Excerpt from Report of the Secretary of War, 1913, Vol. 1During recent years the duties imposed upon the War Depart ment have been appreciably increased by the addition thereto of administrative supervision and control in matters relating to our ao-called insular possessions and to the construction of the Panama Canal. The scope and extent of War Department activities as thus enlarged and broadened make it physically impossible for anyone within a few months' time to get much more than a bird's eye view of affairs, and while early impressions may prove to be fundamentally sound and correct, I have felt it prudent to limit my first report largely to matters of most pressing moment and concerning which previous discussion has cleared the air and brought about a substantial consensus of opinion, or at least crystallized it into definite forms.During the brief period that I have been Secretary of War I have visited nearly every post within the continental limits of the United States, and the Canal Zone, and by these visits and by conversations with officers, enlisted men, and others have acquired information and impressions which I am weighing and correlating as rapidly as practicable with the pressure of current business, and I shall endeavor from time to time to give effect to the final conclusions thus reached when, and so far as, occasion calls for it and circumstances permit.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.