The first war difficulty encountered came when we looked for shelter
for the vast army being assembled. Much to the surprise of every one,
it was soon discovered that there was not cloth enough in the world
to put tents over an army the size of the one we were organizing,
and there were not mills and machinery enough to make it. Therefore
wooden cantonments were constructed. We built thirty-two cantonments
with a floor space of 640,000,000 square feet, with the necessary
water, sewers, lighting plants, storehouses, ice plants, hospitals,
and recreation centres to take care of 1,280,000 men, in which
undertaking there was used in ten weeks' time more human labor than
went into the building of the Panama Canal. Besides these, we have
constructed aviation fields, ordnance schools, and training schools
for officers--herculean tasks in themselves. We have also put up at
the ports of embarkation, and throughout the country, supply depots,
and storage warehouses with a combined floor space of 24,220,000
square feet for the army, in addition to what the navy has done in
that respect, and have constructed the enormous buildings erected for
administrative purposes in Washington and elsewhere. Verily, your Uncle
Samuel is a modern Aladdin, who, when he wants a thing devoutly, rubs
the lamp of American patriotism and the genius of America produces
overnight all that he requires.
When we entered the war we had practically no surplus clothing for our
army, our reserve supply having been used up in the Mexican expedition.
Our allies were using practically the full output of all of our mills
capable of producing cloth of the character used for uniforms. To take
over these factories would have discommoded our allies. We met the
difficulty by a change of the machinery in carpet factories, ducking
mills, and kindred industries, and have been able to, during the
last year, make Summer and Winter clothing enough for 2,000,000 men,
and have a reserve supply of every article of wear for our soldiers
sufficient to take care of the authorized increase.