e National Guard, and men who were graduates of
schools and colleges affording military training, and of the training
camps which for several years had been maintained at Plattsburg and
throughout the country. Their number, however, was wholly inadequate,
and their experience, while it had afforded the elements of military
discipline, had not been such as was plainly required to train men for
participation in the European war with its changed methods and
conditions. The virtue of the law authorizing the Officers' Reserve
Corps, however, became instantly apparent upon the declaration of war,
as it enabled the department to establish officers' training camps for
the rapid production of officers.

[Sidenote: A series of officers training camps.]

[Sidenote: Officers commissioned.]

Accepting the Plattsburg experiment as the basis and using funds
appropriated by Congress for an enlargement of the Plattsburg system of
training, the department established a series of training camps, sixteen
in number, which were opened on the 15th of May, 1917. The camps were
scattered throughout the United States so as to afford the opportunity
of entrance and training with the least inconvenience and expense of
travel to prepare throughout the entire country. Officers previously
commissioned in the reserve corps were required to attend the camps,
and, in addition, approximately 30,000 selected candidates were accepted
from among the much greater number who applied for admission. These
camps were organized and conducted under the supervision of department
commanders; applicants were required to state their qualifications and a
rough apportionment was attempted among the candidates to the several
States. At the conclusion of the camp, 27,341 officers were
commissioned and directed to report at the places selected for the
training of the new army. By this process, we supplied not only the
officers needed for the National Army but filled the roster of the
Regular Army, to which substantial additions were necessary by reason of
the addition of the full number of increments provided by the National
Defense Act of 1916.

[Sidenote: The second series of officers' training camps.]

[Sidenote: Officers needed also for staff duties.]

[Sidenote: Constant experimentation necessary.]

[Sidenote: Victory rests on science as much as on soldiers.]

The results of the first series of camps were most satisfactory and,
anticipating the calling of fur