Officers. Men.
Regular army 10,295 504,677
Reserve Corps 79,038 78,560
National Guard 16,906 411,952
National Army 33,894 510,963
On special and technical duty 8,195
Drafted in April 150,000
Drafted in May 233,742
------- -------
Total 148,328 1,889,894
Grand total, 2,038,222 officers and men.
So we have today an army of more than 2,000,000, of which 500,000
have already been shipped to France and 1,000,000 more have had the
necessary training to fit them for foreign service. These are now
waiting for the boats to carry them over. Our critics now complain that
we have not done more, yet we have done in one year twice as much as
they thought we could do in two years.
When war was declared, each of our allies sent commissions to America
to advise us what to do and to assist us wherever possible in our
preparation. The English told us that they did not need men, but they
did need money and supplies; the Italians that they did not need men,
but that they did need material and money; the Russians that they did
not need men or material, but did need money and ammunition; the French
told us that they needed raw material and money, and asked that a small
expeditionary force be sent to hearten their people and as an earnest
of our intention of seeing the war through.
Under this tutelage and squaring our conduct with the requests of our
friends, it was thought by many to be inadvisable to attempt to raise
an army of more than 1,000,000 men. Congress was therefore requested
to pass military legislation limiting the army to the 136,000 regulars,
the 164,000 National Guardsmen, and 500,000 drafted men, with authority
to call an additional 500,000 in case they should be needed. Under
the legislation that Congress passed, in spite of the recommendation
from the Allies, we have already raised more than 2,000,000 men, and
early in the year 1919 will have 3,000,000 men in the army. We have
lately taken the "lid off" so that the President may have as big an
army as necessity requires and our man power permits. Notwithstanding
the fact that the appropriation measure now pending before the House
is drawn with the view of supporting an army of only 3,000,000 men, I
am confident that before many months deficiency appropriations will be
necessary. The army is growing so rapidly and its needs are so urgent
that the efforts heretofore made will be small in comparison with those
of the next twelve months. We will probably have between 4,000,000 and
5,000,000 men before the end of the next fiscal year.