CHAPTER ITHE MAKING OF THE ARMY
The United States sprang into the greatest war the world has ever known, a war in which men and machines and resources were being consumed in enormous quantities, with an army numbering, all told, only 212,000. The first necessity was to create, train and equip an army that would, at the earliest possible moment, number millions of men and thousands of officers. American sentiment had always been strongly opposed to the principle of compulsory military service and the only attempt the country had ever made to use the draft system, during the Civil War, had caused dissatisfaction, disturbance and riot in civil life and in its military results had been practically a failure. Through many days of discussion in Congress and throughout the country the question was threshed out, while enlistments to the number of over 800,000 were swelling the ranks of the Regular Army, National Guard and Reserve Corps organizations. In the end, there was general agreement that only the draft system could furnish the enormous numbers of men required and draw themfrom civil life with democratic justice and with due regard to social and economic interests.
As a large number of foreign born citizens had come here to escape the compulsory military service of their native countries, there were many grave fears of the result and it was even expected that in centers of foreign population there would be riotous demonstrations of protest. But those who were thus apprehensive had not rightly estimated the intelligence, the democracy and the Americanism of the whole citizenship of the country, foreign as well as native born.
The success of the Selective Service Law, enacted by Congress on May 18, 1917, was as spectacular as it was complete. The entire machinery of registration, compilation and report was organized and made ready for operation in the eighteen days following the enactment of the law and was wholly manned by volunteer service from civil life. On June 5th, in a single day, without disturbance or protest anywhere, the entire male population of the country between the ages of twenty-one and thirty, inclusive, went to the registration booths and registered for military service, and practically all the returns were in Washington within twenty-four hours. Two subsequent registrations of young men who had reached the age of twenty-one after June 5th brought the number of registrants up to a little more than 10,000,000 men.
On September 12th, 1918, occurred the registration under the extended age limits of eighteen to forty-five when over 13,000,000 names were added to the list. Thus in a year and a half of war America listed and classified as to physical fitness and occupationaland domestic status her full available power of 23,700,000 men. Out of the first great registration and the two small ones supplementing it and from the Regular Army and the National Guard there had been sent overseas at the signing of the armistice, November 11th, 1918, a little more than 2,000,000 men and there were in the United States, ready for transportation to France, 1,600,000. The American Army totaled at that time 3,665,000. A few of those who had gone were in Italy, Russia, or elsewhere, but nearly all of them were in France, trained, equipped and either on the fighting line, in supporting divisions, or waiting in the rear ready for the front. Those in the American training camps were being transported to France at the rate of from 200,000 to 300,000 per month and would all have been overseas by early spring of 1919. The work of classifying the registrants of September, 1918, and of making the selections for military service was already under way and the flow of these men into the training camps had begun. The plans were all ready for operation for calling into military service 3,000,000 more men from this registration, for training them in the American camps two or three months and then sending them to France for a final training period of six or eight weeks. If the war had continued until the next summer, as it was then universally believed it would, the United States would have had ready for service at the front, within two years of its declaration of war, an army of between 6,000,000 and 7,000,000 men, taken from civilian life, trained, equipped and transported across the Atlantic Ocean within that time.
The mechanism by which this army was gathered,examined, selected, classified and sent to training camps worked as smoothly, as efficiently and as swiftly as if the country had been trained for a century in martial methods. The quotas to be furnished by states, counties and smaller districts were apportioned and local boards were appointed to have charge of the task of calling the selected men, examining and classifying them and sending to the training camps those finally chosen as physically fit for the service and able to serve without injury to dependents or to essential industry.
Registration also had been carried on under these local boards, each registrant being numbered in order. The draft call was made by means of a lottery drawing in Washington where each number that was drawn summoned all the men of the same registration number in all of the 4,500 local boards throughout the country. The local boards called in the men whose numbers were chosen, examined them as to physical condition, considered their claims to exemption, if such were made, on the ground of being the necessary support of dependents or of being engaged in an essential industry, decided for or against them and certified their names to the district board, which acted as a board of review for local boards, as exempted or held for service. If approved for service by the district board, the local board inducted them into the service and sent them to a cantonment or camp to begin their military training. Each of these 4,500 local boards was officered by three men, one of whom had to be a physician. All of them were civilians who worked practically without pay, until, after some months, a small allowance was made for their remuneration. They carried through the arduouswork, frequently entailing many hours per day, in addition to their regular business or professional affairs, which had to be much neglected meanwhile, in order that they might offer this important service to their country at the moment of need. The draft organization, besides these 13,500 local board members, included over 1,000 district board members, medical, legal and industrial advisers, clerks, Government appeal agents, and others amounting, all told, to a compact, nation-wide body of over 190,000.
