| Show A afo ufo TT n i dp if 70 aad 1 alt i c IS a P 0 kc 0 mexican campaign shows their usefulness 14 ful ness over army mule and cavalry horse flesh and blood cant compete with steel and gasoline down on the desert and mountain t rails 4 SORRO W FUL and prophetic army mule stood beside a soto cactus near the american end of the long dusty road from columbus new mexico to natal cuipa quipa old mexico so writes W 0 mcgeehan in the new york tribune bu ne down the trail from the base of the punitive expedition swept a train of 30 auto t trucks ticks r they were heavily laden with I 1 the variety of cargoes that are required ed for an army in the field each aab truck carried four or five troopers in olive drab squatted insecurely on top of the load the road was uneven it was full of ruts but the auto truck train glided along tit at the rate of from eight to ten miles an hour the vehicles kept a perfect alignment the troopers swore softly but earnestly us as the trucks jolted even as the army mule watched the sweating swearing truck train disappeared into a cloud of dust beyond the border line then the mule tilted back his dejected head and gave vent to a secret sorrow in one far ar reaching vocal effort beffart As though mocking his grief the horns of the auto trucks tooted back derisively ri in the distance the grief of that army mule was the grief of othel othe 10 lo with ills his occupation gone ile he sunk behind the soto ca cactus actus and subsided into pai painful meditation he ele had bad just seen his finish he realized at that moment that the army mule would never again hold a high place among the factors which win battles ile he realized that practical poets po ets would no longer sing of the virtues which the ar army my mule could display upon great emergencies emergence es he was already obsolete down and out even i ven the m mule ule skinner with the picturesque vocabulary cab and the hard words had abandoned him the mule skinner was now driving one of those auto trucks and was addressing it with strained politeness when he spoke to it ht at all ail it was all wrong by the martyred marty red mule ot of matanzas of which the army bards sting sang during the spanish american war lays days it was all wrong I 1 th there e re was no use to pull against the auto truck ile he had tried it when they hitched him to the rear of one he decided to drag the thing back over the desert but instead he was relentlessly dragged on his haunches for a mile and he gave it up the columbus expedition has demonstrated that in the matter of army transportation the mule Is de adIong dead long live the auto truck I 1 it had already been demonstrated at the battle of the marne when motor vehicles checked the german advance and saved france but our war department moves with excessive deliberation it clung tenaciously to its faith in the mule until the first auto truck train went galumphing galum phing into mexico making three times the distance that a mule could make over roads which to no motor driven vehicle could be expected to travel the consequence was a rusti rush order for auto trucks and drivers the auto trucks are standing up wonderfully well they plow through the alkali dust up to tile the hubs they jolt over the rocky p places laces they flounder through the sandy wastes that grind the bearings and they puff through the mountain pass passes es they go anywhere the mule will go ard and they get there in better timp time while the long trail fro from m columbus to natal nami cuipa quipa Is lined with the carcasses of mules and horses the auto trucks go rumbling on in their work of keeping the field army supplied with food and ammunition they perform new miracles upon every new emergency there are several hundred auto trucks tit at the army base at columbus on a pinch those trucks could move an entire brigade in one day twice as far as all the horses and mules in the world could move it IL this Is true despite the fact that ninny many racked because of bad badly of the trucks are driving not only does the successful test of the auto truck spell the passing of the mule train it also means the passing of cavalry the most picturesque tur esque branch of the service even cavalry officers will admit that expedition la in the punitive three or four auto trucks will get a company of infantry forced march as ahr best twice as far on a mounted troop of cavalry could travel cavalry charges tire are rare in these days of 0 rapid the horses are ace used fire rifles and machine guns the front where aney operate only to get the men to as infantry when the gasoline fed mounts much faster than the horses can get them there so it begins to look bad for the c cavalry horsy horst the united states army of th the ellear near future will there will be few gasoline travel extensively on infantry hikes and tb ure will more heartbreaking heart breaking rides leaving in their wild cavalry le be few more wake dead and dying horses even field artillery tr ur Ullery tIllery can be car carried led by the auto trucks realized allied be before ore one all of this should have been re of the lasting benefits of the punitive be the modernizing of the military transportation will branch the auto truck has passed pass edthe the stern for test the present the auto truck trains alth the in mexico are not working under ji auy uy definite army system the organization of tile the truck tr train aln of the united states army has not been decided upon neither has the type of truck tu be used in the organization been decided upon captains and taking notes 1 s to net mileage lieutenants are busy and gasoline require requirements menti also its aa to stability trucks truck s in of different malies end and reliability of the service I 1 the the drivers ara are a mixed lot some borne are regular D 0 0 rat 0 ilk 2 4 k jk M t g clr esaw army enlisted men deta detailed kled to drive tile the type of truck tentatively adopted the others are chauffeurs of all sorts adventurers from nil all over the country college men in search of experience and even ex taxicab 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 sem blage binge of mule skinners the types are more varied and the views upon things in general are more interesting moreover the army chauffeur in the aggregate Is naturally more intelligent than the mule skinner whose close association rith the mule has given him some of the traits of that noble animal to the borage average army chauffeur the stolid looking lumbering auto truck is a beautiful