Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1918-01-17
War Department Not Perfect in
Some Things, But Has Set
World Record in Preparing an
Army. Says Baker.
FUTURE is PROVIDED FOR
Nearly 10000 Men Now I'm
der Arms-Death Rate Below
That in Civil Life-Review
Shows Achievements.


tary Baker today replied to criticism of
his departments conduct of the war in
q long and exhaustive prepared state
ment presented to the Senate military
committee.
Conceding delays and errors of juds-
ment in so vast AN undertaking, Secre-
tary Baker epitomized his reply in these
words.
NO army of similar size i'm the his
tory 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"
Arms of the most modern and effec-
tive kind, the secretary declared, have
been provided for every soldier in
France and are available for every
fighting man who can be sent to France
i'm 1918.
An army of nearly 1900. 600. enlisted
and selected without serious dislocation
of the nations industries. is now i'm the
field or i'm training at homo and abroad
he asserted. Vh" subsistence of the
army tie continued, has been above crit
icism. while it's initial cluthinG supply.
temporarily inadequate, l. now sub
stantially complete.
People Entitled to Know.
81 state the foregoing conditions of
the war departments problem and some
u lIt I1SN.fiS siitstf4.fN W tN' pun
poses" he said. In the FIRST place the
American people are entitled To know
of the splendid effectiveness W!th which
they have been able To organize IN"
man powe, and the material bower OF
the nation in IL great cause; and second,
our army i'm France under Genera!
Pershin. and our allies IRE entitled to
have the benefit resulting from the de-
preston of the morale "a: tntir clleillieS
which must come when the Germans
realize that the American democracy
has neither blun,lercd Irrr hcsitated. but
actually brought th@ fnii power of its
men aud resources into completely on
eanizcd strength against their military
machine.
NO army OF similar size in the h!s-
tory of the world has ever 'iecn raised,
equipped or trained 50 pniriiN. ="
such provision has ever been made fut'
the comfort. health .n'l general We'll
being "f an army.
Exceeded Expectations.
"Hy the cooperation ot all interests
and ali people i'm the country. the nation
is noW organized and set ~ its task
with unanimi,y of spirit and coniid ~"
in it's powers. More has been done thin
anybody dared tn believe possible. That
there have been here and there errors
of Judgment and delay. gees without.
saying: but I should hs wanting in
frankness were I to "nii; nay "wn esi:-
mate Of the real unSoltiSh;l IS ANA ~
tclligence with whirl my as+oc,ates,
military and civilian, have alni.eu
themselves to this undertakes ARA the
results demonstrate the S.lcc.s- ~ lhei!
e%ffurt@.'
The secretary gave tso cu!nlaiitoo an
outline nf the work of tilo department
and it, various bureaus.
How Army Has Grown.
on the iiist day "i April. 1871, ne
--.i .,..-- - H. La:. .,,, tiLN.
1921 officers and t2i.1?. enlisted lNol.
the National Guard III fedora. SERGE,
approximately *.133 Officers and M..l3
enlisted men. aMd the reserve 1000 ca
listed men.
"There We're also at ti;.t tinie approx
imatelN 2.1.3 0ffit e!s ia The reserve.
but as these We're ON inactive duty they
cannot properly be considered i'm esti-
mating III" strength of the army OF
the United States at That time. On
the 31st>day OF December, 1917. the reg
ular army consisted of 1880 officers
and 10000 enlisted men: the National
Guard of lG,03l officers and 100000 en-
listed men: the national army of 10000
men, and the reserves of S4.515 officers
and 1900 enlisted men. In other
words. in nine months the increase has
been from 9.,24 officers to l10.S56 of
ficers and from 202.51O to 1,42S, 500
men.
"puring the war with Spain the army
OF the United StateS at it's maximum
strength aggregated 10000 MGR and
Officers. The army now in the field
and in training is. therefore. roughly,
six times as great as the maximum
number under arms in the Spanish
American war.
THE total number already i'm the mil
itary service is me and "A half times
as large as any force ever modified by
this ration.
Application Of the Draft.
"A substantial part of our military
forces was selected by the operation
of a daft law. the execution of which
has demonstrated both the economical
and the efficient way of selecting. The
law itself was dla wn. it's execution car
ried to Il successful conclusion and the
theory of the law. novel to IL peo-
i,lc, explained and made popular be-
cause of its demonstrated fairness,
both in plan and execution.
For the training Of officers two
series of training camps We're held from
which, abont 5000 officers were con
m~issioned from civil life. This number
is nearly eight times as great as the
number of Officers In the regular army
on the first day Of April.
Little Graft On Camps.
"For the training of these soldiers. 16
~cantonrEents have been built. costing
$1Si. ana. 0nU, with an average profit to
The death rate in our forces in the
United States from mid september to
the end Of December averaged TO per
Loon. and is slightly less than WOULD
I have BEEN the death rate of meg. of the
same age at home In 1888. the death