THE AMERICAN WAR MACHINE

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 54, 27 November 1917, Page 6

THE AMERICAN WAR MACHINE

HOW IT IS BEING BUILT

PEATS "TO LICK CREATION"

(By Lord Jvorthcliffe, in the "Philadelphia Public Ledger.")

September, 1917, saw the beginning of the growth of a war machine unequalled in the world's history. The machine is being built in .the American way. As 1 watch the process I am reminded continually of the method by which Americans build their skyscrapers, whoso roots are deep down in the rock that forms the island on which New York stands. In watching the building of a .skyscraper the uninformed observer feels that the thinrr lv j]l never begin. For some time there is a blasting of rock; crowds of men appear with strange machines; nothing much seems to happen. Then, gradually, but surely, a great steel skeleton arises. The p;-G£ress does not seem to be as rapid as it Tiiight be, until- suddenly the passerby finds, to his astonishment, that the exterior walls of tho seventeenth or thirtieth story are finished, the loner stories being vet in skeleton form. There j g another delay, and, In! the skyscraper is suddenly finished and housing ten or fifteen thousand busy workers. The American war machine is being built in the samo way.

From the staid British point of view the process is sometimes bewildering. There are delays, tolerances, repetitions of European war blunders, criticisms, arguments, extravagant optimism, and grave under-estimations. Sometimes, at the end of a long day, one looks hack on the morning and can see 110 progress; but at the conclusion of every six days there is not onlv ail advance, but sometimes a leap. The great giant of the West slumbered more or less uneasily for the first two and a half years of the war. He eventually woke with some unwillingness. TVday he is up and about and doing; he is girding on his armour and fashioning the club that should end the rule of despotism in Europe.

15 Soldier Cities. Lookers-on and critics here in the United States were astonished to.find that, almost without public notice, conscription came into being. Having arrived. it worlcs as smoothly as though it had been in use since the Declaration of Independence. Again the giant pauses awliije and people begin to wonder What lie is doing, but meanwhile

the streets become filled with khaki, the stern-looking business men and professional beauties of photographers' shoos are replaced by clean-visaged officers and nurses, the parks are busy from dawn to dark with men in shirtsleeves at drill, those trying tn make

business appointments by telephone find that. So-and-So has gone to France or to the officers' training camp at Plattsburg or elsewhere. The war

hourly becomcs more and more a part of the visible public life.

Mv American home is some miles out of Now York City. When I took up my residence there in .Tune last there were no signs of war about me. I went to Washington and returned after the spaco of a few days. A vast camp as

111? as ours at WRley, in Surrey, appeared at my doors ns though it had grown by magic. This oninp is tint "on tho map," sn to spealc; it is not one of tlio great cantonments tlwt aro being built, with lifjlitninpc speed. Of these soldier cities thoro are now 7fi finished, or nearly so. They are no mere camps; there is a permanence about them which makes it difficult to icalise that tlioy are, built in two score of days. A number of them are being orected, wisely, in the sunny and comparatively stormless 5011 th, whero the soldiers— more especially tho flying men—will be in full training during the wholo winter. Let mo describe one of those cities in the words of an English eye-witness, 0110 of the 16 cities which will accommodate the first instalment (687,000 men) gathered by conscription. These, cities aro tangible proof of tho efficiency of American methods of organisation applied to war-making. Wo asked and obtained permission to see one of the most rapidly finished. It happened to bn 2000 miles from New York City. It did not seem to conccrn those who extended the very cordial iijvitation to us that the journey was a long one. It is regarded hero as we in England look upon the journey from London to Newcastle or from London to Glasgow. We were particularly interested in the construction because it is ilio result of tho activities of a great firm not unknown in England—Stone and Webster—whose ramifications extend not only throughout the United States, hut to most parts of the world, in the form of the International Corporation,

Building Feats. Early in July there lay, three miles outside San Antonio, Texas, a stretch of ground covered with a difficult kind of scrub or bush. On July 6 there appeared an army of between 9000 and 10,000 workmen of every known nationality, directed by young Americans of the Harvard and Yale type. The 10,000 arrived in every kind of conveyance—in mule carts, farm wagons, horso cabs, motors, and huge motor-

vans. At tho end of the day's work, when tho whistle had blown, the scene resembled that of some eccenric, elaborately staged kinematograph film. Together with the army of 10,000 men came many kinds of sets of automatic

machinery. Tho hard concrete roads of the United States are now made by machinery with a thoroughness and permanence which should attract atten-

tion in Europe. In this new town outside San Antonia. 12 miles of rail, 25 miles of road, 31 miles of watorpipe, 30 miles of sewer were accomplished in ■15 days.

