cted, not
without considerable criticism from those who thought General Wood
deserved the position. The reasons which led to the selection of
Pershing are not yet officially known to the public, but Pershing's
record was to be a sufficient justification of the appointment.

But military and naval measures were only a part of the work needed to
win this war. Allied shipping was being sunk by the submarines at an
alarming rate, and new ships had to be provided. An enormous American
program was laid out, and General Goethals, in whom there was universal
confidence, was made head of the Emergency Fleet Corporation charged
with its execution. But Goethals could not get along with William
Denman, head of the Shipping Board, and changes of personnel were
constant through the year until in 1918 Charles M. Schwab was finally
put in chief control of the shipbuilding program.

For this and the development of the industrial program necessary for
military efficiency the support of labor was essential. Mr. Wilson now
reaped once more the benefit of a policy which had previously brought
him much criticism. His retreat before the railroad brotherhoods in
August of 1916, as well as the general policy of his Administration,
had won him the invaluable support of the American Federation of Labor,
and this good understanding, together with the unprecedented wage
scales which came into operation in most industries with the war
emergency, gave to the United States Government much more firm support
from organized labor than most of the allied countries had been able to
obtain.

But this war touched every department of human affairs. The Allies were
short of food, and one of the first achievements of the American
Government was the institution of a limited food control in the United
States, under the directorship of Herbert Hoover. Saving of food by
voluntary effort was popularized, and increased production and reduced
consumption prevented the appearance of any serious food crisis in the
allied countries. Later a fuel control was instituted under Dr. Harry
A. Garfield, and the principle of voluntary self-denial established by
the Food Administration was carried on into the field of news, where
the newspapers submitted to voluntary restriction of the publication of
news that might unfavorably affect military and naval movements. The
Committee on Public Information, headed by George Creel, was in general
supervision of this work, and, though