guns in France and
were out-distanced only by the great German super guns, the destroying
of which was one of their objects. The German super gun fired a small
shell for a distance of from sixty to seventy miles. The naval 14-inch
guns fired a 1400 lb. shell about twenty-five miles. Although this was
a new departure for the navy, it met with the same success which had
crowned all of the other war work of this branch of the service.

[Illustration: A 10-inch caliber naval gun on a railroad mount at the
Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Maryland, where, after official testing, it
was destined for the advance into Germany. Railroad artillery played a
very important part in the late war because of its great mobility and
range. This gun is terrifically effective at a range of fifteen miles.
The oil cylinders visible under the gun where it is mounted are not
sufficient to take up the recoil, hence the braces which protrude
against the wooden platforms sunk into the ground. The bridge-like
structure on the rear platform of the car is part of the carrier for
the shell in loading, and the arched bar over the breech block a part
of the newly invented quick loading device.]

In figures the work of the navy stands out prominently. At the time
war was declared, the navy had 65,777 men in the service and 197 ships
in commission; when the armistice was signed, the navy consisted of
497,030 men and about 2000 ships, out of which 75,000 men and 388 ships
were on duty in foreign waters.

While army and navy preparations were going on, the business of
obtaining munitions and supplies was being very carefully attended to.
Before the war there were very few firms making supplies for the
government. This meant that the government would have to turn to the
great private concerns for its material. These firms dropped all their
pre-war work and attended strictly to government orders. The result
was that at the end of the summer of 1918 the government was doing
business with over 3,000 firms and had over 12,000 contracts in
operation. Even small plants invested heavily in increasing their
capacity so as to be able to turn out more and better work for the
government. The organizing and manufacturing genius of the American
people came to the front with a result that the American overseas
forces were almost entirely supplied by American products, thereby
taking little strength away from the foreign manufacturers.

A few facts concerning the