AMERICA AT WAR

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 208, 22 May 1918, Page 8

AMERICA AT WAR

SOUND MILITARY EFFORT A SHIRT-SLEEVED ARM? (liy lan Hay.) Outside thousands of houses in America to-day hangs a Hag—aavhite Hag with a red border, lipuii tho white ground you will see black stars. A great banner sprinkled with Iwo or threo hundred stars, displayed outside a club or bank,, proclaims that so many members., or employees are absent on active service. A little pennant bearing a singlo star, hung in. the window of a Immbie dwelling in a tack street in New York or a remote village in Texas, intimates proudly to the passer-by that the eon of the house is .awu-y doing his duty._ These nags .ire typical. If an English 'household is doing its "bit" it either assunies that you know, or ie perfectly indifferent if you do not. The American, when he "has the-'goods," believes in advertising the fact. To-day the whole vast continent of America is astir with war activity. (Some of that activity is being misapplied, as with us, but the activity is there.) "This is our war," says every man, woman, and child in America' to-day, and proceeds to make it so. All social activity centres on the war. Every civilian in the street weads a button, '•-'• group of buttons, on tho lapel of lY- «at, signifying , that ho hoa joined the' itcd Cross, or subscribed to War Loans, or is an adherent to tha principle of the Food Administration, of ha 3 a relative in the Army. No Ameri. oan woman walks abroad to-day without an enormous bag of chintz containing knitting materials. She knits all tho timo—in the train, in restaurants, at the opera. Shirt-sleeve Soldiers.

Only one f.orm of entertainment is permissible, the entertainment of soldiers* and sailors. The country is full of great camps containing a million and a hnlf young men undergoing training. America possesses a vast number of young men, and this makes it possible to sot a very high standard of selection. Consequently the National Army is composed of recruite of the finest physu que. • Their uniform is very similar to ,ours, exet-pt that due allowance must be made for the American's passion for , living in his shirt-eleevo.s. The American soldier goes about' his duties in a khaki flannel shirt—or "blouse," mho ' calls on parade, and wears his tunio only in cold weather. He is having a hard time of it, this recruit-or "rookio"—for this winter is ono of tho coldest ever known in the States. Thirty or forty degrees of frost have been quite common, snow lies heavily everywhere —even in the South—and deaths from pneumonia have been distressingly common, running ' into thousands. Tho American recruit, though on the whole . physically superior to the British recruit, is constitutionally loss robust »ud possesses les3 staying power. (International athletic competitions have always emphnsised this fact; the Americans have won the sprints, the British fclio long-dietanco races). This is only natural, for.it is well-known that a man who can endure the vagaries or the British climate can endure anything. Again, a man called from civilian life and the (to tho Briton) asphyxiating at. mospheTO of tho average Rteam-heated American home naturally suffers, though an enthusiastic outdoor man it) the summer-time, when, called upon to fhee • the rigours of life in the open t»t n temperaturo , .rif zero Fahrenheit. In such weather it is not easy to keep the. great wooden hutments warm, and almost impossible to keep the men sefficiently exorcised, which i* tire root of all m'illtaiy benltli, Still, considering all things, the diis oipline and moral of the new fcrmy »fft wonderful. Whatever■ (ruth there mar be in rumours of inefficiency in His administrative departments of the United , ' States Army, there ie nothing w?cng. • with the personnel. "The nwn «u> splendid." rWe seem to hnve he&id that phrase elsewher«. "All things" includes the fact that Borne of the recruits from the more remote districts . havo only the vaguest notion ps tn why their coiintiy is in the war a( all. for few of them have followed the. course thereof from its origin and early stages. However, they are content to announcethat they aro out to "can the Kaiser," and leave it at that. Others, again, possess a very limited acquaintance with the English language. They speak Greek or Polish or Italian niuoh more easily—even Germah! The war is no.t at their doors, as it is at ours; few of them had seen a soldier a year.ago; the restrictions and ceremonial of disciplineare alike abhorrent to them; esprit do corps, which raises prompt obedience from a humiliation to a boa6t, cannot be created in a day. But the spirit is there—the spirit ot patriotism, passion- ' ate and deep-rooted. It is difficult for us to realise tho intensity of American patriotism, especially among Americans of recent origin. To the native-born American Amorica 16 still the little country which bought its freedom with its own blood; to the naturalised American ' America is the land which gave him lria first real taste of persona! security and* liberty. Eacli is equally determined to do his ■ part to-day, the one because he niado America' free, tho other because America made him'free. English Conditions Compared.

But in one respect the American rookie - is very much better off than hie unkempt but heroic "opposite number" in Kitchener's Army. In the winter of 11114 our military authorities were far too busy converting the Kitohener recruit into an efficient fighting man to have much leisure- to consider his welfare as a human being, ns those who experienced the squalor and discomfort of Bramshott and Salisbury Plain and other quagmire!) of dismal memory, during one of the wettest winters on ro cord, will teatify. The American recruit is far bettor housed. Ho lives in cen-tfally-heatcd wooden hutments; he has .hot shower-baths and modern plumbing; he sleepa in a bed instead of upon three planks and a trestle". He is more or less adequately clothed, for, although there is enid to bo a shortage of uniforms, he is not sent into camp until he has been supplied with one.' In this he may count himself more fortunate than his British predecessor of 19W, who was compelled for many weeks to perform military exercise? in a reach-me-down suit and a bowler hat, and was compelled if ho got wet to retire to bed while his wardrobe dried—fliat is, assuming that there were nny facilities for drying it. 'Aβ for the .ichial camp routine, the training is of the most thorough description. The men look remarkably fit and well-set-up, though suffering almost universally from spring coughs of the most deafening description, as many an instructor and lecturer has discovered to his cost! The officers are immensely hard working, and it is satisfactory to noto that the large number of British I and French officers and non-commfesionod officers who have been sent over as in- >| structors in artillery, machine-gun, greu. I ado, and bayonet work have made an excellent impression. In fact, the British 'sergeant-instructor, with his peculiar blend of pflicieney, humour, and fullblooded sarcasm, has scored a "succes fou," mid has "tickled his pupils to death." There are, of course, many intensely interesting points of comparison between training-camp life in America and in England. Over here in England wo aro accustomed to pursue our martial avocations in ii certain cloistered seclusion. Wo keep ourselves to ourselves, and civilian visitors aro not encouraged. In fact, a civilian in a British camp bears a strong resemblance to a 6tray cat in a dog show. But the American Army, as is inevitable in a country which prides iteelf upon its democratic bearing, is almost entirely subordinated to civilian and political- influence. To-day in an American training camp the general must be prepared at any moment to put aside his work in order to entertain a couple of Congressmen, or a member'of the State Legislature, or a "prominent' citizen" from an adjacent town, who has dropped in to pass tho timn of day or inquire after somo- protege in the rank and file. The. local newspapers each detail a re. porter to "cover" all camp activities. The progress of training is recorded—it can be imagined with what degree of technical imprecision—while camp jokes and camp gossip arc faithfully retailed. Even tho mysteries Of tho Orderly Room are dished up for the layman's delectation. Shades of Whitehall I