The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1917-12-10
THE FIRST WAR CONGRESS
Senator Chamberlain, of OregoE Who
Sponsored Many Important Meas
ures, Reviews Record of Accom-
plishment.
(By George E. Chamberlain

10y NeOI St L. SIlollllDSI
1T may be stated without qualifi-
cation that no Congress since the
adoption Of the Constitution has such
record of accomplishment as has
the first session of the SiXty-Fifth
Congress-the first War Congress.
This statement has particularly to
do with legislation that has been
made necessary for placing the
country in a proper attitude for
defensive as we'll as for an offensive
world war.
''On the second day of April. 1917,
the President delivered his message
to Congress calling attention 20 the
iact that America because OF the
attitude which the Imperial German
GoNernmeLt haI assumed was al
ready III state of war, and advising
as 10. the needs of the country for
bringing that war to SUCCESSFUL
| conclusion. On the fifth day CT the
same month Congress adopted
resolution declaring that state OF
war existed, and on the next day the
| Presidents proclamation OF Wa was
! issued.
~ ith the exception of few laws
/ which We're passed during the pre-
! ceding session providing FOR asTeor-
ganiZation of the Army and an in
crease of the Navy in the number of
battleships and in the personnel as
we'll, America vas practically unpre-
pared to play its part in the great
war of history. Immediately, sheW-
ever, upon the issuance of the Presl-
| dents proclamation and as soon as
the needs of our country were brou
ght to the attention of Congress leg
! lslation began to be formulateds dis
cussed, and enacted which the crisis
! demanded.
! There has been disposition in
! some quarters 60 criticise Congress
| sionaI action and to charge dilatori
ness upon the part Of the Admins
| tration. Such criticism was and is
| wholly unjustified, however snuch
! merited might be a criticism & that
| Congress had acted with too much
| haste, for between the declaration OF
war and the adjournment of Con-
| gress everything was done which
seemed to be necessary in order; that
America might play her part in an
international cataclysm.
1T would be impossible in short
statement to go into details with ref
erence to legislation which has been
enacted, but it is proper to call at |
tention to a few of the most salient |
measures. First of all as an efficient |
measure for raising an Army the Sc |
lective draft law easily occupies the |
first place. The draft was urged by |
Washington and his generals as nee
essary to the successful carrying out |
of the Revolutionary War, and a (
reluctant Congress finally enacted |
oh 1nxr r hr1r fIn ff<1 an
force it, and one of the first Acts of
Congress under the Constitution was
the compulsory service law of 1892,
which remained on the statute books
until it's repeal by the so-caIIed Dick
law. in 1903. That Act was ~
ticable and unsiiited to modern ac6n
ditions and in war such as that
which is waging now would have
been wholly lacking in efficiency. JEFF
ferson favored such a law, and one
of the ablest unofficial pronounce
ments of President Lincoln was in |
favor of the draft Act of 1868.
Before Great Britain had pro-
ceeded far with the performance of |
her part in the pending struggle her |
statesmen and military leaders rea-
lized that such a law was necessary |
to raise an efficient Army, and after |
a long struggle such an Act was fin |
ally passed.
THE same thing is true of Cana
da, and only within the past few |
months has such an Act been passed |
by the Canadian Parliament. so that
it will be seen that in the very be-
ginning of the participation by the
United States in the war Congress,
profiting by the mistakes of her AL
lies, promptly passed the selective
draft law which compels those be-
tween the ages of 21 and 81 years
to recognize that the rights of citi
zenship involves a reciprocal duty |
and makes every man within mill.
tary age respond to call to the col
ors when his service is needed.
Within this period of six months |
therefore we have seen an Army of |
a million men raised by the Yolun-
teer system supplemented by the Sc
lective draft law. This Army has !
been raised, too, by the civilian for
ces of the Government, and we have !
had the remarkable spectacle within |
recent weeks Of more than 100000 |
young men mobiliZing to their res
pective rendezvous unaccOmpanied by |
military leaders and practically on |
orders issued by the Commander in
Chief of the Army through appro-
pirate tribunals in the different |
States. If the whole Army could have
been raised by this method instead |
of through a resort to the volunteer
system the burdens would have fall
len with less weight upon individu
al communities and would have been
more equitably distributed through
out the several communities in the
several States, thus affording pro-
lection against the depletion of la
Dor in commercial, agricultural and |
industrial life.
Next in Importance was the Act
appropriating 100000 for the
construction of aircraft, and later
the bill providing for the creation of
the Aircraft Board. Under these
two Acts the United States with a
possible output of a few airplanes
per year will now. through the mobi-
lization of its industrial work, be alb
lie to construct airplanes in suffici
ent numbers to meet her own re-
quirements and possibly those of
her Allies as we'll If as has been
asserted in many quarters these ma
chimes are to be determining fac
tor in the war America is prepared
to perform her part both in the num-
Der of machines to be furnished and
in the splendid personnel to operate
them.
But while plans for the reorgani-
zation and mobilization of a large
land force were being placed upon
the statute books and carried into
execution the naval program has not
been neglected. This program was
enlarged and the Navy ordered to be
increased by the addition of torpedo
boats at cost of Sc, ,115, 900 and 26
coast submarines at a cost of $780,
900, and the President authoriz-
ed to eXpend in his discretion, in Or
der to secure more expeditions de-
livery of material, $215, 900,
while by the Act of April II. 1917,
500, 100000 was appropriated to be
expended by the President in his dis
cretion.