The democratic ideals of America have never had a more searching trial or a more triumphant vindication than was afforded by the swift and efficient making of this Army of Freedom. Columbia stretched out a summoning finger, saying, “I need you!” and there came to her service millionaire’s son and Chinese laundryman, descendant of generations of Americans and immigrant of a day, farmer, banker, merchant, clerk, country school teacher, university professor, lawyer, physician, truck driver, yacht owner, down-and-outer, social favorite—from village and country and town and city they came, representing every occupation, every social grade, every economic condition in the republic. On the democratic level of service to the country they gathered in the barracks and without a whimper or a word of protest the millionaire’s son cleaned out stables, the young man reared in luxury washed his own mess kit and served on the kitchen police, and all of them worked at their training and their drill as hard as day laborers from dawn till dark.
Fourteen tribes of American Indians were represented among the soldiers of the National Army, as the forces formed from the Selective Service werecalled for more than a year, to distinguish them from the Regular Army and the National Guards. Then all three were merged into the single organization of the United States Army. Among the most efficient soldiers were several regiments of negroes. Every civilized nation on the face of the globe, every language, and every important dialect were represented in the ranks of the soldiers of freedom who carried the Stars and Stripes on the battle fields of France. Through the office of the base censor of the American Expeditionary Forces passed letters in forty-nine languages. Chinese, Syrian and Dane, Persian and Irishman, Japanese and Italian, Latin American and Swede, vied with the New Englander, the Kentuckian, the Texan and the Kansan in loyalty to the United States, in enthusiasm for our ideals and willingness to defend them with their lives. In the September registration men of fifty-two different tongues were listed in New York City. In the first draft men were called and accepted who claimed birth in twenty-two separately listed countries, while a contingent from Central and South America was not credited in the official report to the separate nations they represented and nearly two thousand men from scattered and small countries were lumped together under the designation of “Sundries.” But all of them zealously fought for America.
A great many of these foreign-born men already spoke English. And the education of those who did not began as soon as they were inducted into the army and was continued along with their military training. In every cantonment to which came men who did not understand English schools were established in which they were taught to speak, read andwrite the language. All the training and all the life around them were in English and this constant association and the daily lessons soon made most of the men fairly proficient.
Along with the training in English went instruction in American ideals, in the reasons why America was in the war and in what the war meant to them individually. The aim was to give to these foreign-born men the kind of training in patriotism and in democratic ideals, condensed into a few weeks, that the American gets by birthright and surroundings. Many, varied and ingenious were the ways by which this was done. There were short talks on war news, on American principles of government, on why America was in the war, on why it was a war for freedom, and similar topics. The special days and the heroes of nations that have their own traditions of revolt against tyranny were celebrated by “national nights” to which came all the sons of that nation in the camp and as many others as could crowd into the auditorium. There were music and speeches and national songs and the hymns of the Allies and in all the talking the speakers would link up American democracy, its mission in the world and the reasons why America was in the war with the traditions of freedom, the heroes of liberty and the sacrifices for democracy and justice of the nation whose celebration was being held. Pamphlets and leaflets, written by men of their own nationality, in English usually, but in their own tongue for those who could not yet read English, which explained the causes of the war, the aims of the combatants and America’s motives and outlined American history in a simple and readable way, were circulated amongthe men. In a word, these foreign-born soldiers-in-the-making were educated and broadened and so imbued with democratic principles and American ideals that in spirit they rapidly became good Americans, even if they elected to continue citizens of their native land.
But all who wished could be naturalized during their military training. In every cantonment was a court of naturalization and by a special law it had been made possible to shorten the time ordinarily needed for this process. Any man who was going forth to fight the battles of civilization in the American army could become an American citizen, even if he had not previously declared his intention, while he was being trained. In one day at one of the cantonments men of fifty-six nationalities were naturalized. At this camp sessions were held from eight till five o’clock and were often continued until midnight, so many were there who wished to become citizens. The majority of the aliens in the selective service did so choose and the great bulk of the foreign-born part of the huge army that was ferried across the Atlantic had acquired American citizenship. Aliens who did not wish to serve could, and some thousands did, claim, and were granted, exemption on that ground.
Now and then Columbia’s summoning finger brought to the training camp a slacker, or a religious or a conscientious objector. Patient and careful inquiry was given to every case and no effort was spared to make sure that each was receiving exact justice. The official report of the Provost Marshal General for the first draft reckoned that out of the more than 3,000,000 called for service no more than 150,000 ofthose who failed to appear on time were not accounted for by enlistment, transference or death. The reports of the local boards showed that the bulk of this residue was composed of aliens who had left this country to enlist in their own armies. Out of the remainder of 50,000 a great many of the failures to report were due to the ignorance or heedlessness of workingmen who had moved, between registration and the call, from one job to another in a different locality.
