Imperial Valley press., 1914-03-19

today a better trained and more alert
army division than that now here.
Great advances have been made by
army officials. For instance the rifle
now in use has a range of $3.50 yards,
more than one and one half miles, and
it has the necessary wind ranges for
various winds. The militia, regular
infantry men and the navy have the
same style and model guns, whereas
during the Spanish American war, the
navy had one kind, the army another
kind and the militiamen were supplied
with half dozen different model and
calibre guns and one department could
not use the same ammunition as the
other, resulting in great amount of
confusion, which is now completely
done away with. -
Our navy now has 20 modern bat
tleships and nine old battleships, Is
first class cruisers, 3 second class
cruisers, IA third class cruisers, 2l
gun boats, 40 destroyers, so torpedo
boats and 35 submarines. The bes.
part of this force could be quickly
mobilized to effectively blockade all
Mexican ports. Soldiers of the regu-
lar army and the militia have been
given thorough practice in handling
and firing their rifles, the amount Of
rifle practice now given each man be-
ing more than double what it was a
few years ago, so that the men are
all familiar with their arms and 90
per cent of them are good shots at
stationary and moving targets, for all
kinds of surprise firing has been late
y introduced. The heaviest obtain
able type of automobile trucks that
can carry several tons of provisions,
arms, ammunition, etc, have added
much to the speed with which supplies
and consequently troops can be moved
overland. These trucks are capable
of making 20 miles per hour under
adverse conditions and over smooth,
level roads could possibly make so
niles an hour if such speed were nee
essary. Motorcycles have been furn-
lshed members of the aviation and
other squads which need to make
quick trips about the fields or post,
and these have greatly shortened the
time required for establishing wireless
camps, signal service camps and car
ing for aviators and aeroplanes. So
many automobiles, trucks and motor
cycles have been already put into use
that it is certain that in the event
Of war with a foreign country the
automobile would play a considerable
part, but the horse and the mule
would not be eliminated.
The army at present is sadly lack
ing in field artillery batteries, that
being its most striking deficiency, but
On. the other hand the signal corps
is in advance of other armies as here
will be found every one of the very
latest discoveries in wireless telegra-
ply, telephony and telegraphy as well
as the most serviceable instrumental
and the quickest sort of method for
getting from one place to another, the
motorcycle. Our battleships along the
Gulf coast could effect a perfect
blockade of every port within "a
hours. The troops now stationed here
and other points in Texas could be
gotten to any section of the Texas
border within less than "a hours,
while those sent out for Mexi-
can Gulf ports on the transports would
reach their destination anywhere from
&c to so hours after embarking here.
The large army transports now in
Galveston harbor can accommodate an
average of 1900 men each, carrying
on board rations for 18 days, and they
are already stored with these neces-
sary rations. The men could be safely
on board and out of port a few hours
after orders for embarkation were re-
ceived.
On the whole the land fighting force
of the United States today while
somewhat small, is admittedly the
flower Of all armed bodies ever raised