D 570 .8 .C8 1143 Copy 1 REPORT OP EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE TO MASSACHUSETTS COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY 17 MARCH, 1917 m REPORT OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MASSACHUSETTS COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY 17 MARCH, 1917 28 D. of D. AUG 16 191? REPORT OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE TO MASSACHUSETTS COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY 17 March, 1917. The Massachusetts Committee on PubUc Safety appointed by His Excellency Governor McCall on February 10th held its first meeting at the State House on February 14th, Governor McCaU presiding. The Committee organized by selecting a Chairman and Secretary and the following Ex- ecutive Committee: Walton A. Green. Benjamin Joy. Guy Murchie. James J. Phelan. A. C. Ratshesky. Charles F. Weed. Adjutant-General Gardner W. Pearson, ex-officio. James J. Storrow, Chairman. Since that date, pursuant to authority given at that meeting, the Executive Committee has added to its membership Henry B. Endicott, and also appointed Mr. Endicott Executive Manager. At the suggestion of Governor Mc- Call it has also unanimously chosen Messrs. Frank H. McCarthy and John F. Stevens to be members of the Executive Committee. A month has passed since the date of this first meeting, and your Executive Committee has felt that it ought to ask 3^ou to come together to hear a report of its work, and to ask for such further advice or direction as you may wish to give. Get Ready We are asked every da}^ by many people, ^^What is the Committee on Public Safety trying to do?'^ It seems worth while to occupy a little of your time in answering this question — What are we trying to do? The answer to this is — ^We are trying to get ready. Get ready for what? We might as well use the short and ugly word — we are trying to get ready for War. Some people think that because war is a Na- tional affair, there will be nothing for the State or for a Committee on Public Safety represent- ing the State, to do. Nothing could possibly be further from the truth. It is fifty-two years since our National Government had a real war on its hands. The man who thinks that during these fifty-two years of profound peace, except for a little ^ ^episode' ^ with Spain, our Government has kept itself in fighting condition and ready for a first-class War with a Great Power is hopelessly blind to a thousand sure indications that we are totally unready. It is time to speak plainly. Our Navy is 25,000 men short of the number required to man ships representing a sea strength not over two-thirds the sea strength of Germany. Our Regular Army is many thousands of men short of its authorized strength. This is a bomb war, a machine gun war, a heavy field gun war. We have so few bombs that it may be said we have none. We have a few machine guns of the obsolete and useless type which jammed at Columbus, and the paltry number of 250 machine guns, not designed by our War Department, or made by our War Department, but made for the English Government, needed by the EngUsh Government in her struggle, and begged by us as a favor from the English Government. We have not a single heavy field gun made, or at this time under construction, or even yet designed by our War Department, within the boundaries of the United States. A military autocracy which has made war pay in the past, and is plotting against its neighbors, can be ready for war. It is not strange that our peaceful democracy, hating no one, and with designs against no one, should be unready in every possible sense of the word. Even our last National Congress allowed its last day of hfe to expire without making the appropriation necessary to enable the country to begin to get ready, even though for weeks before the expiration of Congress we were so near a state of war with the greatest military Power the world has ever seen that the line may be crossed any hour of the twenty-four, any day this week or next week. War will not necessarily begin when our Congress meets and declares war — it may be started by the other Power. Total unreadiness characterizes our situa- tion to-day, but it is useless for us, under present conditions, to waste precious time in criticism. It is the duty of every man and woman, at once, to do his or her share to Get Ready. If the military machine of the National Government is ready with its administrative machine smoothly running and fully organized, if our Government has on hand all the mun tions and supplies, and a trained and exper enced man force sufficient to cope with a g gantic military machine thoroughly organized before the war, and hardened by two and a half years of fighting experience, then there is nothing for us to do. We think, however, His Excellency Governor McCall appointed this Committee of Public Safety on the theory that our Government is unready, that we must help to get ready, and above all that Massachusetts, as in the time of Governor Andrew, proposes to uphold the hands of our National Government in every way in her power. We beheve that our Governor was correctly voicing the wish of the people of this 8 State, that Massachusetts should at once pre- pare to assist our Government, and should strive by every means in her power to antici- pate every possible demand the Government or the times may make upon her. Organization of Work Immediately after your meeting of February 14th, when this Executive Committee was duly appointed, we set to work to create the neces- sary organization. Your Executive Committee saw that if the work was to be carried on effec- tively and with dispatch, it must constitute itself merely a directing committee, leaving all the different detail tasks to a series of commit- tees, and that it must also have a competent executive officer with proper assistants. The Committee was fortunate in securing