and the average daily cost of the war to the United States was about $30,000,000. If the completion of these cantonments and camps in time to receive the Army in September, 1917, and to house it during the extreme winter of 1917-18 shortened the war by only one week their total cost was saved. If it shortened the war by one or two days, the total excess costs paid for speed were saved. These figures include no allowance for any saving of soldiers' lives.

The board is of the opinion that had construction not been pushed at maximum speed cold weather would have interfered with and caused much delay in this housing work, which, with the difficulty of training troops in severe winter weather, would have greatly delayed the mobilization, training, and embarkation of American troops for France, with results that might have seriously influenced the issue of the war.

PART III.

CREATION, HISTORY, ORGANIZATION, PERSONNEL, DUTIES, METHODS, PROCEDURE, AND RESULTS OF THE CONSTRUCTION DIVISION OF THE ARMY AND ITS SYSTEM OF DOING WORK.

SECTION 19.

REORGANIZATION OF CANTONMENT DIVISION.

AUTHORITY.

On October 5, 1917, The Adjutant General issued the following order to the Quartermaster General of the Army:

Subject: Emergency construction.

1. The Secretary of War directs that all building construction rendered necessary in the United States by the present emergency and provided for by existing or pending appropriations shall be executed by the Quartermaster General's Department under the direction of Col. I. W. Littell.

2. If any special case seems to any head of a department an exception to this rule the Secretary of War will pass on it separately.

It had been the intention to disband the Cantonment Division after the completion of its cantonment and camp construction, but this order changed its status and necessitated its reorganization and enlargement.

On October 10 the Quartermaster General issued an office order directing that, in compliance with the instructions of the Secretary of War of October 5, the construction and repair division of the Quartermaster General's office be abolished as a division and, with the officer in charge, the records, personnel, etc., pertaining to such division of the Quartermaster General's office be transferred to the Cantonment Division as a branch thereof.

As extensions were being made continually to all of the cantonments and camps, the heads of the Cantonment Division found it necessary again to call on civilian experts to join the division; some to take part in the field work and others to assist in Washington.

The following men were called to active service or commissioned and assigned to supervising office duty at headquarters in Washington:

The principal changes made in the organization were as follows: The completion of cantonment and camp work was placed in one section.

A new section was formed and placed in charge of Mr. Warren R. Roberts, later major, to execute the construction of projects such as terminals, supply depots, and the like.

A labor and statistics section was formed and placed in charge of Maj. J. H. Alexander, to supervise the coordination of labor rates and conditions on all construction of the Cantonment Division; to pass upon agreements in connection therewith; to deal with labor-union officials and with the Cantonment Adjustment Commission of the War Department; and to supervise compilation of labor rates, conditions, and agreements.

A Government equipment and material section was formed and placed in charge of Maj. E. C. Stockdale. It had charge of the transfer and disposition of Government-owned material which remained on hand at the completion of construction work and which was not required for maintenance purposes or was unfit for the use of troops. It made decisions as to the exercising of options for the purchase of equipment under the rental clause of the standard Contract for Emergency Work, arranged for rental of equipment which it was difficult to buy, and kept records of idle equipment which could be transferred and utilized on other projects.

Construction increased so rapidly that another section was formed and placed in charge of Maj. O. P. Chamberlain. This had charge of Signal Corps construction, including storehouses and aviation fields, and of housing for the Shipping Board at approximately 20 different points.

The field organizations under the constructing quartermasters remained practically the same. The supervising constructing quartermasters, originally assigned to act as district field supervisors, were required to take a more active part at Washington, to assume responsibility for a group of projects, and to direct their field operations from the Washington office, reporting to the section chiefs.

On October 16, 1917, an office order was issued directing that all project correspondence and instructions be handled through the proper supervising constructing quartermaster, who thus became the point of contact between the field and the central office.

On February 9, 1918, General Order No. 14 was issued, of which section 5 was as follows:

Army operations division. This division shall have the cognizance and control of Army operations under an officer who is designated as the director of operations, who shall be an assistant to the Chief of Staff. The duties of this division shall include the following:

(c) The supervision and coordination of camp sites, cantonments, Army posts, hospitals, sanitation, construction plans and projects, as the same relate to all branches of the Army.

