Show t Auto Rucks and cles I I 1 i lf 3 j f 1 t a J j i j n ats Co ll a n ax Utah b rf l Mexican campaign shows their usefulness use use- j over arm army mu mn mule I e a a an d cava cavalry Ir y I horse FI Flesh h and d hI blood d lorse es an 00 t can cane com com- comi i 1 i pete e e with see steel an and gasoline down own ling ing 1 ng on the e desert and mountain aY Mrk y trails rats fOUl w j r. r e Putt vue SORROWFUL and und prophetic nr army y a mule stood beside a Soto cactus near d the American end of the long dusty road from Columbus New Mexico to tot t bt Namiquipa Old Mexico so writes W. W tI O. O McGeehan In the New York Tri TrI- con bune bone Gt Down the trail from the base of the punitive e expedition swept a train of 30 auto trucks They were heavily laden with the variety of cargoes that are ure required for an arm army in the field re Each truck carried four or five troopers in olive drab squatted insecurely on top of the load Ut The road was uneven It was full of ruts but the tb a auto truck truce train glided along at the rate of from eight pres u to ten miles an hour The vehicles kept a perfect I alignment The troopers swore softly but earnestly as us the trucks jolted r Even as the army mule watched the sweating swearIng swearIng swear- swear ma Ing fag truck train disappeared into a cloud of dust beyond beyond beyond be be- yond the bor border er line Then the mule tilted back his your dejected head and gave vent to a secret sorrow In one sod em reaching far-reaching vocal effort As though mocking his it of grief the horns of the auto trucks tooted back derisively del de de- l u ely in the distance The grief of that arm army mule was the grief of Othello Othel Othel- 1 lo to with his occupation gone lie He sunk behind the Soto sr cactus and subsided Into painful meditation He had just seen his finish He lie realized at that moment that the army mule would never neer again hold a high place among the factors fac fac- CID tors which win in battles He realized that practical To poets would woul no longer sing of the virtues which the act army mule could display upon great gleat emergencies He was alread already obsolete down and out onto foot Even the mule skinner with the picturesque voa vocabulary vo vo- a tE and the hard words had abandoned him The mule skinner was now driving one of those ld auto trucks and was addressing It with L' L strained uL ne ue spore to 10 u It at all an It was all wrong By the martyred mule of Matanzas of which the army bards sang during the rail Spanish-American Spanish war da days s 's it was all wrong l 1 tan There here was no use to pull against the auto truck lie lie He had tried It when they hitched him to the rear of one lIe He decided to drag the thing back over the ping desert But instead he was relentlessly dragged dug on his Ms haunches for a mile and he lie gave it up The Columbus expedition has demonstrated that IL In the matter of army transportation the tile mule Is fore dead deu long live lice the auto truck I It had hind already loll been demonstrated at the battle of the Marne Maroe for when motor vehicles checked the German advance a n un and saved sayed France ti But our war department moves mo with excessive tit deliberation It clung tenaciously to its faith In Inet Inthe Inthe et- et the mule until the first auto truck train went galumphing into Mexico making three times tines the distance istance that a mule could make over roads which no motor-driven motor vehicle could be expected to travel ties ties' The consequence was a rush order for auto trucks and drivers The auto trucks are standing UP wonderfully well They plow through the alkali i ID dust up to the hubs the they jolt over the rocky fin places they flounder through the sandy wastes that alto alto- grind the bearings and they puff through the mountain passes They go anywhere the mule mul will 50 to and the they get there in better time While the long trail from Columbus to Namia Nami- Nami a quipa Is lined with the carcasses of mules ande and e horses the auto trucks go rumbling on In their work of keeping the field army supplied with food maU and ammunition They perform new miracles r p upon Urton every new emergency sit There are several hundred auto trucks at thea the a army array base at Columbus On a pinch those trucks at could move an entire brigade In one day twice as asfar asfur o far fur as us all nil the horses and mules in the world could i move MOTe It II- This is true despite the fact that many of the trucks are badly racked because of bad driving Not only does the successful test of the auto e t truck spell the passing of the mule train It Itt t r rt also ilso means the passing of cavalry the most picturesque pic pic- t branch of the service Even cavalry ca oh- oh eels cers In the punitive c expedition will admit that t three or four tour auto trucks will get a company at of Infantry In In- fantry twice as far on a forced march as th the best- best d mounted troop