The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-15
MEN AND MATTERS 7 OF PUBLIC INTEREST Providing Fsod fer the Pacific Fleet a Tremendous Job 8,635,93O POUNDS OF IT John Mitchell and His Career As Labor Leader-Rush At the
 Mints and How Our
 Money Is Made"
8,635,93O POUNDS OF 1T
BY SEWELL HAGGARDl

I dIsI
 The great Roosevelt Armada will sail
 tomorrow faom Hampton Roads m ,ts
 Journey to the Pacific. It is the most tremendous naval expedition ever un
 dertaken; the most powerful fleet of
 "arshlps ever assembled for such a journey Enough to fill The Age
 herald for years to come has been
 written about the vessels and the of | ncers that are to command them SD if may be interesting to give some facts | about the magnitude of preparing the
 meet Tor the voyage; the laying in of supplies for 15,O00 officers and men for at least six months.
 Think of pile of sugar and flour barrels as high as the Singer build ing" says one writer in describing the task, "and occupying the same land space, barrels which spread out side l py side would cover 24,000 square feet. 1 Then think of a single file of oxen three miles long being driven to the abat- tolrs in order that the men may have roast beef, and another drove of 5000 | sheep and A3O00 hogs going tA make roast mutton and salt. pork The total weight of the foodstuffs stored aboard the vessels of the Pa ellie fleet Is 8,635,930 pounds or 430O tons Even in the strenuous days of the Spanish war no such provisions were made for fleet. Neither did the navies of Japan or Russia carry such quantities or supplies al any one time during their war.
 Proof that the jack tars will enjoy the cruise is to be found in the bill ] of fare that Uncle Sam has provided Tor them. Included in the supplies taken on board are turkeys, and cram berries and nuts, canned peaches and pears raisins, fruit, butter jellies. iams pickles. prunes, canned peas and beans delicious hams. roast beef in tins frozen beef and mutton and porlx thousands of crates of eggs, cases upon cases of maccaroni, thousands of pounds of sauer kraut, thousands of links of frankfurter and bologna and pork sausages.
 The war vessels and the six supply transports which accompany them will carry S70000 pounds of frozen beef, 1O5,OOO of timed corned beef and 1S.- 900 pounds of clipped beef or about a million bounds of beef. which repre- sents the product of from 1900 to 1900 oxen. Then there are 305 900 pounds of pork and 65,000 pounds of mutton.
 The vessels carry 100000 pounds of four.Wwhich, reduced to barrels, means about 5000. Sugar foots up the start ling total of 1,500,000 in weight, and fills some 42S6 barrels, which would extend more than two and a half miles in the air if the barrels were stood end on end, one upon the other, and the flour and sugar would fill a space equal to the interior of almost all of Bir- mingham's business buildings.
 There are 10000 pounds of turkey. meaning that 2666 gobblers yielded up their lives to make Christmas and New Years feasts for Uncle Sam's sailors. There are 100000 pounds of coffee, which is held in 800 sacks, and there are 105 cans of condensed milk in pound cans.-
 The butter weighs 1000 pounds and fills 5000 frkins The 100, 900 dozen eggs fill 3133 crates and in addition there are 5000 pounds of desicated eggs. A total of 100000 pounds of canned tomatoes has been loaded on the ships, which, in three pound tin cans, means 1000 cans, which placed end to end would make a pipe line ten miles long.
 Each man is expected to eat a twelfth part of steer, a fifth of a sheep, fifth of a hog, nearly half a barrel of flour, third of barrel of sugar. six
 
 cated eggs, half sack of potatoes and drink six and half pounds of coffee and three quarters of a pound of tea on the voyage. This great bill of fare is for the outward journey only, and must be repeated on the home trip Here are some of the other things in- cluded in tn supplies
 Peaches, dried, 8400 pounds; pepper 2000 pounds; pickles, II 800 pounds; prunes, 15,000 pounds; head oh eese, 30,000 pounds; cornstarch $500 pounds; nuts, $500 pounds; dried eggs, 5000 pounds; sardines, 2000 pounds; salmon, 14,000 pounds; string beans, 25,0O0 pounds; cheese, 140,000 pounds; catsup, 2400 gallons; apples, dried, 15,000 pounds; lemon extract, 150 pounds; vinegar, 3600 gallons; shredded fish, 9500 pounds; apple butter, 13,500 poundS; jams, $500 pounds.
 John Mitchell Is no longer the pres ident of the United Mine Workers of America. The announcement was made some monthst ago and attracted little attention. It was confirmed this week and attracted less attention--the news papers devoting no more than an in | side paragraph to the announcement l A few years ago anything that Mitch- | ell did would have been printed with a prominent headline. Mitche ell was then popular alike with his folloyers and l the public. It sis hard to get at the reason for this Indifference to one of | the half dozen most prominent labor