as Ex- ecutive Manager, Mr. Henry B. Endicott, a man of large experience, and demonstrated ex- ecutive capacity. Mr. Endicott has appointed as his two Assistant Executive Managers, Ed- mund W. Longley and Levi H. Greenwood. Many other citizens are also assisting in the executive branch of our work. 9 Your Executive Committee has now appointed sixteen sub-committees to carry on different activities relating to our program of ^^Get Ready." The function of these different com- mittees is indicated by their titles. The com- mittees are as follows: Finance. Co-ordination of Aid Societies. Emergency Help and Equipment. Food Production and Conservation. Industrial Survey. Land Forces. Naval Forces. Mihtary Equipment and Supplies. Pubhcity. State Protection. Transportation. Co-operating especially with the Committee on Land Forces, and in some respects with the Committee on Naval Forces, we have also appointed Committees on: Mobilization and Concentration Camps. Home Guards. Horses. Recruiting. Trucks and Motor Cars. 10 We have desired not to discourage, but on the contrary to encourage the numerous aid societies which have sprung up within the State during the last year or two, and many of which have fitted themselves to perform ex- cellent service. We have seen, however, that some of these aid societies were unconsciously producing some confusion and overlapping of effort. We believe that our Committee on Co- ordination of Aid Societies is rendering im- portant service by getting in contact with all these aid societies and co-operating with them to the end that the sum total of all their efforts shall constitute one well-balanced and pro- ductive whole. The Emergency Help and Equipment Com- mittee consists of a dozen or more of the largest contracting firms in the State who are getting well organized to cover the State, and to assemble a great force of men, engineers, machinery, and tools on a few hours' notice at any point in the State to reconstruct a dam, rebuild a bridge, dig entrenchments, lay tracks, or perform any other engineering task of mag- nitude in the shortest possible time. 11 The Food Production and Conservation Com- mittee has been created within the last few days, and is devoting itself to starting an effec- tive campaign to increase the production of food products from the soil of Massachusetts. The Committee on Industrial Survey is co-operating with the National Defense Com- mittee to complete, so far as the industries of this State are concerned, the National In- dustrial Survey begun under the immediate direction of Mr. Howard E. Coffin some months ago. This Committee also hopes it may be of use to the National Government by acquiring precise and accurate information as to what the industrial establishments of Massachusetts can supply in case of need. The Committee on Military Equipment and Supplies has been asked to be prepared to secure military equipment and supplies for whatever number of Massachusetts troops, including our State's quota to the new National Army, the Government is unable promptly to supply. We are sure it is the wish of the people of Massachusetts that their soldiers should be properly equipped and provided with the neces- 12 sar}^ supplies, even if the State has to furnish the equipment and suppUes. Our soldiers must not be armed with broomsticks nor attempt to perform military duty without uniforms, canteens, suitable shoes, and other military requisites. The Committee on Publicity has been asked to steer the happy mean between talking too much and not frankly letting the people of Massachusetts know what their Committee on Public Safety is attempting to do. The Committee on State Protection has been asked especially to consider the more vital points in the State requiring protection, and to advise the Executive Committee as to measures needed from time to time for their protection. Among its other activities, it is conferring at the present time, as rapidly as possible, with the mayor of every Massachu- setts city, to obtain his views and co-operation on measures relating to State Protection. The Committee on Transportation has been asked to study the question of mobilization and to prepare plans which would enable our troops to be rapidly mobilized and to be trans- 13 ferred with expedition from one point to an- other. The Committee on Land Forces, in co-opera- tion with the Executive Committee, and in co-operation with the Adjutant-General, has been at work trying to secure from the National Government the equipment needed for the men now serving in our State National Guard. The task has not been easy. Your Executive Committee has co-operated with the Adjutant- General by furnishing a large number of clerks and assistants who have been working for several weeks in his office, in three shifts. Representatives of our Committee have also made repeated visits to Washington. We are happy to say that on Tuesday of this week requisitions were accepted by the Militia Bu- reau at Washington for additional equipment for existing troops to the amount of $200,000. In this work we have received the most cordial co-operation from the Militia Bureau. It is admitted that the training field at Framingham no longer constitutes a suitable place for the mobilization of our troops, and the Committee on Mobifization and Concen- 14 tration Camps has been studying this ques- tion. If our State Mihtia is called out by the National Government, our State is expected on that same day to bring our military organiza- tions up to full war strength, which means a sudden demand for nearly fifty per cent, more men. Our recruiting Committee has under- taken the task of preparing to meet this sud- den demand for more men. It is also assist- ing the National Government in recruiting for the Regular Arm3\ Our Committees on Horses, and on Trucks and Motor Cars, hope to prove their value in case of a mobilization demand for