The United States in the world war (1918-1920)

Front matter

.0

(1918-1920)

By JOHN BACH McMASTER

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Submarines Off Our Coast 1

II. War Work At Home 32

Chapter II War Woek At Home

Long before the submarine bad finished its work of destruction, in June, one of the many effects of its depredations was clearly shown in the eagerness of young men to help win the war. Day after day enlistment stations were crowded with men seeking service in the army, the navy, the merchant marine. None of draft age were accepted for the army ; yet each day in the great cities scores of men under 21 or over 31 joined the colors. ISTo such restriction applied to the navy, or to the marines, and in these branches of the service hundreds enlisted. Reports from the Sea Service Bureau showed that even the Merchant Marine had felt the good effects of the German challenge to merchant shipping, and that all previous records of enlistments had been broken during the first week in June. ^'The enemy is at our gates," one applicant was reported to have said, "and it is up to us to hit back." To these volunteers were now added all men who came of age between June 5, 1917, and midnight of June 4, 1918, for they had been summoned to appear, June 5, before their respective boards and register. On the eve of registration Provost Marshal General Crowder addressed to them a message.

On the 5th of June, 1917, just one year ago to-morrow, occurred one of the most memorable events in the history of democratic institutions.

On that day 10,000,000 seK-govemed young Americans marched quietly to the polls, and in a voice that was heard around the -world, registered their invincible determination to preserve for themselves, and their posterity, the blessings of the liberty with which they have been so richly endowed.

A year has passed. Many of these men are now on the battlefields of France, .and on to-morrow, the 5th of June, that voice will have found its echo when 1,000,000 more will rally to their support.

The nation is engaged in a struggle for its existence. Our activities have been diverted from the normal peacetime channels, and the energy of those who remain at home is being directed more closely, every day, toward the accomplishment of the things upon which our armies must depend, and without which success is impossible.

Every American must do his duty in this great crisis, even though he remains at home. Those who are of such an age, and condition in life, that they may, without detriment to the economic support of the army, actively oppose themselves against our enemy on the European battlefields, are indeed privileged.

Most of the men who register to-morrow will be so classified, and I have no hesitancy in predicting that their services will win for them the undying affection of a proud and grateful nation.

At least 1,011,598 men, it was expected by the Census Bureau, would register ; but when returns from the eight and forty States and the District of Columbia were received the number was found to be 744,868, or 266,724 short of the estimate of the Census Bureau. But the number of men, twenty-one years old, who, during the year, enlisted in the army, navy, and marine corps was 208,588, and when to these was added the number of aliens who need not register, the figures rose to- 998,551, or but 13,000 below the Census Bureau estimate.

June 27 was the day fixed for the draft, which was conducted in the same manner as the great one of 1917. The place was again a room in the Senate Building, where, in the same glass jar used the year before, were deposited 1200 master numbers concealed in blacT<: capsules. As each was drawn from the bowl it was broken by an attendant, the number announced and verified by two men, and then written on tally sheets, and on a blackboard of which, in time, a photograph was taken and kept as a record.

Since the great registration of June, 1917, a new system of classification of registrants had gone into effect. In J^ovember a questionnaire had been sent out, and in accordance with his sworn answer each registrant had been placed in one of five classes. Tlie effect of classification in Class I was to make him liable to be called for service at an early day, for in it were included single men without dependent relatives ; married men who habitually failed to support their families ; married men dependent on their wives for support; married men supported by income independent of labor; unskilled farm laborers; unskilled industrial laborers; and registrants who did not claim deferred classification, or did not answer the questionnaire, or were not included in any other class. Classification in Class II granted the draftee temporary discharge from draft until Class I, in the jurisdiction of his Local Board, was exhausted. Class III became liable only when Classes I and II, in the jurisdiction of their Local Boards, were exhausted, and Class TV when Classes I, II and III were spent. Classification in Class Y was equivalent to exemption, or discharge from draft, and in it were included, legislative, executive and judicial officers of the United States, the States, the territories, and the District of Columbia; ministers of religion; students of theology on May 18, 1917; all in military, or naval service of the United States; alien enemies; resident aliens claiming exemption; all permanently physically unfit for military service; all morally unfit to be a soldier of the United States, and pilots actually engaged in their vocation.

JSTearly every man drawn on June 5, 1918, was able bodied, unmarried, without dependents and not engaged in an essential industry. It was announced, therefore, that they would be placed at the bottom of Class I, now almost exhausted. Day after day thousands of the old registrants were moving into the cantonments to take the place of those already sent across the sea.