and a living thing on the road to I 1 listened to a colored sergeant of the ninth cavalry who had been detailed to drive a five ton truck ile he was addressing his vehicle yes betsy old girl he was saying ali ah knows that this here cheap government gasoline aint the proper nourishment for a high toned lady indy truck like you ou but blut when we gets to Coral litas ahm ahin going to put some of that nice cool spring water in y your our radiator freshen you up a whole lot betsy does ion all want a little more oil in your bearings betsy if you does jes say so taint no trouble at all for me all ali jes thought you might because your pretty engine was breathing a little hard on that last hill all ali dont want any of them fresh new york chauffeurs to think you was complaining pla ining illing betsy because in me e and you ou 1 knows knovs that you dont complain the colored trooper adjusted some pink and green ribbon which was tied to the truck radiator the whistle of the truck master blew tile the sergeant whirled the crank listened solicitously for an instant to his motor and swung betsy into line with her mates one of the difficulties which the captain of an auto truck encounters Is in maintaining disc discipline pline with a mixed company ot of civilians find and soldiers civilian drivers have their own notions as to how auto trucks should be driven jt it Is the theory of the captain that the auto train should have a perfect alignment with the trucks a hundred yards I 1 apart the civilian drivers cannot see the necessity for this some of 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 fuming inwardly has to be a diplomat when lie he Is in command of a mixed train of trucks one oft of these bese trains started out tit at the rate of V 12 miles an hour A short ol distance stance out of columbus it encountered bad roads A new truck track slowed down and began to pick the going the captain shot cross country from the rear in ills his standard runabout to see what was cutting his train in two the trouble he demanded of the civilian driver no troubie trouble at all replied the driver hut but eight miles Is all that I 1 am going to do with this load and over this sort of road you con can go ahead with those barney Old nelds it if you want to ill catch up with you after half of those those trains are wre wrecked eked ane capt captain tin was a trifle angry he reminded the driver that all trains were ordered kept intact it was no cross country race it was a military track train the driver was obdurate and the train had to slow blow down to ti a reasonable pace the driver was right though very unmilitary the the loads which the trucks w were eee carrying were not needed la in a hurry but it ho had bad happened to 40 WM Z y v y i 0 sv i 4 t h 50 t IJ AS A S i S ag yg A ww Z F fan an army driver lie he would ild be in the guardhouse for it considerable period for insubordination more than once the army Z in mexico has been forced illegally but practically to discipline some of the t lie civilian drivers the nast most startling inc incident went of this sort happened to a bunch of 0 new york taxicab out to handle a train drivers who were certain uniform make of trucks made up of a they got 50 miles into mexico and then decided that they did not like tho the country at fill all they rhey agreed that the united states government was foolish to go in at all their spokesman went to the captain and informed 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 place whereupon the captain gave orders to the sergeant of his guard the noncommissioned officer informed the drivers that the first of them who turned back to columbus would be systematically shot up the drivers protested that they were american citizens and wanted their rights the sergeant listened unmoved as he drew up ills his squad into a convenient place tor for the shooting the drivers finally concluded that they were too far away to consult their attorneys and the train proceeded to camping out away from a garrisoned town the truck trains train take the same formation that was used by the emigrant trains when they were forced to guard against indian attacks tit nt night the trucks are distributed in a circle with the captains runabout the cook truck and the amin ammunition truck in the center placed in tins this formation the truck train Is in a difficult position for a bandit hand blind to 0 rush no doubt ninny many a band has been watching those valuable trains of food and ammunition longing to pounce upon them burthey they refrained A yell 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 A quarter of a million dollars in gold was shipped lit in with one train guarded by 50 picked marksmen bandit bands knowing of this probably longed to rush it but they did not make the attempt at night in its proper formation with its outposts alert the well conducted train should be impossible to surprise but civilian drivers are hard to convince of the necessity tor for remaining alert they will lock their ammunition in tire tool boxes and while they are painfully solicitous of the mechanism of their trucks they have no regard for the mechanism of the springfield rifles which are issued to them they have no respect for shoulder straps A typical incident was one near the truck train drew into the place hot and dusty the news was spread that there was a real swimming summing hole 20 1 0 feet deep in the place soldier guards and civilian drivers made a dash for it As they neared it they heard a del delicious lelous splashing but a sentry halted them sorry boys lie he said but theres an officer bathing there now and the orders aro are that nobody la Is allowed in till lie he gets through A big ex taxicab driver from now new york proceeded to peel off ills his army uniform in another minute ut he dived into the pool with a mighty splash lie he came to the surface and grinned cheerfully at tile the indignant expression of the second lieutenant outraged at the filet fact that his privacy had been dl disturbed apparently by the enlisted man oil all righta shouted the auto driver 1 I dont mind it if you are arc a little bit dirty come on in the water is fine but one of these days the truck train will be systematized the drivers will all be enlisted men there will be a fixed rate of 0 speed and the trucks will all he be up to determined let specifications when the truck train Is perfected the mule train will go also the pride of the cavalry will be trailed in the gasoline scented dust of the train |