horses, trucks and motor cars. A Committee on Home Guards has been created because the moment our State National Guard is called out by the President, we shall no longer be able to rely upon our State Militia for local protection. We need at once a Home Guard to furnish protection within the borders of our State. Under our present laws an effi- cient Home Guard cannot be created. It would not have the right to nor could it make 15 arrests or furnish effective protection in case of violence, nor indeed is it permitted to exist as a military unit. We are preparing to and expect shortly to submit to His Excellency the Governor the draft of a special act of the Legis- lature providing for the establishment of a Home Guard. Our Committee on Naval Forces has been performing efficient service in assisting to re- cruit the Naval Militia and in the enrollment of the Naval Reserve. It has assisted, very ma- terially, United States Naval Officer Captain Rush, in command of the 1st Naval District stretching from Chatham to New Brunswick, in securing the enrollment of all boats suitable for patrol work. It has also persuaded a number of patriotic citizens to build at once boats especially fitted for this service. It has performed other important service. Three of its members have been officially appointed civilian aides to Captain Rush, Commandant of this District. 16 Emergency Powers for Governor Your Committee has asked its Committee on Legal Advice to prepare an act giving the Gov- ernor emergency powers in case of war. This act, which has been submitted to His Excellency, will give the Governor power, among other things, to enroll as many special constables as he may deem necessary, and to provide for their organization. It also authorizes him to require subjects of any foreign country to appear within twenty-four hours before such public authorities as he may designate, and to register their name, residence, business, and furnish such other in- formation as the Governor may prescribe. It also permits the Governor to require further returns from time to time from persons so regis- tered. It also authorizes the Governor, for the purpose of better securing the public safety or defense of the Commonwealth to take possession of any land, buildings, machinery, equipment, horses, carriages, rolhng stock, ships, boats, provisions, fuel, etc. Provision is made for com- pensation to the owners of property so taken. 17 Conference of New England Governors Upon the invitation of His Excellency the Governor a conference of all the New England governors was held at our State House to take counsel together on methods for defense. It is not generally known that the State National Guard of all the New England States if called out by the President constitutes a single military command or division which will be under the command of one officer of the Regular Army. This constitutes an especial reason for co- operation between the New England governors to the end that the six New England States shall turn out their division fully equipped and properly supplied. It is also true that a com- mon plan of protection for New England's main arteries of traffic is advisable. The New Haven Railroad traverses the territory of four States between New York and Boston. A break at any point on this line, whether within the boundaries of Massachusetts or one of the adjoining States, would equally interrupt traffic. At this conference the New England governors unanimously approved our general 18 plan of organization and agreed to form cor- responding organizations for their several States, to the end that the New England States may better co-operate in measures for public safety. If a group of hostile aliens should threaten Massachusetts, measures for protection would be seriously handicapped if they could secure immunity by a short journey to the line of an adjoining New England State. There are nu- merous other matters which require co-operation between our New England States. Membership of Committees In the sub-committees we have endeavored to select citizens especially qualified by their train- ing or experience to deal with the particular question assigned to each committee. This has led to the appointment already of more than half your number on one or another of our com- mittees. It has also led to the appointment of numerous men, especially qualified as engineers, or as having military or other experience, who are not members of the Committee of One Hun- dred. The Committee has been obliged to some extent, in view of the almost daily meetings of 19 many of your committees at the State House, to take into consideration the question of dis- tance from the State House of place of residence of members. Local Safety Committees Your Committee begins on Monday to take steps to encourage the organization of local safety Committees in the cities and towns of this Commonwealth. In the course of ten days a representative of this committee will call upon each member of this Committee of One Hundred whose city is outside of the metropolitan dis- trict, to ask him to assist in the formation in his city of a local safety committee. We earnestly ask for your co-operation in the task of forming these local Committees of Public Safety, and we hope in each case that the mem- bers of our Committee of One Hundred will con- sent to serve upon his local Committee of Public Safety, to the end that our work may be more harmonious and effective in all parts of the State. Your Executive Committee will be gratefu for any criticisms or suggestions which may be made at this meeting, or which members of the 20 Committee of One Hundred may make by letter or by personal visit to our Headquarters in the State House. HENRY B. ENDICOTT. WALTON A. GREEN. BENJAMIN JOY. GUY MURCHIE. JAMES J. PHELAN. A. C. RATSHESKY. JOHN F. STEVENS. CHARLES F. WEED. Brig. Gen. E. LEROY SWEETSER. JAMES J. STORROW, Chairman.