Into the forming and shaping of the American Army for the World War went something new in the making of armies, something hitherto unthought of in the history of wars, for its training was based upon a new idea, a bold innovation upon military traditions. The method of army training had always been to minimize the individuality of the fighting man, to lessen it to the disappearing point, and so the more surely and easily and completely merge the individual in the fighting mass. Only so, it was believed, could the necessary discipline, unity and uniformity of an army be secured. But when the United States entered the war and set about the creation of a great fighting force its Secretary of War inspired the task with a new ideal and the whole making of the American Army was based on the idea of developing and heightening the individuality of the soldier, of discovering, improving and utilizing his personal qualities. The unceasing effort was to make of him a better citizen, a better, finer and more capable man, in the conviction that thus he would be also a better soldier. Believing that the higher the grade of the individuals who compose an army the higher will be the grade of the army, all the training, the environment and the treatment of the soldier, from the time he entered the service until he was discharged, were calculated to develop him physically, mentally and morally as an individual, to inspire him as a person and, in general, to make of him a more intelligent, resourceful, upright, self-dependent, capable and moral man than he was before he entered the army. The immediate purpose was to make a better army, an army of thinking, reasoning units, and therefore an army so intelligent and alert that it would at once perceive the fundamental necessity for discipline and instant obedience and would gain more speedily than by the old method the needful unity and uniformity, while its composite individuals would be more capable of efficient action if deprived by the chance of battle of their accustomed leadership. That was the first and chief purpose. But behind it lay also the determination that these millions of American young men, the flower of the nation, the beloved of their homes, should be, as far as possible, enabled to preserve themselves from those debasements, corruptions and blights of army life which the world, ages ago, had grown accustomed to accept as inevitable. The purpose was that, so far as foresight and effort could command so unprecedented a result, these young men should bring back no scars or wounds other than those dealt by the enemy. The outcome of this bold experiment was a complete vindication of the vision and the faith of the man who insisted it should be tried.