That men in Class I should be trained to fight, while those in the deferred class should be free to follow occupations which counted for nothing in our effort to win the war, seemed neither just, nor good policy. Provost Marshal Crowder, therefore, with the approval of the President and the Secretary of War, issued what was popularly known as his "work or fight" order, requiring all men of draft age, wliO' were habitual idlers or engaged in non-essential industries, to appear before their Local Boards before July 1, 1918, and explain why they were not working in essential industries, or find occupation therein.

Idlers were defined to be "gamblers of all descriptions,, bucket shop and race track attendants, fortune tellers, clairvoyants, palmists, and the like." Men in non-essential occupations were clerks and salesmen in stores and mercantile houses; persons in domestic service, doormen, footmen ; and attendants at clubs, hotels, apartment houses, office buildings; persons engaged in games and sports, and amusements, save actual performances in operas and plays, and all who served food or drink in hotels, clubs or public places. Direct industrial conscription, it was explained, was not possible at this time. But the effect of the new regulation would be to force men out of occupations not essential to winning the war, and put them into war work that was essential. It meant a greater number of men available for the production of war material or, if drawn into immediate service, the prevention of any drain on men engaged in war industries, and the postponement of any call on the deferred classes until the advanced classes were exhausted. !N^on-essential workers would not be permitted to seek exemptionbecause they had drawn a late order number, or had been placed in Class II, III or IV on the ground of dependency. The fact that they were not usefully employed would outweigh all other considerations. To take men from the farms, from the mills and factories, and out of essential employments, and march them away to training camps, "past crowds of idlers and loafers," was worse than foolish. We were not fighting armies, but nations in arms. Civilization was facing life or death, and we, too, must, as a nation, drop idleness and vain pleasures.

At least half a million men, it was estimated, would, by the order, be made available for the army, and another half million be turned into necessary industries. ■

In June, General Crowder told the Senate Committee on

Military Affairs that an extension of the draft age would be necessary, because all men in Class I would be exhausted before June, 1919. Of the 2,248,000 men in that class 1,347,000 had already been called to the colors. Some 400,000 more would be secured from those who registered on June 5, and 200,000 would be obtained from the re^examination of the questionnaires and reclassification. Thus by the first of August 3,000,000 men would be under arms.

He urged, therefore, that the draft age limits be extended from eighteen to forty-five, not only to obtain more fighting men, but to apply the "work or fight" rule to slackers above thirty years of age. There was no intention to call into the army, at once, all eligible men between these ages, but to enable the Government to draft older single men with no dependents, and leave untouched the younger married men, with children, then in the deferred Class. When, therefore, towards the close of June, the Senate had under debate the army appropriation bill, carrying appropriations amounting to $12,000,000,000, Senator Fall, of New Mexico, introduced an amendment fixing the age limits at 20 and 42, and Senator France, of Maryland, an amendment providing for the industrial enrollment of men and women between 18 and 45 years of age that they might be drawn into occupations for which they were best suited. The President approved of both, but did not wish them adopted at that time, nor made part of the appropriation bill. The Fall amendment was accordingly defeated.

The Allies now called on the United States to maintain an army, of 120 divisions of 40,000 men each, overseas, and a reserve force of 1,000,000 at home under arms. This completely changed the plans of the War Department, and led it to adopt a program calling for 80 divisions, or 3,200,000 men overseas, and a reserve of eighteen divisions, or 720,000 men under arms and in training at home. Lack of ships to transport and maintain 120 divisions had forced the modification. To get men for so great an army it was necessary to extend the draft age limits at once, and August 5 a bill, submitted by the Secretary of War, was introduced into Lotli houses of Congress. It provided for the extension of the limits to eighteen and forty-five. Under such a law, General Crowder believed, that 13,200,644 men would register; that 10,028,973 would be between the ages of thirty-one and forty-five, and 3,171,671 between eighteen and twenty, making the total number of men registered since June 5, 1917, some 23,000,000. There were then abroad, he said, 1,300,000 troops, and the plan was to add to them 250,000 men a month until the end of the year, when there would thus be overseas an American army of 2,300,000 men. If this program were to be carried out the bill must be passed before the end of August. In that event the President could issue his proclamation fixing registration day as early as September 5. If the new men in Glass I were to be in camp in October, registration day must not be later than September 15. Believing that Congress when it reassembled, after a short recess, August 26, would pass the bill, steps had already been taken to act at once. State headquarters, local boards and other officials in all the States had been notified to be ready. The situation was urgent, for, by October 1, Class I, under the ages fixed by the draft act of 1917, would be exhausted, and must be replenished at the earliest possible moment. During the discussion of the bill several amendments were offered, but the struggle was around that known as the "work or fight" amendment which, in its final form, read:

