again unprepared for effective action. It was necessary rapidly to fill the vacancies in the Regular Army with raw, untrained recruits.

No consideration was given to training, for there was no time for this, only to send the raw material forward as soon as possible, thanking God for the character of our foe.

Though not a battle was lost and the war lasted only 109 days, many lives were sacrificed and much material was wasted because of tardy preparations and obsolete methods and equipment.

From the foregoing it appears that up to this time relatively little progress had been made in solving the problem of common defense. With the fear of militarism definitely established in their minds, the people repeatedly refused to sanction a large standing Army. On the other hand, they recognized the need for common defense and accepted it as a basic duty of citizenship. The law of 1792 undertook to solve the problem, but enrollment and training in the local units were compulsory and necessitated a measure of control by the Federal Government which the States were unwilling to concede. Up to 1916 little was done to harmonize these conflicting conceptions. Those who were directly responsible for the Nation's safety urged the maintenance of a standing Army large enough to meet any emergency. After each war investigations were conducted to fix the responsibility for the needless loss of life and the reckless expenditure of money. For several years prior to 1916, State troops, which had come to be known as the Organized Militia, had been active in securing from their State governments some of the concessions necessary in order that the Federal Government might weld these forces into a homogeneous whole, capable of efficient service and available upon call of the President. These forces came to be known as the National Guard which the Federal Government, with the consent of the States, trained within the limits of congressional appropriations. In 1916 it was necessary to mobilize on the Mexican border the whole of the National Guard. During the resulting months of Federal service it proved to be an effective force.

The first real effort to formulate a definite military policy consistent with the traditions, customs, and ideals of the people was the national defense act of 1916. Before this law could be carried into effect we were plunged into the World War. In spite of our unpreparedness, we met this test with that spirit of service and sacrifice which makes this Nation strong. This was the first time in our history that we were able to organize armies in the beginning of a war on the principle of the draft, and this point, in spite of errors consequent upon hasty organization, marked a definite step forward.

With the lessons of the World War still fresh in mind, attention was directed again to the establishment of an adequate military policy. The act of 1916 was amended June 4, 1920, incorporating the lessons of the war experience and providing for effective cooperation between the States and the Federal Government. It is now possible to develop in time of peace a citizen army that is adequate for protection in times of war, yet wholly democratic. Such an army of the people and controlled by them is the best security against aggression from without and against autocratic, militaristic usurpation from within.

CHAPTER II.

ORGANIZATION OF THE WAR DEPARTMENT.

The Federal Government is a government of delegated powers defined by the Constitution. The purposes for which these powers are delegated are expressed in the preamble:

We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution of the United States of America.

The powers granted to the Federal Government are separated into legislative, executive, and judicial. The legislative, or lawmaking, powers are vested in a Congress which is composed of the Senate and House of Representatives; the executive, or law-enforcing, power is vested in the President; and the judicial, or lawinterpreting, power is vested in the Supreme Court and in inferior courts which have been established by Congress.

Following this division of powers, Congress is authorized

to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; to declare war; to raise and support armies; to provide and maintain a navy; to provide for calling forth the militia, to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and to repel invasion; to provide for organizing, arming and disciplining the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States.

The enforcement of all laws passed by Congress pursuant to this authority naturally falls under that of the executive department. Furthermore, the Constitution provides that

the President shall be Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States,

and that

he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive departments upon any subject relating to the duties of their offices.

With these powers granted to the Federal Government, Congress passed a law August 7, 1789, which provided that "there shall be an Executive Department to be denominated the Department of War," and that the Secretary should perform such duties as should be intrusted to him by the President

9

relative to military commissions, or to the land or naval forces, ships or warlike stores of the United States, or to such other matters respecting military or naval affairs as the President of the United States shall assign to the said department, or relative to the granting of lands to persons entitled thereto for military services rendered to the United States, or relative to Indian affairs.

