No Limit to Size of America's Army
More Than 700,000 Additional Young Men Registered Under the Draft Law
On the recommendation of the Secretary of War, who appeared before the House Committee on Military Affairs on May 23, the committee agreed to give President Wilson authority to raise an army of practically unlimited size. The text of the provision to be incorporated in the Army bill was adopted unanimously. The committee had originally been in favor of limiting the size of the army to 5,000,000.
On June 5 male residents of the United States who had reached the age of 21 years since that date in 1917 were required to register under the amended selective draft law. Nearly complete reports to the Provost Marshal General's office showed that 744,865 men complied with the law. This was 266,724 below the Census Bureau estimate, but as more than 200,000 did not register because they had already enlisted in the army, navy, or Marine Corps, the military authorities found the result entirely satisfactory.
So-called "work or fight" regulations were issued by the Provost Marshal General on June 3. All citizens were called upon to report to the nearest local board all men of military age who should be in the idler or nonproductive classification after July 1, 1918. The local boards were given authority to summon any man who may be idle or nonproductively employed within its territory.
With the double purpose of increasing the number of men available for military service and of insuring fairer administration of the selective service law, Provost Marshal General Crowder on June 7 instituted a reinvestigation of the draft classification lists throughout the nation. General Crowder believed that by "slacker marriages" and underground claims to exemption on the ground of industrial or agricultural work registrants had escaped service, and that in some districts the local boards had interpreted the regulations too strictly. It was expected that more than 500,000 men would be brought by the reclassification into Class 1, which was being rapidly exhausted.
Another move toward the full utilization of the nation's man power was made on May 24 when the Secretary of War sent to Congress the draft of a bill authorizing the raising of the maximum age limit for voluntary enlistment in the army from 40 to 55 years. Between these ages there were probably 7,500,000 men, and thousands of them have applied to the War Department to be allowed to serve. The department planned to assign men over 40 years to noncombatant service, which calls for a very large proportion of men for every combatant at the front.
The War Department on June 6 permitted publication of reports to the Acting Chief of Ordnance (Brig. Gen. C. C. Williams) showing that since the United States declared war 1,568,661 rifles had been produced for the army. This total was made up of 1,140,595 modified Enfields, 1917 model; 176,796 Springfields, 1903 model, and 251,270 Russian rifles. The last named are used for training purposes and to equip home guards. There were also the equivalent of 100,000 Enfields and 100,000 Springfields made up in spare parts. With the rifles already in hand when war was declared, and allowing for the fact that only one-half of the soldiers in an army carry rifles, the Ordnance Department had enough rifles for an army of about 2,000,000 men, after making allowance for one year's wastage.
The organization of five new regiments and nineteen battalions of Railway Engineers, to be used in addition to the regiments already working in France, was announced by the War Department on June 6. The work was carried out by the staff of the Director General of Military Railways, Samuel M. Felton, in conjunction with the Engineer Corps. This brought the number of Americans engaged in railroad construction and operation in France up to 50,000.