That when any person shall have been placed in a deferred or exempted class for any of the reasons in this paragraph set forth, he shall not be entitled to remain therein unless he shall in good faith continue, while physically able so to do, to work at and follow such occupation, employment, or business, and if he fails so to do, he shall again become subject to the draft. The President shall make regulations for enforcing this provision.

This proviso shall not apply in the case of a strike, if the strikers have submitted, or will at once submit, the dispute to the War Labor Board, agree to abide and do abide by its decision, and do at once resume work and continue work pending such decision. The said board shall take up and decide all such disputes as speedily as practicable.

To any such provision Mr. Gompers objected. It was a reflection on the services and loyalty of the workers of our country. Here and there, he said, a few might have failed to do their full duty, but, taken as a whole, the workmen were doing their full duty, and rendering every aid possible to win the war. !N"evertheless, it was adopted by the Senate, was stricken out by the House, was abandoned in conference, and the bill was passed without it. August 31 the act was signed by the President who immediately issued a proclamation requiring all men between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, not already registered, or not in the military or naval service of the United States, to register on September 12.

In this proclamation the President said:

Fifteen months ago the men of the country from twenty-one to thirty-one years of age were registered. Three months ago, and again last month, those who had just reached the age of twenty-one were added. It now remains to include all men between the ages of eighteen and forty-five.

This is not a new policy. A century and a quarter ago it was deliberately ordained by those who were then responsible for the safety and defense of the nation that the duty of military service should rest upon all able-bodied men between the ages of eighteen and forty-five. We now accept and fulfill the obligation which they established, an obligation expressed in our national statutes from that time until now. We solemnly purpose a decisive victory of arms, and deliberately to devote the larger part of the military man-power of the nation to the accomplishment of that purpose.

The younger men have from the first been ready to go. They have furnished voluntary enlistments out of all proportions to their numbers. Our military authorities regard them as having the highest combatant qualities. Their youthful enthusiasm, their virile eagerness, their gallant spirit of daring make them the admiration of all who see them in action. They covet not only the distinction of serving in this great war, but also the inspiring memories, which hundreds of thousands of them will cherish through years to come, of a great day and a great service for their country and for mankind.

By the men of the older group now called upon, the opportunity now open to them will be accepted with the calm reassurance of those who realize to the full the deep, the solemn significance of what they do. Having made a place for themselves in their respective communities, having assumed at home the graver responsibilities of life in many spheres, looking back upon honorable industrial records, they will realize, perhaps, as no others could, how entirely their own fortunes, and the fortunes of all whom they love, are put at stake in this war for right, and will know the very records they have made render this new duty the commanding duty of their lives. They know how surely this is the nation's war, how imperatively it demands the mobilization and massing of all our resources of every kind. They will regard this call as the supreme call of their day and will answer it accordingly.

Only a portion of those who register will be called upon to bear arms. Those who are not physically fit will be excused; those exempted by alien allegiance; those who should not be relieved of the present responsibilities; above all, those who cannot be spared from the civil and industrial tasks at home upon which the success of our armies depends as much as upon the fighting at the front. But all must be registered in order that the selection for military service may be made intelligently, and with full information.

This will be our final demonstration of loyalty, democracy, and the will to win; our solemn notice to all the world that we stand absolutely together in a common resolution and purpose. It is the call to duty to which every true man in the country will respond with pride and with the consciousness, that in doing so, he plays ^ his part in vindication of a great cause at whose summons every true heart offers its supreme service.

So rapidly were young men sent to the training camps, that, by the middle of August, Class I was almost exhausted. To meet the call for 200,000 men for the camps during September, it must be replenished. Therefore, the President, by proclamation, summoned all men who came of age between June 5 and August 24 to register on the latter day. General Crowder believed that they would number at least 150,000, and that one-half of them would be available for Class I. The day chosen was a Saturday. All who observed that day as a Sabbath were to register on the following Monday.

