
Howard E. Coffin as chairman, although the actual manufacture of the
machines was under the supervision of the Signal Corps. Promises were made
that by the spring of 1918 the Germans would be completely at the mercy of
American airmen.
But difficulties developed. A new type of motor had to be produced,
capable of serving in any kind of airplane; this was rapidly and
successfully accomplished, and in July, 1917, the Liberty Motor was
approved. But just as manufacturing was about to begin changes in the
design were demanded, with ensuing delays. There was confusion between
the jurisdiction of the Aircraft Board and that of the Signal Corps. The
organization of the latter was less efficient than had been expected,
and men who knew little or nothing of the technique of aircraft were
placed in charge of production. When orders were given for planes to be
constructed in France, seven thousand American machinists had to be sent
over to release the French machinists who were to work on these
contracts, with consequent delays to American production. Repeated
alterations in the designs of airplanes must be made to meet changing
requirements sent from the front, and large numbers of planes almost
ready for delivery had to be scrapped. Two of the types manufactured
proved to be unsatisfactory and were condemned, with an estimated loss of
twenty-six million dollars. Finally the bitter cold of the winter made it
difficult to secure the indispensable spruce from the northwestern
forests, and lumbering operations were hampered by extensive strikes,
which were said to have resulted from German intrigues.
General disappointment at the failure to produce airplanes in quantity by
the spring of 1918 was the more bitter because of the high hopes that had
been aroused by those in authority. Instead of confessing the serious
nature of the delays, the War Department attempted to conceal not merely
the mistakes made but the fact that airplanes could not possibly reach
France in any numbers before the autumn of 1918. Thus when at last, in
February, a single combat plane was completed and shipped, the War
Department issued the statement: "The first American-built battle planes
are to-day _en route_ to France. This first shipment, although not in
itself large, marks the final overcoming of many difficulties met in
building up a new and intricate industry." When General Wood returned
from France in March and reported that not one American-built plane was
in action there, and when the Senate investigation committee unearthed
the existence of all the delays, the disillusioned public gave vent to
fierce criticism. It was to some extent calmed by the appointment, in
April, of John D. Ryan, of the Anaconda Copper Company, as director of
aircraft production for the army. By this time many of the most serious
difficulties had been passed. When the armistice was signed about twelve
thousand airplanes had been produced by American plants, of which a third
were service-planes.[6]
[Footnote 6: Ayres. _The War with Germany_, 87-90.]
It is impossible here to trace the activities of the various departments
in the herculean task of arming the nation. But one should not forget
that there was much which never received wide publicity. The development
of ordnance carried with it the manufacture of quantities of ammunition
hitherto undreamt of, the building of railway and motorized artillery,
the improvement of sight and fire-control apparatus, the making of all
sorts of trench-warfare _matériel_. The Air Service had to concern itself
with the manufacture of radio telephones, armament for airplanes, the
synchronizing of machine guns to fire through propeller blades, airplane
bombs, air photography, and pyrotechnics. The Chemical Warfare Service
was busy with the making of toxic gases and gas defense equipment, using
the peach stones and cocoanut shells which every one was asked to save.
The enormous quantities of medical and dental supplies must be gathered
by the Quartermaster Department, which also had charge of the salvage
service and the thousand gargantuan household occupations, such as
laundering and incineration of garbage, that went with the maintenance of
the army in camp. The Signal Corps must produce wire, telegraphs,
telephones, switchboards, radio equipment, batteries, field glasses,
photographic outfits, and carrier pigeons.
Upon its navy the United States has always relied chiefly for defense and
in this branch of the service the country was better prepared for war in
1917 than in the army. Indeed when the nation entered the struggle many
persons believed that the sole practical fighting assistance the United
States should give the Allies would be upon the sea. Josephus Daniels,
the Secretary of the Navy, was a Southern politician, of limited
administrative experience and capacity. During the first years of his
appointment he had alienated navy officers through the introduction of
pet reforms and his frank advocacy of a little navy. Resiliency, however,
was one of his characteristics and he followed President Wilson in 1916,
when the latter demanded from Congress authority for an expansion in the
navy which seemed only prudent in view of international conditions.
Largely owing to the efforts of the Assistant Secretary, Franklin D.
