ANNUAL REPORTS, WAR DEPARTMENT

FISCAL YEAR ENDED IUNE 30, 1918

REPORT OF THE CHIEF OF THE CONSTRUCTION

DIVISION.

WAR DEPARTMENT,

OFFICE OF THE CONSTRUCTION DIVISION OF THE ARMY,

Washington, D. C., September 30, 1918.

To the SECRETARY OF WAR.
SIR: I have the honor to submit the following report covering
the operations of the Construction Division for the fiscal year ending
June 30, 1918:

The Construction Division came into existence by authority given in a letter from the General Staff dated March 13, 1918. By this letter the former Cantonment Division, which had been formed from the Construction and Repair Division of the Quartermaster General's office, was separated from the office of the Quartermaster General and set up as the Construction Division of the Army, and instructed to report to the Assistant Chief of Staff in charge of operations.

The conditions during the past year have been so extraordinary that it is deemed necessary to prepare this report in much greater detail than has been customary.

EMERGENCY CONSTRUCTION.

War was declared April 6, 1917, and on April 12, 1917 the Secretary of War declared that an emergency existed in the meaning of section 3709, Revised Statutes, under which statute emergency construction could be carried on without resorting to advertising and the taking of competitive bids. The selective draft law was passed May 16, 1917. Preliminary plans for housing the new National Army were well under way in the early part of May. All work of this character under existing law has in peace times been executed by the Construction and Repair Division of the Quartermaster General's Office, but it was at once apparent that that division was not properly organized to take up the construction of cantonments and camps required for housing the new armies.

In order to carry to prompt completion the vast building program incidental to the housing of the new armies, it became necessary to organize a separate division of the Quartermaster General's Office and this was done by authority of a letter from the Adjutant General, dated May 19, 1917, by which Col. Isaac W. Littell, Quartermaster Corps, was assigned to take charge of a special division which was given the name of Cantonment Division. To this new organization was assigned the work of construction of cantonments and camps.