Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 91, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 May 1917 — VOLUNTEERS WILL BUILD WAR RAILROAD [ARTICLE]

VOLUNTEERS WILL BUILD WAR RAILROAD

Unit of Over 11,000 Men to Go At .Earliest Possible Momept—En- . gineers Badly Needed. Washington, May 7.—Nine new regiments of army engineers, to be composed exclusively of highly trained railway men, will be the first American troops to be sent to France. They will go at the earliest passible moment, the war department announced today, for work on communication lines, but speculation as to exactly when or to what points they will be sent is forbidden (because of the submarine menace. The new forces will be volunteers, raised at the nine great railway centers of the country. Each regiment will be commanded by an engineer colonel of the regular army, aided by an adjutant. All other officers will be railway engineers or officials. The expedition will have a total strength of between 11,000 and 12,000 men, each regiment 'being composed of two (battalions of three companies each. Every (branch of railway workers necessary to the (building or op-, eration of lines will be represented in the ranks, and the war department expects a response to the call that will permit careful selection to be exercised. Officials believe the great railroad brotherhoods will co-operate by throwing the strength of the unions behind the recruiting efforts. The railway companies already are so organized under the council of national defense that their co-operation is assured. America is pre-eminent in the field of railroad engineering and .the best talent and experience the nation can. provide in that line will go into the new regiments, each of which would be able to undertake all or any part of the work of building or operating a whole railway system.