TRAINING AND EQUIPMENT
England trained her first million a whole year in citizens' clothes and top hats, with walking sticks for guns, because she could not do otherwise, and this in spite of the fact that she was the greatest textile manufacturing country in the world and had all America to help her. Notwithstanding this shortage, our first 1,500,000 men were trained in uniforms and taught the manual of arms with a rifle. When England went into the war she had shortly before adopted a new type of gun, but her factories were not equipped to supply it. She abandoned her new type of gun, and has fought the war thus far with an admittedly inferior type of rifle, a large portion of which were made on order in the United States.
There went up a hue and cry that America adopt a foreign type of rifle, notwithstanding the facts that the rifle is the most necessary weapon of warfare, and we had the Springfield rifle in substantial quantity, admittedly the best rifle then being used in the world, shooting the most powerful and efficient ammunition ever prepared. In the face of this criticism, we adhered to our own weapon, adopting a modified and rechambered Enfield, which differs from a Springfield in such a small way that it is not worthy of discussion, now known as the United States rifle, model of 1917, resulting in some delay but now being produced in sufficient quantity.
When General Joffre made the request for a small expeditionary force, the critics of the Administration demanded what they thought was the impossible—i.e., that we ship to France during the first year 50,000 to 100,000 men. During the first ten days of May we shipped 90,000. Within one year after the first shipment America will have an army of 1,000,000 men in France, with their necessary arms, equipment, and supplies. It will be the best-fed, the best-clothed, the best-paid army of its size that the world has ever known, speaking the same language, worshipping the same God, and following the same flag. Its personnel will have the quickest perceptions of any soldiers in the world, and will have been trained under modern conditions, surrounded by the best moral influences, with the lowest percentage of disease, and will be nerved by the highest motives that actuate men.
Victory for our cause is therefore certain.
Italy's Third Year of War
Other Anniversaries, With Official Greetings Exchanged by the Allies and the United States
The third anniversary of Italy's entry into the war was the occasion of an address by Prime Minister Orlando, delivered in the Augusteum at Rome on May 24, in which, in reaffirming the unity of the Allies, he said:
For this unity, so solemnly consecrated again today, I express in the name of Italy my deep gratitude to all. To England, which could not send a more noble or more agreeable messenger than your Royal Highness, who brings to us a message reaffirming friendship with our country, a friendship which was shown at a time which was painful to us, and which has been strengthened by the intimacy of affection in the days of grief still more than in those of joy. To France, to our great sister toward whom with a feeling of renewed admiration our hearts are turned. To the United States, to this young people, powerful in its strength and already rich in glory owing to the wisdom of its leader and the numerous virtues of its men. To the peoples conquered by the enemy because of their smallness, for which reason their heroic sacrifice and admirable bravery are all the more apparent. To those nations from the Baltic to the Adriatic which the common enemy has oppressed. To the oppressed nations in the interior and on the frontiers of enemy States which heroically rise in rebellion with the cry "Long Live the Entente!"
In the royal box were the Prince of Wales and Prince Peter of Montenegro. The vast audience contained the official representatives of all the allied powers and the United States, and the leaders of all political and social groups of Italy, with representatives from all the important cities. The Prince of Wales in his address said:
I come to you to assure you of the constant friendship and sincere affection of the British people for your nation, whose enlightened and precious sympathy is a proof of the creative unity of arms which nothing can again dissolve. In the city of Rome, the ancient capital of the world, the source of social order and justice, I proudly proclaim my conviction that the great object for which our two nations are fighting against the forces of reaction is inevitably destined to triumph, owing to the union of which our meeting this evening is symbolic.
The King of Italy addressed the following Order of the Day to the army and navy:
Soldiers on land and sea! The fourth year of war, which began today, finds you full of pride for the hard trials you have faced, and which, with admirable courage, you have overcome. In face of your firm decision to resist to the utmost the enemy was obliged to call a halt, and in daring and magnificent actions you have many a time shown him the indomitable spirit and resolute will to conquer with which you are animated. This priceless energy, revivified by the faith which your country has in you, is strengthened still further by the anxiety with which your oppressed and despoiled brothers await your coming.
Soldiers on land and sea! With the sacred image of a country entirely freed from the enemy imprinted in the very depths of your hearts, together with the ideals of justice and civilization which our war has adopted as its aims, I will accompany you in your future struggles, certain that the reward for the tireless energy which you, in common with our valiant allies, have shown will not be delayed much longer.
