On Sept. 12 Viscount Reading, Lord Chief Justice of England, arrived in the States on a Special Mission connected with financial matters; he was accompanied by Col. E. D. Swinton-the inventor of the Tank-Sir Thomas Reyden, and others. As Chairman of the Anglo-French Commission which floated the $500,000,000 Loan in 1915, Lord Reading had been personally popular in the United States and won the full confidence of American financiers. For some time past the Federal Reserve Board had been seeking to solve problems of international exchange in time of war, though its efforts were not wholly successful. This and the financial needs of Britain, the Allies and Canada, were the bases of this new mission. A series of conferences followed in Washington and at Ottawa with the officials concerned and with Lord Northcliffe. At a Liberty Loan meeting in New York on Oct. 18 Lord Reading made a powerful appeal for support and expressed this pledge: "Great Britain has determined, that come what may, whatever sacrifices she may have to make, be they ever so great, be they even far greater than we have yet reckoned, she will never sheathe her sword until Germany has realized that she is in the fight to the end.” War Adminis- in 1917! The United States entered the War with tremendous expectations of success in the popular mind, with an optimism in official circles which was, however, relieved by ever-increasing knowledge of the situation, with public announcements as to immense Armies of 4,000,000 men within a few years, great ship-building plans of 10,000,000 tons in a year, enormous aeroplane projects of 26,000 machines in 1918, brilliant inventions to be utilized which would sweep away the Submarine menace, the projected making of 16,000 mobile artillery cannon within two years. Some of these and other expectations were partly realized; some met with severe setbacks. A perhaps unexpected fact was the willingness of the Administration to invite and receive and frequently act upon the experienced advice of British and French representatives or delegates at Washington. The President from the first handled the greater problems with personal skill and energy; delays which hampered and restricted action were not his fault; events, however, showed that he was not always a good judge of human nature in the selection of subordinates. War legislation on a vast scale, National Registration, compulsory military service, the raising of immense sums of money, the organization of the country's resources in food and industry, the despatch of a large Force to France-these things were carried out in 1917. President Wilson, officially, had great powers and these were largely increased when in the hands of a convinced, determined or aggressive man; they were further enhanced in 1917 by War legislation and functions and it is a question if the War Cabinet of Britain, backed by the co-operation of the King and the great personal prestige of the Premier, had as much real power as Mr. Wilson at Washington. The way in which the latter guided and instructed Congress as to legislation had few counterparts elsewhere; on July 23, for instance, he wrote A. F. Lever, in charge of a Food Conservation Bill in the Lower House, that the Congressional War Committee included in its terms would, "if enacted into law, render my task of conducting the War practically impossible." Congress must, he frankly intimated, refrain from touching the powers of the Executive. The clause was eliminated. The President's Order of Oct. 14, as to Trading with the Enemy, was sweeping in the powers used and accorded to him by Congress -practically a complete control over American trade and commerce. So with the Order of Oct. 15, mobilizing the nation's gold resources and banking reserves in the hands of the Federal Reserve Board. An illustration of firm action and clear thinking was seen in Mr. Wilson's manipulation of the Selective draft plan and in his bold policy of Railway war nationalization. His Cabinet was made up of men, who with one or two exceptions, proved good though not great administrators; facing tremendous new problems they evaded or overcame many obstacles and evoked some order and substantial progress out of what very often were chaotic conditions. To the President they were responsible for their administration and, for the result, he was primarily responsible to the country. During 1917 the members were as follows: Secretary of State. Secretary of the Treasury Postmaster-General. Secretary of the Navy. Secretary of the Interior. Secretary of Agriculture. Secretary of Commerce. Robert Lansing William Gibbs McAdoo .Josephus Daniels Franklin Knight Lane Through Mr. Lansing had gone the diplomatic correspondence; it changed after War commenced into one of keeping smooth the system of co-operation with the Allies; it was marked by periodic revelations of official German intrigue plots. Mr. Houston had charge, under the President and subject to the wide range of duties afterwards accorded to the Food Controller, of promoting the efficiency of agriculture and its increased production; Mr. Redfield