Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 146, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 June 1916 — FEEDING ARMY IN MEXICO IS GIGANTIC TASK [ARTICLE]

FEEDING ARMY IN MEXICO IS GIGANTIC TASK

Motor Trains and Mule Wagons Deliver Vast Stock of Supplies at Front. USE OPEN AIR KITCHENS Stores Form Village Which la Bustling Place —Order la Soon Brought Out of Chaoa—Army Makes New Roads as It Moves Forward. By JUNIUS B. WOOD. (Correspondent of the Chicago Dally News.) In the game of hide and seek between Villa and the American forces there is the Important factor of “eats." There is considerable difference between the needs of Villa, who is “it,” and our soldier boys, who are doing the hunting. Just for comparison, it is: Villa’s'day supply—A roll of tortillas and a few scraps of meat picked up off the country. Punitive expedition Rations for men, 22,750 pounds, and 148,800 pounds a day for horses and mules packed over a 350-mile line. Make Roads as They Go. Even* in the Civil war, American army officers say that keeping open such a long line of supply communications was unusual. The record has never been even approached in this country. More than that, the line of communication, just like building a new railroad, has been perfected as the army moved forward. That means much more than leveling roads and stringing, culverts over once impassable ditches and river beds. It means supplying rolling stock and equipment and organizing a force of men to man the supply trains and bases. It was a big job, but it has been accomplished by the army officers in the quartermaster’s department and is now working smoothly. It has been said so many times that everybody believes it, that the American army fights on a full stomach. That is not a fair statement. Several days at the start of this campaign the stomachs of men and horses were not full, but they did not relax the manhunt either under the broiling sun by day or the freezing blasts by night. The alm of the officers is that the army shall have full stomachs, but, sometimes, there are insurmountable difficulties in filling them when a cavalry column is dashing forward at a rate of 60 miles a day, and all the army has is slow-moving mule trains to carry supplies for the several thousand men and horses. • Motor Train Is Innovation. Carrying supplies by high-powered motor trucks was started for the first time in America in the present campaign. The aviation section had its trucks and there were half a dozen in the ordnance branch. The army started before any other trucks had left the factories. They finally arrived in Columbus on long trains of flat cars in groups of 27 from factories in different parts of the country. The first that were rushed to the base were stripped chassis. The army mechanics worked all night and the next morning regulation army wagon boxes had been mounted on them and they were loaded and started for the front. Now seven trains of 27 trucks each are in operation and eventually the number will be Increased to more than 300. Mule Trains Are Feature. The trucks are not the only means of transport. There are three trains of 28 wagons each, with four mules to each wagon. Sometimes they are run together and a mule team train with Its shouting driver —"mule skinners,” as they are called—and the dusty guard