The exemption usually given to religious objectors was extended, after a few months, to include those who based their objections to sharing in warfare upon grounds of conscience even if they were not members of a religious organization. Out of the 3,600,000 men inducted into the service a little less than 4,000 were accepted or recognized as conscientious objectors. A large number of these were assigned to work on farm or industrial furloughs. Some entered non-combatant service and a few were allowed to join the Friends’ Reconstruction Unit. Several hundred refused any service whatever and were sent to prison. In the training camps the conscientious objectors were segregated and placed in the charge of an army officer who was often able by tact and persuasion to influence them to a different point of view. Some swallowed their objections very soon, took up the work of training more or less sullenly, and presently, seeing a better light and feeling the influence of the patriotism and enthusiasm surging round about them, became as good soldiers of Uncle Sam as any of their comrades. The problem of the slacker and the objector was a small one in the making of the great army that was sent overseas, but itwas a vexatious one for the honest-hearted men who had charge of it and who took infinite pains to dispense even-handed justice in every case. “My company,” said the captain in one large cantonment under whose command were grouped the slackers, the religious objectors and the protesters for conscience’s sake, “is the most interesting one in the camp—and the most trying.”
Development battalions were established in nearly all the cantonments and did a good work in raising the efficiency of some of the men of the army by helping them to reach better physical condition. To these battalions were sent men who developed minor physical defects and the men sometimes received from the local boards who fell short of the physical standards set by the army. Medical treatment, courses of physical training and, if necessary, surgical operations brought many of them to so much better bodily condition that they could undertake limited service. Many were sent to the forests of the Northwest as part of the regiment that did most necessary work in helping to get out spruce lumber for airplane construction. Others were prepared for clerical and semi-civilian work in the army, thus releasing for active service those who had had it in charge. A goodly number improved so much under treatment that they were enabled to undertake active army service. All told, about 250,000 men passed through the development battalions, of whom nearly half were made fit for duty in either the first, second or third class. Educational work was also carried on in the battalions and many who were either illiterate or had had very little schooling received elementary instruction from former school teachers, of whom therewere many in the ranks. Short talks on the duties of citizenship, phases of American history, public questions, and the causes and progress of the war and the encouragement of discussion broadened the outlook and stimulated the minds of the men.
The necessity of organizing and training a huge army in a few months made equally necessary a revolution in some army methods, a revolution that was brought about by the Committee on the Classification of Personnel appointed early in the war. For most of its work, which constantly broadened and became more and more important, it had no precedents, for, except a little experimenting in the British army, nothing like it had ever been attempted before. In scope and function and purpose it was one of those bold innovations upon army traditions and methods which the Secretary of War introduced into the training of this new army of democracy, with results so successful and important that when the complete story of them is known it will be seen that they put a new spirit into military training and were in no small measure responsible for the splendid record made by the American army.
The Director of the Committee was a civilian, a university professor and specialist in psychology who had won distinction by his ability to give that science practical and fruitful application in daily life. Its work was so varied and so well developed in all its phases that it is possible to give here only the barest resume of its achievements. By the methods it devised all the men who entered a cantonment, after they had passed their physical examinations, underwent psychological tests to determine the speed and accuracy of their mental actions, the quality of theirnative intelligence and the extent of its development. Then they passed on to interviewers who examined and classified them according to their education and training, their occupations and degree of skill. Afterward came trade tests to discover whether or not the men had truly reported their occupations and ability.
These trade tests and the methods of their application, as finally developed, were the result of much work and investigation by the Committee that had brought in the services of psychological experts, employment experts, statisticians and others. Their purpose was to procure a dependable record of the special ability of every soldier who possessed any kind of skill that would serve any one of the army’s varied needs. Every army unit must have specialists of several kinds and in an army that had to be built up at high speed it was necessary to find these specialists among its numbers. Bitter experience developed the fact, very soon, that the account of themselves which the men gave in answer to the questions of the interviewers frequently could not be depended on and the trade tests, which were of three kinds, oral, picture and performance, were devised to meet this necessity quickly and easily.
As the soldier passed through these various examinations his interviewers entered upon his record card his physical and mental qualifications, his trade or profession and his degree of proficiency. Thus was tabulated, for the first time in the history of any army in any nation, the exact physical, mental and industrial ability of every soldier in the American army. These records were kept by the unit to which the soldier was assigned, and followed him if he was changed to another, for the information of the officersunder whom he served. A glance at such a card gave to an officer the knowledge he should have concerning the aptitudes, the abilities and the character of any of his men whom he might wish to assign to some particular service. If skilled men were wanted in any of the scores of special occupations which the modern army demands they could quickly and easily be brought together, with the sure knowledge that they would be able to do what was expected of them. One of the greatest of the many problems facing those who had to make an army of millions of men out of raw civilians in a few months was to be sure of getting the right man for the right place, and the Committee on Classification of Personnel, an innovation in the making of armies, solved it.
