An Acknowledgment
For the interest they have shown and the assistance they have given me in the preparation of this book, I am indebted to many persons. Each chapter was written with the co-operation of the chief and subchiefs of the branch of the army with which it deals, and upon its completion it was by them carefully read and revised. The statements and figures are as nearly accurate, therefore, as extreme care can make them. The Honorable Newton D. Baker, Secretary of War, authorized the writing of the book and issued orders that every facility was to be afforded me for obtaining the necessary material, and the Honorable Benedict Crowell, Assistant Secretary of War, who from the beginning took a lively personal interest in the work, placed at my disposal the great mass of material which he had collected for his Official Report. To Major-General William S. Seibert, Director of the Chemical Warfare Service, to Colonel William S. Walker, in command of Edgewood Arsenal, and to Colonel Bradley Dewey, in command of the Gas Defense Division, I am particularly indebted, as it was due to their efforts that I was able to undertake the writing of the book. Major-General William M. Black, Chief of Engineers, Lieutenant-Colonel Chenoweth, and Major Evarts Tracy of the Corps of Engineers; Major-General C. T. Menoher, Director of Military Aeronautics, Colonel S. M. Davis, Lieutenant-Colonel H. B. Hersey, and Major H. M. Hickam of the Air Service; Colonel James L. Walsh, to whose generosity I am indebted for much of the material relating to Army Ordnance, Colonel E. M. Shinkle and Major A. B. Quinton, Jr., of the Ordnance Department; Major-General George S. Squier, Chief Signal Officer of the Army, Brigadier-General C. McK. Saltzman and Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph O. Mauborgne of the Signal Corps; Major-General M. W. Ireland, Surgeon-General, and Colonel M. A. De Laney of the Medical Corps; Brigadier-General Marlborough Churchill, Director of Military Intelligence, Captain R. G. Martin, Captain A. R. Townsend, Captain H. M. Dargan, and Captain J. Stanley Moore, of the Military Intelligence Division; Major-General Rogers, Quartermaster-General of the Army; Colonel I. C. Welborn, Director of the Tank Corps; Brigadier-General Drake, Director of the Motor Transport Corps; Captain W. K. Wheatley, Chief of the Historical Section of the Motor Transport Corps, and W. L. Pollard, Esq., Chief of the Historical Branch of Purchase and Storage, all showed me exceptional courtesy and afforded me every possible assistance. I welcome this opportunity to express to them my appreciation. To the Bulletin of the Spruce Production Division, published by the Loyal Legion of Loggers and Lumbermen, I am indebted for a considerable portion of the account of spruce production in the Pacific Northwest.
E. Alexander Powell.