of soldiers with loaded rifles will stretch along for nearly a mile. After the mule teams come the pack mules. There are six trains of these, each of 62 mules. Up in the mountains, where motors and teams cannot go, wind the long pack trains, somber, plodding mules wisely following a leader, from whose neck hangs a clanging cowbell. The mule takes his work philosophically. After he has plodded all day and the pack is removed he first lies down and rolls over and over again, kicking the air hilariously like a baby on its back, then, with a succession of snorts, he jumps up and runs away until he finds a place to graze, and a swearing pack driver brings him back several hours later. _ The division quartermaster, Capt Lawrence D. Cabell, who has figures at his finger ends, says that for every three men in the field there is one man in the rear or on the road attending to the supplies. One-fourth of the army is caring for the other three-fourths. That shows that feeding an army is a big task. That fourth also does not include the mess crews who have stoves built and "chow” cooking 15 minutes after camp is reached, ovens built, with bread and cake baking a day later, and in a few days fully equipped open-air kitchens, protected by windbreaks of brush and crude dining tables for officers. The Mexican army has no commissary. Villa Ragged and Worn. The little comparison of what Villa needs every day holds for his entire bandit band, for each man gets or tries to get his own and his horse’s supply. As to the American army, the comparison shows only' a part of what must be transported in the way of supplies. It includes only the bare necessaries. Feeding the horses and mules is the big job in the American army. Each animal is allowed 14 pounds of hay and 10 pounds of oats daily. In rare cases of emergency, when supplies are short, the animals are grazed on the country. The motor trucks must be fed Just like the army mule, only their sustenance is gasoline and oil. Those now in service consume about 5,000 gallons of gasoline daily. The big metal drums deliver 36,400 pounds every 24 hours. It cannot all be loaded on at the railroad and supplies must be hauled to the different bases. The latest innovation is tank-car trucks, like those on a railroad, to haul the fuel. Rations for the Troops. Each man is allowed on a basis of 3% pounds of rations a day. He is allowed a pound of meat, which may be either bacon, fresh beef, corned beef, salmon or canned roast beef. Then there is a pound of bread, which may be either fresh from the portable camp bakeries, or “hard brehd,” a crackerlike substitute’for the old hardtack. Four pounds of coffee are doled out for 100 men. Then there is an allowance of tomatoes, salt, beans, prunes, potatoes, pepper, sugar, etc., making up the rest of 3% pounds. Anyone who has seen the bustling quartermaster’s stores at one of the army’s bases can understand why the punitive expedition could not dash across the border and into Mexico as fast as horses could gallop. This commissary feature tells the need of caring for the army when it is hundreds of miles from the borders of the United States and in a dry, dusty, cold and mountainous country, which already has been ravished of Its scant resources At the main base the stores form a village, like a bustling open-air railroad freight depot which has sprung up over night, more than 100 miles from the base of supplies or from railroad trains. All that was there the day before was a adobe hut and it is sufficient only for the mess supplies of the men who are working day and night at the depot. Long piles of food higher than a man’s head stretch in parallel columns. In one, there are potatoes in sacks. Others contain boxes, corned beef for stew\ known as slumgullion, cans of salmon from the cold Northwest, big bales of salt bacon which it takes two men to carry, hard bread in waterproof tins, roast beef and other nourishing food, each in its separate column. Beans are in an immense uncovered bin, its sides built up by boxes, from which they are measured out with a shoveL Then there are other big columns of wood for the mess fifes and scattered around are miscellaneous supplies, each in its proper place. - Order Out of the Chaos. To one who does not .understand the diagram, everything seems in confu-

sion. In the distance by day appears a cloud of dust' or a rumble and flash of many headlights by night and a moment later in rolls a long train of trucks or tugging mules, all dust covered, and apparently scattering around in endless confusion sometimes two and three trains arriving within a few hours. In the chaos there is order, for in less than three hours a big truck train can be unloaded and reloaded with another assortment of supplies, the trucks refilled and tinkered up and started again for a base farther south. Everything has been weighed, checked and recorded. It is the army system. Mexicans are employed as laborers at $2 silver a day, which is 2 % to 1 of our money. The Mexican army pays its soldiers $2.25 paper a day, which is about 50 to 1 of our money. In case regular rations cannot be bought there is the emergency ration for the men of chocolate and pemmican—like a mixture of meal and dry molasses to be mixed with salt and water —which each man carries. Jerked beef is a new ration which has been added by the army in the present campaign. It is prepared in Mexico near the main base. So much for the necessaries. Close after those of food are the horseshoes, nails and harness parts, which average a ton a month. Then there is lumber, tools, clothing, hospital and other supplies. Even tobacco is an important item which is hauled a ton at a time. The army store sold S3OO worth recently, so it is in considerable demand. Another big commodity which must be carried is ammunition. So far the fighting has not been so extensive as to require any considerable amount of this, but when it is needed, the line of communication must be in position to handle it promptly. A wagon is loaded with 2,700 pounds and a truck with 3,000 pounds. They are kept busy.