There would be no drawing at Washington to determine the order in whicli they were to be called; they would be treated as belated registrants. "It will not be necessary," said General Crowder, "to hold another drawing in Washington to determine the order of liability to service of those who will register on August 24. The same method will be followed as that adopted for belated registrants whose names went on the books after June 5 last. In other words, advantage will be taken of the fact that enough numbers were drawn in the official drawing of June 27, 1918, to fix tte orders of liability not only for all who registered June 5, 1918, but for all who are expected to be enrolled on August 24. Altogether, 1,200 numbers were drawn at that time, although the total number of registrants in any one registration district on June 5 did not exceed two-thirds of that number. Thus, one-third of these numbers are available for distribution among the new r^strants.

"This distribution will be made by the Adjutant General, or draft executive, in each State, for each of the registration districts under his jurisdiction, copies of all registration cards, with blank spaces for the numbers, having been furnished him. He will pick the available numbers at random and assign them according to the order in which he takes up the registration cards. W^hen a registrant has thus received his number he will be able, by reference to the official drawing of June 27, 1918, to which he will have access, to determine the order in which he will be called."

Preparations, made in the great centers of population for speedy registration in September, were most interesting. In 'New York City, where upwards of 900,000 men were expected to register, the registration districts were 189; the registrars, clerks and interpreters, for fifty-two foreign languages are spoken in that city, appointed to aid the District Boards numbered 12,000, or one for every 80 registrants, and extra registrars and interpreters were gathered at the headquarters of the Director of the Draft ready to be sent by automobile to any district where the registration became unexpectedly large.

On the appointed day the Stock Exchange, the Cotton Exchange, the Public Schools were closed, and corporations employing large numbers of men of draft age gave them time to register in order to decrease as much as possible the last minute rush at night.

When the returns from all the States were made it was found that 13,228,000 men between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one and thirty-one and forty-five had registered. In all registrations the number of men registered for selective service was 23,709,000. !N'othing now remained but to fix upon the time when the great draft should be made. Monday, September 30, was chosen, and on that day the President, blindfolded, in the Caucus room on the second floor of the Senate Building, drew, from the historic glass bowl used for the draft of 1917, one of the 17,000 black capsules it contained. The number was 322 ; whereupon each man who had received that number in each of the 4557 registration districts where there were so many as 322 registrants became l^o. 1 in order of liability to be called for service by his district board. Each of the 10,500 master numbers drawn from the bowl in July, 1917, were announced by the press. On this occasion only the first one hundred were made public. The others were to be announced to the registrants by their district boards when they received their questionnaires.

Drafting young men under twenty-one years of age, it was clearly foreseen, would seriously affect the education of those in High Schools and Colleges. Section Seven of the Act, therefore, provided that the Secretary of War might "assign to educational institutions, for special and technical training, soldiers who enter the military service under the provisions of this Act, in such numbers and under such regulations as he may prescribe; and is authorized to contract with such educational institutions for the subsistence, quarters and military and academic instruction of such soldiers." Every student, from 18 to 21, it was explained, who wished to continue his studies at High School or College, might enter the Students Army Training Corps, have all his college expenses paid hy the Government, receive $30 a month pay, and become a soldier in the United States Army, uniformed and subject to military discipline and training.

The course of study and the time were prescribed by the Military Authorities, whose aim it was to have the students trained as officer candidates and technical experts to meet the needs of the service. Upwards of five hundred universities, colleges and technical schools were called on to state how many they could take, and 145,012 were finally accepted. At noon on October 1 this splendid body of young Americans was duly mobilized, and standing under the Stars and Stripes at the respective institutions, took the oath of allegiance and listened to the reading of messages from President Wilson, the Acting Secretary of War, and the Chief of Staff.

The step you have taken, said the President, is a most significant one. By it you have ceased to be merely individuals, each seeking to perfect himself to win his own place in the world, and have become comrades in the common cause of making the world a better place to live in. You have joined yourself with the entire manhood of the country and pledged, as did your forefathers, "your lives, your fortunes, and your sacred honor" to the freedom of humanity.

The enterprise upon which you have embarked is a hazardous and difficult one. This is not a war of words; this is not a scholastic struggle. It is a war of ideals, yet fought with all the devices of science, and with the power of machines. To succeed you must not only be inspired by the ideals for which this country stands, but you must also be masters of the technique with which the battle is fought. You must not only be thrilled with the zeal for the common welfare, but you must also be masters of the weapons of to-day.

