New Britain herald., 1918-01-10
AMERICA PREPARED,
SAYS SECRETARY
Army Of Substantial Size in
France Ready for Active Service
HIS GENERAL REVIE W

and Abroad Are Sufficiently Equip |
ped With Clothing and Arms-Tells |
of Stupendous Appropriations to
Departments.
| Washington Jan 10. America
now has in France army of sub
stantial size ready for active service,
Secretary Baker today told the senate
war investigating committee.
officers and men, he explained in a
; statement of the mobilization accom-
: plishment, have been trained special
! " for modern warfare, independent
! lines Of communication and supply are
! in process of construction, and great
programs have been formulated for
the production of new instruments of
war.
Arms of the most modern and eff
fective kind, he declared, have been
provided for every soldier in France
and are available for every fighting
! man who can be sent to France in
1918,
An army of nearly a million and
half men enlisted and recruited with
out serious diSlocation of the nations
Industries is now in the field or in
training at home and abroad, he as
serted The subsistence of the army,
he continued, has been above criticism,
while it's initial clothing supply tenn
porarily inadequate, is now substan-
TALLY complete.
Il state those conditions of the
war department program and some of
the results obtained, for two pur-
poses,'' he said. "In the first place
the American people are entitled to
know Of the splendid effectiveness with
which they have been able to organize
the man power and the material
power of the nation in a great cause;
and second our army in France under
General Pershing and our Allies are
entitled to have the benefit resulting
from the depression of morale of their
enemies, which must come when the
Germans realize that the American
democracy has neither blundered nor
hesitated, but actually brought the full
b. power of it's men and resources to
COMPLETELY organized strength against
their military machine.
! mo army of similar size in the
J history of the world has ever been
raised, equipped or trained SO quickly.
No such provision has ever been made
for the comfort, health and general
: we'll being of an army.
"By the cooperation of all inter
ests and all the people, the nation is
} organized and set to it's task with
: unanimity Of spirit and confidence in
it's power More has been done than
, anybody dared think possible. That
! there have been here and there CT
rors of judgmen and delays goes
= without saying, but 1 should be want
l ing in frankness were I to omit my
, own estimate Of the real unselfishness
and intelligence with which my asso-
ciates, military and civilian, have ap-
piled themselves to this undertaking,
and the results demonstrate the sue
. cess of their efforts"
} Outline Of Work.
The secretary gave the committee an
outline Of the work of the depart
7 ment and its various bureaus.i
con the first day of April, 1917, the
regular army he said "comprised
5,791 officers and 121,797 enlisted
men: the National Guard in federal
service, approximately S,173 officers
> and 76,712 enlisted men; and the re-
-. serve 1000 enlisted men. There were
y also at that time approximately 2,573
. officers in the reserve, but as these
- were on inactive duty, they cannot
properly be considered in estimating
. the strength Of the army of the United
l States then. On the 31st day of De-
cember 1917, the regular army con-
. sisted Of 1O,25O officers and Ats, 900
enlisted men: the National Guard OF
i 16.O31 officers and 40O,9 enlisted
men: the National Army Of 4S1, 900
- men: and the reserve of "a ,5T1 Oth-
GERS and 72,T5O enlisten men. In other
( words, in o months the increase has
= | been from 1924 officers to 10, ,856 ofl-
- ! GERS and from 2O2, $40 to 1,42S, e so
men.
= "The total number already in the
: military service is one and hall
= times as large as any force ever mo-
:, bilized by this nation.
u "a substantial part of our military
'' forces was selected by the operation
q of a. draft law the execution of which
has demonstrated both the economical
. and the efficient way Of selecting SOL
- diers
For the training of officers two Sc
ries of training camps were held
e from which about 49, 900 officers were
e commissioned from civil life. This
number is nearly eight times as grea
as the number Of officers in the regu
lar army on the first of April.
For the trainin% Of these soldiers
1f cantonment@ have been built cost
inc $134,000,0 600 With an average