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Caption: War Publications - WWI Compilation 1923 - Article 3
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Cllopoiation IHMW«M ut\ iDd i 11 • •«!«• thfl «..<•• AIH-M- tl,<- c o u n t y oi township is made the unit for local war service. This county t\>im of organization has very generally commended itself to state dkfeflM authorities because it covers the entire geographical area of the state and bungs both urban and rural districts alike into touch with the central agency. The relation between the municipality and these county councils of defense ditld> from Mate to .state. In a few cases the city organization will supersede that of the county. In New York City, for example, the mayor's committee on national defense controls the war activities of the five counties comprising Greater Xew York* In other cases where cities are important but do not swallow up the county they are given ample representation on the county councils of defense and may even dominate its policy though they do not exercise independent power. In many of the primarily rural middle western counties, however, the county council will itself control the war work for that district through the agencies of committees in towns or villages or in some cases by its own direct action. In the state of Texas the existence of the city is being ignored and a plan is on foot to organize, under the direction of the county councils of defense, subcommittees in every voting precinct in the county. The foregoing analysis indicates how many possibilities there are in the way of organizing the war work of a state and giving the municipality a place in that general program of patriotic endeavor. Thus far the Illinois state council of defense seems not to have adopted any definite scheme of local organization. Should it decide to do so the probabilities are that the county would be made the local unit as such a plan would seem to be necessary to reach effectively all the districts in a state so largely rural. But it is hardly conceivable that any plan of organizing the war resources of the state would fail to avail itself of the services of such effective councils of defense as might be operating in the towns and cities of the state. Whether Illinois municipalities are asked to coordinate their patriotic efforts with those of a county organization or a state organization is a matter of small importance so long as they work loyally and cooperate intelligently and wholeheartedly. 2. Division of Labor It has already been noted that while cooperation in war work 13
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