WHAT AMERICA DID [Illustration: TROOP TRANSPORT LEAVING NEW YORK FOR FRANCE] WHAT AMERICA DID _A Record of Achievement in the Prosecution of the War_ BY FLORENCE FINCH KELLY [Illustration] NEW YORK E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 681 FIFTH AVENUE COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY _All Rights Reserved_ _Printed in the United States of America_ PREFACE My purpose in this book has been to condense into a brief account just those things that the ordinary man or woman wants to know about how we prepared for and waged our share in the world war. I have tried to picture the large outlines of achievement, to present the important facts, and to show how it was all inspired and rushed forward by the flaming spirit of the people. Volumes will be required, and will of course be written, to tell comprehensively and in detail the complete story of America’s many-sided effort in the prosecution of the war. But I have sought, rather, to make such a book as would meet the needs of the every-day reader by disregarding details and weaving into the panorama of our war adventure only the essential facts of each phase of war effort and the spirit by which it was all unceasingly animated. In such a volume, it seemed to me, there was no place for account of the controversies that have raged over almost every step of progress, nor for mention of criticisms or investigations or even of the mistakes that delayed by a few weeks or a few months the reaching of the peak of achievement in this or that particular. All of them, doubtless, will be chronicled in those many volumes that will tell the story of America’s participation in the war comprehensively and in detail. Otherwise, they will all be forgotten in six months. It is achievement that counts, and this book aims only to be a record of things that were done.