Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1917-04-03
AVAILABLE LAND FORCE Of THE UNITED
STATES TODAY IS ABOUT 265.00O MEN
President Is Commander In Chief
Over All-Directing Force Is
General Staff, Of Which Ma
jor General Hugh L. Scott Is
Chief.

1-s-is-s-s-s-s-s
Hawaii. These could produce another
100000 men Of military age.
France is said now to have one per-
son out of every six in her population
serving in the army or navy. If the
United States and her insular posses
sions ever made such an effort, TAX
ing the present population as 112, OO0,.
COO, the president would have at his
disposal no less than 1S,666.666 men.
This is probably more men than Ger
many, Austria Hungary, Bulgaria and
Turkey together have in the field to-
day.
Unapproachsd Industrial Power.
If the unOrganiZed manhood strength
Of the United States Is imposing, the
industrial capacity OF the nation Is
even more impressive.
With less than one-tenth OF the
worlds population, we make nearly
one-third Of all the things produced.
In iron and steel, for instance, we
turn out more than Great Britain and
Germany, the two next largest pro-
ducers, do together.
Some observers have estimated the
present industrial capacity Of the Unit
ed States at as much as all the rest Of
the world put together. While this is
perhaps an overestimate, large scale
production has been carried to such a
fine point here that no nation can ap.
proach US in the total produced per
worker.
The average American produces more
per hour Of labor than the citizen Of
any other nation. We rely on mechan.
ical power three times more per man
than does Great Britain, four times
more than Germany and FIVE times
more than France.
The committee on industrial prepar.
edness OF the naval consulting board
Is just about completing an inventory
Of the nations war resources.
While the organization which was to
result from this inventory has only just
been started, the work Of investigation
done indicates in the clearest manner
the factory strength Of this country.
In preliminary report Howard q.
Coffin, chairman Of the committee, stat
ed that there are more than 10000
manufacturing concerns in the United
States which can render important
service in the event Of war. No plant
10 included in this list whose annual
output is less than 100000.
The inventory is in the hands Of the
great engineering societies Of the coun.
try, which have had committees at
work In every state.
The United States marine corps Is
Independent of both the army and the
navy, and its small strength should
perhaps be added to that of the two
main services when estimating the to-
tai organized belligerent power Of the
nation. The authorized strength Of the
corps is 1927 officers and men Of all
classifications, and the ranks are near
ly full.
Various schemes for army reserve
bodies were incorporated in the ma.
tional defense act of last year, but
these provisions have not been in force
long enough to produce results Of i'm
portance. For instance, Of $4,000 re-
serve officers provided for total OF
less than 500 has been commissioned.
Organization Of the Army.
The commander in chief of the army
las of the navy also) is the president
Of the United States.
His representative, who carries out
{e, <h0 Of
Newton D. Baker.
The directing force of the army is
the general staff. Major General
Hugh L. Scott is now chief of staff,
and his assistant is Major General
Tasker H. Bliss. Grouped about them
in Washington are army experts of
various ranks, who are supposed to do
the thinking about general problems
for the whole army.
Should the United States send mill
tary expedition abroad the commander
would undoubtedly be one Of the seven
active major generals. These are given
below, with their present assignments
and headquarters:
Leonard Wood, eastern department.
Governors island, New York.
J. Franklin Bell, western department,
San Francisco.
Thomas H. Barry, central depart
ment, Chicago.
Frederick Funston, southern depart
ment, Fort Sam Houston, Texas.
Hugh L. Scott, chief Of staff, general
staff, Washington.
Tasker H. Bliss, general staff, Wash
ingtOn.
John ]. Pershing, Eighth brigade,
Columbus, N. Nj.
l. 4. L. L. 4. 4. q. u.