History of the World War

by Jr. Francis A. March; Richard J. Beamish

The notable achievement in Africa was the continuation of the southern rail link in the Cape-to-Cairo route. This line was completed to Bukama on the navigable Congo, 2,600 miles from Capetown. The railway in German East Africa, was extended to Lake Tanganyika on the eve of the war, making a rail-water line across the center of the continent. The railroad from Lobito Bay was extended eastward to Katanga, a rich mineral region of the Belgian Congo, and, with the road already reaching the Indian Ocean at Beira, gave a second east and west transcontinental line. A permanent standard gauge railroad was laid by the British Expeditionary Forces from Egypt into Palestine.

Despite the magnitude of the Australian contribution to the Allied military and naval forces, the east and west transcontinental railway, begun in 1912, was completed in 1917. In all, more than 3,500 miles of track were built in the commonwealth in the years 1915-17.

In Canada, the work of providing two transcontinental railroads was completed; feeders were added, and a line from La Pas to Hudson Bay was under construction. From 1912 to 1916 more than 10,000 miles of track were put in operation, nearly 7,000 of which were added in the first two years of the war.

CHAPTER XL

SHIPS AND THE MEN WHO MADE THEM.

When the United States of America entered the World War she was confronted at once by a serious question. The great Allied nations were struggling against the attempt of the Germans, through the piratical use of submarines, to blockade the coast of the Allied countries. It was this German action which had led America to take part in the war. It is true that America had other motives. Few wars ever take place among democratic nations as a result of the calculation of the nation's leaders. The people must be interested, and the people must sympathize with the cause for which they are going to fight. The people of America had sympathized with Belgium, and had become indignant at the brutal treatment of that inoffensive nation. They had sympathized with France in its gallant endeavor to protect its soil from the inroads of the Hun. This feeling had become a personal one as they reviewed the lists of Americans lost in the sinking of the Lusitania, and this sympathy had gradually grown into indignation when the Germans, after having promised to conduct submarine warfare according to international law, again and again violated that promise. When, then, the Germans declared that they would no longer even pretend to treat neutral shipping according to the laws of maritime warfare the people with one accord approved the action of the President of the United States in declaring war. The Germans at this time were making a desperate effort to starve England, by destroying its commerce, and it was in the endeavor to accomplish this purpose that they thought it necessary to attack American ships.

The first effort of Americans, therefore, was naturally to use every power of the navy to destroy the lurking submarines, and in the second place to use every means in their power to supply the Allies with food. But America had for many years neglected to give encouragement to her merchant fleets. Her commerce was very largely carried in foreign bottoms.

Ships were needed, and needed urgently, and one of the very first acts of the American Government was to authorize their production. Congress therefore appropriated for this purpose what was then the extraordinary sum of $1,135,000,000 and General Goethals, recently returned from his work in building the Panama Canal, was appointed manager of the Emergency Fleet Corporation and entrusted with the execution of the government's ship-building program.

The Emergency Fleet Corporation, however, was then independent of the United States Shipping Board, of which Mr. William Denman was made chairman, and friction between General Goethals and Mr. Denman at the very start caused long delay. The difference of opinion between them arose over the comparative merits of wooden and steel ships. The matter was finally laid before President Wilson and ended in the resignation of both men and the complete reorganization of the board and the Fleet Corporation, in which reorganization the Fleet Corporation was made subordinate to the Shipping Board but given entire control of construction.

Rear-Admiral Capps succeeded General Goethals, but was compelled to resign on account of ill health. Rear-Admiral Harris, who had been chief of the Navy's Bureau of Yards and Docks, then had the job for two weeks, but resigned because in his opinion he had not enough authority. Then came Mr. Charles Piez, who held the position for a longer period. Mr. Edward N. Hurley had been made chairman of the United States Shipping Board, and under the direction of these two men much progress was made.