cheme absorbed for military purposes the academic plants of
some 518 colleges and universities throughout the country, and for
vocational training in the army embraced some eighty more. This corps
was put under the charge of Brigadier-General Robert I. Rees, United
States army, and in its development we have had the energetic
cooperation of college presidents and responsible college authorities
throughout the entire United States. At the same time, in order to
increase the supply of officers, the course at West Point was cut down
to one year's intensive training, with the idea of placing at the
disposal of the government 1,000 officers a year graduated from that
extremely efficient plant rather than the graduation of about 200, which
had been the case previously throughout the war.

The separation of the Air Service from the Signal Corps, under the
provisions of the Overman bill, and the establishment of a Bureau of
Military Aeronautics, under Major-General William L. Kenly, United
States army, and of a Bureau of Aircraft Production, under Mr. John D.
Ryan, marked an extremely important step forward in the development of
this portion of the Military Establishment. The armistice closes out
this matter with the two branches of the Air Service in a state of
marked efficiency and establishes unquestionably the necessity for the
permanent separation of the Air Service from the Signal Corps in the
reorganization of the army.

During this period another new agency created in the War Department by
Executive order was the office of the Chief of Field Artillery. This
office has been filled by Major-General William J. Snow, United States
army. This establishment was accompanied by the creation in the American
Expeditionary Force in France of the office of Chief of Artillery on
General Pershing's staff, having similar relation to all the artillery
of the Expeditionary Force which the Chief of Field Artillery has toward
the mobile artillery at home. The work of this office has been
accompanied by a marked increase in the efficiency of the training
system in the various Field Artillery camps, and the office itself has
proved to be of distinct value.

I have directed the divisions of the General Staff concerned to study
and submit for your consideration a plan for the reorganization of our
army, which will take advantage of our experience in this war, which has
brought about many changes in organization of all arms of the service,