Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1942-06-05
Armed Might
Of u. S. Now
World Marvel
Few in Nation Realize
Extent Of Growth I
By WEsTBROoK PEGLER


- statesmen say where the
enemy is to be met and how
that will be done, but any civil
ian can see that, from a david
ling start in the fall of 1910,
the people of the United States,
under q strong government, have
made amazing progress toward
the development of the mighty
power of this peaceful nation to
make war when provoked.
The great South and South
west is a growing swarm OF SOL
diers.
In areas of thousands of miles.
warplanes of all the land-based
military types, from fiivvers to
enormous bombers, snarl across
the sky.
Military camps-so many that
few of our own people ever
heard of them all-have risen in
remote places. where there is
room TO spare for housing and
training. and factories for the
production of explosives, planes
and shells suddenly are where
nothing was before.
ALL this is in addition 10 the
"A driving development which
has taken place in the old, estab-
lished industrial centers of New
England and the other eastern
states, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana
and Illinois and the mighty
effort in the shipyards.
II is a picture of the United
States turned to war almost as
wholly as Germany. and as
heartening as the quick crea-
tion of these soldier cities and
aviation centers and the indu
trial plants TO keep them arrnd
and flying is the change in the
appear ance and bearing. the
morale" of these young men.
E>IGHTEEN months ago, ID
IL months ago. the American
soldier was the subject Of much
maudlin mothering.
His officers gentled him, and
neither he nor they understood
why they were suddenly called
away from civil life. for few
quite believed that their mis-
sion was merely 10 train" for
a year and then 60 home. and
the international situation of the
hour was such that their gov
eminent couldn't admit the
truth.
They soldiered without rifles
and used laundry wagons for
tanks and gas pipes mounted
on old buggy wheels for artil-
lery, with a shamefaced ser
geant yelling "wham" 10 simu-
late the sound of guns.
They were not at war. and
they had nothing with which TO
fight a war, and when a sulker
at Fort Bragg spat on the floor
in barracks and in the mess q
young officer was denounced in
Congress for prosecuting this
boy" with a court-martial.
CINCE Pearl Harbor. If not
~ some time before that, there
has been no misunderstanding.
no Understanding Of the rea-
sons why the army is in the field
and growing, and, far from i'm
pairing the disposition of the
soldier, the realization that he
is a fighter has made a fighter
of him.
Meanwhile his weapons have
been coming along. and he SO :
the vehicles and planes on eveS
hand which assure him that he
is not a Boy Scout off camping
and making fire by chatting
sticks but "a much a soldier as
the faceless men of Adolf
Hitler.
The first draftees went TO
their stations in the mood of
the half-hearted Frenchmen who
were only barely willing and not
enthusiastic and, for long
time, drudged at their training
with some feeling that their
country wouldn't know how TO
create enough of the tools for
a first class war.
OFFICERS of the regular
" army who soldiered in
France hold this army 10 be
much superior to the AEF in
many ways and inferior only in
experience to the war-tested
troops OF that time.
Many mistakes Of those days
have been avoided. and the
human relationships between Of
ficers and the ranks would scam
dalize old, retired colonies and
brigadiers of a period when, the
man with a commission needed
not only authority to enforce his
commands but also pomp. rude
ness and ceremony TO impress
the soldier with his superiority.
Moreover, this change has
been wrought without the use of
political commissars or shooflies
to spy on the soldier and snitch
to some secret bureau.
No American army ever ex-
celled this one in intelligence,
fitness and spirit, and Hitler's
troops had no more on the ball
up to the time when they over
whelmed much weaker forces