The broad questions of policy of supply were handled by the assistant chief of staff, G-4, at the general headquarters and to supplement and co-ordinate American needs with those of the Allies in Europe there was formed, first in Aug. 1917, the general purchasing board, composed of representatives from every supply department in the A.E.F. In the summer of 1918 the general purchasing agent became a member of the interallied board of military supply.
There was the closest co-operation between the services of supply abroad and the War Department in the United States.
When policies had been determined by the general headquarters, the commanding general, services of supply, was then authorized to communicate directly by cable and otherwise with the War Department in the United States, and such other agencies as were located in Europe, including the interallied board of military supply and our several representatives in neutral countries. The demobilization of the man-power and of industry was accom plished in short order, the former by a very carefully prepared and progressive plan without any strain upon the water or rail transportation or the demobilization camps available, while the latter was accomplished by co-operative reductions of plants, personnel and output by industry itself and a curtailment, adjust ment or cancellation of contracts by the War Department.
The return of the army to a peace-time organization received early consideration by the general headquarters of the A.E.F.
and the War Department and the National Defence Act of June 4, 192o, was placed upon the statute books. In the main the National Defence Act endeavours to put into effect the valuable elements of organization which obtained in the former peace time army and war-time organization of the War Department and of the A.E.F. The several principal components of the U.S. army are given the same peace- and war-time organizations and the problems of supply and transport are thus standardized.
The War Department general staff organization is quite com parable to that which existed in the A.E.F. There is an assistant chief of staff, G-4, who co-ordinates the activities of the supply departments and makes studies of and recommendations for broad policies of supply and transport under the assistant secre tary of war who is charged by the National Defence Act with the "supervision of the procurement of all military supplies and other business of the War Department pertaining thereto, and the assurance of adequate provision for the mobilization of materiel and industrial organizations essential to war-time needs." The several supply branches and departments are : the quarter master corps, the ordnance department, the air corps, the medical corps, the chemical warfare service, the signal corps and the engineer corps. At the headquarters of each of the several corps areas, territorial departments and tactical divisions there are assistant chiefs of staff (G-4) to co-ordinate the supply and transport policies and problems coming under the commands concerned. Each supply branch or department has its repre
sentative at each of the headquarters above mentioned.
An improvement in the procurement of supplies has been effected through the creation of the General Supply Committee of the Treasury Department, by the Act of June 17, 191o, which, in effect, budgets by means of this committee the requirements in supply of miscellaneous items of any two or more departments of the Government and in this way standardizes prices, quality and items, and makes contingent budgeted contracts subject to the current fiscal year calls for filling by the several departments of the Government. Another improvement is the creation of the Bureau of the Budget for budgeting of the financial estimates of the entire Government.
For the purposes of war-time plans and procurement the coun try has been divided, according to industrial density, into certain districts by the several supply departments and in order to meet local peace-time needs of troop supply with minimum transpor tation, convenient depots have been established. This system of districts and depots affords the necessary framework for war time expansion with due regard to the requirements of existing industrial allocations. In the return of the army to a peace basis, in accordance with the organization prescribed by the National Defence Act, it will be noted that certain of the war-time branches or services have been abolished as distinct and sep arate services. Among these may be mentioned the construction corps, the embarkation service and the motor transport corps, all of which have been absorbed by the quartermaster corps. The war-time air service has become the present air corps and the war-time chemical warfare service has become the permanent peace-time service of that name. All problems and matters of transportation and the supply of the means and methods of trans portation are handled by the quartermaster corps (transportation branch) which has control of water, animal (wheel, saddle and pack), motor and land transport except the small railways used by the engineer corps in certain construction projects. The matter of air transport is handled by the air corps. For proper maintenance and replacement of animal transportation the quartermaster corps maintains a remount service with certain breeding establishments and depots. The veterinary corps is a separate section of the medical department and is under the control of the surgeon general of the army.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.—Find Report of General John J. Pershing (192o); see reports of the secretary of war and of chiefs of bureaux, branches and departments, for the years referred to; Report of the A.C. of S., G-4, A.E.F. (June I, 5919) ; A.E.F. Records, A.G.0.; Hearings before the Committee on Military Affairs, House of Representatives, pt. I. (1927) ; L. P. Ayres, The War with Germany (1919) ; Revised Statutes of the U.S. for years referred to. (R. C. Co.)