The scale of wages is as surprising to Europeans as the energy expended. The average wage for all and sundry exceeded £S a week, carpenters getting '265. daily. Nearly all material had to be brought from what appear to us vast distances. As often as not the

thermometer stood at lOOdeg., yet the daily photographs taken by the contractors show that progress was continuous until, on August 25, a considerable part of the city was ready for occupation. The stroimly and comfortably built huts are all provided with

heating arrangements for the winter, and baths, hot and cold, are attached to each building. There are vast stores and office blocks, several post offices, it huge bakery, laundry, stables for

1300 horses and mules, hosoitnls. schools; in all, between 1200 and 1300 buildings. And what has been done in Texas was being done simultaneously in fifteen other parts of the country. Althou'ih Lontr Island is so close to New York and is one of the most fashinnahlp country house districts ill

the United States, the site chosen for Vaphank, too greioi camp on Long Island, gave as much trouble as any other. A forest bail to lie cut down and the roots blasted out of the soil.

r urHieriiiore. the work was hampered iv mosquitoes to -.i degree that will ie understood bv those who have, disurbp:l virgin soil in new places.

Tho American Spirit. They have a prompt, unexpected way (if doing things in this country which is pleasingly refreshing. One morning I read that all "saloons" (pub-lic-houses) within five miles of Yaphank had been closed. Nothing moro was said about it; no discussion preceded the matter; there were no abstruse

calculations as to compensation. Tho (Jmted States is at war; .saloons are not good for war; close them I That's all there ivas to it. They are a goodnatured but a drastic people. One of their great war accomplishments is the stamping out of sedition. When I first arrived hero it was common to seo knots of rather bored-looking people at street corners round a windy gesticulating man standing 011 what I believe is known as a "soap box." I noticed that- the number of these orators grew. I stopiied one evening to listen to one of them in the negro quarter; he was talking a lot of excited rubbish. Tn one part of his discourse he evinced unexpected sympathy for the "down-trodden Irish farmer"— who is notably, by the way, among the most prosperous of farmers. The American giant paused one day in his war prenaratioi.s, issued some kind of police order, and there was an end to pacifism. Armed men in special motor-cars ended it. A shrewd British friend of mine who lias lived here many years remarked the other day that it took a long time' to get Uncle Sam into the war, hut that it may take a much longer time to get him out. Already, after barely five months of preparation, the United States has close upon a million and a. half of soldiers undergoing intensive training for their task. The Regular Army was brought up to its full strength—loo,ooo—by voluntary enlistment. The National Guard. a State Militia, was filled up by the same means until it numbered 500,000. Then camo the ballot for conscripts under tho Con, scription Act; this gave between 600.000 and 700,000 wore. For the training and upkeep of this force and for the provision of all that it will require in the field sums of money have been voted which make one's brain reel. For aeroplane construction £128,000,000 hns been appropriated ; upon merchant ships biiiUing £227,000,000 is to be spent. In r/i, the war expenditure of the United States already amounts to .well over £1,600,000 a day, and loans to Allies account foianother £2,400.000 every 24 hours. Tho war machine gathers momentum as it travels; its ramifications are bewildering; scarcely a day passes-without some fresh and startling proof of its force.

Smashing Blows. The American characteristics in war seem to me to be two: Firstly, what looks like undue deliberation, and then, before you are ready for it, like a bolt from the blue, a smashing blow I We know so little of the United States in Europe that probably not one reader in a score will understand that tho Democrats (Radicals) are in office and the Republicans (Conservatives) are in Opposition. The system, far, is rather like our own, but the head of the nation is a President whoso character appears to me to be a mixture ot Scottish caution and tenacity with American unexpectedness.

Witness the reply to the Pope. Cables from Europe contained mealy-mouthed meanderings from Continental newspapers outlining all kinds of suggested temporising replies to His Holiness. Suddenly came an altogether unexpacted bang from tho White House at Washington; tho whole miasma of pacifism and all tho rantings from soapboxes were at an end. lly Republican friends, naturally critical of persons and things Demooratie, shared the nation-wide j'ov iu the President's reply.

As with the wcll-moant Papal peace offerings, so with the embargo. Wellmeaning European statesmen have too long provided tho German armies with materials for making shot and powder and with food through greedy and gain-loving neutrals. Tho Amorican mind wondered why. I went one day to have a look at an American transport sailing for.Europe, in which the soldier hoys clustered like bees in swarming time. Incidentally my guide showed me a great number of neutral ships loading up with grain for Germany. There came another bang from the Big Gllll at Washington. The ships are still here.

I .should not, bo surprised if they eventually helped "to carry food to tho American armies in Franco and to Belgium. I am very certain ther'will not carry 0110 grain of wheat to Germany. The right of neutrals to prolong tho war is not conceded by the United States. The American mothers who ansending their hoys to face submarines in the Atlantic and high ixplosive in the trenches have no sloppy sentiment for Sweden or Spain. They are, sorry for Holland, but the motto "America first," though not, perhaps always suited to nil alliance, is undoubtedly a. formidable war weapon when nut into operation with the drastic suddenness characteristic mf American mentality in war-time.