THE RE-BIRTH OF A NATION

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 8, 4 October 1917, Page 5

THE RE-BIRTH OF A NATION

AMERICA AT WAR

ON BUSINESS LINES

(By I. F. Marcosson.)

[Mr. Marcosson, who' is ones of 'America's most distinguished journalists,; recently (returned to England. It is his. fou-th trip since the beginning of the war. Hβ has visited nearly all the Allied fronts. This fact, combined with his long experience as a'writer on business organisation, gives his article special raluo and significance. — "Daily Mail."] : When I left America last January the war, so far as tho average citizen was concerned, was a remote and far-away thing. The country seemed dooniei to benevolent neutrality.. J roturned' in June to.find the nation in arms. The first expeditionary force, our own "First Seven Divisions," was, on its way to -l>ance; New l'ork -Harbour was alivo .with war. craft; the city itself was ■α-flutter with flags in which the Union Jack had conspicuous part; the, street? were sprinkled with khaki. Within three months the country bad geared itself to war.' It was afraid that I would find' our people infected with "short war" ' optimism; inert with the self-sufficiency -that the "Business as Usual" fallaoy bugets. Instead, the eastern seaboard was ■keen with the realisation that the conn- : try was at grip? with a. malignant enemy and that every pound of human and machine power would have to be harnessed to overcome him. In sweltering heat Washington seethed with activity. What has America done? What will she do? What is the limit of her resources? Those are. tho-'questions that our Allies are asking. Tn tho answer . .lies part of the Key to Peace. Mobilising Business Brains. ' The first miracle in the drama or 'America at war is that, to a considerable extent, she has violated tho'tradi- • tion that no nation has ever profited hy the experience of another v nation. • There are two illuminating examples. The first is .that she went in for co'nBoription from the start: This has mado the mobilisation of industry simple and immediate. The second is that almost from the day war was declared the Government began to draft tho best buMEess brains. that the conduct of war now is a colossal pieco of uier- . chandising that represents every process .of industry from raw material to finished product,. it enlisted raon of the Ehondda, Geddes, Maclay, Rotherjnere, and Stanley-type. It meant that Yankee "punch" was put into the war machine and at once. The Council of National Defence is a conspicuous illustration. Its personnel tells the , whole etorj of ;an industrial preparedness . that,' is insurance against confusion, ihefliciencr, and delay. On its advisory commission you have Daniel Willard, who rose from ' day labourer to be president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railway; Howard E. Coffin, flie clear-vieidned engineer who Tied with Ford as master-prnducer of motor-cars; Bernard Baruch, Wall Street wizard; Julius Eosenwald, staunch 'Amorican despite his name, who began as messenger boy and, became head of the world's greatest "mail order" establishment,' and BO on down the line of financial chieftains and productive marvels. ' Why , was, America ready to produce war supplies? For ono thing, 6lje had been . pouring munitions into Europe for three years. Another significant reason was that through the Naval Consulting Boara' (nucleus of the Couricilof National Defence) a survey of 40,000 industrial "plants" had been made with a new of finding out their capacity for war work. '•.-■• ■ ' The Aircraft Programme. Tho aircraft programme is typical of ' , the way America has gono into the war. The-week I left Coneress voted ■fIOO. for aircraft. This moans a fleet of 2i,000 machines. You get the meaning . of this revolution (it, is nothing lees) ; when I say that during the eight vetirs previous to 1916 the United States Army 'Sad ordered, a total of 59 aeroplanes, dividing them between six factories, and ■had got delivery.of si. Coffin mado the hircraft programme possible. He is ' 'long,lank,almost Lincoln-like in structure, and he is all hustle. Likewise he \'ie chairman of the Board of Aircaft Pro- ■• Auction of the Council of National Defence. To get such an immense .appropriation he had to educate Congress arid the people. ~ Hβ went about it just ne he - Oiad gone about a great motor "selling" campaign that' in "aeroplanes and-still Inore aeroplanes" lay one great hope of .Ultimate victory over the Germans. Under . his incessant pleading 1A aviation fields have been authorised. Three have already risen like magic out of the virgin eae:h. , Realising that the roily means of achieving quantity output in aeroplanes .was to get a standardised engine, Coffin assembled the best engineers of the country in Washington, isolated them at the Bureau of Standards, and said in "his characteristic American fashion, "Goto at." Ordinarily it takes six months to complete the model of an engine from 'the time the rough drawings, are made. fThese men had an engine ready for testing in 28 day 3. : "How can you keep pace with aeroplane development when the' engine of spring is obsolete, by autumn?" I asked Coffin before-1 left America. "Bocanse with a standardised engine we can turn out aeroplanes almost ns fast i as moderate-priced: motor-cars." he • fe- ' plied. Nino-aviation schools have been established—six for the Armj; and three, for the Navy. The country is "becoming a vast air'school.' We havo already pent 'American flying units to France. The neroplane, unlike the prophet, has come into its own in the iand' of its birth. A Panorama of Resource. The question uppermost in British and French minds just now is: How many men can America send to France, and •w%en? For obvious reasons I cannot disclose all the facts. But,this much can belaid:' The first unit of 680,000 men in' the draft -of 10,000,000 registered under conscription '(there are 20,000,000 men of military age in the. United States) hos been drawn. The National Guard (cor- ■ responding to the English Territorials) iuas been recruited to its war strength and has gone into camp. More ' than half of these men are fresh from •the Mexican border and aro fit. The Regular Army has been increased to 268,000 men. Before the end of tho year 'America can have half a million men in [France and by. the spring it tan be inicrensed to a million. Is America at' war? Here iire a if-w Concrete evidences: The first Liberty ■loan of .£100,000,000 was ovcr-subscrib-ed by- nearly .£200,000,000, and, with the exception of New l'ork, the Middle iWest led the over-subscribing; O.T.C. training camps are training officers; we have established a- Bureau of Pxport licences, which has put a control on every pound-of food and scrap of raw '{material that goee to a neutral countrv; a regiment of our engineers is camped in England, and more are , pie : ■paring to come; medical and ambulance.units are in France and more are nearly ready to start"; our destroyers ere cooperating with the' British Navy in European waters; tho Navy personnel . !has been increased and every ship has its full complement; our great universities like Yale and Harvard have btcomo recruiting camps emulating the example of Oxford and Cambridge; everywhere grows tho feeling that the country is embarked upon a war of self-preserva-tion. As in England, the last farthing is pledged. More significant than all this is the passing of "the dollar pa. triot." A, nation onco over-charged with commercialism is finding its spiritual rebirth. Out of agony and sacrifice will rise the New Amorica.