On February 12, 1918, a memorandum to The Adjutant General by the Acting Chief of Staff stated that, by direction of the Assistant Secretary of War, Brig. Gen. Isaac W. Littell, National Army, would be relieved from the Cantonment Division and appointed a brigadier general, Quartermaster Corps, Regular Army, and retired from active service. In compliance therewith, Gen. Littell was relieved on February 18, 1918, and Lieut. Col. R. C. Marshall, jr., was assigned to take charge of the Cantonment Division.

On February 19, 1918, The Adjutant General notified the Quartermaster General of the Army that the Secretary of War had issued an order stating:

The Cantonment Division will hereby constitute a part of the office of the Chief of Staff, in connection with section 3, paragraph 5, General Order No. 14, February 9, 1918, now in process of issue.

On February 19, 1918, the Assistant Secretary of War approved a memorandum requesting that Col. Marshall be designated as contracting officer to act in all the outstanding unfinished contracts which were executed by Gen. Littell as contracting officer while in charge of the Cantonment Division.

SECTION 20.

ORGANIZATION OF CONSTRUCTION DIVISION OF THE ARMY.

On March 13, 1918, the Secretary of War, issued through The Adjutant General of the Army, an order to the officer in charge of cantonment construction which changed its name to the Construction Division. This order read as follows:

Under the authority granted in section 1 of the act of Congress "to authorize the President to increase temporarily the military establishment of the United States," approved May 18, 1917, the President directs that the Cantonment Division of the Quartermaster Corps (including as a part thereof the Construction and Repair Division of the Quartermaster Corps) now operating as a part of the office of the Chief of Staff, shall hereafter be called the Construction Division and shall be temporarily increased during the present emergency so as to consist of, including commissioned personnel in the Quartermaster Corps, Regular Army, National Guard, National Army, Reserve Corps, heretofore authorized, including officers of other arms, staff corps and departments who may be detailed for duty with the Construction Division other than liaison duty:

** * The total herein authorized includes all officers now on duty with the Quartermaster Corps or heretofore authorized under existing law for the performance of duties allotted to the present Cantonment Division, including the operation of utilities and the maintenance and repair of public buildings at military posts, camps, and cantonments. It does not include quartermasters of permanent posts who may operate utilities and supervise maintenance and repair work in addition to their duties as supply officers.

The following is hereby authorized as maximum civilian personnel to be employed by the Construction Division, including those employed at present:

*** In view of the existing order of the Secretary of War, that all building construction rendered necessary in the United States by the present emergency shall be executed by the Construction Division unless especially excepted by the Secretary of War, all commissioned, civilian personnel of the Ordnance Department and Signal Corps, heretofore employed exclusively on construction work and no longer needed in these corps and departments will be considered available for assignment to the Construc. tion Division as a part of the personnel herein authorized, upon the request of the officer in charge of Construction Division, but no officer of the line of the Regular Army, who may be detailed in any of these corps and departments shall be assigned to the Construction Division under this authority. Such officers and civilians of the present Construction Divisions of these corps and departments who are not transferred or assigned to the Construction Division, and who are no longer needed for the construction work in their own corps or departments will be disposed of by absorption in other branches of their corps or departments, by relief from detail, by transfer to other arms or branches, by relief from active duty or by discharge, as may be determined by the Chief of Staff under the recommendation of the chief of the corps or department concerned.

The officer in charge of Construction Division is hereby authorized to take the necessary steps to secure the additional commissioned and civilian personnel herein au thorized, provided it shall be called only when needed, and that the personnel shall be reduced whenever it exceeds the requirements. The additional officers herein authorized will be obtained as provided * * * by the act of May 18, 1917.

On April 10, 1917, by order of the Secretary of War, sent from The Adjutant General of the Army to the officer in charge of Construction Division, the duties of the Construction Division were further extended as follows:

1. You are informed that all plans, specifications, and estimates for construction work will be prepared by or under the supervision of the Construction Division, upon general requirements given in advance by the bureau involved. All engineering services and services of contractors in connection therewith will be obtained by the Construction Division.

2. The Construction Division will see to it that the designs will fulfill in an efficient manner the general requirements laid down, and will be solely responsible for the execution of the construction work.