| ARMY STRENGTH, MAY, 1918 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Officers. | Men. | |
| Regular army | 10,295 | 504,677 |
| Reserve Corps | 79,038 | 78,560 |
| National Guard | 16,906 | 411,952 |
| National Army | 33,894 | 510,963 |
| On special and technical duty | 8,195 | |
| Drafted in April | 150,000 | |
| Drafted in May | 233,742 | |
| ———— | ———— | |
| Total | 148,328 | 1,889,894 |
Grand total, 2,038,222 officers and men.
So we have today an army of more than 2,000,000, of which 500,000 have already been shipped to France and 1,000,000 more have had the necessary training to fit them for foreign service. These are now waiting for the boats to carry them over. Our critics now complain that we have not done more, yet we have done in one year twice as much as they thought we could do in two years.
When war was declared, each of our allies sent commissions to America to advise us what to do and to assist us wherever possible in our preparation. The English told us that they did not need men, but they did need money and supplies; the Italians that they did not need men, but that they did need material and money; the Russians that they did not need men or material, but did need money and ammunition; the French told us that they needed raw material and money, and asked that a small expeditionary force be sent to hearten their people and as an earnest of our intention of seeing the war through.
Under this tutelage and squaring our conduct with the requests of our friends, it was thought by many to be inadvisable to attempt to raise an army of more than 1,000,000 men. Congress was therefore requested to pass military legislation limiting the army to the 136,000 regulars, the 164,000 National Guardsmen, and 500,000 drafted men, with authority to call an additional 500,000 in case they should be needed. Under the legislation that Congress passed, in spite of the recommendation from the Allies, we have already raised more than 2,000,000 men, and early in the year 1919 will have 3,000,000 men in the army. We have lately taken the "lid off" so that the President may have as big an army as necessity requires and our man power permits. Notwithstanding the fact that the appropriation measure now pending before the House is drawn with the view of supporting an army of only 3,000,000 men, I am confident that before many months deficiency appropriations will be necessary. The army is growing so rapidly and its needs are so urgent that the efforts heretofore made will be small in comparison with those of the next twelve months. We will probably have between 4,000,000 and 5,000,000 men before the end of the next fiscal year.
TWENTY MILLION FIGHTING MEN
When we were considering legislation in the Spring of 1917, it was thought that our largest task would be getting men. Experience has shown that this is easy of accomplishment, made so by reason of the fact that we have left open the door for a reasonable amount of volunteers in the National Guard and regular army and passed a draft law under which all men of military age may readily be mobilized. The justness and fairness of the scheme as worked out by the Provost Marshal General have obtained the earnest co-operation and enthusiastic support of our people as a whole.
As I have said, our military law has been amended giving the President authority to call additional increments of men from time to time as needed. It has also been amended to permit him to register and classify all men that reach the age of 21 years. We now have 2,000,000 men in the army. The men between the ages of 21 and 31 years in 1917 have been classified, and there remains in Class 1 approximately 2,000,000 men physically fit not called. The class of 1918, which will be registered this Summer, will add another million, making a grand total of 5,000,000, without calling Classes 2, 3, 4, or 5, containing nearly 6,000,000, and without calling the boys from 18 to 21—3,000,000 more. If the war lasts until 1924 there will be added 6,000,000 more men. The potential man power of America for a seven-year war, therefore, may be conservatively estimated at 20,000,000 fighting men of recognized military age. This out of a population of 125,000,000.
Not because I think that all of our man power will be needed, but in order that we may get a view of the task that is in front of us and understand the necessity for the large army we are calling and the huge expenditures we are making, let me recall these facts.