dustries for war equipment.

In the same direction the American Government consolidated its
energies in a War Industries Board, which it created to supervise the
expenditure of millions of dollars on equipping the American armies.

CHAPTER LXIX

IN IT AT LAST

The Administration decided to send an American expeditionary force to
France as an advance guard of the huge army in process of preparation.
Major General John J. Pershing was placed in command of this
expedition, which was believed to embrace an army division, a force of
the Marine Corps, and nine regiments of engineers. A veil of official
secrecy (religiously respected by the press in pursuance of the
voluntary censorship it imposed upon itself) was thrown over the
dispatch of the preliminary force, and nothing further was heard of it
until tidings came of the unheralded arrival of General Pershing in
England on June 8, 1917, and of the appearance of a number of American
warships off the French coast about the same time.

This latter event proved to be the safe arrival of a convoyed naval
collier, the _Jupiter_, which served as a harbinger of the fleet of
transports conveying the American troops. It carried a cargo of army
provisions, including over 10,000 tons of wheat.

The arrival of the first division of transports at an unnamed French
seaport was reported on June 26, 1917. They were signaled from the
deserted quays of the town at 6 o'clock in the morning, and as they
steamed toward port in a long line, according to an eloquent
eyewitness, they appeared a "veritable armada," whose black hulls
showed clearly against the horizon, while the gray outlines of their
escorting destroyers were almost blotted out in the lead-colored sea.
Dominating all was an enormous American cruiser with its peculiar
upper basket works. The warships went to their allotted moorings with
clockwork precision, while tugs took charge of the transports and
towed them to their berths. Resounding cheers were exchanged between
the troops which lined the rails of the incoming ships and the
populace which lined the quays.

The next day came a formal intimation from Paris that the first
expeditionary unit of American troops, in command of Major General
William L. Sibert, had safely reached their destination. Rear Admiral
Gleaves, commanding the destroyer force which accompanied the
transports, telegraphed the Navy Department to the same effect. But it
subsequently transpired t