The General Staff.—In 1903 the office of "commanding general" was abolished and in its place a general staff was created, to prepare plans for the conduct of military operations. By the acts of 1916 and 1920 the general staff was reorganized. At its head is a chief of staff with the rank of major general, who in time of peace is the actual head of the army. Among his assistants are: a chief of cavalry, a chief of field artillery, a chief of coast artillery, a chief of infantry, and a chief of chaplains.

Military and Naval Expenditures.—The expenditures on account of the military and naval establishments have increased enormously in recent years. Before the war with Spain the appropriations for the maintenance of the army did not exceed $50,000,000 per annum. The budget of expenditures for the year 1922 as submitted to Congress by the President aggregated nearly $4,000,000,000. It contained the following items: war department, $390,000,000; navy, $478,000,000; pensions, $258,000,000; veterans bureau, $438,000,000; interest on the national debt, $976,000,000; total, $2,539,000,000, or more than 60 per cent of the total, leaving less than 40 per cent for civil purposes. In the hope of bringing about an agreement among the nations for a reduction of their military and naval expenditures, a conference of the Powers, called by President Harding, assembled at Washington in November, 1921. Here an agreement was reached to reduce naval expenditures.

Volunteers.—Except during the Civil War and the war with Germany, resort has never been made to conscription for recruiting the army—a practice almost universal in Europe. In most of our wars the chief reliance has been on volunteers and the militia. Thus at the outbreak of the Civil War the President was authorized to accept the services of 500,000 volunteers, and at the outbreak of the war with Spain in 1898, the President called for 200,000 volunteers. It takes much training to convert an inexperienced volunteer into an efficient soldier; but many of our great battles have been fought chiefly by the volunteer forces.

The Militia.—The Constitution also authorizes Congress to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions; and 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 militia as defined by act of Congress consists of all able-bodied male citizens of the United States between the ages of eighteen and forty-five. That portion of the militia regularly organized, uniformed, and occasionally drilled and taught military tactics constitutes the national guard.[52]

Each state organizes and controls its own militia, and the national government has no control over it until it has been called into the service of the United States, when it becomes subject to the rules and discipline prescribed for the government of the regular army. In 1795, Congress passed an act prescribing the conditions under which the militia might be called into the service of the United States. This act conferred on the President of the United States the power to call out the militia whenever, in his judgment, it was necessary or expedient. Such calls are addressed to the governors of the states, who are the commanders of their several portions of the militia. When, however, the militia has been mustered into the service of the United States the President becomes their commander in chief. In pursuance of this authority the President has called out the militia on two different occasions; during the War of 1812 to repel invasion; and during the Civil War to suppress insurrection. In 1898 when the war with Spain was declared, the call was issued not for the militia but for volunteers.[53] Nevertheless many of the volunteers who responded were as a matter of fact members of the organized militia of their respective states. In pursuance of authority conferred by Congress in 1916, the President drafted the organized militia into the federal service in that year for service on the Mexican border, and again in 1917 on account of the war with Germany.

The Naval Militia.—In a number of the seaboard states and some of those bordering on the Great Lakes, there are organized bodies of naval militia, with training ships loaned by the United States for the purpose of drill and instruction. Like the land militia, the naval militia of each state is under the control of the state and until called into the federal service is under the command of the governor.[54]

The Navy.—Congress is also authorized by the Constitution to provide and maintain a navy. In pursuance of this authority, Congress created a small naval establishment in 1794, but it amounted to little until the War of 1812, when it was strengthened by the improvisation of a number of war vessels which won brilliant victories over the ships of Great Britain. Thereafter the navy was neglected until the necessities of the Civil War required its rehabilitation. At the close of the war the vessels in the service numbered 683, but they were sold or otherwise disposed of, and what was once the most powerful navy in existence was allowed to go to pieces. In 1881 a board of naval officers prepared a somewhat elaborate naval program and recommended the construction during the next eight years of some 120 naval vessels. The work was begun in 1883—a date which may properly be fixed as the beginning of our present navy. The first important appropriation, that of 1883, was less than $15,000,000. Each year the amount was increased until in 1917 it had reached $535,000,000.

Present Strength of the Navy.—The number of officers and enlisted men in the navy in August, 1919, was 241,357, besides about 19,000 men in the marine corps. The total number of vessels of all kinds for fighting, built or in process of construction, was about 1070. These included 50 battleships, 18 armored cruisers of various types, 7 monitors, some 30 unarmored cruisers of different types, about 360 destroyers and torpedo boats, about 160 submarines, 336 submarine chasers, and about 100 gunboats and patrol vessels.

According to the report of the Secretary of the Navy in 1919, the naval standing of the great powers was as follows:

Number of Ships Total Tonnage
Great Britain8122,691,211
United States3391,070,576
France222552,755
Japan129540,426
Italy237287,923
Russia101254,148
Germany36116,886