l questions settled.]

[Sidenote: Unity of spirit of American people.]

This does not mean, of course, that the law is perfect either in its
language or in its execution, nor does it mean that improvements may not
be made as our experience grows and as the need for more intense
national efforts increases; but such amendments as may hereafter be
required will proceed with the fundamental questions settled and we have
now only to consider changes which may be required to a better ordering
of our military strength and a more efficient maintenance of our
industrial and agricultural life during the stress of war. The passage
and execution of this law may be regarded as a milestone in our progress
toward self-consciousness and national strength. Its acceptance shows
the unity of spirit of our people, and its operation shows that a
democracy has in its institutions the concentrated energy necessary to
great national activities however much they may be scattered and
dispersed, in the interest of the preservation of individual liberty, in
time of peace.

[Sidenote: The Officer's Reserve Corps.]

[Sidenote: Physicians commissioned in the Medical Department.]

[Sidenote: Men from the Plattsburg training camps.]

The problem presented involved not merely the selection of forces to be
trained into armies but officers to do the training. By the provisions
of the national defense act of June 3, 1916, Officers' Reserve Corps had
been authorized. Rules and regulations for their organization were
promulgated in July, 1916, and amended in March, 1917. Immediately upon
the passage of the act, the building up of lists of reserve officers in
the various sections of the Military Establishment was undertaken, with
the result that at the end of the fiscal year some of the branches of
the service had substantial lists of men available for duty in the event
of call. The largest number of commissions were issued in the technical
services, for which professional nonmilitary training was the principal
requisite. The largest reserve corps was that in the Medical Department,
in which more than 12,000 physicians were commissioned. The expansion of
these technical services proceeded easily upon the basis of the reserve
corps beginning, but the number of applicants for commissions in the
strictly military or combatant branches of the service was relatively
small. They consisted of men who had had military experience either in
the Regular Army or th