The Southern herald., 1911-05-26

all over the country at widely separated mill
tary posts.
Extreme mobility, which in the case of the
American army has been so strkingly put to
the test by the double quick advance on the
Rio Grande, is the one attribute above all
others for which our military experts have
been working ever since the Spanish-American
war. The United States needs a mobile
armed force as does no other nation on the
globe. Indeed, 1t is absolutely imperative
The explanation is found, of course, in the
immense extent of the republic and our far
flung coast line. To protect so extensive a
territory needs an armed force that can move
with extreme rapidlty from place to place. The
fact that broad oceans separate us from the
nations that, in the event of trouble, would
prove our most formidable foes, presumably
insures US reasonable warning Of attempted
invasion but even with this leeway It needs
Quick-moving soldiery to rush at short notice
to any threatened point Of attack.
The circumstance that the rushing Of troops
to our southern boundary left the Atlantic
coast virtually unprotected is being made an
argument for a larger regular army by the
advocates Of such an organization. However
our military experts have not waited upon a
larger army to perfect state of military pre-
paredness.
But whatever the merits of this question Of
a large standing army the military experts
have not waited upon its solution. They have
gone right ahead, bending every energy to
make force of considerably less than 100000
men equal in emergency to a body of soldiery
several times as numerous. To that end Uncle
Sans soldiery, with due acknowledgment Of
the modern tendency Of specialization, have
been rendered as versatile as possible in the
arts Of warfare. And, best Of all, there has
been cultivated the fire alarm" propensity to
cut and run for a scene Of trouble at the
shortest warning. In their part Of the pre-
parations too the administrative officials in
every branch Of the army have kept constant
ly in mind this aim and purpose
OF all the preparations for war which have
gone forward under a clear sky perhaps the
most wonderful have had to do with the trans
portation arrangements. Our military experts
have awakened to the fact that the United
States is the greatest railroad country in the
world and that even in the event Of the most
serious conflict 1t Is unlikely that many of
these communicative lines would be seriously
interfered with. Why not then, make these
annihilators Of time and space a military as
set Indeed 1t is imperative to do so IL the
army is to be rendered a mobile force, for no
other utility can serve as the twentieth cen
tury substitute for the forced marches of 9TH
er days. Consequently whereas European ma
tlons, with their circumscribed areas and per-
feet highways have been experimenting with
military automobiles and other innovations our
war department officials have been wrestling
with the problems of the makeup and han
ding of troop trains, and designing special
kitchen cars and hospital cars and the like
The first try-out Of the plans that have been
In the making these past dozen years has come
in the case Of the recent hurried advance ia
Texas.
If a chance visitor could have been in Wash
ington in the early days of the Spanish wal
and then again when the recent hurry call tC
the Gulf coast was given he could not fail tC
be impressed with the contrast-the turmoil
and confusion of 1908 with the well-oiled pre-
cison of the present execution Of prearranget
plans. That 10000 men could be moved dis
.tance of thousands Of miles along score O
different arteries Of tra6ic without apparently