I04 REPORT OF THE PSYCHOLOGY COMMITTEE 



hydroplane listening, the work of the fire-control squad, and 

 the lookout. 



"(w) The War Service Exchange. This branch of the 

 Committee was established January i8, 1918, to receive and 

 classify applications of persons desiring to serve the govern- 

 ment and to refer them to the branches of the service needing 

 them, and to cooperate with other agencies in locating and 

 supplying men needed for special purposes by the various 

 branches of the service. This organization relieved high of- 

 ficials of the War Department of the necessity of devoting 

 valuable time to the interviewing of the many influential men 

 who came to Washington to offer their services to the gov- 

 ernment. It also cared for a total of about one hundred and 

 ten thousand written proffers of service. It placed approxi- 

 mately ten thousand men, including many of superior at- 

 tainments. 



" (0) Personnel work in the American expeditionary forces. 

 Members of the committee studied the personnel needs of 

 the A. E. F., and with the cordial approval of General Persh- 

 ing, established there a personnel organization similar to that 

 in America. The Officers' Qualification Cards have had their 

 widest usefulness overseas, in supplying replacements and in 

 ocating rare specialists in emergencies. 



" (^) British experience. Detailed study was made of the 

 working of the British personnel organization, which in some 

 respects is far superior to ours. Special reports and exhibits 

 obtained in London from the British War Office covered their 

 whole program of recruitment, classification, trade-testing, 

 assignment and transfer; industrial furloughs; weekly consol- 

 idation and analysis of strength reports; and plans for de- 

 mobilization. 



"This in outline is a picture of the Personnel work, begun 

 in the National Army cantonments with the arrival of the 

 first contingent of the draft. Neither the civilians nor the 

 army officers who initiated this development dreamed of the 

 scope it would so rapidly assume or the share it would have 

 in effecting the speedy organization of a well balanced army, 

 trained and ready for the critical hour in France. 



