Nothing could conceal the hard fact that no considerable force could be made ready in less than about a year from the declaration of war. In May 1917 a few American destroyers reached England. June 8 Gen. Pershing, who had been selected as commander-in-chief, arrived in England. June 26 a small detachment of U.S. troops reached France. From that time contingents continued to arrive, thus giving to the Allies the assurance that succour on a vast scale was being organized. New branches of military service were established, among them the Chemical Warfare Service which provided materials for lethal gases and for gas-masks and other means of resisting the enemy attacks. Congress, July 24, appropriated $640,000,000 for aviation. The whole land was full of unwonted and startling preparations. By Aug. about 700,000 men were enrolled in the army and 230,000 in the navy. Nevertheless, on Dec. 31 1917 the total number of troops in France was only 176,665.
Control of Industry and Transportation.—The establishment of huge war industries for making guns, munitions, clothing, and the varied supplies for a vast army put a great strain on the industry and transportation of the United States. The country was called upon to feed its own people, the army that was preparing to go abroad and, in considerable part, the Allied armies. Aug. 10 1917 a Food Control Act gave the President powers never before conferred with regard to food and fuel (see Food Supply). Herbert C. Hoover, of California, who had distinguished himself in the management of the Red Cross in Europe and especially in Belgium, was made Food Administrator with large powers. Before the war ended he had established “meatless days,” “wheatless days,” and “porkless days”; the price of grain was fixed; eventually the farmers were assured $2.20 a bushel for their wheat crops, which was more than twice what had been considered a good price before the war. The winter of 1917-8 was very severe and coal shipments were delayed both by storms and by pressure of war industries; so that even New York City was for a few days almost without fuel. The warming of buildings and houses was cut to the lowest point. Dr. Harry A. Garfield, president of Williams College, was made Fuel Administrator, and carried through drastic measures for stimulating production, regulating shipments and distributing the supply.
During 1918 these sweeping war powers were rigorously applied. In the food bill was a provision against the use of grain for the manufacture of liquor. Later, manufacture for sale was entirely prohibited by Congress as a war measure. On March 19 1918 Congress passed a Daylight Saving law, for putting the clocks one hour ahead of Standard time from March to October. On March 21 the Federal Control Act placed the management of all the railways in the country in the hands of the Government during the war, and for a period after its close (see Railways). Secretary of the Treasury McAdoo was made director-general of the railways; later Walker D. Hines, an experienced railwayman, succeeded him. President Wilson declared all telephone and telegraph wires to be under the control of the Government and appointed Postmaster-General Burleson to take charge.
One of the most serious needs of the time was a fleet adequate to carry across the Atlantic the army and its supplies and then keep up the shipments of reserves and munitions. The merchant marine of the United States registered for foreign trade was in 1914 only 1,066,288 gross tons. Most of the food and munition tonnage, which was immense, was carried up to 1917 in British or neutral ships, some in French and Italian. The Government then undertook the great task of improvising a merchant fleet (see Shipping). After a contest between those who insisted on steel ships and those who thought they could be supplemented by wooden vessels, construction was authorized in both materials. But the war was over before any considerable number of new ships were completed, and the wooden ones were a failure.
The Army and Navy at the Front.—The sea duty was strenuous but less dangerous than army service at the front. Beginning with patrol work on the American coast as soon as war was declared, the activities of the U.S. navy extended to coöperation with the British and French in the hunting down of submarines and the protection of convoys. No German fleet gained access to the high seas, but in 1918 one or two commerce destroyers succeeded in doing a little damage to Allied commerce. In the laying of the North Sea mine barrage, extending from the Orkneys to Norway and completed by July 29 1918, the U.S. minelayers placed 56,611 out of a total of 70,263 mines. The American navy had some part in blockading the Austrian coast of the Adriatic, and participated in maintaining that Allied command of the sea which in the end was fatal to Germany. One of the most remarkable feats accomplished by the United States during the war was the development of a convoy system whereby over 2,000,000 troops were carried safely 3,000 m. overseas to France. In this work the utmost secrecy was necessary and there was little to appeal to the public mind. On entering the war the United States was wholly unprepared to transport a large expeditionary force; but in June 1917 a few cruisers and transports were provided and the first troops sent across. This convoy was attacked by submarines, but no boat was damaged and no lives were lost. The convoy system was generally adopted. At intervals vessels assembled and sailed on definite routes under the protection of destroyers. Under Rear-Adml. Albert Cleaves the cruiser and transport service was rapidly increased, eventually comprising 24 cruisers and 42 transports, besides 4 French men-of-war and 13 foreign merchant vessels, manned by 3,000 officers and 41,000 men. By a system of zigzag courses, camouflage and protection by swift destroyers the German submarines were rendered almost powerless. Of the escort protecting the convoys up to the Armistice the United States furnished about 83% (Great Britain 14% and France 3%). Of American troops, according to the report of the Secretary of the Navy (1920), 911,047, or 43.75%, were carried on U.S. navy transports, and 41,534, or 2.5% on other U.S. ships. The rest were carried chiefly in British ships. The peak of movement for any one day was reached on July 9 1918 when 75 transports, carrying 171,630 men, were on the high seas. The record month also was that of July, during which 306,350 troops were embarked. So successful was the convoy system that not one east-bound American transport was torpedoed by the German submarines; only three were sunk on their return voyage—the “Antilles” (Oct. 17 1917, 70 lives lost), the “President Lincoln” (May 31 1918, 26 lives lost), and the “Covington” (July 1 1918, 6 lives lost). The “Mount Vernon,” returning from France, was torpedoed Sept. 5 1918, but made port; 36 lives were lost. Only three fighting ships were destroyed by the enemy—the patrol-boat “Alcedo,” a converted yacht (Nov. 5 1917, off the French coast, 20 lives lost), the torpedo-boat destroyer “Jacob Jones” (Dec. 6 1917, off the British coast, 62 lives lost), and the cruiser “San Diego” (July 19 1918, sunk by a mine off the New York coast, 6 lives lost). Interned German vessels were used as transports, the “Leviathan” alone (the former “Vaterland”) making ten voyages to France and carrying almost 100,000 troops. Other large U.S. transports were the “President Grant,” 9 voyages, carrying all told about 80,000 men; the “George Washington,” 9 voyages, about 46,000 men; the “America,” 9 voyages, about 37,000 men; the “Agamemnon,” 10 voyages, about 35,000 men.
The first notable appearance of American troops was at Cantigny May 28 1918. On June 6 there was a fierce engagement between the Americans and the Germans at Belleau Wood. During July 15-18 American troops, posted at Chateau-Thierry, desperately and successfully held the German forward movement. By Aug. about 1,500,000 soldiers had reached France. During Sept. 11-13 the Americans were given the task of clearing the Germans out of the St. Mihiel salient, their first independent action. From Sept. 26 to Nov. 11 the American army was engaged in the sanguinary Meuse-Argonne campaign, finally capturing Sedan and breaking the German lines. In these brief and territorially limited operations the American army, of which not more than 600,000 actually came within reach of the enemy, lost through casualties about one-third of those engaged.
The work of frenzied preparation and the steady drives on land and sea would have been impossible but for a new kind of organization of the War Department and other parts of the Government machinery at Washington. Under the Overman
