Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 54, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 October 1917 — MOVING TROOPS BIG PROBLEM [ARTICLE]

MOVING TROOPS BIG PROBLEM

Many Extra Trains and Thousands ” of Cars Required. Coincident with the start of the third division of the new national army ‘ for the training camp Wednesday the railroads’ war board .issued the following statement in connection with the part which the railroads have played in handling the biggest troop movement ever attempted in this country, including the national guard, the regular army and the new national army. The railroads to date have moved approximately 720,000 soldiers from their homes to training camps or embarkation points. The bulk of this army, all of it in fact, except the 32,549 men included in the first per cent, of the national army that moved by regular train on September 5, has required special train service. involving the use of 13,500 passenger cars, including 1,500 Pullman and tourist sleepers, 2,000 baggage cars and 4,500 freight cars.

The troop movement problem has been most difficult to handle as it comprises not only the movement of the men selected for the national army cantonments, but the movement of hundreds of thousands of troops in the national guard and the regular army as well, either to training camps or embarkation ’ points. Some slight conception of ! what this problem means may be ' deduced from the fact that in the national army movement alone the ! railroads have had to prepare spei cial schedules covering the 4,531 I towns and cities designated by the provost marshal general, as points iof local concentration from which , the recruits of the new national army proceed to the cantonments. In addition, the special + rain movements have had to be so directed as to prevent interruption to the

regular passenger seryice. Twenty-five per cent, of the men in the new national army or approximately 172,000 are included in the division that will be entrained for the cantonments from now on’ until October 7. It is expected that the balance of the citizen soldiers will be entrained beginning October 17. The railroads have taken every step possible to safeguard the lives that the government has entrusted to them and to complete the troop movement without . delay and also without interfering with the abnormal amount of commercial traffic that the war has produced. For obvious reasons it would not be wise to divulge in detail the plans which have been followed in moving the men to the various cantonments and embarkation points. Sufficient to say that the movement is progressing smoothly and to the complete satisfaction of the government.