President Wilson sent the following message to the Italian people, after it had been read by Secretary Lansing at a Washington celebration of Italy's anniversary:
I am sure that I am speaking for the people of the United States in sending to the Italian people warm fraternal greetings upon this, the anniversary of the entrance of Italy into this great war, in which there is being fought out once for all the irrepressible conflict between free self-government and the dictation of force. The people of the United States have looked with profound interest and sympathy upon the efforts and sacrifices of the Italian people, are deeply and sincerely interested in the present and future security of Italy, and are glad to find themselves associated with a people to whom they are bound by so many personal and intimate ties in a struggle whose object is liberation, freedom, the rights of men and nations to live their own lives and determine their own fortunes, the rights of the weak, as well as the strong, and the maintenance of justice by the irresistible force of free nations leagued together in the defense of mankind. With ever-increasing resolution and force we shall continue to stand together in this sacred common cause. America salutes the gallant Kingdom of Italy, and bids her Godspeed.
France's Tribute to Great Britain
Great Britain's "Empire Day" was celebrated May 24 throughout France. In Paris there was an imposing demonstration at the Sorbonne, at which were present the President of the republic, Ministers, Ambassadors, and Deputies. President Deschanel of the Chamber in speaking of "the prodigy of Great Britain's effort" said:
This people of seamen and merchants came forward as volunteers in crowds; in the Spring of 1915 there were 2,400,000, and at the end of the same year 3,000,000. In May, 1916, King George announced that 5,000,000 men had been raised by voluntary recruitment. But this did not suffice. Parliament voted compulsory service, the greatest victory that the people ever gained over itself, a triumph of duty and conscience, the pledge of that victory which we shall win together over the enemy.
When Germany over a year ago proclaimed unrestricted submarine warfare, she announced, too, England's capitulation at short notice. Instead of that hundreds of thousands of Americans are crossing the seas as allies. Germany has united France and England not for the present struggle but forever.
Before the war there was in a Calais belfry a Flemish peal of bells. On the clock dial two knights armed with lances—Henry VIII., King of England, and Francis I., King of France. Every time the hour struck they exchanged lance thrusts—one at 1 o'clock, three at 3 o'clock, and twelve at midday. A German shell hit the knights and ended the fight forever. It is the only German shell which ever showed esprit, remarked a French wit.
Georges Leygues, Minister of Marine, who spoke in the name of the French Government, said that, thanks to the maritime supremacy of Great Britain, the Entente had the mastery of the sea and could look to the future without concern Reviewing the work that the navies silently accomplished, he mentioned that in the course of last month they had sunk more submarines than the Germans were building. They protected the transports which in April disembarked on the coasts of France more than 400,000 soldiers.
"In the past," he continued, "mastery of the sea was always a powerful means of conquest. At present it forms in addition a powerful guarantee with which none other is comparable. The enemy knows that he will retain neither in the east, nor in the west, nor in the south the territories which he momentarily occupies, and he knows, moreover, that he will not wrest from us the mastery of the sea. That being so, the issue of the war is certain, and the navies take their place in the gratitude of the Entente alongside of its incomparable armies."
America's First Anniversary in France
President Poincaré of France sent the following cablegram to President Wilson on June 13, the anniversary of the arrival in France of the first American troops:
The Allies, owing to the Russian capitulation, are living through the most difficult hours of the war, but the rapid formation of new American units and the uninterrupted increase in oversea transportation are leading us with certainty toward the day when the equilibrium is restored.
President Wilson replied as follows:
Mr. President: Your telegram was certainly conceived in the highest and most generous spirit of friendship, and I am sure that I am expressing the feeling of the people of the United States, as well as my own, when I say that it is with increasing pride and gratification that they have seen their forces under General Pershing more and more actively co-operating with the forces of liberation on French soil.
It is their fixed and unalterable purpose to send men and materials in steady and increasing volume until any temporary inequality of force is entirely overcome and the forces of freedom made overwhelming, for they are convinced that it is only by victory that peace can be achieved and the world's affairs settled upon a basis of enduring justice and right. It is a constant satisfaction to them to know that in this great enterprise they are in close and intimate co-operation with the people of France.
WOODROW WILSON.
President Poincaré also sent a message to General Pershing, heartily praising "the gallant troops of your command who behaved so magnificently in the recent battles." He expressed the firmest hope in the continuation of the American successes.
General Pershing replied to President Poincaré as follows:
Permit me to thank you, Mr. President, for your kind message on the occasion of this anniversary. The enthusiastic reception which Paris gave us then has since been extended by all your people to the American Army.
Today our armies are united in affection and resolution, with full confidence in the final success which will crown the long struggle for liberty and civilization.
The following telegrams were also sent to General Pershing:
On the anniversary of your arrival in France to take command of the American troops I wish, my dear General, to express to you once more the greatest admiration for the powerful aid brought by your army to the cause of the Allies. With ever-increasing numbers the American troops cover themselves with glory under your orders in barring the route of the invader. The day is coming when, thanks to the superb effort of your country and the valor of persons, the enemy, losing the initiative of operations, will be forced to incline before the triumph of our ideal of justice and civilization.
CLEMENCEAU.