JF Ptak Science Books   Quick Post

In January, 1915, in the  pre-Luistania/post beginning of WWI (by six months) days, Scientific American declared an interest in the state of the United States military and found it lacking. It posted this very strong statement to advertise a coming special issue investigating the status of the armed services.  

Perhaps the most telling image in that special issue (of 5 February 1915) was an image of soldiers scaling a fortress wall–that’s pretty much the polar opposite of what training should have been happening, what with trench warfare and all.  There is also a photograph of practicing cavalry–and not a hint of a tank. There was little or no attention being paid to the developments in aerial/gas/tank/trench warfare, the armaments and munitions of war were ancient-esque, and the standing army numbered around 100,000 (plus 120k in National Guard), which was hardly anything at all compared to the fact the French Army on a single day (August 22, 1914)  in the Alsace-Lorraine region lost 27,000 dead and 40,000 wounded, and that there were already 3 million dead/wounded in the European theater.  There would be readiness factions and peace factions at work for the heart and mind of the U.S., but that wouldn’t really start for another month or two.  In the meantime, though, Scientific American took stock of the military situation, and found that the U.S. was militarily-prepared for almost nothing, so far as global war was concerned.  

An indicator of the state of affairs: