War Report

Before he entered Walter Reed Hospital last month to die, Secretary of War James William Good had not quite finished his first, and last annual report for his department. To his bedside before lapsing into final unconsciousness, he summoned his wife, gave her detailed instructions to be carried to his secretary. Forward-looking, optimistic, the report outlined Army plans and policies which another will now execute. Some facts set forth:

P: The U. S. Army last year aggregated 130,937 officers & men; the National Guard, 176,988; Officers' Reserve Corps, 112,757; Reserve Officers' Training Corps, 112,424; Citizen's Military Training Camps, 34,514.

P: At Army posts 19,162 religious services, attended by 1,796,746 persons, were held.

P: The Army rendered aid, at a cost of $1,250,468, in 23 "unavoidable calamities"' in the U. S. and abroad.

P: The Panama Canal set new records for the year: 7,029 transits, $27,128,889 in tolls; 30,663,006 cargo tons carried. A battalion of engineers will be sent to Nicaragua "before the next dry season" to resurvey and study the proposed canal route across that country.

P: One of the largest government-owned and operated commercial enterprises is Inland Waterways Corp., a barge service on the Mississippi and tributaries which last year netted the U. S. a profit of $441,651. Reported Secretary Good: "Before long the Government can pass over the corporation's facilities to private capital for operation."

P: Expenditure of $24,000,000 last year for levees, revetments and dredging in the Mississippi River advanced Flood Control so far that "the largest flood that has ever passed down the river without serious crevasses was held between the main river levees without any disastrous breaks." This year's expenditure: $30,000,000.

P: Chief military recommendation by the late Secretary: "Definite progress in mechanization, motorization and material preparedness is demanded by the nature of modern military power. . . . War has entered the field of the exact sciences."

P: Assistant Secretary of War Patrick Jay Hurley, now the department's acting head reported that a quarter-billion dollars was needed to stock the Army with raw materials, unproduced in the U. S., for war-time uses.

P: Assistant Secretary of War Frederick Trubee Davison, in charge of aeronautics, reported that the Army Air Corps' "most pressing question" was promotion of junior officers. Army and reserve pilots flew 263,381 aircraft hours last year, covered 26,300,000 miles, had 60 men killed.

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