There can be no doubt of the issue. The spirit that is revealed, and manner in which Americans responded to the caU, is indomitable. I have no doubt that you will use your utmost strength to maintain that spirit, and to carry it forward to the final victory that will certainly be ours.

The Acting Secretary of War said:

As college students you are accustomed to contests of physical force. You are familiar with the tedious training and self-sacrificing discipline that are required to develop a team that can win the game. You know that the contest is won by team work, push, enthusiastic cooperation with one another, and coordination of every individual talent to the single purpose of common success.

In the military struggle in which you are about to enter, the same conditions prevail. In order to succeed, many weeks of thoroughgoing training and drill are essential to develop the coordination of skill and imagination that is essential to achieving the vast and vital end to which the country has pledged its every effort. The fighting machine will come into effective working order more rapidly in proportion as each individual in it devotes his full attention to the particular service for which he is best qualified. In entering upon this training as student soldiers you have the opportunity of developing your abilities to the point where they will be most effective in the common struggle.

I am sure that you will do this in the same spirit, and with the same enthusiasm that you have always exhibited in the lesser struggles to which you have been accustomed to devote your energies. I am sure that you will rise to this opportunity and show that America, the home of the pioneer, the inventor, and the master of machines, is ready and able to turn its every energy to the construction of an all-powerful military machine which will prove as effective in liberating men as have the reaper, the airplane, and the telephone.

General Peyton C. March, Chief of Staff of the Army, reminded the boys of the great opportunity that opened before^ them.

The Students Army Training Corps has been organized to assist in training a body of men from whom the United States will draw officer material in large niunbers. The need for these officers is one of the most imperative orders connected with our large army program, and patriotic young men wiU be given an opportunity to acquire this training, with the knowledge that they will thus be enabled to better serve their country in the great drive which is to come. Superior leadership spells success in war, and it is the duty of every member of the Students Army Training Corps to do his utmost to qualify as a leader of men.

While preparations for the draft were under way, renewed efforts were made to reach the slackers, the men who had not registered for the previous draft, and those who had not answered the questionnaire. For months past not only the Detpartment of Justice but the American Protective League, the secret service of the Council of N^ational Defense, and scores of private local organizations had b^n busy seeking for men who shirked the call of tbeir country. Since registration day, June 5, 1917, some 25,000 had been captured. In June, 1918, ball parks, theaters, moving-picture houses, bar rooms, poolrooms, restaui-ants, parks, railway stations, steamboat docks, every place where young men were likely to gather, were raided by police officers and agents of the American Protective League, and 300 who had not registered and 4,000 who had not filed questionnaires were arrested. In Ohio 1,000 were found in one day. Aoid so it was the country over. Hundreds had fled to Mexico where life, according to General Crowder, was far from pleasant. Even there the man with the yellow streak was heartily despised. Such as had means, and had "established a sort of colony" in Mexico City were "ostracized completely, not only by other American residents above draft age, but by the natives as well." Those without funds were in desperate straits, "l^ative and foreign business houses alike refused them employment. At Guanajuato, for example, not only a crowd of these slackers, applying for work at the mines, was refused employment in spite of a labor shortage, but a committee of Americans living there is reported to have waited on them with a demand that they leave the town in a specified number of hours." In this work the women "in all communities, particularly those having relatives who have gone to the front," according to General Crowder, had been most helpful, "in ferreting out young men who failed to register." To encourage them in this good work, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, chairwoman of the Woman's Committee of the Council of ISTational Defense, now made an appeal.

A new and imperative call comes to the women of our land from which at first there may be a spirit of shrinking, but the splendid response which the patriotic women of America have made to every call of their eoiintry assures us of a willing and courageous compli-

Before the first of August more than 1,300,000 men of all sorts were under the command of General Pershing. In the opinion of the German press these statements were untrue. "Mr. Baker," said the Koelnische Zeitung, "thinks he will be able to dissipate all doubts about the correctness of his figures with his recitations. It is, however, only the usual American bluif. We know from reliable sources that the figures in question are inordinately exaggerated, and in no way correspond to the truth." Vice Admiral von Capelle belittled our aid both in men and ships :

The military help of America in the first year of the war was very little regarding troops and airplanes. The expectation of our enemies has been greatly disappointed. If America wants to maintain half a million troops in France it will need permanently a freight space (in steamships) of about 2,000,000 tons, which would be taken from the service of supplying her allies.