At first the department was small and its duties comparatively few. The Nation occupied a narrow strip of territory bordering on the Atlantic Ocean, and its population was not more than 5,000,000 people. The Regular Army was composed of a few hundred men. The common defense was taken care of chiefly by the militia of the various States.

A few years after the institution of the Federal Government, the Chevalier de Pontgibaud, who had served through the Revolutionary War as aide-de-camp to the Marquis de Lafayette, revisited the United States, and on his return made this comment:

The Government officials were as simple in their manners as ever. I had occasion to call upon Mr. McHenry, the Secretary of War. It was about eleven o'clock in the morning when I called. There was no sentinel at the door, all the rooms, the walls of which were covered with maps, were open, and in the midst of the solitude I found two clerks each sitting at his own table, engaged in writing. At last I met a servant, or rather the servant, for there was but one in the house, and asked for the Secretary. He replied that his master was absent for the moment, having gone to the barber's to be shaved. Mr. McHenry's name figured in the State Budget for $2,000, a salary quite sufficient in a country where the Secretary of War goes in the morning to his neighbor, the barber, at the corner, to get shaved. I was as much surprised to find all the business of the War Office transacted by two clerks, as I was to hear that the Secretary had gone to the barber's.

Since that day our country has stretched its boundaries from the Atlantic to the Pacific and numbers more than one hundred ten millions of people. Many changes have taken place. Two new departments have been created to assume some of the former duties of the War Department. In 1798 the naval affairs passed into the hands of the new Navy Department, and in 1849 a Department of the Interior was created, which now has control of Indian affairs. Other changes have attended the growth of the country together with the increasing responsibilities of the Secretary.

To-day, if the Chevalier de Pontgibaud were to visit the offices of the War Department he would find little to remind him of that earlier day. He would see watchmen stationed at the entrances and along the corridors, but he would be free to enter. He would find that the men in the offices are just as simple in their manners as were the gentlemen in those times; but he would see hundreds of people busily engaged in making and executing plans for the protection of a great Nation.

The organization of the present Military Establishment is in compliance with the war program set up by Congress in the national defense act of June 3, 1916, as amended by various acts, including that of June 4, 1920. This act provides that the Army of the United States shall consist of the Regular Army, the National Guard while in the service of the United States, and the Organized Reserves, including the Officers' Reserve Corps and the Enlisted Reserve Corps. These three components constitute in time of peace a framework on which a great national army of well-trained men can be quickly built. The act also provides for civilian cooperation to assist in maintaining and filling up this framework through military training in schools, colleges, and summer camps.

The War Department is charged with the responsibility of organizing, training, and maintaining the Army at all times in accordance with conditions defined by Congress, and with certain nonmilitary activities. The task is a large one, involving the management of more than 150,000 officers, enlisted men, and civilian employees of the regular establishment engaged in numerous varied enterprises in all parts of the world, and more than 300,000 officers, enlisted men, and civilian personnel in the National Guard, Organized Reserves, and civilian schools and training camps. A well-designed organization is required to administer this complicated service. The present arrangement of this organization and the distribution of duties among the more important divisions and branches are described in the following pages.1

The Secretary of War is charged with the responsibility of the execution of the present military policy. As the agent of the President, he controls all the work of the department-the Army, river, and harbor improvements throughout the United States, the prevention of obstruction to navigation, the building of bridges over navigable rivers, and the direction of the Bureau of Insular Affairs. The Assistant Secretary of War, in addition to those duties which are entrusted to him from time to time by the Secretary of War, has charge of all plans and policies with relation to the procurement of supplies. He makes plans for the mobilization of the industries of the Nation in time of war. He represents the War Department in cooperating with other departments of the Government in the procurement or allotment of supplies which concern their joint war program. The chiefs of all the supply branches of the Army are directly responsible to him in procurement matters.

The Secretary of War is assisted in military matters by the War Department General Staff, which is composed of selected officers who prepare plans for national defense and for the use of military forces

1 See organization chart of department in appendix, facing page 36.