to this vital subject of food conservation and train themselves in household thrift, can make of the housewife's apron a uniform of national significance.

"Demonstrate thrift in your homes and encourage thrift among your neighbors.

"Make saving rather than spending your social standard. "Make economy fashionable lest it become obligatory." The response of the American people, and particularly of American women, to this appeal was prompt and gratifying. Women not merely practiced economy in the kitchens, but thousands of them undertook the cultivation of gardens, while the men, released from that task, gave themselves to the heavier farm work. It was estimated that in Great Britain 2,000,000 women were doing work formerly done by men. It seems not unlikely that in the United States almost as large a proportion of women are at least engaging in special and unaccustomed labor of some kind in order to "do their bit" toward sustaining the nation and assuring its victory in the great war.

CHAPTER XXVI

ARMY AND NAVY ORGANIZATION

Origin and Development of Our Military Arm - The Present Chief Officers The Secretary of War and General Staff - Various Departments of the Army — The Infantry Organization How the Cavalry is Organized — The Artillery Service - The Militia, Organized and Unorganized — Military Schools and Training Camps The American Navy - Composition of a Standard Fleet - Organization of the Navy Department-Its Various Bureaus - The Naval Militia - The Marines, the "Soldiers of the Sea."

"ARMS AND THE MAN!" The army and navy are, after all, the center of interest in time of war. It is they that do the actual fighting. Let us see how they are composed, organized, commanded, and employed.

The army of the United States was created by the Continental Congress, and at the close of the Revolution its strength was fixed at one regiment of infantry of twelve companies, and one regiment of artillery of four companies, a grand total of 1,216 officers and men. The next year, 1791, an additional infantry regiment of 900 men was authorized. In 1798 a provisional force of 10,000 was raised in view of the danger of war with France, but it was disbanded two years later. Another such force was raised for the War of 1812 and was disbanded at its close. A regiment of dragoons was authorized in 1833, and two more in 1836, and ten years later, at the outbreak of the Mexican war, the army contained 7,244 men. During that war it was increased to 20,000, but at the end of the war it was reduced to its former size, with the addition of one regiment of mounted rifles. Two regiments of infantry and two of cavalry were added in

1855, and at the outbreak of the Civil War the army had a line strength of 12,931 officers and men, and a total in all departments of 16,367.

The greatest increase of the regular army in the Civil War was on January 1, 1863, when the total number was 25,463. There was a gradual decline until at the end of the war the number was 21,669. In August, 1876, Congress fixed its maximum strength at 25,000 enlisted men. On January 1, 1893, it contained 28,502 officers and men. At the beginning of the European war, in the summer of 1914, it consisted of 4,701 officers and 87,781 men. Deducting the quartermaster and hospital corps, the coast artillery, practically stationary in coast defense works, and some others, there remained a mobile army, for field work, of 2,935 officers and 51,446 men. In the navy there were 52,667 enlisted men. The authorized strength of the army was considerably greater than the actual strength, many of the organizations being below their full strength.

ARMY DEPARTMENTS AND OFFICERS

For many years before our war with Germany the Continental United States had been divided into four military departments, the Eastern, Central, Southern and Western, with headquarters respectively at New York, Chicago, Fort Sam Houston (Texas), and San Francisco. But in March, 1917, just on the verge of our entry into war, the President ordered the division of the Eastern Department into three, known as the Eastern, Northeastern and Southeastern, with headquarters respectively at New York, Boston and Charleston, S. C., thus making six in all.

At that time the army was under the command of the following general officers, the dates affixed to their names being those on which they were promoted to their respective ranks:

The General Staff Corps comprised a large number of colonels, lieutenant-colonels, majors and captains, and the following general officers; the dates given being those of their appointments to the corps:

MAJOR-GENERAL, CHIEF OF STAFF

Scott, Hugh L....

Nov. 17, 1914

Mann, William A. (Chief of Militia Bureau) Oct. 26, 1916

The adjutant-general, with rank of brigadier-general, was Henry P. McCain; the inspector-general, with rank of brigadier-general, was John L. Chamberlain; the judge advocategeneral, with rank of brigadier-general, was Enoch H. Crowder; the quartermaster-general, with rank of major-general, was Henry G. Sharpe; the surgeon-general, with rank of major-general, was William C. Gorgas; the chief of engineers, with rank of brigadier-general, was William M. Black; the chief of ordnance, with rank of brigadier-general, was William Crozier; the chief signal officer, with rank of brigadiergeneral, was George O. Squier; and the chief of the Bureau of Insular Affairs, with rank of brigadier-general, was Frank McIntyre.

OUR MILITARY ESTABLISHMENT

Under the Constitution of the United States the President is the commander-in-chief of the army. The immediate direction of the War Department is vested in a secretary of war, the second member of the Cabinet, who is responsible solely to the President. Under him is an assistant secretary, who takes his place in his absence. In the absence of both the secretary and the assistant, the functions of the place are assumed by the chief of staff for not more than thirty days, by direction of the President.

The General Staff was created by Act of Congress in February, 1903, on the recommendation of Elihu Root, then