Evening star., 1901-02-02

and II all must be looked out for as care
fully as that of the men, There Is a fheo-
retical regulation as to the amount OF bag
gage that a man may take with him. but
in practice the limit seems TO be only tha@
of the capacity of the transport. Whe,.
the men are brought back to Manila from
the north coast of Mndanao three of four
of the little inter-island steamers VIII be
sent down to get them. They will take the
new men and their baggage and their sup
plies along Following the usual custom,
nothing viii have been. done toward gath
ering up the belongings of the men who are
coming away, and they will not get at 1t
until the new men arrive. Ii may be done
by the time the new men have their stun
landed. but probably ii will still require
some time This will go on at each of the
posts. Finally all the transports will have
their men and cargo and then they Will
concentrate at the port which was regimen
tai headquarters and steam back to Ma
Mia In company. Shippers of chartered
transports can find more ways to consume
time than the ordinary man could invent
in weeks of careful study
Concentrating at Manila.
When the regiment finally gets back TO
Manila there will be time of general over
hauling. The men viii have new issues OF
clCthing for the home coming. The bag
gage which has been in storage will be in
spected. Most of it will have been ruined
by the excessive moisture. The heavy
woclen clothing which the men had in the
states and which they have not used since
few days after they left the Pacific coast
is almost certainly gone. When il all has
beer gone over and the DEFICIENCIES made
good comes the work of getting it all on
the transport for home. That usually re-
quires week and when 1t Is done the regt-
ment is ready to embark. 1t took nearly
n month to occupy the north coast of Min
danao and ii Will take as long to get the
men away from there. Tawi Tawi and the
G. f,,-f boz
posts on the east coast of Luzon and the
islands east of it that'wil probably require
more time. SO few ships are available as
transports about the islands that even IL
the new men could all be landed at Manila
together 1t requires nearly as long TO get
the old men reconcentrated there.
AT all posts that can be reached by water
the same process will be carried out. Gar
risons near sea ports will march to them
and their baggage will be hauled in wagons
or In the bull carts of the natives. TO the
north of Manila there are many posts from
which the men will come on foot as they
went in. Their baggage will come out in
wagons, the wagons which are ordinarily
engaged In taking in the supplies of the
pest 1t needs no wise man to see that all
this will require time. When General
Schwan distributed his brigade over Cavite
and Batangas provinces just south of Man
lila, early last year 1t took more than a
month to complete the occupation. Water
transportation was available for very little
of 1t and the men We're obliged to march.
1t will take them nearly as long to come
Out in spite of their eagerness to come
hCme.
Much Travel Involved.
This is only the baldest outline of some OF
the work the quartermasters will have 10
do in exchanging the army in the Philip
pines. 1t is a task larger than any shipping
concern in the world could undertake. The
army distance tables allow eight thousand
miles for the journey across the Pacific
Most of the men in the volunteer regiments
enlisted from places east of the Mississippi
river. Very many of them were from points
in the extreme east. If two thousand miles
is allowed as the average of land travel per
man it makes a journey of, say, ten thou
sand miles. Homecoming and outgoing,
there Will be seventy thousand men to make
the journey. That means IN all seven nun
dred millions of miles of travel. The best
travelling man can do in the world, when
distance and speed considered, is be-
tween New York and Chicago. The dis
tanCe is practically a thousand miles, and
the time required is one day. This stupen-
dous army travel will be equivalent to three
hundred and fifty thousand trips from New
York to Chicago and back. II three days be
allowed for the round trip it would require
a million and fifty thousand days, or more
than two thousand eight hundred and sew
enty-five years of constant travel, without
rest or delay to accomplish it.
OF course, there will be some men who
will desire to take their discharges in the
Philippines and stay there. There is work
of one sort another for a good many of
them. especially now that civil government
is being established throughout the islands.
If the same Inducements to reiniist that
were given in 1899 are offered probably sew
eral of the new regiments can be raised
among the present volunteers. But most of
the men want to come home. They have
had their full term away, and they want to
get back to the states. II ihcy couli be
here for month or two. hundreds of them,
no doubt would be glad enough to 20 back.
If the regular steamer lines on Tie Pacific
could carry them all, out and back, at the
regular $500 rate for frst-clasS passengers
dividends would be much larger and moro
frequent.