Roosevelt, the months immediately preceding the declaration of war
witnessed strenuous preparations to render aid to the Allies in case the
United States should participate. Thereafter Secretary Daniels tended to
sink his personality and judgment in the conduct of the naval war and to
defer to the opinion of various officers, of whom Admiral William S.
Benson, Chief of Naval Operations was the most influential. When war was
declared two flotillas of destroyers were at once sent to Queenstown to
assist in chasing and sinking submarines, and were placed under the
command of Admiral William S. Sims. Battleships and cruisers followed,
though by no means with the expedition nor in the numbers desired by
Sims, who believed that by using practically the entire naval force at
once the submarine could be exterminated and the war ended.
At home, the Navy Department entered upon a process of expansion which
increased its personnel from 65,000 to 497,000 when the armistice was
signed. A rapid development in naval construction was planned, with
emphasis upon destroyers. The effects of this programme became visible
within a year; during the first nine months of 1918 no less than
eighty-three destroyers were launched, as against sixty-two for the
preceding nine years. Submarine chasers of a special design were built
and many private yachts taken over and adapted to the war against the
submarine. During the course of the war two battleships and twenty-eight
submarines were completed. Expansion in naval shipbuilding plans was
paralleled by the construction of giant docks; by camps sufficient for
the training of two hundred thousand men; and by a naval aircraft
factory from which a seaplane was turned out seven months after work on
the factory was begun. Naval aviators returning from the Channel coasts
superintended flying schools and undertook the patrol of our Atlantic
seaboard.
If much of these military preparations was not translated into
accomplishment before the war ended, it was because the United States was
preparing wisely for a long struggle and it seemed necessary that the
foundations should be broad and deep. "America was straining her energies
towards a goal," said the Director of Munitions, "toward the realization
of an ambition which, in the production of munitions, dropped the year
1918 almost out of consideration altogether, which indeed did not bring
the full weight of American men and _matériel_ into the struggle even in
1919, but which left it for 1920, if the enemy had not yet succumbed to
the growing American power, to witness the maximum strength of the United
States in the field." It was the knowledge of this preparation which, to
some extent, helped to convince the German General Staff of the futility
of further resistance and thus to bring the war to an early end.
The dependence of the United States upon the Allies for equipment and
munitions does not deserve the vitriolic anathemas of certain critics.
The country did not enter the struggle as if it expected to fight the war
single-handed. Distribution of labor and supplies between the United
States and the Allies was merely a wise and economic measure. At their
own request, the Allies were furnished with that which they most
needed--money, food, and man-power. In return they provided the United
States with the artillery and machine guns which they could spare and
which they could manufacture more cheaply and rapidly. Finally there is
the outstanding fact, of which America may always be proud, that this
heterogeneous democracy, organized, so far as organization existed, for
the pursuits of peace, was able in the space of sixteen months, to
provide an army capable of fighting successfully one of the most
difficult campaigns of the war, and that which led directly to the
military defeat of Germany.
The ultimate success of President Wilson's war policies could hardly have
been achieved except by the process of centralization which he never lost
from view. His insistence upon centralized responsibility and control in
political matters was paralleled in the military field. Nothing
illustrates this principle better than the centralization of the American
Expeditionary Force under the absolute and unquestioned command of General
Pershing. The latter was given free rein. The jealousies which so weakened
the Union armies during the first years of the Civil War were ruthlessly
repressed. No generals were sent to France of whom he did not approve.
When the Allies threatened to appeal to Washington over Pershing's head,
President Wilson turned a deaf ear.
In the United States, the President sought similar centralization through
the General Staff. It was this body which prepared the different plans for
the Draft Act, the Pershing expedition, and finally for the gigantic task
of putting a million men in France by the summer of 1918. To the staff was
given the formulation of the training programme along the lines
recommended by Pershing. Always, however, it was hampered by the multiple
responsibility that characterized the old-style army machine with its
bureau chiefs competing with each other, with the navy, and with the
Allies. Quartermaster Department, Ordnance Department, Signal Corps, and
the other bureaus were uncoördinated, and inevitable waste and
inefficiency followed all their operations. It was the crisis that arose
from the problem of supplies, in the winter of 1917, that furnished the
President with the opportunity to cut red-tape and secure the
centralization he desired. That opportunity came with the blanket powers
bestowed upon him by the Overman Act, the full significance of which can
only be appreciated after a consideration of the measures taken to
centralize the industrial resources of the nation.