n believed it absolutely necessary to fight.

But, however firmly united, the country was completely unprepared for war
in a military sense, and must now pay the penalty for President Wilson's
opposition to adequate improvement of the military system in 1915 and for
the half-hearted measures taken in 1916. Total military forces, including
regular army, national guard, and reserves amounted to hardly three
hundred thousand men and less than ten thousand officers. Even the regular
army was by no means ready for immediate participation in the sort of
fighting demanded by the European war; and, even if adequate troops were
raised, the lack of trained officers would create the most serious
difficulties. No wonder that the German General Staff ranked the United
States, from the military point of view, somewhere between Belgium and
Portugal. Furthermore, military experts had been discouraged by the
attitude of the Administration. The Secretary of War, Newton D. Baker, had
failed, either through lack of administrative capacity or because of
pacifistic tendencies, to prepare his department adequately. He had done
nothing to rouse Congress or the nation from its attitude of indifference
towards preparation. By faith a pacifist, he had been opposed to universal
military service. An extreme liberal, he distrusted the professional
military type and was to find it difficult to cooeperate with the captains
of industry whose assistance was essential.

Thus with a President and War Secretary, both of whom had been
instinctively opposed to a large army and who had expressed their fear of
the development of a militaristic spirit, and with a majority in Congress
favoring the traditional volunteer system, adherence to which had cost
the British thousands of lives that might better have been used at home,
the building of an effective army seemed a matter of extreme doubt. Great
credit must go to both President Wilson and Secretary Baker for sinking
their natural instincts and seeking, as well as following, the advice of
the military experts, who alone were capable of meeting the problems that
arose from a war for which the nation was not prepared.

The President must face not only the special problems caused by
unreadiness, but also the general difficulties which confront every
American war-President and which had tried nearly to the breaking-point
even the capacity of Lincoln. The President of the United States in time
of war is given the