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Show f Ii UNITED STATE S S f' rapidity and perfeetlon of f2lT,a working arrangements with which there ;ih recently rar-y rar-y ''m'I J r'11' "'oblll.utloii "f one- Ql&M fourth of the American standing Vvlj army on the Mexican frontier yw proved a revelation to nil but 5vi the very limited number of poo- Syi pie who bavo been In a position ig- I to keep In touch with the inllt- "" tary progress of the nation (lu ll rlr.R the pant few years. Inel- mtmm dcNtally, this object lesson under virtual war conditions has an Bwored not n few of the criticisms recently made against Uncle Sum's military establishment In speeches In congress. Indeed, this linsly rendezvous rendez-vous In Texas discounted to a gnat extent, us nothing could, the chief bug a boo of the recent alarmist utterances, namely the alleged humllcap sustained In having our fighting forci b scattered . - .(Oss v7 tuMJi m SKI' JSOJCr&VTVr- ' ? . rTt , " ! ' . r- -r'.'.'v r" ff,7Z?llr. , A all over me country at widely separated military mili-tary posts. Kxtrrme mobility,, which In the case of the American army baa been so strikingly put to the test by the double quick advance on the Itlo Grande, la the one attribute above all othera for which our military expertB have boon working over since the Spanish-American war. The United States needs a mobile armed force as does no other nation on the globe. Indeed, It Is absolutely Imperative. The explanation 1b found, of course. In the ImmenBo extent of the republic and our far-flung far-flung const line. To protect so extensive a territory needs an armed force that can move w ith extreme rapidity rrorn place to place. The fact that broad oceans separate us from the nations that, In the event of trouble, would prove our most formidable foes, presumably Insures us reasonable warning of attempted Invcslon but even with this leeway It needs quick moving soldiery to rush at short notice to any threatened point of attack. The circumstance that tho rushing of troops to our southern boundary left the Atlantic coast Tlrtunlly unprotected Is being made nn argument for a larger regular army by the advucatrs of such an organization. However, our military experts have not waited upon a larger army to perfect a state of military pre pa redness. J!ut whatever the merits of this question of a large standing army the military experts have not waited upon Its solution. They have gone right ahead, bending every energy to make a force of considerably less than MO. 000 men equal In emergency to a body of soldiery several times ss numerous. To that end t'nele Sam's soldiery, with duo acknowledgement of the njod'rn tendency of spe-elalizatlon. have been rendered as versatile as possible In the arts of warfare. And, best of all, there baa been cultivated the "fire alarm" propensity to cut and run for a scene of trouble at the shortest warning In their part of the preparations, pre-parations, too, the administrative officiant In every brunch of the army have kept constantly constant-ly In mind this aim and purpose. Of all the preparations for war which have gone forward under a clear sky perhaps the most wonderful have bad to do with the transportation trans-portation arrangements. Our military experts have awakened to the fact that the United States Is the greatest railroad country In the world and that even In the event of the mewt serious conflict It Is unlikely that many of these communicative linen would bo seriously Interfered with. Why not then, make t!ese annlhila'ors of time and spare a military asset. as-set. Indeed It Is Imperative to do so If the army is to be rendered a mohlle forcf, for no mher utility can serve ss the twentieth cen tury substitute for the forced marches of other oth-er days. Consequently, whereas Kuropean nations, na-tions, with their circumscribed areas and perfect per-fect h'ghwsys hsve bt ea experimenting with military automobiles and c'aer Innovations our war department offirlals r.ve been wrstllr.g with the problems of the makeup snd handling han-dling of troop trains, and designing spec! il kitchen cars and hospital cars and the like. The first tryout of the plans that have been In the making these past dozen years has come In the case of the recent hurtled advance to Texas. If a chance visitor could have been In Wash-lng'on Wash-lng'on In the early days of the Spanish war and then again when the recent hurry call to the Gulf roaat was given he could not fail to be Impressed with the contrast. the turmoil and confusion of 190R with the well oiled precision pre-cision of the present execution of prearranged plans. That 20 000 men could be moved a distance dis-tance of thousands of mile along a score of different arteries of traffic without apparently d e ranging ;, .;., ' ? -y vw. B lightest j- i ' . J degree the ' " " , ' o rdlnary , , routine st t, the war do- U , . , . , part ment W S , ( . . ' ' ; . h eadquar- ""'J t ' '"t ters In X',,' 'J Washington .' , " Is a tribute, CTh " C first of all. 1 N "N; .La. ''' "'' of course, CiTNVMjT stxvfyj to the re- J y o rganized army with Its general staff or board of directors, direc-tors, but In even greater degree Is