French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1916-1919, 1917-09-27
IN LESS THAN SIX MONTHS.

Some idea of the increase in Amer
ica,s sea strength since our entry into
the war may be gathered from Secre-
tary Daniel S recent statement tnat the
navy now has in commission three
times as many ships as 1t mad SIX
months ago. Equally striking Is the
fact that the enlisted men and ma
i. r1nes. exclusive OF the Naval reserves
and lesser units, now number approx
} lmateIv one hundred and seventy-tWo
thousand, which exceeds by some
twenty thousand men the personnel OF
the British navy at the beginning OF
he war. "At that time notes the
New York Evening Post, the British
naval strength was composed of four
hundred and seventy-eIght fighting
units while last November Our w
navy comprised one hundred n sixty
units, or exactly one-third the British
strength"
From this it is logically inferred
| that to employ a personnel much larg-
er than han England's was in 1914 IN
dictates a fleet as great, though perhaps
not yet altogether as powerful, as was
the British fleet at the wars outbreak.
This record, of course, takes no &C
count of the dreadnaushts and batt4e
cruisers which were provided for i
the five year-building program adopted
last year; the addition of these, as
thew are completed, will make the
American feet incomparably more
formidable. The navy's present per-
sonnet, all units included numbers
two hundred and thirty-three thou
sand, one hundred and seventeen. (
No less remarkable are the energy
and enthusiasm with which the Ma
TONS land forces have been recruited.
Within less than six months after en- t
tering the war the United States has Z
raised more than a million men. The
Regular Army was brought up to it's 6
war strength of three hul- 4"
dred thousand within about four s
months after the declaration of hos O
tilities, the average daily enlistnents 8
thirteen hundred. Early in
August the National Guard, now ap"
proximately three hundred and fifty -
strong, was taken into Fe'i- =
eral service. Thus a force Of six hum -
dred and fifty thousand men. all OF E
them volunteers, was under arms De- =
fore the mastering of the National 6.
army under tho Selective Service act !,
fairly began. That army, the units =
whcih are now rapidly forming, :,
adds. six hundred and eighty thousand =
men to the colors, making the total y
more than one million, three hundred "
thousand. And beyond these, not L
months f~utureward. stands the second
National Army of five hundred thou
sand or more. =,
The significance of this achievement 81
S the better appreciated when it is 81
'emembered that as recently as jan
larry, 1916, our Regular Army number u'
ID fewer than ninety thousand men.
the National Guard pretgured o.
tut family its present magnihcetn er
trength. The year 1916 saw far &c
eaching progress in the way of pre- q
,aredness legislation and a considera- 81
lie addition to the fighting ranks, IN 81
Ter the stimulus of the border trouble. g
But by far the greater portion of our
resent land strength, that already
nder arms and that now being mus FL
has organized since the spring pl
f the current year. Army and navy NpC
ogether, we now have, either in ser re
or training. upwards of one and til
half million men. And that isn't st
bad observation-disclosures Journal. re