he celebration of
victory.

It may some day be regarded as one of the chief merits of the Wilson
Administration that it was not affected by this popular delusion. While
a large part of the people seemed to expect a cheap and speedy victory
by some sort of white magic, the Administration was getting ready to
work for victory. And thanks largely to the unity which had been bought
by the President's caution in the two previous years, Congress and the
people assented to measures of exertion and self-denial such as no man
could have expected America to undertake until compelled by bitter
experience.

The first step was the dispatch of American naval forces to aid the
Allies in the fight against the submarines, which for a few months were
to come dangerously near justifying the confidence that had been placed
in them. The process of naval reinforcement was slow, and not till 1918
did the American Navy become a really important factor in the
anti-submarine campaign; but every destroyer added to the allied forces
was of immediate value. The American Treasury was opened for vast
credits to the Allies, who by their enormous purchases of war materials
in the United States had created the abounding prosperity of 1916, and
had pretty nearly exhausted their own finances in doing so. More than
that, the Administration began at once to prepare for the organization
of a vast army; and faced with this most important duty of the conduct
of the war, the President took the advice of the men who knew. The army
officers knew that if America were to take a serious part in the war
the regular army and the National Guard would not be enough, nor even
Garrison's Continental Army which had been rejected in 1916. A big army
would be needed, and the right way to raise it was by conscription.

So the Selective Service act was introduced in Congress and passed in
May, without very serious opposition. At the very start the American
people had accepted a principle which had been adopted in the crisis of
the Civil War only after two years of disaster and humiliation. It was
the estimate of experts that this army would need a year of training
before it would be fit for the front line, and a huge system of
cantonments was hastily constructed to house the troops, while the
nucleus of men trained in the Plattsburg camps was increased by the
extension of the Plattsburg system all over the country.

For the leadership of this army General Pershing was sele