Show A HANDICAPPED ARMY This Item Is from the Indianapolis J Journal A Peking dispatch says that In tho I race to got in supplies tho Aincrlcjyj transport trans-port equipment has umlly proved Itself tho superior of any system In use In China Chi-na That means of any stem used by the other powers It Is believed the United Slates Is equally ahead of the other I oth-er powers In every practical phase of military mili-tary operations When it comes to polished buttons and military salutes somo of them arc ahead The transport system refers probably to the ships that carried supplies to the armies and the fleets In China Our transport ships have no equals But i In Its last conclusion the Journal Is I much mistaken When it I very says the United States equally ahead of the other powers In every practical phase i of military operation 1 It shows It has not been a careful reader because be-cause the American army was the I poorest equipped of all the armies that marched from the const to Peking The Japanese beat them all to smash For I instance the march was through somo miserable flat lands that are bottomless I bottom-less In winter and where the traveler I is choked with dust in the summer and It ladusl which Is surcharged with centuries of Chinese filth The only water In the region Is tainted beyond J be-yond description and yet the American Ameri-can troops were not provided with anything but their canteens while the Japanese had their watercarriers nnd their filters accompanying the army I and running beside it so that when I any soldier wanted a drink without halting the march a minute it was given him of filtered water In tho I same way the soldiers of Japan carried so little weight aside from their guna that they reached Peking as they r started from the coast while the American SO Idlers on starting out were l loaded down wllh some sixty pounds of material with the result that the I I whole road between the coast and Peking Pe-king was blocked with American army overcoats accoutrements There should be a revision of the American I army and some plan should he adopted to wave the American soldiers on the march from carrying a load that In itself is enough In a few days to breakdown break-down a strong mini especially traveling travel-ing through a hot and dusty country |