r rather than for fixed terms; the maximum and minimum
ages of enlistment in the Regular Army and National Guard were
assimilated; the rights and privileges of members of the three forces
were made largely identical. Indeed, the act created but one army,
selected by three processes. The wisdom of Congress in this course
became instantly apparent. Spirited young men throughout the country
began at once to enlist in the Regular Army and National Guard who might
have been deterred from such enlistment had their obligation been for a
fixed period rather than for the duration of the war. Many men asked
themselves but one question: "By which avenue of service will I earliest
get to France?" The men in the National Army soon caught this spirit
and, while the department is endeavoring to preserve as far as possible
in the National Guard and the National Army those intimacies which
belong to men who come from the same city or town, and to preserve the
honorable traditions of military organizations which have histories of
service to the country in other wars, the fact still remains that the
army is rapidly becoming the army of the United States, with the sense
of origin from a particular State, or association with a particular
neighborhood, more and more submerged by the rising sense of national
service and national identity.

[Sidenote: Sites selected for cantonments.]

[Sidenote: Sixteen divisional cantonments.]

[Sidenote: Emergency construction division established.]

I have described above the process of the execution of the selective
service law. The preparation of places for the training of the recruits
thus brought into the service was a task of unparalleled magnitude. On
the 7th of May, 1917, the commanding generals of the several departments
were directed to select sites for the construction of cantonments for
the training of the mobilized National Guard and the National Army. The
original intention was the construction of 32 cantonments. The
appropriations made by Congress for this purpose were soon seen to be
insufficient, and further study of the problem seemed to show that it
would be unwise so seriously to engage the resources of the country,
particularly in view of the fact that the National Guard was ready to be
mobilized, that its training by reason of service on the Mexican border
was substantial, and that its early use abroad in conjunction with the
Regular Army would render permanent camps less important.