Similar tests helped to determine the qualifications of officers and enabled their superiors to judge their fitness for any specified duty with accuracy. The Personnel work was conducted by men chosen for it because of their aptitude and their experience in civil life and they were then trained especially for it in schools for that purpose instituted at army camps.
These individual records and the service records of the entire army, both privates and officers, with the history of each unit, are to be preserved among the archives of the Government.
This great army, growing at the rate of a hundred thousand per month, nearly the whole of it composed of civilians who had been entirely lacking in military knowledge and training, without interest in martial affairs and, in large part, averse to the principle of warfare as a means of settling human disputes, had to be trained in the quickest possible timefor participation in the greatest, the most shocking and the most scientific war of all history. The Regular Army and the National Guard together could furnish no more than 9,500 officers, a mere handful compared with the number needed. Beginning in May, 1917, four series of Officers’ Training Camps were held, each series lasting three months, at which men studied and drilled with grueling intensity twelve hours a day, fitting themselves for the work of training the Selective Service men who began to be gathered into the cantonments early in September. At these camps were trained, all told, 80,000 officers, from second lieutenants to colonels, although the higher commissions were granted only at the first two series because of the urgent need, at first, for officers of all grades. There were also several special training schools, one for colored officers of the line, and others in Porto Rico, Hawaii and the Philippines. Several thousand officers were trained and graduated also from Reserve Officers’ Training Corps units established at over a hundred colleges and universities.
French and British officers and British non-coms were sent by their governments to the United States to aid by giving practical training out of their own experience and their assistance was of great value. After our own men began to go overseas and have training and experience at the front many of them were brought back for the higher importance of the instruction they could give.
View Across One End of a Cantonment Three Months After its Construction was Begun
View Across One End of a Cantonment Three Months After its Construction was Begun
View Across One End of a Cantonment Three Months After its Construction was Begun
Training a Machine Gun Company
Training a Machine Gun Company
Training a Machine Gun Company
From the training camp schools of intensive study and drill many thousands of young men were assigned for work at the special officers’ training camps whereofficers were prepared for the specialized duties of the Signal, Engineer and Quartermasters Corps, and for coast and field artillery and machine gun work. Here also there were long hours and steady, close application. From these special training camps 60,000 officers were graduated. A shortened and intensified course at West Point greatly increased the number of its graduates ready for officers’ service with the army.
In the autumn of 1918 five hundred colleges and universities became a part of the great program of the War Department. Each of these institutions was transformed into a martial training school and nearly all the men students of the whole five hundred, about 170,000 in all, joined the Students’ Army Training Corps, thus becoming members of the United States Army. But while these youths spent much time on drill and training they also were expected to keep up their other studies. For this was a scientific war and demanded for its prosecution men skilled in many branches of learning. The young men were being trained to be not only soldiers but also engineers, chemists, physicians, geologists, physicists, and specialists in many other lines. From their ranks the most promising were selected and sent to military camps for six weeks of a course of rigid and intensive military training in some special line of military service. West Point graduates, army officers with experience on the other side, officers loaned by our Allies, had charge of the military supervision and work of this great body of students. And during the summer of 1918 7,000 members of university and college faculties attended special training campsto prepare themselves to assist in this work. The school year’s training was expected to yield, by the spring of 1919, from 60,000 to 70,000 officers.
Thus, by training, selection, rigid test, more intensive training, the hardest of hard work, and still more training under men who had proved their worth in battle and had brought back dearly won knowledge of present day methods of warfare, the need for more, and more, and ever more officers for the rapidly expanding army was met. And in the camps and cantonments the daily drill, drill, drill, and again drill, drill, drill, of a million and a half of soldiers was constantly carried on.
Early in the course of all these activities it was perceived that it would be advisable to reconstruct the entire plan of organization of the army in order to make the size and number of its fighting units correspond with those of the English and French armies and thus simplify the brigading of our troops with the others and the exchanging of units in the front lines. This reorganization was carried out, as was also the merging together into one body of the three organizations, Regular Army, National Guard and National Army, in the midst of all the high-speeded preparations for war.
Another revolution in army methods, the result of the imperious necessity for the highest efficiency possible to obtain, whether from soldier or officer, individual or army, was the sweeping away of the old system of promotion by seniority. All officers below the rank of Brigadier-General, under these new regulations, had to undergo the passing of judgment upon them every three months by their immediatesuperiors. They were rated according to their physical and personal qualities, capacity for leadership, intelligence, and value to the service, and promotion depended upon how well they passed these tests.