The Washington herald., 1918-07-31
The Great Army to Come.

/. Secretary OF War Baker IS completing his plans
to raise the American army to full strength of
100000 men.
(; Gen. Pershing is getting ready to create the
first field army, possibly two field armies, COM
posed exclusively of American troops; each one
probably to comprise three army corps, which in
turn are composed of six divisions each.
Gen. Foch is laying his plans for grand Of
.fensive against the enemy next spring, in which
the American forces will come very close to COM
;prisng one-third of the total under. his command
Of course, army of 100000 is by no means
the maximum which America may be called upon
to raise especially if the continues into 1890
But to have this number of men under arms by the
late fall means extension of the draft ages with
out delay. 1t means a considerable expansion Of
our present war-making power; the enlargement of
cantonments; the extension of officers training
camps; the development of port and camp facilities
abroad.
At the present time the United States has ap-
proximately 10000 combatant troops in France,
but of these not much more than one-third is
ready, trained. and equipped for the battle line 1t
may be late in October before this entire quota is
prepared to take its place in the fight.
Next spring should have between 100000
and 100000 combatant troops at the front. Per-
haps the latter figure is conservative. This force
should be sufficient to make the "over the Rhine"
slogan more than mere fatuty, particularly in
connection with our aVlanon program, WHICH SnoulQ
then have attained the zenith of its development
Americans need not be surprised if the present
rate of shipping troops abroad-ranging between
10000 and 100000 a month-undergoes a sharp
decrease in the future Indeed it is difficult
to see how this number can be maintained, in con-
nection with the problems of supply. Supply con-
sists not only of foodstuffs, but OF artillery, ammu
milton, aircraft, etc
The army program should be divorced entirely
from politics Sentimental political reluctance
to lower the draft age to 20 or 10 should delay
the action OF Congress the coming recommen-
dations of Secretary Baker, nor should there be
hesitation about raising the age limit to forty.
There is no reason in the world why married men,
with without dependents, and within the present
draft ages, should be called upon to serve before
single men without dependents above the present
draft ages are excluded from the call. The latter
unquestionably should come before the former.
1t is pity that the War Department has waited
so long in dealing with the emergency, for Con-
gress will be in no mood to pass the asked
for legislation on mere snap judgment" But bet
ter late than never and ii must be remembered that
If Ludendorf had thrown CONSERVATION into the
heart of the civilized world last March, the United
States would still be plodding away at its original
program-and probably not more than 100000 Of
our troops would be abroad. 1t took crisis to
wake up, the more's the pity. Perhaps another
crisis would force the nation 10 De moolllzed on
real war basis. We getting to that point slowly
although steadily. Nothing is more significant than
the gradual extension of the governmental control
over all the war-making commodities including
steel and oil.
The present battle is bringing America into the
war as one of the major allies When the casualty
lists are sent by Gen. Pershing, Americans will
have reason to know that they are in the conflict
that the period of martyrdom, of the sacrifice Of
our best blood and sinew in great cause, is at
hand.