tary forces and the coordination of the
industrial strength of the Nation. It was understood at the outset that
war under modern conditions involved not only larger armies than the
United States had ever assembled, but also more far-reaching
modifications of our ordinary industrial processes and wider departures
from the peace-time activities of the people. The task of the United
States was not only immediately to increase its naval and military
forces, not only to order the agricultural and industrial life of the
Nation to support these enlarged military establishments, but also to
bear an increasing financial, industrial, and agricultural burden for
the support of those nations which, since 1914, have been in arms
against the Imperial German Government and have borne not only the full
force of the attack of its great military machine, but also the
continuing drain upon their economic resources and their capacity for
production which so titanic and long-continued a struggle necessarily
entail.

[Sidenote: The whole people wish to help.]

[Sidenote: Benevolent and philanthropic societies.]

The first response from the country to the act of Congress in declaring
a state of war came in the form of offers of services from the people,
and for weeks there poured into the War Department an almost bewildering
stream of letters and visitors offering service of every kind. Without
distinction of age, sex, or occupation, without distinction of
geographical location or sectional difference, the people arose with but
one thought in their mind, that of tendering themselves, their talents,
and their substance for the best use the country could make of them in
the emergency. Organizations and associations sprang up over night in
thousands of places, inspired by the hope that collective offers and
aggregations of strength and facilities might be more readily
assimilated by the Government; and benevolent and philanthropic
societies began to form for the purpose of taking up as far as might be
the vicarious griefs which follow in the train of military operations.
There was at the outset some inevitable crossing of purposes and
duplication of effort, and perhaps there may have been some
disappointment that a more instantaneous use could not be made of all
this wealth of willingness and patriotic spirit; but it was a superb and
inspiring spectacle. Out of the body of a nation devoted to productive
and peaceful pursuits, and evidencing i