It evidence of the value of that comparatively new Institution, Insti-tution, the V. 8. Army War College. The newspaper-rending public has, been told repeatedly these past few years that It Is the special province prov-ince of e officers detailed to duty In the gn at red brick building, overlooking the Potomac In Washington, to have on band anil to keep constantly up to date detailed plans of campaign cam-paign for use In the event of war with any other nation. However, the present Instance affords the country at large its first real ex-amplificatlon ex-amplificatlon of the practical value of the Information In-formation thnl Is kept under such close guard In the plan vault and li e map rooms of the War College. It was shown by the rapidity with which orders or-ders were formulated and issm d for this sudden sud-den movement of the largest body of troops that has been handled at any one time since the Spanish war that the War College has de pendable Information as to Just what can be expected of the railroad In an emergency. This showed, too. the wisdom of I'm ! Sam's policy of keeping bis war plans up to th minute min-ute by revising them every time there Is a charge of railroad schedules for. In this Instance, In-stance, most of the troops travtled by ngular trains Instead of by special trains and the latter lat-ter would presumably be resorted to einly In the rase of extreme emergency. Another feature of the plans' for the army In action for which the big trek to Texas has proven a most beneficial dress rehearsal Is tint which contemplates reliance upon the telegraph tele-graph system of the country In the movement of troops. The use of the network of wires covering the continent. In the event of war. has been the subject of study on the part of the mi'ltary experts that has gone band In hand with the invcstlga'len as to how- the railroad rail-road arrangements could b made to proe 'e the mobility ef the military force. This w.k-ed w.k-ed out Just as anticipated e dy orders were iksucd for the advance to Texas and there poured Into the department a continual s'ream of teb grams that kept the ofTVIa's sdvlsed In detail as to the movement of .'Very body of troops headed for the rendezvous la the 1'iie Star State. It may be a trifle early to talk about the lessons les-sons to be drawn from this tastp of war I t one Is alreadv apt are nt. It eniphnsl es that the field artillery yet bss a very Important place In our mi Itary paraphernal! Thro has been a disposition on the part of soire reo'-l of late years, to regard sny considerable amount of field artllery ss not the most use'ul equipment for the American army. Sue1" advocates advo-cates took the view that I'nile Sam o gM to put bis money Into heavy coast di fense g itil Jimt as he is concentrating Ma naval expenditure expendi-ture upon batt'enhlps of the heaviest class However, the unexpected call to Texas, emphl sizing as It did, vistas of trouble that hod been completely ver'emked In contemplation of the "yellow peril," called attention to the possible sore need tor ample field artillery under cer- . i ' ;y. t. ...c-f. , : 'a tain condl- , ,' "-' ' tlon8- And tT . , , yV"V? Incldently It ' , . f ' conv eyed ' " " ',' t . ; the hint ' ' " ' V m o u n tain ' .';". 1 ' : ,t 'i;"f batteries. In , " .jyN svhleh gun 3,, r7I tilt Ion are lAtty- Yy "packed" on mule back might prove as Invaluable In the mountains e)f Mexico as they have under somewhat similar conditions in the Philippines. Similarly the conditions existing at the scene of the present campaign are such as to emphasize empha-size the fact that there Is yet a very Important sphere for the cavalry In the army. It as though the crisis In this unexpected quarter quar-ter were a providential answer to the arguments argu-ments of those persons In end out of official life who have been urging in recent years that the foot -soldier should be practically the whole thing In our military complement. It must be apparent to everybody who Is even casually conversant with geographical conditions condi-tions that If I'ncle Sam Is to keep peace "From the Canal to Canada" he will have need of a considerable cavalry force and a force provided pro-vided with the best possible cIhss of mounts. There are mountainous localities In the region to the south of us where only cavalry could operate successfully. Neither automobiles nor yet aeroplanes would serve ss a substitute. And Incidentally It may be noted that conditions on the Mexican border have afforded an opportunity op-portunity much earlier than was anticipated to test the practical military value of the airship The servle ability of the sky craft ffr scouting operations ought to be pretty well attes cd ere Ce troops return to their home stations. No better theater of war, real or mimic, than the southwest cou'd be chosen for demonstrating demon-strating the progress made during the rast few veers, both in the methods and equipment of the V. 8. Signal corps. The general public, with Its craving for the srectaeular. has beird most regarding the Introduction of the sero-plane sero-plane as a utensil of warfare but ss a n a'ter of fact the S'gnal Corpw has recen'lv Introduced Intro-duced