of cavalry n could travel oy o ff Cavalry charges are arc rare In these days ays of o rapid- rapid D I tire lire rifles rines and machine guns suns The horses are ue used Lt ot only ly to get the men to the front where they op- op k crate as Infantry When the time gasoline-fed gasoline ID t can get them faster hster horses 1 there so than the tl pr It t bl begins to look bad for the cavalry hors The United States army of the near ru future fume ule willy will y j travel extensively on gasoline There will m be few v wore more e heart heart breaking infantry hikes and there there- will wille lie he e few more wild cavalry rides leaving in n their wake ake dead and d dying horses Even fild ld Artillery c can eUn n be carried car by the auto trucks All AlI of this should have been realized before One of the lasting benefits of the e Sedition c J will be the modernizing of the military y transportation tation brunch bianch fussed asset the Ule The auto truck h has g stern test lor l'or the present the auto truck trains With Un the Iy army anny in Mexico are not worl working under in mn y definite system rue Tiie organization of the truck U train of the United S States fates army has not been dm decided s upon Neither either has the type of truck to tu bo DI us used d In theor the Id or organization atlon been Men decided upon Captains andr and r lieutenants mileS mile mile- t are bus busy train taking g note notus vs rs to net S age nn gasoline requirements also as to stability r a lId and of the different makes of trucks trucks- In In Inthe l the e service J The drivers are arc a mixed lot Some Koine are ure re regular lar larI larJ I J Y J 2 mUCK r 27 J Y woo sc n r h ayra k ii j rk n a v Q x a i St k c t L s. s r ro r k S S yn r 2 a to kA A ai nr r. r Jyh n f r Tr v CJ y Y ark r. r j 2 i r U v k n yar l j r w y uy s y vY M an army driver he would 3 a be In for fora frh r the guardhouse a considerable period for t insubordination More than once the army r In Mexico has been forced force i i i Illegally eb but practically a Y to Y i. i JA discipline i ne so some e of the ci civilian vilian drivers The m st C Y Y startling Inc Incident e t of f this i army enlisted men led deta to drive the type of ot truck tentatively adopted The others are chauffeurs chauffeurs feurs of all sorts adv adventurers from all over the country college men in search of experience and even taxIcab ex drivers from New York city With some of the trucks under probation are men from the factories It Is a more picturesque body than any assemblage assemblage assemblage as as- of mule skinners The types are more varied and the views upon things In n general are more interesting Moreover the army chauffeur In the aggregate Is naturally more Intelligent than the mule skinner whose close association with the mule has given him some of the traits of that noble animal To the average army chauffeur the stolid-looking stolid lumbering auto truck Is a beautiful and a living thing On the road to Namiquipa I listened to a colored sergeant of the Ninth cavalry who had been detailed detailed de de- de- de tailed to drive a ton five-ton truck He was addressing his vehicle Yes Betsy old girl he was sa saying Ah knows that this here cheap government gasoline aint the proper nourishment for a toned high-toned lady truck like you ou But when we gets to Ahm goIng goIng going go- go Ing to put some of that nice cool spring water in your our radiator That'll freshen you up a n whole lot Betsy Does you all want a little more oil in your bearings bearIngs bearIngs bear- bear Ings Betsy If you ou does jes' jes say so Taint no trouble at all for me Ah All jes' jes thought you might because your pretty engine was breathing a little hard on that last hill All Ah dont don't want any of them fresh New York chauffeurs to think you ou was complaining complaining complaining com com- Betsy because me and you ou knows that you dont don't complain The colored trooper adjusted some pink and green ribbon which was tied to the truck radiator The whistle of the truck master blew The sergeant sergeant sergeant ser ser- geant whirled the crank listened for foran foran foran an Instant to his motor and swung Betsy Into line Une with her mates One of the difficulties which the captain of an auto truck encounters Is In maintaining discipline with a mixed company of ot civilians and soldiers Civilian drivers ers have their own 0 notions as to how auto trucks should be driven It Is the theory of I the captain that the auto train should have a 11 perfect perfect perfect per per- alignment with the trucks a hundred yards apart The civilian drivers cannot see the necessity for this Some of f f them want to show that their trucks can travel the fastest Others Insist that their trucks be carefully handled The result Is that the captain n fuming Inwardly has hns to be a diplomat when he Is in command of a n mixed train of trucks One of these trains started out at the rate of 12 1 miles an