Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1910-10-07
The Government nc
Mork-The War
Department.
Things You Want to Know

and harbors More than sSO,OOOOOO a year is
expended IN river and hRrbor improvements
and maintenance. II the program Of the
river and harbor congress is carried out
the engineer corps will be the busiest set
OF men in the government service.
The work Of the auartermasters depart
ment. carrying with II the task Of quarter
ing and equipping the regular army at all
times and the National Guard during en-
campment seasons requires the expenditure
of from SS5, 10000 to 600 per year. IL
has eighteen ocean-going steamers or
transports. a number OF mine planters and
enough other vessels OF various descrip-
tions to equip a small navy. IL spends
about $500 year for newspapers and
magazines for the troops in the army. IL
has supervision Of the eishty-four national
cemeteries in the United States, where
$4,000 soldiers lie buried.
The commissary department issues 90
600 900 rations year, costing approximately
p cents each. 1t has full equipment OF
fireless cookers. and has established
school for bakers and cooks. Here the men
who are to prepare the food Of the army
are initiated into the mysteries Of the arts
of baking and cooking, For an army OF
100, 900 men there is required for each days
rations fifty tons OF meat fifty tons OF
bread, fifty tons OF potatoes and forty tons
of other food, so that the task of the COM
missary general Is not small one Ex-
perience has taught that the feeding Of an
army is one of the first essentials to its
efficiency in the field, and the War de-
partment is striving TO be prepared 10
furnish the best of oommissary service In
case of war
The office of the adjutant general is one
of the busiest in the department. Although
recent legislation has shorn the adjutant
general OF the military duties formerly per-
tanning to his office II has left him much
to do. He has charge of the recruiting
service. Last year there were 126 recruit
ing stations open for business, and $4,000
applications for enlistment In the army
were received. OF these about 5000 were
accepted. or the $4,000 applicants, 1S,0N
were attracted by advertising in one form
or another. The adjutant general also keeps
card index system in which is recorded
full data about the army service and the
men who constitute It, That this data Is
complete Is shown by the fact that there
are 5000 900 military cards and 100000
medical cards. These are being added to
at the rate of more than 100000 year.
The signal corps of the army makes use
| Of every possible advance in science and
invention In its efforts to render efficient
service in case OF war. 1t employs wire
less telegraphy, wireless telephony and
! aeronautics. 1t Ia great believer in the
adaptibility OF airships In the solution of
the problems of war. They can be used
to gain information about harbors and
Notifications OF other countries. to patrol
and guard the. frontiers, for purposes Of
reconnaissance, for carrying dispatches, sig
Mailing to wireless stations, directing the
| fire of friendly artillery and drawing that
of hostile guns attacking enemys base
line destroying stores, railways and other
COMMUNICATIONS making night attacks
with bombs, destroying submarines and
locating mines. Experiments are now being
made looking to the mounting of light
artillery in automobiles for the purpose of
repelling attacks of aerial fleets.
The medical department Of the army 10
one Of the most useful OF the War depart
ment's activities in time Of peace. Many
of the most valuable lessons learned by
medical science in the last twenty years
have come from 1t. Major Walter Reed,
to whom the world owes an inesumable
debt for his demonstration of the mos
quito theory of yellow fever, made that dis
covery while connected with the service.
The rise of vaccination for the prevention
Of typhoid fever is to be credited TO the
army surgeon. So thoroughly have the
theories OF sanitation been mastered that
there are now less than one-thirteenth as
many admissions to the army and navy
hospitals on account of malaria as there
were thirteen years ago.
The division Of militia affairs has charge
of the organization OF the national guard
of the United States. 1t is the present
plan OF the government TO divide the coun-
try into eight militia districts. with a CEN
trail army post in each district and smaller
posts in each state. These districts will
have both the regular and militia forces
in them organized as to be ready to an
swer the call for troops at the shortest
possible notice. and will furnish the nu-
cleus around which will be built up eight
full strength corps In the event OF war
Through a system of annual maneuvers II
is the intention OF the department to con-
vert the militia into a thoroughly organ
ICED fighting force.
BIZ PREDERIo J. HAsxTM.
Tomorrow-rhe Government at Work
v-DspaEtmsns Of Justice.