Jasper County Democrat, Volume 21, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 May 1918 — GREAT WORK IS TOLD OF [ARTICLE]

GREAT WORK IS TOLD OF

Achievements in War Are Set Forth by lieague. Washington, May 10.—— "It can be authoritatively announced,’’ says a statement issued by the League for National Unity, “that .the American force across the seas today

musters hundreds of thousands strong. Of this array, several hundred thousand American soldiers are on the main battle line in Flanders. Daily more troops are pouring across as well as adequate supplies and munitions for the great army we are sending.” The league says a statement regarding whfft the Americans have thus far accomplished is made necessary “because the secret enemies of the republic are still declaring that only a small force of 100,000 or 200,000 men has crossed the Atlantic.” The statement was made to hearten the relatives of the “boys over there” and to assure them “that despite delays and mistakes unavoidable in all vast enterprises, our government is today bending every energy toward the successful produtyfriOn of all - necessary equipment, that every possible need of the army and navy may be anticipated.” Describing the operations in connection with the war the statement says: ■

The United States in the last year has made its own port on the French coast; built its own railroads (800 miles of track and more); laid out at its new harbor, which can deal with /orty vessels at once, a freight yard bigger than any one yard about any great American city; provided a railroad equipment such as Europe never saw before; set up its own telegraph and telephone system (12,500 operators for this last); constructed hospitals, warehouses and magazines; established workshops and factories where works are already full, and made all ready for its own armies; so that if 5,000,000 fighting men are needed, room, equipment and provision are there for all of them, without crowding or deranging what owr allies have in four years provided for themselves. We have now 'more shipyards than Great Britain, the greatest of shipbuilding nations. Our navy is building more submarine destroyers than there were in any two of the world’s navies when the war broke out. Our regular navy has more men than the British navy had in July, 1914, when it? was the world’s largest naval force.

Next year we shall fully make up the loss caused by submarines. The year after it is planned that 10,000,000 more tons will be produced and the tonnage afloat will be greater than when the war began. Tlie submarine, already checked, will be seen to have failed. Working with the navies of our allies, we have brought safety at sea. Only one troopship has been lost in hundreds of trips across the Atlantic, arid it was not American convoyed. Mention is made of the mobilization of the nation's industries and it is declared that production of rifles today is greater than was ever reached under the pressure of contracts with the allies.

“Out intense activities the last year /are showing their cumulative results,” the statement says further. “Let no man or woman underrate the work already done to make the world safe for demoeracy, or doubt that we and our allies shall have the full ability and resources to fight our way to victory. If mistakes have been made, we have learned from them. Even after forty years of calculated war preparations the German bureaucracy has made serious mistakes during this war.”