hour A short distance out of Columbus It encountered bad roads A new truck slowed down and began to pick the going The captain shot cross country from the rear In his standard runabout to sec see what was cutting his train In two the trouble he demanded of ot the civilian ci civilian cl- cl vilian vUlan driver No trouble at nil all replied the driver nut Hut eight miles Is all that I 1 am going to do with this load ao and over ocr this sort of road You can go ahead with those Barney If It you rou ou want to Ill I'll catch up up with you OU after half halt of those trains are wrecked The captain was a trifle angry He lie reminded the driver that all trains were ordered kept Intact It was no cross country race ruce It was a military track train The driver was obdurate and thet the t train had hud to slow down to a reasonable pace The driver was right though very unmilitary The loads louds which the trucks were wore carrying were not not needed In u a hurry But ut If It he had happened to be bo sort happened to a bunch of 01 LOCK H. ia LU 1 v. v u drivers who were shipped out to handle a train made up of a certain uniform make of trucks They got 50 miles into Mexico and then decided derided that they did not like the country at all They agreed that the United States government was US foolish to go in at all Their TheIl spokesman went to the captain and Informed Informed In In- informed formed him that they had decided to go back They did not like the food the water was not Iced and there was no beer In the godforsaken en place Whereupon the captain gave orders to the ser sergeant of his guard The noncommissioned officer in Informed Informed In In- formed the drivers that the first of them who turned back to Columbus would be systematically shot up The drivers protested that that they were American citizens and wanted their rights The sergeant listened unmoved as he be drew up his squad into a convenient place for the shooting Tho The drivers finally concluded that they were too far away to consult their attorneys s and the train proceeded to Namiquipa Camping out away from a garrisoned town the truck trains take the same game formation that was used b by the emigrant trains when they were forced to guard against Indian attacks at nt night The trucks are distributed in a circle with the captains captain's runabout the cook truck and the ammunition t truck uck in the center Placed In this formation the truck train is In a difficult position for a bandit band to rush No doubt many a band has been watching those valuable trains of food and ammunition longing to pounce upon them they but refrained A well well- ordered truck train could get Into battle formation In a few minutes and the Springfield rifles would be covering every point of attack very effectively elY A quarter of a million dollars In gold was shipped In with one train guarded by 50 picked ed marksmen Bandit bands knowing of this probably probably probably ably longed to rush It but they did not make the attempt At night In Its proper formation with its outposts alert the well-conducted well train should be impossible to surprise But civilian drivers are hard to convince of the necessity for remaining alert They will lock their ammunition In the toolboxes toolboxes tool toolboxes boxes and while they are arc painfully solicitous of the mechanism of their trucks they have no regard regard regard re re- re- re gard for the mechanism of the Springfield rifles which are issued to them They have no respect for shoulder straps traps A Atypical Atypical Atypical typical Incident was one near Espia The truck train drew Into the place hot and dust dusty The news was spread that there was a real hole 20 0 feet deep In the place Soldier guards and civilian drivers made a n dash for it As they neared It they heard heald a delicious splashing but a en ry halted them Sorry boys bos he said but theres there's an officer bathing there now and the orders are arc that nobody Is allowed In till he gets through P PA A big taxIcab ex-taxIcab driver from N Nc New w v York proceeded proceed proceed- ed to peel off oft his army uniform In another minute minute minute min min- ute he dived Into the 1 pool with n a mighty splash He cume came to the surface and grinned cheerfully atthe atthe at nt the Indignant expression of the second lieutenant outraged at the fu fact t that his privacy had been disturbed dis disturbed dis- dis apparently by the enlisted manOh manOh manOh man Oh that's all right shouted the auto driver I dont don't mind mild If you are a little bit dirty Come on In The rhe water Is fine But one of or these da days s 's the truck train will be bo The drivers will all nil be enlisted men There will be a u fixed rate of or speed and the trucks will all be he up to determined specifications When the truck train Is perfected the mule train will go Also Alo the time prIde of the cavalry will be trailed In n the scented gasoline dust of the auto auto- truck train |