endeavoured to stir up and keep active the industrial development of the country and pointed out to the National Association of Manufacturers at New York on May 16 that: "the Nation will need what I have called the three armies of the field, the factory, and the farm -if either of these are seriously depleted, our cause would tremble." The Department made a Census of population for draft requirements, and one of acids and other war materials and the general manufacturing industries of the country; through its Bureau of Standards it did valuable war-work of a confidential nature. Mr. Daniels and Mr. Baker were much and constantly criticized; what they did will be reviewed later. Mr. Lane was an able administrator of a Department which reached out from orange groves to phosphate beds and from Forest Conservation to the staking of homesteads; its technical machinery greatly aided the Council of National Defence: its Reclamation service rushed the extension of canals, etc., so as to encourage food production and transport; its Topographic Survey and Bureau of Mines were of great service -the latter in stimulating output. Mr. W. B. Wilson did vital work in solving Labour problems while his Department registered thousands of shipwrights throughout the country and took the direction of employees working in the production of war supplies; its mediators were everywhere in the strike troubles and, through a Public Service Reserve, it classified men for war service while getting numbers of boys on to the farms to replace the soldiers or increase production. Mr. Gregory's work was of great importance in its round-up of alien enemies and plotters, administration of the Enemy-trading Act and legal proceedings against slackers. As a whole the Cabinet appears to have worked harmoniously; personally, by October, its members had a collective total of 10 sons in the Army, Navy or Aviation services. It may be added that the creation of War Commissions and official organizations of various kinds helped to relieve the Government of oppressive duties-if at times also it encouraged undue rivalries and divergent interests or delayed operations and procedure. The most important were the following: COMMISSION, ETC. War Industries Board.. Committee on Coal Production. Commercial Economy Board.. Federal Trade Commission Government Grain Corporation. Railroad War Board.. U.S. Millers' Commission.. Priority Board Shipping Board's Chartering Commission. Committee on Industrial Preparedness.. War Trade Board. Red Cross War Council. Labour Adjustment Board.. National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics. War Savings Certificate Commission. General Munitions Board.. Council of National Defence. PRESIDENT OR CHAIRMAN Daniel Willard A. W. Shaw W. B. Colver Henry A. Garfield Robert Fairfax James F. Bell R. S. Lovett Welding Ring N. Everitt Macy . Hon. Newton D. Baker. The chief of these bodies was the Council of National Defence created by the President on Mar. 1, 1917, with the Secretaries of War, the Navy, Commerce, Interior, Labour and Agriculture as ex-officio members, Mr. Baker as Chairman, and an Advisory Board of which each member had charge of an important working, organizing and administrative Committee as follows: Aircraft Production, Howard E. Coffin; Transportation, Daniel Willard; Engineering and Education, Hollis Godfrey; Medicine and Surgery, Dr. Franklin Martin; Labour and Health, Samuel Gompers; Supplies, Julius Rosenwald; Raw Materials, Bernard M. Baruch. W. S. Gifford was Director, and G. B. Clarkson, Secretary. This body reported on Oct. 27 that it had arranged or supervised (1) the procurement of raw materials for the military and naval forces at prices greatly below the current market rates: (2) the completion of an inventory, for military purposes, of American manufacturing plants; (3) the saving to the Government of millions of dollars by the proper co-ordination of purchases; (4) a close-knit organization of telephone and telegraph companies to ensure rapid and efficient wire communication; (5) the initiation of a movement to co-ordinate activities in all the States for national defence; (6) the carrying on of successful campaigns for conserving wheat, wool, and other commodities. Collateral to this Council was a Committee on Public Information appointed by the President on Apr. 14 and composed of the Secretaries of State, War and Navy, with George Creel as Chairman and executive officer; the object to guard secrets in connection with the work of the various Departments and also to issue, in an official Bulletin, the War information which it was thought right and proper for the people to receive. This publication was a most valuable one in many ways and creditable to the Government and its Editor. The great and immediate problem of the War came, of course, under Mr. Baker's administration. On Apr. 2, when War was declared, the public knew little of the Nation's preparedness except that many speeches had been made about it; the War Department did know the limitations of the country and had been preparing, within strict limitations, for