yet it was just as necessary to supply food for the allied peoples during the period of the armistice as during war time.

On February 24, 1919, the United States Congress appropriated one hundred millions of dollars for the relief of the ever-increasing famine in Europe, and the American Relief Administration was created by President Wilson with Mr. Hoover as director-general. Supplies and foodstuffs were sent to the people of Belgium and northern France. This food was carried in army and navy transports. It was estimated that the number of destitute people in Belgium was 2,200,000. These supplies were sent to Antwerp and to Rotterdam, from which points the feeding of northern Europe was carried on. From Rotterdam supplies were sent also to Finland in Finnish boats carried by the Finns themselves. American steamers with cargoes of grain were sent to Italy, and great quantities of supplies from United States were delivered to Switzerland, Czecho-Slovakia, Poland, the Balkan States, Serbia, Montenegro and the near East. Great Britain was assisting us in this work, especially in Assyria, Mesopotamia and other eastern countries controlled by their armies.

The shipment of food to Germany was in exchange for the surrender of the German merchant marine. The German ships were used in transporting home American and Australian soldiers, on their return voyage carrying food to Germany. The total shipping capacity thus made available was estimated at 350,000 tons, and Germany was allowed to pay for these supplies out of her credits in neutral countries. The desperate food conditions, therefore, did not end with the armistice. In fact, in some respects the situation has been more serious than ever, owing to a natural lessening of patriotic endeavors to conserve after the war was over. The result is seen in the steadily increasing prices, with their natural sequence of hardship, starvation and public disturbance.

If it was true that "Food Will Win the War" it may also be just as true that food may save society. The Bolshevist movement and the general strikes are very largely brought about because of the high price of food. People who are starving are ready to try anything that promises relief.

TH

CHAPTER XXV

SUPPLIES FOR OVERSEAS

HE raising of a great American Army and the training of it was a huge problem, but one equally difficult soon presented itself. This was the transportation of that army, its munitions and other supplies, overseas. The problem manifested itself with increasing insistence during the latter part of 1917 and January, 1918. So slow was the movement of men and material that it was realized the transportation of both must be speeded up if disaster to the Allies was to be prevented when Germany's great drive would be launched in the spring of 1918. President Wilson and Secretary of War Baker decided that a great executive was needed to organize and speed up the transportation of America's fighting forces and their equipment.

In this emergency they turned to General Peyton Conway March. The announcement was made on February 6, 1918, that General March, then a major-general, chief of the staff on artillery with the American forces in France, had been appointed as Chief-of-Staff of the United States Army with headquarters in Washington. His success in organizing the artillery service in France had made him noted by both the French and British. At the time of his appointment as chief-of-staff, he was fifty-three years old and the youngest of the majorgenerals who had gone to France. He had seen service in the artillery branch of the army continuously since his graduation from West Point with the exception of duty as major and later as lieutenant-colonel of volunteer infantry in 1899 and 1901 in the Philippines. He commanded the Astor Battery in the Spanish-American War and during the Russo-Japanese War he was military observer for the United States Army with the Japanese Army.

Under his vigorous direction the transportation of fighting Americans overseas increased until it averaged more than

10,000 men a day. During the last six months of American participation in the war, more than 1,500,000 men were transported across the Atlantic.

This amazing record made possible the check and defeat of the Germans at Château-Thierry. It won for the Allies the decisive second battle of the Marne; it dealt to Germany the death stroke of the Argonne. To the genius of General Peyton Conway March, America and the victorious Allies are indebted for the mighty tide of victorious khaki that ended German aggression forever in the fall of 1918.

During the nineteen months of our participation in the war, more than two million American soldiers were carried to France. These men had to be moved, first, to the various training camps, then to ports of departure, then across the ocean to England and France, from there to training camps, and lastly to the front. Supplies for these men had to be carried, including immense quantities of munitions.

Five days after the declaration of war against Germany, the presidents of the principal American railroads met at the national capitol and agreed that during the war they would subordinate every other interest to help win the war, that they would eliminate all competitive rivalry, and merge their interests under the direction of the American Railway Associations' Special Committee on National Defense.

To every army department headquarters was assigned an expert in railway operations, with a corps of assistants placed at railway centers to take charge of the movement by rail of troops, munitions and supplies as desired by the military authorities. The movement of the National Guard organizations was conducted without an accident to a single man, without delay at the point of origin, on the route, or at destination, without a hitch in the arrangements as originally planned. Throughout the war all of the movements of troops were thus satisfactorily conducted.

The movement of supplies, however, was not carried on with so great success. The railroads in America were crowded by the natural freight movements in America, which were largely increased by the movement of supplies purchased from this country by the allied powers. More than three

Left to right: 1. Defensive; 2. Offensive; 3. Gas; 4. Phosphorus. The soldier grasps the grenade so as to hold the lever down, pulls out the pin to which the ring is attached and throws, the lever flying off in the air and the grenade exploding in a fixed number of seconds.

FIRING RIFLE GRENADES

The explosion of the rifle cartridge whisks the little cylinders off in a long are to burst upon

the enemy's lines.