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Show , BAKER DEFERS PLfOF ARMY Permanent Organization Awaits Peace Conference Confer-ence Outcome. Secretary of War Wants trong General Staff Perpetuated. WASHINGTON, Dec. 4. The quea-j tion of permanent organization of the i army has been deferred for vconsidera-tiom vconsidera-tiom after the close of the peace conference. confer-ence. Secretary Baker, in his atmual repot t made public tonight, says this course is determined upon sinco "the military needs of the United States cannot be prudently assessed until that conference shall have determined the futuro international relations of the world.,r Kor temporary purposes, however, Mr. Baker announces that he will lay be-v be-v fore congress a plan of reorganization if: the army "which shall continue as the nucleus of any further military establishment-1' The secretary nlso indicates his inten-X inten-X tiou to press for perpetuation by law of th-3 strong general staff organization built up during the war. Will Require Time. "An adequate account of the activi-' activi-' tics of the department for the year now ending can be written," Mr. Baker says, "only in the long reaches of historical his-torical inquiry when there will be time and opportunity to examine in detail, not merely statistical exhibits which tell in numbers of men and guns what America did, but also to appraise the contributions of patriotic, zeal and service serv-ice which came from field and factory, from . civilian and soldier alike, and which represent in their aggregate the lifo of the nation concentrated upon a sinplf purpose." In his brief recital of the events of the war, Mr. Baker selects the battle of the Meuse as, "from the viewpoint of military strategy, America's greatest contribution to the successful outcome of the war," sinco by that attack of the American atmies the Sedan-Me- i zieres railway, the main artery of the German supply system;- was cut. The entire available strength of the American Ameri-can army in France, twenty-eight divisions, di-visions, were in line in the second week of October, he says, making yard by yard progress against desperate enemy resistance which finally was worn out, "and on November 1 the American troops broke through." The object of the drive, the strategic conception of which included the British drive at the northern end of the railway system and the French advance in the center, was accomplished on November 7, when the Americans entered the outskirts of Sedan, Se-dan, to be joined there the next day by the French. . r Defeat Is Decisive. "The meeting of French and Amen- can trooos on this historic spot." Mr. Baker says, "signalized the defeat of the Germans arms, a defeat as decisive nnd humiliating as that forced upon France forty-seven years before at the same spot. If thero had been questions before us as to the acceptance of the armistice terms, the allied advance cul- minatin hi this meeting at Sedan left no choice iu the matter."' In sketching the building up of the war arm v. Mr. Baker selects a few striking figures as illustrations of what each stop meant and what has been accompli ac-compli she-1. On the dny the armis-tifo was signed, he declares, moro than 2S !cr cent of the entire male population of the country between the ages of IS and IU was in the military service, the army having reached a total of o,(3Gl,-U00 o,(3Gl,-U00 "men, more than 2,000,OUO of whom were in Ltiiope. as compared with a str-.-ngtli of J 89,074 in March, 11(17," a woek before war was declared. To illustrate the speed of this expansion, expan-sion, the report cites the fact that the F-iritish army i;i i'ranco had reached its hiyh mark in the summer of li17, three years after the beginning of the war, and that figure was ' ' slightly more than 2,dOO,OuO mei.." It took nineteen months for the United States to reach the same strength there; but Mr. Baker points out that during those years of battle, liriiish man-power had been heavily called upon to replace casualties, casual-ties, while for many months the flow of American troops all went to augment the force being assembled. To some extent this was -off ret, he adds, by the far greater transportation difficulties of the American project. Explains Casualties. Recapitulating the total American casualties. Sb'G.lOS men, as already announced, an-nounced, Mr; Baker said the deaths due to battle alone wero 30,000, and that half of the wounded reported "probably "prob-ably suffered slight injury. " He adds that federal battle fatalities in the civil war totaled 110,000; Japan lost 59,000 men in the Eiinso-Japnnesc war and Germany Ger-many lost 2S,000 in the Franco-Prussian war. Speaking of the selective service, Mr. Baker makes this observation without discussing tho question of universal military training soon to arise: "At that time (when his preceding : annual report was issued) there was ; ample evidence that the selective draft was a swift, effective and just means of securing the military strength neces sary for the conduct of a great war. The experience of the past year has strongly reinforced that conviction. " Discussing tho extensive engineering undeitakings in France, the need for which has ended with the signing of the armistice, Mr. Baker gives this hint at the policy the government is pursuing. ' ' Steps have been taken to reduce orders and cancel contracts for such items as will not be needed in Prance. In this connection, however, care is being be-ing taken to assure ourselves that we are not depriving France of material which she so urgently needs to replace thai worn out during her terrific self-denials self-denials of the past four years. We can not refuse to render all the assistance pi sible in the reconstruction of that heroic nation." Ordnance Summary. Under tho heading of "Fighting Equipment for the Army," Mr. Baker gives a summary of what was accom-! accom-! plished in providing ordnance for the j army. When the armistice was signed 30.881 complete units had been contracted con-tracted for. On November 1 10,634 had been delivered, divided as follows: Trench, 5000; light (field guns), 3S50; medium, 1070; heavy, 695; railway, 19. The contracts were divided as follows: Trench, 11,700; light, 10,113; medium, 5385; heavy, 3472; railway, 211. i As to rifles, Mr. Baker shows that 2,137,025 of the modified Enfields had been acceptea prior to November 1. Browuiug machine gun production is given as follows: Light, 47,019; heavy, 39,546. The following cablegram is quoted to show tho performance of the Browning gunrs in action: ' ' Experience of Seventy-ninth division di-vision in offensive operations, September Septem-ber 25 to October 21, Browning machine ma-chine guns. Thirteen machine gun companies com-panies engaged, weather conditions continuous con-tinuous rain and mud. There was not one instance- where the guns failed to operate due to muddy and wet belts On the whole, it may be said that tho performance of the Browning ma chine gun and automatic rifle in active operation has been so satisfactory as to create an insistent demand for these weapons from machine gun units and from division commanders. " Aircraft Problems. Mr. Bakor gives much space to aircraft air-craft problems, including tho production figures published from time to time in the past. Ho shows that 3189 De Havi-1 land and 101 Handley-Page machines wjre produced in this country, and 1900 plaaes had been shipped to France before be-fore the armistice was signed. On the other side, 2076 planes of service types had been provided for the American squadrons by the French government. On September 30 General Pershing had thirty-two air squadrons at the front, the first of them to be equipped with American planes having reached the battlo areas in July. Air service casualties, the report says, have befln highor than in the artillery and infantry, and reports to October 24 ; showed 128 battle fatalities and 224 by accident overseas. A total of 262 men had lost their lives in this service while in training in the United States. The general health of tho army nas been surprisingly good, the report shows, the death rate for all forces, at home and abroad, up to August 30 having hav-ing been at the rate of 5.9 per 1000 per year, or little moro than the civilian rate for men of tho same ago groups. Tt compares with a rate of Gj per 1000 per year during tho civil war and 26 during the Spanish war. Pneumonia caused 56 per cent of tho deaths. There were 316,000 cases of influenza among the troops iu tho X'nited States during the late summer and fall, and of the 20,500 deaths between September 1 and November 8, 1P,00 are ascribed to :he c-pidt-nric. |