Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1914-08-14
HALF THE WORLD IN
STATE Of WARFARE
20, 100000 Men Are Now Believed
to Be Under Arms in
Europe

Europe
New York, Aug 14.-With approxi-
mately 20,000,000 men under arms in
Europe, representing nations the
areas of whose countries exceed one
half the area of the globe, statisti-
clans are figuring out various COM
pick yet interesting conditions which
the mobilization of so vast a body of
men in time of war necessarily Gre
ates. The war now in progress being
one of the greatest in history, it fol-
lows naturally that in comparison
with the data of the past the present
computations rise to heights beyond
the comprehension of the average per-
son, whose talents for mathematics
are, perhaps directed in other and
more useful channels.
After making various calculations,
based upon facts and figures connect
ed with the current war, a downtown
statistician said that If the armies of
Germany, France, Austria, Russia,
England Servia, Montenegro, Belgium
and Italy, numbering 20,000,000 men.
were to be deposited upon the island
of Manhattan there would be little
room for the millions now occupying
this island.
Would Cover Manhattan
Manhattan has an area of 21.9S
sents roughly, based upon an area of
% square miles, sos, 800 square
feet of territory. Allowing a space of
four square feet for each soldier, the
European armies now in the field
would take up every inch of Manhat-
tan from the Battery to a point be-
yond One Hundred and Fiftieth
street.
Should they die at full length.
allowing six feet for each man, the
line of sleeping soldiers would extend
distance of 120,000,000 feet, or a.
I28 miles. Such a line of human
beings would almost encircle the
globe"
The statistician said further that
the transportation of such an army
of men across the Atlantic would re-
quire 5S5 steamships the size of the
Vaterland, of the Hamburg American
line. The ordinary man of sound ap-
petite consumes about two and one
half pounds of food every day. so that
the men under arms in Europe con-
sumo 50,000,000 pounds or $4,000 tons
daily. This amount of food if stacked
up in boxes would equal in size the
Woolworth Building. To transport
this vast food supply, allowing thirty
tons for each freight car, train of
S33 cars would be required. Allowing
sixty feet for each car, this train
would have length of nearly ten
miles and approximately twenty loco
motives would be required to move it.
| 1000 Tons of Buttons
The clothing for 20,O0O,000 men,
allowing three yards for each mans
uniform, would represent $4,000, 900
yards of cloth. Sewed end for end to-
gether this strip of cloth would cover
a distance of $4,000 miles or one and
one-half times the circumference of
the earth. The buttons for these
uniforms would weigh about 1000
tons and would require more than
1000 horses to draw the load COM
fortably.
Each soldier consumes about one
and one-half pounds of meat day,
provided 1t is apportioned on this lib
eral basis by the various commissary
departments of the respective armies.
This would mean a consumption of
30,000,000 pounds, or $1,000 tons. To
supply this food more than $4,000 cat
tie would be required. The hides so
obtained would, If converted into
shoes for this cast army, provide
shoes for fewer than 100000 men for
one year, and shoes for 20, 200, 900 men
would take more cattle than could be
housed in the stocks in Chicago If
they were twenty times as big as their
present size.
spectacle 20,00O,000 men would make
II they were to parade" said the sta
tistician. "A regiment of 1000 troops,
marching four abreast, occupies a
space 10 feet wide and 1000 feet in
length. Twenty million men march
ing in the same order would cover a
line of march 1887 miles in length.
If the men marched four feet apart,
this distance would be doubled, and
at six feet 1t would be trebled. Just
fancy a parade reaching from New
York to San Francisco, the head of
the line counter marching and reach
ing Ogden, Utah, on It's return before
the last men are in motion at New
York.
| III All Should Parade
All parades ever held in the world
would be insignificant in size COM
pared with the monster procession.
Teh Sound Money parade in New
ers. A parade of the entire armies
of Europe, marching as the Sound
Money partisans did in 1891, would
have been 2,200 times as long. There
were beside this great parade six
others at various times in this coun-
try the total number of marchers haN
ing been 2S2,16S. Basing computa-
tion upon 100000 men in these pa
rades, a procession of the troops now
at war in Europe would be 666 times
as large.
Let us speculate further. Suppose
| IHese GOJOUOtVOO troops were TO en-
camp in Manhattan. The while five
| boroughs would be fairly covered
with tents. while the avenues between
the lines of tents would be almost i'm
passable because of the stacked rifles.
The thousands of commissary and
and accoutrement wagons with
their thousands of horses would be
| forced to seek accommodations in
Long Island or New Jersey, as little,
if any, room for their accommodation
in Manhattan could he found.
zone round of ammuniation of the
modern type for 10000. 900 men would
cost 100000. The rifles for such an
army represent an outlay of approx
mately S260,000,000 more. In the
course of a hotly contested battle a
single soldier will explode so rounds
of cartridges, so that if 10000, 600
men were engaged the exploded am
munition would represent a cost of
| from 100000. The loss of arma-
ment by breakage, capture or other
wise, in battle approXimates 10 per
cent, so that the expense incurred for
| this item alone in an ordinary engage
ment of 20,00O,000 troops would be
| q S0e n0O nm