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National Defense Act of 1916

 

 
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National Defense Act of 1916
 
 
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The National Defense Act of 1916 provided for an expanded army during peace and wartime, fourfold expansion of the National Guard
United States National Guard

The National Guard of the United States is a Military reserve force composed of U.S. state National Guard militia members or units under federally recognized active or inactive Military of the United States service for the United States ....
, the creation of an Officers' and an Enlisted Reserve Corps, plus the creation of a Reserve Officers' Training Corps in colleges and universities. The President was also given authority, in case of war or national emergency, to mobilize the National Guard for the duration of the emergency.

The act was passed amidst the "preparedness controversy", a brief frenzy of great public concern over the state of preparation of the United States armed forces, and shortly after Pancho Villa's
Pancho Villa

This article is about the Mexican revolutionary general. For the boxer, see Francisco Guilledo.Doroteo Arango Ar?mbula , better known as Francisco or "Pancho" Villa, was the first Mexican Revolutionary general....
 cross-border raid on Columbus, New Mexico
Columbus, New Mexico

Columbus is a village in Luna County, New Mexico, New Mexico, United States. The population was 1,765 at the United States Census, 2000. The town is named after famous 15th century explorer Christopher Columbus...
.






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The National Defense Act of 1916 provided for an expanded army during peace and wartime, fourfold expansion of the National Guard
United States National Guard

The National Guard of the United States is a Military reserve force composed of U.S. state National Guard militia members or units under federally recognized active or inactive Military of the United States service for the United States ....
, the creation of an Officers' and an Enlisted Reserve Corps, plus the creation of a Reserve Officers' Training Corps in colleges and universities. The President was also given authority, in case of war or national emergency, to mobilize the National Guard for the duration of the emergency.

The act was passed amidst the "preparedness controversy", a brief frenzy of great public concern over the state of preparation of the United States armed forces, and shortly after Pancho Villa's
Pancho Villa

This article is about the Mexican revolutionary general. For the boxer, see Francisco Guilledo.Doroteo Arango Ar?mbula , better known as Francisco or "Pancho" Villa, was the first Mexican Revolutionary general....
 cross-border raid on Columbus, New Mexico
Columbus, New Mexico

Columbus is a village in Luna County, New Mexico, New Mexico, United States. The population was 1,765 at the United States Census, 2000. The town is named after famous 15th century explorer Christopher Columbus...
. Its chief proponent was James Hay of Virginia
Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia is an United States U.S. state on the East Coast of the United States of the Southern United States. The state is known as the "Old Dominion" and sometimes as "Mother of Presidents", because it is the birthplace of Lists of United States Presidents by place of birth#By state....
, the chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs
United States House Committee on Armed Services

The U.S. House Committee on Armed Services, commonly known as the House Armed Services Committee, is a standing committee of the United States House of Representatives....
.

Act details

Sponsored by Rep. Julius Kahn (R) of California and drafted by the House Chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs Rep. James Hay (D) of Virginia, it authorized an army of 175,000 men, a National Guard of 450,000 men. It created the modern Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) and empowered the President to place obligatory orders with manufacturers capable of producing war materials. Langley Field in Virginia was built as part of the act. Now U.S. Air Force Command HQ as Langley Air Force Base, it was named after air pioneer Samuel Pierpont Langley (died 1904), and was called an “aerodrome.” The President also requested the National Academy of Science to establish the National Research Council to investigate through conductive research the potentialities of mathematical, biological, and physical science applications for defense. It allocated over $17 million to the Army to build 375 new aeroplanes – perhaps most importantly of all, it established the right of the President to “Federalize” the National Guard in times of emergency, with individual States’ militias reverting to their control upon the end of the declared emergency. With the Defense Act, Congress was also concerned with ensuring the supply of nitrates (used to make munitions), and it authorized the construction of two nitrate-manufacturing plants and a dam for hydropower as a national defense measure. President Wilson chose Muscle Shoals, Alabama as the site of the dam. The dam was later named for him, and the two Nitrate plants built in Muscle Shoals were later rolled into the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1933.