Show MEN AT WAR SAYS EXPERT gen ben sir william robertson gives a graphic facts about present struggle DEATH TOLL IS APPALLING british in franco france fired tons of ammunition in five or six weeks how transportation difficulties are overcome london gen sir william robertson in it speech recently gave a graphic impression of some of the extraordinary aspects of the present war it has become merely trite to observe that the war lias has now completely overshadowed every other occupation and interest in the world but the extent to which it has done tills this Is suggested in a most lor forcible cible way by some figures which general robertson employed in inthe the armies of all the he belligerents lie he said there tire are now men which excludes the great ci civilian villAn armies behind the front in the fran co prussian war the total of all casualties was less than while in this war the killed alone can be counted bythe by the million during the past five or six weeks we have I 1 suppose said general robertson expended some tons of ammunition which has bad to be moved by road rail mil and sea from the factories in england to the guns in france and man handled probably not less than half a dozen times great transportation task two hundred thousand tons of ammunition means rather more than 10 DOO carloads as measured by the miniature freight ears cars commonly loading about twelve tons that are used in england general robertson suggest but any r railroad manager with whom nhom one talks will promptly make good the omission emission that the mere transportation por tation of this one item of f war supplies at a time when freight cars have been sent to france by the thousand constitutes a terrific drain on oil the hie coun arys capacity to move things to transport ammunition Is a particularly ticul arly delicate and dangerous business an and it Is only because of splendid organization aal high efficiency among railroad employees that there have been so very few accidents and practically no real disasters as incidents to his service general Rober lson paid a special tribute to the men who have organized and carried oli on this branch of it war work comparing the scale and scope of the present war with former struggles Ze beneral robertson was particularly interesting te and impressive ile he observed that the greatest peculiarity of the present war is in the colossal numbers of men employed at the front As a motter matter of fact fachie he omitted to ito emphasize his bis figures by observing that the grent great proportion of the civil population immediately engaged in work for the support of the army is quite as impressive a peculiarity of this struggle A warfare of machinery it Is a warfare of machinery and anda mechanisms many of them new andi and heretofore almost untried these have required to be produced to be tested and to have great bodies of men trained for using them comparing the present war witti with that of 1870 between germany and france general robertson observed that in the 1870 war armies were counted by the hundred thousand and at the battle of Gra Gravelot gravelotte tc where where tile the heaviest losses were incurred the total casualties were only about men on both sides while for the whole war the total casualties of both sides were less than half a million in the present war the killed alone can be counted by the million while the total number of men engaged amounts to nearly in fact this war at Is not A as in the past a war merely of opposing armies but a war of nations and there Is not today a time man or woman in the empire who Is not doing sorn something ething either to help or to hinder the vv winning Inning of the war A man of great distinction told me tile the ther other 0 day that he esaf estimated the weight of purely military effort at only 25 per cent of the bhole the remaining 75 per cent being strictly speaking of a nonmilitary nature find and made up of many elements aarl agriculture culture f food shipping diplomacy etc I 1 think he Is probably not far wrong and when people ask me as they sometimes 10 do lo how the he war la is getting on I 1 feel inclined to reply why ask me why not ask yourself and the re remainder of the 75 per cent 11 allies outnumber enemy general figure fleuret of 24 as the number of men actually engaged in the military operations Is probably based on as good information as any man in the world posses possesses possess s the british general staff knows nil fill about the armies of the entente conn tries and knows all that anybody outside berlin and vienna knows about those fit of the central powers ile he suggest how tile the numbers are now tit dh aided between the two sides but it Is very certain that tile the entente Elat nations ions decidedly outweigh their enemies in mere numbers the germanic powers on tile other hand have mhd great advantage of shorter lines lind easier communications with russia comparatively inactive if lanot at all certain that the weight of numbers la Is how now very deel decidedly deadly in favor of the en ante peoples but the weight of machinery Is de decidedly cidely dely to their advant advantage ag in tills connection there has been some intimation in petrograd Petro grad recently ot of I 1 the possibility that japan might be called upon in some fashion to take a more active part in the struggle the first suggestion ot of this sort which came from russia was in a brief dispatch saying haying the government had bad categorically denied persistent rumors that japan might be employed to bring pressure against russia with the purpose of convincing russia that it would be highly undesirable for her to repudiate her obligations to her allies such sich a suggestion of course would be most unfortunate and the dental denial from petrograd Petro grad Is unquestionably absolutely correct according to the best authorities here worlds greatest reserve but while the employment of japanese force as an argument with it russia us is quite unthinkable there has been a renewal of the suggestion that japans magnificent army raight might yet require to be employed in some way I 1 in it the european field it represents the greatest reserve of completely prepared military force that ever stood behind an active military campaign in the world if there were only means of moving it japan could readily and quickly put or it if necessary soldiers into the field to move any considerable proportion of such a force even into the nearest fighting areas by water Is a ridiculous impossibility at this time but i there has been serious disc discussion assion I 1 am told at some of the recent conferences among allied leaders of the possibility po lity of bringing japanese soldiers to europe by way of the Trans siberian railway rUlIN Nay today tills would necessitate an immense expansion of the carrying capacity of that route A very large part of it has now been double tracked and it if it shall be recognized by the end of this year that the war Is likely to continue several years the further development of Trans siberian tonnage capacity might be found foaud feasible and even necessary one thing is certain and that is that on neither side Is there tit at present any such prejudice as formerly existed against introducing cans upon the european battlefields the conception of this war as a war of the whole world has been strengthened very greatly since the beginning of the present year it Is looked upon upon by the western powers now as every blodys war a var nar in which everybody has not only an interest but a duty to perform that conception has affected the attitude attl tude of remote find and detached peoples people sto to a s striking extent for example I 1 amon among tribes in africa which would not be presumed to know anything about what is happening in europe it Is said that there is a very considerable sid erable interest and a desire to help the western nations |