UNCLE SAM'S ARMY IN ACTION

...and in a dozen other ways to combine mobility with efficiency...

...There has been cultivated the "fire alarm" propensity to cut and run for a scene of trouble at the shortest warning...

...One of the marvels of the present quick work in the Southwest is found in the manner in which the commissary department has met the responsibilities suddenly thrust upon it...

...Indeed it is imperative to do so if the army is to be rendered a mobile force...

...The United States needs a mobile armed force as does no other nation on the globe...

...If a chance visitor could have been in Washington in the early days of the Spanish War and then again when the present hurry call to the Gulf Coast was given he could not fail to be impressed with the contrast,—the turmoil and confusion of 1898 with the greater precision of the present execution of prearranged plans...

...The "team work" of the army and navy, which is a constant policy with your Uncle Sam, will bring into activity the marine corps...

...And even the most aggressive military "sharps" are forced to admit that perhaps this is just as well, for the biggest standing army in the world would not afford an effective patrol for our vast frontiers...

...They have gone right ahead, bending every energy to make a force of considerably less than 100,000 men equal in emergency to a body of soldiery several times as numerous...

...It has been shown by the success of this sudden movement of the largest body of troops that has been handled at any one given time since the Spanish War that the United States Army War College has dependable information as to just what can be expected of the railroads in an emergency...

...Portable ovens that have lately been introduced have solved the problem of fresh bread for the troops in the field and incidentally the army has evolved a new form of concentrated bread that is the biggest kind of an improvement on the "hard tack" of other days...

...They realize, most of them, that it always has been, and perhaps always will be, the sentiment of the majority of the American people that the nation should rely upon a small or at most a moderate-sized standing army, with dependence upon militia and volunteers in the event of serious trouble...

...The use of the network of wires covering the continent in the event of war has been studied by the military experts, hand in hand with the investigation as to how railroad arrangements could be made to promote the mobility of the military force...

...The engineers are also likely to find some opportunity for their searchlight work,—including that with their new portable searchlights conveyed by automobile trucks,—and ere the "war game" is concluded they are likely to have more or less practice in bridge building...

...To protect so expansive a territory needs an armed force that can move with extreme rapidity from place to place...

...to discover concentrated foods that will hold life-sustaining qualities in small bulk...

...The explanation is found, of course, in the immense extent of the republic and our far-flung coast line...

...Our War Department officials have been wrestling with the problems of the make-up and handling of troop trains and designing special kitchen cars and hospital cars and the like...

...The day orders were issued for the advance to Texas there poured into the Department a continual stream of telegrams that kept the officials advised in detail as to the movement of every body of troops headed for the rendezvous in the Lone Star State...

...However, our military experts have not waited upon a larger army to perfect a state of military preparedness...

...Our military experts understand that the United States is the greatest railroad country in the world and that even in the event of a serious conflict it is unlikely that many of these lines could be seriously crippled...

...Here again there has been most striking contrast to the conditions of the Spanish War period, but it must be remembered that Uncle Sam has made very tangible progress these past few years in the very vital problem of subsisting troops in the field...

...The public has heard much regarding the introduction of the aeroplane in warfare...

...Why not then make these annihilators of time and space a military asset...

...Now that hundreds of the marines are scheduled to participate in extensive land operations,—either independently or in conjunction with the soldiery of the regular army,—it is expected that evidence will be forthcoming as to whether or not they would render better service if actually enrolled on the army roster...

...This worked out just as anticipated...

...And the operations of 20,000 soldiers in the field cannot fail to afford its share of work for the hospital corps,—the more so by reason of the effect upon the health of many of the officers and men of so sudden a change from a cold to a warm climate...

...Uncle Sam's Army in Action Increased Mobility Shown in Hurried Advance to the Mexican Border By WALDON FAWCETT THE EXTREME MOBILITY of Uncle Sam's army, which has been made a feature of the double quick advance on the Rio Grande, is the one attribute which our military experts have been working for, ever since the Spanish-American War...

...Another feature of the plans for the army in action for which the big trck to Texas proved a most satisfactory dress rehearsal is that which contemplates reliance upon the telegraph system of the country in the movement of troops...

...Some time ago all the marines were taken off the warships but later by order of Congress they had to be restored...

...Fire Alarm" Quickness Sought BUT WHATEVER the merits of this question of a large standing army, the military experts have not waited upon its solution...

...For years past there has been a constant effort to lighten the soldier's marching equipment without impairing its value...

...Most important, of course, has been the arrangements for transportation...

...The circumstance that the rushing of troops to our Southern boundary left the Atlantic Coast virtually unprotected is being made an argument for a larger regular army by the advocates of such an organization...

...Also an opportunity will be afforded to the signal corps to demonstrate the very ingenious devices it has developed for the use of rapidly moving forces in the field, as for instance, the auto telegraph car or telephone and telegraph station on wheels, and the remarkable device which enables a mounted trooper to lay out or to reel in a telephone wire automatically while his horse is at full gallop, the rider meanwhile continuing a telephone conversation over this elastic wire...

...It is expected that this mobilization of Uncle Sam's army will afford an opportunity for severe test to the field artillery, the cavalry, the signal corps, and the marine corps, not to speak of the practical military value of the airship...

...Our readers will recall that this force, the "soldiers of the navy," has been for some time past a bone of contention in service and official circles...

...Many persons have contended for years past that this body of sea soldiers, who are presumably 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...

...The army has made most advantageous use of fireless cooking by means of fireless cookers on wheels, designed to cook the food while the military force, to which the equipment is attached, is on the march and to have the meal piping hot and ready to serve the minute the force halts for the noon-day respite or to pitch camp at night...

...Each Corps to Get Practice THERE HAS BEEN plenty of work, too, for the engineer corps of the army in this "campaign" for there have been big camps to lay out, and to lay out such sites in various sizes up to a divisional camp covering 80 acres means an immense amount of work for the surveying corps and the map makers in the field...

...There may be an opportunity before long to make a test of its practical efficiency...