eventualities. Mexico had made the nucleus of an Army possible and the National Guards of the States were more or less ready; the munition work for the Allies had started and developed a vast industry which only awaited national development; rifles and artillery and ammunition, machine-guns and aeroplanes, were sadly lacking but the facilities for making them were, in some instances, available. As to men the 1910 Census showed 21,000,000 between the ages of 18 to 45; excluding aliens, Chinese, etc., and including the natural increase afterwards, this figure would roughly represent the available soldier class of 1917. The total population on Jan. 1st was estimated officially at 113,309,285. The President, the General Staff, and Mr. Baker started out with the idea of having 1,000,000 men ready in a year and 2,000,000 in two years. The War measures carried through Congress provided an increase of the Regular Army by volunteers from 131,000 to 292,000 and the National Guard from 123,000 to 329,000; for the Registration on June 5 of all men in the nation between 19 and 25 years of age which Mr. Baker, writing on May 26, estimated would total 7,000,000 with about 42%, or 3,000,000, disqualified for various reasons; for the cumpulsory service of the 4,000,000 men remaining-if required-by Selective Draft and a first call for 500,000 with the immediate training of 100,000 officers under voluntary enlistment. On May 26 an official estimate was issued showing the available men to be more numerous than the Secretary for War had thought-10,000,000 being the total of military draft age and including 5,372,400 single men and 4,545,900 married men. They were divided into Classes as follows: On May 18 the Selective Draft Bill became law and the President ordered Registration for June 5 and preparations for Maj.-Gen. John J. Pershing to take a Division to France at the earliest moment -the troops actually beginning to leave on June 15 with the last ships of the contingent reaching there on July 3. Registration was a great success and the complete figures showed a total of 9,663,078 out of an available total of 10,264,867-of whom 600,000 were exempted. Of these 4,981,430 asked and gave reasons for exemption from Service, 1,239,259 were aliens, 111,760 were described as enemies; 61 53% was the proportion claiming exemption while 9.40% of the whole population were registered. Meanwhile, the National Guards had been called out and on Aug. 5, 419,834 men and 13,093 officers were thus mustered into the Federal service with the announcement, also, that the Regular Army had almost reached its authorized war strength of 292,000 men. On Aug. 31 five per cent. of the first Draft of 625,000 were called to the colours and, following Registration, during ensuing months more Drafts were called as fast as 32 great Cantonments could be built to receive them-and faster than equipment and arms could be prepared for them. The Secretary for War (Sept. 7) stated that the United States Army would have a strength of 2,000,000 on Dec. 31, and in asking Congress for money on Sept. 19 spoke of equipping and supplying an army of 2,300,000 during 1918. Of these troops about 200,000 were in France by the close of the year. The appropriations for this Force during 1917 totalled $7,519,000,000 and the estimates for the next fiscal year were over $10,000,000,000. By Aug. 3, 72,914 candidates had come forward for the 2nd series of Officers' Training Camps and 51,838 had passed the physical tests; from the 1st series 27,341 officers had graduated on Aug. 20 and been assigned to duty. On Oct. 26 the five classes, and the order in which selections would be called to service, were made public. Slackers were not treated gingerly. On June 2 the AttorneyGeneral issued this statement: "Attention is called to the fact that under Section 5 of the Act parties convicted of the charge of evading registration are not only punished for the crime committed but are thereupon duly registered with all the liability for military service resulting therefrom." Those evading registration or the draft call were brought into a national drag-net, firmly handled, and severely punished. A reward of $50 was offered by the War Department for the apprehension and delivery of every man failing to report under the Draft law. The pay of American soldiers ranged from $36.60 a month for 1st class privates-with 20% added for foreign service to $40.20 for artillery and cavalry, $80.80 for engineers, ordnance, etc.; non-commissioned officers ranged from $44.00 to $86.00 a month; Officers, in addition to certain fixed allowances, ran from $1,700 a year for 2nd Lieutenants up to $3,500 for Lieut.-Colonels and $11,000 for Lieut.-Generals. As to armament, Maj.-Gen. Crozier, Chairman of Ordnance, stated that up to June 1 orders for 1,000,000 Enfield rifles had been placed; that several types of machine guns had been found efficient by the Board, but that procurement of an adequate supply was a question of securing deliveries; that all American field-guns were to be similar in calibre to the French 75's and that the French semi-automatic |