Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 246, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 October 1918 — How Millions of Men In War are Moved, Fed [ARTICLE]

How Millions of Men In War are Moved, Fed

Work of S. 0. S. in France Excels All History of Military Feats. QUICK SERVICE IS THE RULE Army Uses 1,500,000 Pounds of Refrlg-i erated and Fresh Beef Each Day —lmmense Supplies Needed to Feed Yanks—Works Like a Machine. By CHARLES N. WHEELER. (In the "'Chicago Tribune.) In the S. O. S. Sector, France.—The matter of feeding the army in France i Is an epic story. It is truly of heroic proportions. Just now it requires about 1,500,000 pounds of refrigerated and fresh beef to - feed the army in France each dayj besides the hundreds of thousands of pounds of, bacon, mutton, ham. corned beef, canned salmon, and dried and pickled meats and fish. More than 200,000 cans of tomatoes, corn and peas help to make up one day’s rations. Something like 230,000 cans of jam, 8,000 cans of peaches, 5,000 jars of pickles, 3,000 bottles of catsup, carloads of canned lobster and other sea foods, more than 2,000 boxes of chocolate, fresh white bread made of American flour and all the boys want, even the good old corn bread served hot, besides the Immense quantities of potatoes, beans, prunes, coffee, sugar, milk, pepper, salt, vinegar, cinnamon, sirup, and about everything found In a wellstocked farmer’s pantry in the United States are laid before the American army In France every day—and it is all there right on the dot. Works Like a Machine. It is there in every section of France, from Soissons and Toul to Marseilles and from the Sw’ss border to the Bay of Biscay. All France is a great industrial place and there is hardly a spot in the whole country, including the sections under heavy shell Are, where the S. O. S. is not standing at attention when the dinner bell rings. Meantime, men and munitions, and all manner of supplies are moving up » to the front continuously, and the fighters are coming back for a,little rest. The machinery works smoothly —and efficiently. There are side lines of great Interest. One of these is the traveling bathroom. An outfit that requires only three trucks is now sent up to the lines to greet the boys as they come out of the trenches and give them a fine scrubbing. Each outfit will wash 500 boys an hour. * Meantime the S. O. S. is filling orders from the front. It may be a few thousand Infantry, an artillery regiment or several such regiments, machine gun companies, and so on through the list. They are delivered Immediately. The wounded have to be brought back to the hospitals. The trains and ambulances are ready and they move like clockwork —except that getting back from the first-aid stations at times is not quite as slow as a clock. The wounded are sent to all corners of France and the big machine works on almost faultlessly. Whole armies of the mobile sections now are transported quickly from sect6r to sector. It is up to the S. O. S. to see that all this equipment Is provided.

Salvage Work Important. The S. O. S. besides doing an enormous business in the manufacturing line, conducts a large salvage plant, or plants, into which flows a steady stream of battlefield wreckage. In the clothing branch of the work alone they are saving the taxpayers back home $3,500,000 a month. More important than the money saving is the saving of tonnage. / At one station mammoth American locomotives are assembled “while you wait” Six of these leviathans are put together every day and are doing their Mt the next day. i It was found advisable to operate a special train for American military men between two widely separated points in France. As soon as the necessity presented itself the train was Installed. It is called the “American Special.” It is manned by Pullman car porters—negro boys who have had long training on the de luxe trains back home. They are rated as first class wagon men here. American railway conductors have been assigned to this train, or trains, one running each way every 24 hours. Of one thing the mothers back home may be thoroughly assured, and that Is that not one of their boys wants for a single thing in the way of subsistence and medical and surgical attention. No army ever took the field better provided. And while the appreciations are being passed around it is not out of place to observe that the subsistence division of the war department at Washington is entitled to a decoration for the efficiency it has achieved. Something over 300,000 enlisted men and about 25,000 women comprise the "help” in the S. O. S. organization. A large number of officers, bf course, are required for the supervising positions, but practically all of the workers are men in khaki who have been termed the "ammunition passers.” Employs Army of Women. Of the 25,000 women in the work most of them are French women. A two-fold alm is achieved in the utilization of these women. A large percentage of them would be charges

against the state unless afforded this means of sustaining themselves. Not The least serious of the problems confronting the war department was the question of distribution of supplies in France. A million men might be landed in French ports, together with the necessary equipment, but how under the heavens was this vast storehouse to bte transported to the Interior and on up to the lines, with the manifold exactions that would have to be met In doing it speedily and orderly and with the French transportation facilities already groaning under the home load? The German staff agreed it could not he done.

