Pacts had been signed with 20 countries by May of 1939• Ap proximately 6o% of total United States foreign trade is carried on with these countries. (See Table XIX.) Results Under the Trade Agreement Program.—The re sults of this program upon the foreign trade of the United States are difficult to appraise because of the many conflicting forces at work in the world. A comparison of the statistics of the United States trade with countries which have entered into reciprocal agreements and those which have not indicates that the program has had beneficial results.
Continuing the trend evident in previous years, United States ex ports to the countries with which reciprocal trade agreements have been concluded made a more favourable showing during the first six months of 1939 than exports to non-agreement countries. Taking the average for the two years 1938 and 1939 against the average for the pre agreement years 1934 and 1935, in order to obtain a broader com parison, a substantial increase is shown in exports to both the agree ment and non-agreement groups during the period January to June, but the increase is considerably greater for the agreement countries. (See Table XX.) Since the movement of international trade is determined by many factors, whose influence it is impossible to segregate or to appraise with any satisfactory degree of accuracy, the reciprocal trade agree ments concluded by the United States have constituted only one ele ment in the expansion of export sales. However, in view of the con tinuance over an extended period of a better export trade with the countries that have lowered or stabilized their tariffs or other trade barriers affecting American products, it seems reasonable to conclude that trade agreements have been contributing effectively to an ex pansion of the foreign commerce of the United States.
Also on the side of imports the statistics record a freer movement of trade with the agreement countries. Comparing the returns for the first half of 1939 with those for the corresponding period of 1938, it is found that imports from the countries with which trade agree ments are in force expanded more rapidly than imports from other countries, and the same is true if the average for the first six months of 1938 and 1939 is compared with the average for the first six months of the pre-agreement years 1934 and 1935. (See Table XX.) History.—When Washington took command, on July 3, 1775, of the lines of colonial militia besieging Boston the United States army was born. Although it was still a year and a day before the Declaration of Independence, the event marked the union of the forces of the 13 separate Colonies under one head. These men were largely militia and minute-men of local communities, given to going home whenever a particular danger was past, and loath to cross boundaries for service in other states. In January,
1776, the Continental Congress wisely decided that the troops it had directly raised and equipped should be separate in organiza tion from those of local communities. These "Continentals" were enlisted for longer terms, were trained more thoroughly, and there after provided Washington with a small, but comparatively more stable, nucleus, to work with, and they proved his chief reliance in the dark hours of the war. They were the beginning of a Regu lar army. Washington's force varied from 8,000 troops in the operations around New York to as low as 4,000 after the winter at Valley Forge and as high as 26,000 in November, 1779. Other generals seldom had more than 6,000 men at their command, while some of the most important work of the war was done by bands of a few hundred under Sumter on the Catawba, Marion in the Peedee Swamps and Clark in the North-west.
When peace was declared Congress ordered the disbandment of the entire army except "twenty-five privates to guard the stores at Ft. Pitt and fifty-five to guard the stores at West Point." Indian disturbances on the frontier soon caused an increase, and, when Washington was inaugurated President, the number of men in service was 595. Until 1812 the army passed through swift periods of rise and fall, an index of national fear. From a bare single regiment when the Constitution went into force, it changed to two in 1779, three in 1791, six in 1796, nine in 1798, six in 1800, three in 1802, eleven in 18°8, though the number authorized was always much higher than the number actually in service. Under stress of the War of 1812 the army increased from 21 regiments in January, 1812, to a paper strength of 51 regiments a year later, though it is doubtful if a sixth of the authorized 58,000 men were ever recruited. Counting militia and local com batants possibly 6o,000 men at the most served during the war. The Regular army was reduced to 6,600 by 182o, the artillery sta tioned largely in the coast fortifications, and the infantry in the northern, western and southern frontier posts. Just before the Mexican War the army had shrunk to an actual strength of 5,300 men, occupying more than ioo posts. When war was declared the Regular army was recruited to war strength, and about 20,000 volunteers responded to the call, many of whom had to be sent home again because they could not be outfitted. About 20,000 troops took part in the war altogether, Scott having about io,5oo with him in the Valley of Mexico. In 1848 the troops were re duced to 8,000 scattered over the immense area to which the country had grown. The task of dealing with the Indians in the Far West increased the army to a strength of 12,698 men by 1855, which it retained up to the Civil War.