The Central Powers at the outbreak of the war had a population of 142,250,000, in round numbers, of which 26,310,000 were males between the ages of 18 and 44, and if 70 per cent. of them were available for military service their man power would be approximately 18,360,000. Since the Russian fiasco Germany has occupied a territory greater in area than both Germany and Austria, in which there live upward of 51,000,000 people. And if the reports that we get are to be believed, the Kaiser has compelled the boys between 18 and 21 in this occupied territory to enter the German training camps, and he hopes in a short time to have them on the western front, thus augmenting his man power to approximately 21,000,000 fighting men.
This is the job we have on our hands. The newspapers tell us that the Kaiser has only 2,000,000 or 3,000,000 soldiers, but it would be wise for the members of this House in passing legislation affecting the conduct of the war to keep in mind the figures that I have just indicated. To meet this Great Britain—the British Isles, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand—France, Italy, and the United States have a combined population from which they can draw 30,000,000 or 40,000,000, and in addition to these numbers there is an enormous reservoir from which to draw further man power in the colonies and possessions of the Allies and the twenty-three smaller countries now allied with us in the war. To show something of the relative strength of the contending forces I will read the following capitulation, which is believed to be substantially accurate and has been compiled after very careful inquiry from the best sources available:
| MAN POWER OF CENTRAL POWERS COMPARED WITH THAT OF THE ALLIES | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| A. | B. | C. | |
| Est'd avail. | |||
| Estimated | for mil. | ||
| Males 18-44 | serv. of all | ||
| Population | inclusive, | kinds—70% | |
| 1914. | 1914. | of B. | |
| CENTRAL POWERS | |||
| Austria-H'ary | 51,000,000 | 9,360,000 | 6,500,000 |
| Bulgaria | 4,750,000 | 800,000 | 560,000 |
| Germany(Continental) | 68,000,000 | 12,850,000 | 9,000,000 |
| Ottoman Empire | 18,500,000 | 3,300,000 | 2,300,000 |
| ————— | ————— | ———— | |
| Total | 142,250,000 | 26,310,000 | 18,360,000 |
| ASSOCIATED GOVERNMENTS | |||
| Australia | 5,000,000 | 850,000 | 595,000 |
| Canada | 7,500,000 | 1,275,000 | 892,500 |
| France | 39,000,000 | 6,630,000 | 4,640,000 |
| Gt. Britain | 46,000,000 | 7,820,000 | 5,474,000 |
| India | 320,000,000 | 54,400,000 | 37,800,000 |
| Italy | 36,000,000 | 6,120,000 | 4,284,000 |
| Japan | 54,000,000 | 8,180,000 | 1,390,000 |
| New Zealand | 1,200,000 | 204,000 | 142,800 |
| Portugal | 6,000,000 | 1,020,000 | 714,000 |
| Serbia | 2,800,000 | 476,000 | 333,200 |
| South Africa | 6,000,000 | 1,020,000 | 714,000 |
| United States | 100,000,000 | 17,000,000 | 11,900,000 |
| ————— | ————— | ————— | |
| Total | 623,500,000 | 104,995,000 | 68,879,500 |
The casualties resulting in death, permanent injury, or incapacity in the German Army have amounted to admittedly about 3,000,000 men during the four years of war, or approximately the same number as have been supplied by the young men who have reached military age during the same period. From this statement it would appear that from the point of man power Germany is no worse off today than when she started the war. The weakening of the German forces is represented, however, by the lack of nourishment for her workers, her women and children, and the discharges which must necessarily follow the reaching of advanced age by the old men called to the colors, both of which will be felt more keenly as time goes on, as well as the disease which must necessarily accompany conditions such as the war has produced. America will not begin to discharge her men on account of advanced age for twenty years. In other words, the man power of America will get stronger and the man power of the enemy must get weaker for the next twenty years, if, by any chance, the war should last that long. We have nothing to fear from this source.
DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED
The first war difficulty encountered came when we looked for shelter for the vast army being assembled. Much to the surprise of every one, it was soon discovered that there was not cloth enough in the world to put tents over an army the size of the one we were organizing, and there were not mills and machinery enough to make it. Therefore wooden cantonments were constructed. We built thirty-two cantonments with a floor space of 640,000,000 square feet, with the necessary water, sewers, lighting plants, storehouses, ice plants, hospitals, and recreation centres to take care of 1,280,000 men, in which undertaking there was used in ten weeks' time more human labor than went into the building of the Panama Canal. Besides these, we have constructed aviation fields, ordnance schools, and training schools for officers—herculean tasks in themselves. We have also put up at the ports of embarkation, and throughout the country, supply depots, and storage warehouses with a combined floor space of 24,220,000 square feet for the army, in addition to what the navy has done in that respect, and have constructed the enormous buildings erected for administrative purposes in Washington and elsewhere. Verily, your Uncle Samuel is a modern Aladdin, who, when he wants a thing devoutly, rubs the lamp of American patriotism and the genius of America produces overnight all that he requires.
When we entered the war we had practically no surplus clothing for our army, our reserve supply having been used up in the Mexican expedition. Our allies were using practically the full output of all of our mills capable of producing cloth of the character used for uniforms. To take over these factories would have discommoded our allies. We met the difficulty by a change of the machinery in carpet factories, ducking mills, and kindred industries, and have been able to, during the last year, make Summer and Winter clothing enough for 2,000,000 men, and have a reserve supply of every article of wear for our soldiers sufficient to take care of the authorized increase.
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.