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Show ANNUAL REPORT I WAR SECRETARY : i I Sending of the Troops toj France and Forming of I Great Army. WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 Secretary j Baker's annual report for the war department, de-partment, made public today, constitutes con-stitutes only a brief historical review of tho year, and, so that it may be : devoid of information for the enemy, I shows no recommendations, no detail- ! ed information of the transportation , of the army to France or any army . plans for the future. 1 Secretary Baker does say, however,, that he does not favor universal military mili-tary training as a regular national policy. j "The department has not sought and does not now seek legislation oni the subject," he says, "chiefly for the reason that the formation of a per- j manent military policy will inevitably be affected by the arrangement conse- j quent upon the termination of tho ' present war. Civilized men must' hope that the future has in store a re liefTrom the burden of armament and 1 the destruction and waste of war. I "However vain that hope may appear ap-pear in the midst of the most devastating devas-tating and, destructive war in the history his-tory of the race, it persists perhaps because we are encouraged by the analagous substitution of courts for force in the settlement of private controversies; con-troversies; perhaps because all the perfections of nature teach us that they are the product of processes which have eliminated waste and substituted sub-stituted constructive principles for destructive principles. When a permanent per-manent military policy, therefore, comes to be adopted, it will doubtless be conceived in a spirit which will be adequate to preserve against any possible pos-sible attack those vital principles of liberty upon which democratic institutions insti-tutions are based and yet be so re-I re-I strained as in no event to foster the j growth of mere militarist ambitions or to excite the apprehensions of nations with whom It is our first desire to live in harmonious and just accord." First Troops In France. As to the expenditionary force in France, he says it would be unwise to disclose details and therefore contents himself with telling of the sending of I General Pershing, followed by a full division of regular troops anr a con-! con-! tingent of marines as the first units. Ho describes also the organization of the Rainbow national guard division (the Forty-second), adding: "The purpose of this organization was to distribute the honor of early participation in the war over a wide" area and thus to satisfy in some part tho eagerness of these state forces to be permitted to serve in Europe." High tribute is paid to the "splendid "splen-did co-operation of the navy, by means of which these expeditionary forces ' 'iun.i.1 iiaiioijuiicu ilUU JJitve been enabled to traverse without loss tho Bo-called danger zone infested by the stealthy and destructive submarine subma-rine navy of the enemy." It became necessary, Mr. Baker said, to build up an elaborate transport trans-port system for the expeditionary rorce with great terminal facilities both in this country and In France and to gather a large surplus of supplies on the other side as a safeguard. Troops Well Equipped. "This placed an added burden upon the supply divisions of the department," depart-ment," he says-, and explains in part some of tho shortages, notable those of clothing, which have temporarily embarrassed mobilization of troops at home, embarrassments now happilv passed." "The arrangements made have resulted," re-sulted," Mr. Baker continues, "in the transporting of an army to France, fully equipped with adequate reserves of equipment and subsistence and with those large quantities of transportation transporta-tion appliances, motor vehicles, railroad rail-road construction supplies and animals, ani-mals, all of which are necossary for the maintenance of effective operations-of the force." Secretary Baker opens bis report with a review of the situation in Mexico, Mex-ico, which led up to the withdrawal of , General Pershing's column and pays a LhighcomD.linaentto-theseir-restraint. 'and consideration of the American officers and soldiers, both on the border bor-der and In Mexico. Taking up the war with Germany, Secretary Baker describes a fine spirit of service shown by the American people "without distinction of age, sex or occupation." "Those who believed," he adds, "that the obvious and daily exhibition of power which takes place in an auto-1 cracy is necessary for national strength, discovered that a finer and freer, and greater national strength subsists in a free people and that the silent processes of democracy, with their normal accent on the freedom of individuals, nevertheless afford springs of collective action and inspiration for self-sacrifice as wide and effective as they are spontaneous." Army of Two Million. Mr. Baker then turns to the method by which the army was placed on a war footing. He shows that under its full authorized strength the regular army includes 18,000 officers and 470,-000 470,-000 "men and the war strength contemplated con-templated by the national defense act for tho national guard was 13,000 officers offi-cers and 456,000 men. With the million mil-lion additional troops of the selected draft army added, these figures furnish fur-nish the army of 2,000,000 men upon which all original war estimates were based. The secretary describes the drafting of the national guard which he says responded "with zeal and enthusiasm," enthu-siasm," to the call. He describes also the expansion of the regular army and reviews the reasons which prompted the government to go to selective conscription con-scription for the remainder of its forces. At the Camps. Tho report then touches briefly upon the officers' training camps, the construction of cantonments, with problems encountered and solved through the co-operation of the civilian civil-ian agencies created by the Council of National Defense and goes into some detail with various phases of the cantonment can-tonment question to show the enormous enor-mous size of the task. The building of national guard division camps is similarly simi-larly cited and Mr. Baker discusses at length the success of the training camps activities commission organized organ-ized to create wholesome surroundings surround-ings for the troops. The aviation program is touched upon briefly and no additional Information Infor-mation is given. The engineer department de-partment and the part it played in ushing technical aid to the allies outlined and Secretary Baker renews his recommendation for a more adequate ade-quate engineer school with a suggestion sugges-tion that congress plan for both engineer engi-neer and ordnance education in a broad and generous spirit in order to create scientific agencies of value in peace or war and where graduates of West Point would specialize. The suggestion sug-gestion is presented for future consideration con-sideration rather than immediate action ac-tion and no detailed plan is unfolded. Taking up the quartermaster problems prob-lems with the outbreak of the war, Mr. Baker cites a few items of what it was found necessary to supply. They include: Twenty million pairs of shoes, .17.000,000 blankets. 33,000,000 yards of flannel shirting, 50,000,000 yards of tenting. The work is being done through the co-operation of civil-ian civil-ian agencies, the secretary says, and adds: "The problems of supply are not yet solved: but they arc in the course of solution. Sound beginnings have been made; and as the military effort of the country grows the arrangements perfected and organizations created will expand to meet It." |