Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1917-09-20
What We Have Done
Since War Began

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the war, says the Youths Compan-
ion, which continues:
We have recruited our standing
army and our militia forces up tC
war strength; we have, therefore
about 10000 soldiers already under
arms; those who are not veterans
are undergoing the final training
that will prepare them for the front.
We have registered all the young
men in the third decade of their
lives, and drawn nearly 70O,0 OF
them to form new army, the train
/ ing of which is to begin in a very
few weeks.
We have built 32 great training
camps for use of our soldiers in as
many different parts of the country.
We have given three months or
more of special training to between
40, 900 and $4,000 young men to get
them to become officers.
We have already sent one division
of regular troops to France and more
are on the way. It is probable that
we shall have 100000 men on the
fighting line before snow flies and
between 100000 and 1000, 900 there
by next spring. Our first detachment
is already at the front.
We have sent over scores of hospi-
tai units, with surgeons, nurses and
supplies, and we have dispatched to
France, to England and to Russia
special corps of foresters, railway
workers and engineers, who are help
ing nightly in their own way, be-
hind the battle line.
We have sent across the ocean a
squadron Of destroyers that have
done valuable service in the cam
paign against the submarines, and
we are building and have nearly COM
pleted some 500 additional craft that
are specially designed for attacking
submarines.
Our navy patrols the Atlantic and
is ready for battle duty whenever it
Is called on.
We have organized the work of
building merchant ships; more than
400 are already under way, and the
number will increase as fast as new
facilities are provided.
We have appropriated the money
for a fleet of 10000 airships and
have begun to train the men who are
to be their pilots.
We have established council of
national defense. a purchasing board
and a commissioner for the control
of food, all patriotic and experienced
business men, who are introducing
into our military preparations an or
derliness and thoroughness such as
was never known in any of our pre-
vious wars.
We have raised an loan of 1000
100000 without difficulty and are
ready to absorb another. We have
found the money for our own prepar-
ations and lent money in considerable
amounts to our allies, as they have
needed it.
AS a nation we have undertaken
the support of the Belgians; we have
sent medical mission to France to
help fight tuberculosis. which has he
come so terrible a plague since the
war began we have sent aid, finan-
cial, industrial and political, to Rus
sia.
There is nothing of the glory and
glamour of war about this summary
Of accomplishment. We have won
no victories in the field, we have
hardly fired our first shot against
the enemy. We have had all the
foundations to lay, and when we con-
slider how mighty a task lies before
us and how utterly unprepared we
were for it, the labor of laying the
foundations seems to US to have been
done Systematically, carefully and
with reasonable speed Fortunately,
we have had allies who could hold