Right here seems a good place to Introduce Brig. Gen. Johnson Hagood. He Is chief of staff of the S. O. S. He has served in the war department with every chief of staff of the army since the general staff was created by congress. He is a native of South Carolina, a nephew of the late Brig. Gen. Johnson Hagood of the Confederate army and one time governor of South Carolina. The present chief of staff attended the university of his home state from 1888 to 1891 and graduated from West Point in 1896. He has served as personal aide to Generals Bell and Wood. General Hagood Is one of the younger generals of the army. He Is small of stature, quick of action, and a human dynamo. His mind works like chain lightning. “How did you do It?” I asked him. A flicker of a smile flitted across the. face es the West Pointer. “Well, we had to do it—and we did it. That’s all. It was a mere statement of fact. There was no philosophy to It. Just had to be done, and—was done! “It would be Impossible for me to tell you how this plan has been worked out,” he added. “Moreover, I am not permitted to give out interviews to newspaper men. But in this case I understand you have been authorized by General Pershing’s headquarters to get an interview from me, so I will try to tell you something about it. Undeceiving Themselves. “In the first place, it is the biggest military undertaking In the history of the world. No military authority ever laid so bold a plan on this earth; nothing that Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar or Napoleon ever planned compares with It in scope or daring. The Germans laughed at us when we proposed |t, and even those of us of the old army who sat around the war college wondering what we would do in a great war, never dreamed the United States, the most unmilitary nation on earth, could put 4,000,000 men in France. To supply such a body of men from a base 4,000 miles away, to organize them,’ to fight ’em, and to fight ’em as well as the best soldiers in Europe today—is the greatest military accomplishment of all times.

~ “So far as my end of it is concerned it is all a matter of team work. TJie work is that of the bureau chiefs. You might compare me to the quarterback of the team. I give the signals and pass the ball, but they really do the work, and they have done it exceedingly well. We are way ahead on our program. We supply twice as many men in France as the most optimistic of us had expected. And at the present rate it will not be long before we will be supplying in France an army four times as large as that we had originally contemplated. “As to the character of the work, we have had to build and repair railroads. We have built permanent docks and wharves at the ports, and some of these ports are more prosperous now than they ever have been in their history. We have constructed aviation fields, repair shops, salvage plants, supply depots, hospitals, cold storage plants, water supply, etc. Rushing a New City. “It is rather difficult for one to visualize the proposition of going into an open field and constructing a 10,000 bed hospital. If means In reality a

city of 15,000 inhabitants, with all the necessary appliances in the way of water, sewerage, stores, fire protection, lighting system, etc. Imagine ail the retail stores In Chicago consolidated into one, and you get an idea of what ft means when we say a depot containing ninety days’ supply for 1,000,000. Think Of a cold storage plant where 20,000 head of cattle, or 80,000 quarters of beef, can be provided for under one roof. “Of course, we only handle this end of It. Our job. over here is to get the stuff off the ships, get it on the trains, and pass it on up to the front. It comes in a never-ending stream. The problem of the staff departments is divided into four grand groups —transportation, construction, supply, and hospitalization. “Under transportation,” continued General Hagood, “we group ocean transport and inland waterways, all railways, including standard gauge and narrow gauge; all horse and mule transportation, including wagons and pack animals, and all forms of motor transportation. *No possible form of transportation has been overlooked. “Under construction we have to consider the building of railroads, the erection and assembling of cars and locomotives, the building of wharves, docks and storehouses; the construction and repair of barges and other, vessels for use on the canals and navigable streams, bridges, and, in fact, everything from the cutting of the timber In the forests to Its final assent blage for practical use.

Their Own Manufacturers. “Under supplies we include water, food, clothing, fuel, animals, forage, guns and ammunition, airplanes, etc. We have taken over a great many manufactures. We make our own chocolate, and manufacture hard bread, and a number of such commodities. There Is one bakery in the center of France from which we send out every day fresh bread for 500,000 men. “Under hospitalization we include receiving and caring for the sick and wounded evacuated from the front. “In decentralize this industrial institution the zone of operations Is' divided into nine sections —the advance section in which the armies are actually engaged, the intermediate section, containing the great central portion of France and seven base sections which include the ports. “The whole thing Is like a great network. General Pershing has placed the responsibility for its operation upon General Harbord, the commanding general of the S. O. S. I am his chief of staff. Associated with me are about fifty general staff officers, through whom all the activities of the S. O. S. are co-ordinated. The balance of the staff here consists of about 1,000 officers and 2,000 enlisted men and clerks. “Onb of the most Important agencies we have is the general purchasing board, presided over by Co}. Charles Gates Dawes, formerly of Chicago. This board is charged with the purchase of all supplies that are obtained in Europe, and also represents us in co-ordinating the supplies of the allies in such a way that there is no duplication among the great nations concerned.