Innovations far more Important from a mll!t".ry stsndpe int than the aerb l scouts, and these cotimtinif atlve utll'tles and nov Pits fo" day snd n'g'U s'gnallng would obviously rrov especially viluab e In rot'gn conn ry wher- there are few elst!ns telephone or te'i g-nrh wires snd whre the erect'on of sich line we. Id b diecult and expet slve. The Sign -I Corts Is fu'Iy abreast of the times ( n I of te military estab'ishn-pnt of any otter n ition) In its exrerlti et:ts with wireless tebgr pl-y snd wlr-less fetephory and It has develop d some vety Ingcrrous expd!ents for the use of rap Id'y n-otlrg orce in the fle'd. ss for P star e the auto-trVgraj h car or telephone snd te'e-grsph te'e-grsph station on wheels and the apparatus v I.lrh ftitbi a indented 'roof er to lay er reel In a tc'e'Ione wire automatically while his lorse Is a' felt gillop, the rider manwMle con t nulng teb f hone conversation over this e'a?rIc w Ire. It Is eTeofcd that when the Joint operations of the am y srd navy In the south, hsve t sssel 'Yo Mstory th record of operttlons wll' sf-ford sf-ford argtie-ent one way or another as to wh t stall b done with the V. t. Marne Cores Cur readers Tl recall that thia force, the "sol Mers ef the rsvy" has been for Borne tl ne past a 'ne of con'en'lon In service and oCTclal circles. cir-cles. Many (ersoca bavt contended for years past that this body of Be a soldiers who are presumably pre-sumably no longer needed on our warships as they were In the days when most of the sailors were foreigners, should be transferred to the army. Some time ago all the marines were taken ta-ken off the warships, but later by order of congress con-gress they had to bo restored. Now that hundreds hun-dreds of the marines are scheduled to participate partici-pate In extensive land operations. either Independently Inde-pendently or In conjunction with the soldiery of the n pilar army It Is hoped that evidence will bo forthcoming as to whether or not they would render better service If actually enrolled on the army roster. The "team work" of the army and navy which Is a consistent policy with I'nrlo Sam Is being fo'lowed along with other up to-date Ideas In tho oierailotis on the Gulf coast. Co-operation between be-tween military and nnval forces Is. of course, an axiom with all the great powers of the world, but many of the Kuropean nations which have no very extensive sea coasts have not given the attention to this that has been bestowed In the United States. It will be remembered that In most recent war games on the Atlantic coast there was Joint responsibility between the two aims of the service. However many persons had little expectation that such concerted action would !i advisable when planning operations not In reference to a foe from overseas, but relative rela-tive to possible disturbance In a neighbor republic repub-lic on our own continent. In this respect the present activity has proven something of a revelation. rev-elation. Put It hs been realized that not only can the warships render a service by a patrol of tie Gulf coast but are also a factor In that they can land for shore service thousands of seamen, ti allied by regular smnll arms practice for service serv-ice as Infantrymen and Pght artillerymen. One of ti e marvels of the recent quick work In the souihwist Is found In the very creditable manner In which the commissary department has met tie responsibilities suddenly thrust upon up-on II. Here again there has been most gratify-tig gratify-tig con'rrst to the conditions of the Spanish wrr p rod, but It must be remembered that Unc'e !-'am has trade very tangible progress ttise i s' few yeets In the very vital problems of s' bs'st'ng troops In the field. The army has n t de i.' advantageous use of tireless cooking by t' e ms of fl eless cookers on wheels, designed to eisik 'he food while the military force to wl !( ti e rrdpmcnt Is attached Is on the march i i.d o 'ae the meal, piping hot snd ready to srve t'- minute the force halts for the noon-e'r noon-e'r ' !'e or to pitch camp at night. T "e h.s been plenty of work too, for the en-z' en-z' - corts of the army In this "Texas cam-t cam-t . (. " for litre have been big ramps to lay ...i -o Bv ollt n.K-h plies In various sizes up to a ' : i n:il cat? p overlng Km) acrs means ; n I" ir.'c an'oi nt eif work tor the surveying "in d tie n-n- makers In the field The en-g en-g r i 'e I'm ly (o find some opportunity 'er ' re' ' - .t work, Including that with ' 1 : : b . searchlights conveyed by au- 'o- i r ils and ere the "war game" Is con- i re likely to have more or less prae- i' g btifld ng And finally the ojera- t'i-s ro.o.n soldiers In the fb'ld cannot fall o "" is shire of weirk for the hospital corps I ire so by reason of the effect upon the ti.- o nary of the oTcers and men of so sci'de -i a r i t g from a redd to a warm climate nd In 1" st part of all this practical try-out n' on rt'l'ixry preparedness Is that not only wi'l 'he rn and file get experience but the r g' r o ' -eis of the service from Gen. Ionard V. emd. ovn. will tersonally direct or observe the I nfor'a.'.t movements, thereby learning ai frst hand th tactical and strategic. !cssna lb vo've d. |