Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1913-01-17
.GER|MkNARMY f.EADY
Magnificent Force Awaits the
One Word, Modified"
Nearly Four Million Trained Soldiers
Would Be Put In Simultaneous
Motion When In Time Of Peril
the Kaiser Orders.

Mobilization! Red proclamations
appear at every street corner. post.
office. railway station and crossroads
throughout Germany. The telegraph
carries the word to distant corners
OF the empire. Messengers afoot, on
bicycles, and in motor cars dash
through the streets. Couriers gallop
along country roads. The wheels OF
factories and mills stop with a jerk.
Every industry and peaceful vocation
is affected.
Rolls Of drums, the clarion notes of
bugles and waving flags; cheers min.
Cling with weeping and sobbing from
almost every acme. as a nations
mothers, wives and children bid fare
well to husbands. sons and brothers.
A forest Of bayonets begins to move
Endless lines of cannon and munition
wagons rumble alIpg. That the sol.
der may be strong, sentiment Is ruth
lessly crushed. That the sight Of
weeping loved ones whom he may
never see again shall not dishearteu
him, Gordon Of police surrounds the
| railway station To the uninitiated
everything is confusion; only the
trained one sees the wheels of a vast
machine that works almost without a
hitch.
The word mobilization. 1t has the
greatest thrill" of any word in the
German or French language.
Each Knows Where to Go.
In Germany only the emperor can
write that word officially, and by 1t
is Germany's peace force of 100000
men turned into an army of more than
four million. Every one of the three
and half million "ex-soldiers" Is in
structed twice yearly as to the day.
hour and place he must report imme-
diately upon learning that "mobiliza-
ton" has been ordered. Every owner
of motor car. duly registered with
the military authorities has orders
when, where and at what hour he
must turn 1t over for military pur
poses, with full set of extra tires
specified quantity of gasoline. oil and
repair Kit. Every sound horse is reg.
istered and subject to call for mill
tary purposes and it's owner knows
where and when he must bring it.
When Count Won Moltke. the chief
of the German general staff, nephew
OF the great strategist of 1870. re-
ce1ves from the kaiser through the
minister of war the order to mobilize
he opens one of the famous sealed
envelopes" in the guarded steel vaults
of the general staff headquarters. con.
tanning the mobilization plans for war
with every nation or alliance The
proclamation is brief. The calendar
ceases to exist; everything military
is dated first. second. third day Of
mobilization.
.--. Three days to Move = Corps.
Germany has twenty-six army corps
in the first line and sixteen in the sec.
ond and third lines. Each corps con.
sists of 41,OOO men and $4,000 horses
In single marching column corps Is
thirty.flve miles long. 1t takes 1z5
railroad trains to move such divt
sion. The military schedule calls for
train starting every thirty minutes
and for forty-eight trains in opposite
directions every twenty-four hours on
double-track line. That is the max
imum. Generally 1t is estimated that
only forty trains will be run every
twenty-four hours. 1t would therefore
take three days to move an army
corps upon such a line. The average
running time, inclusive of stops. calls
for seventeen miles an hour.