New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-11-15
WAR NOW GIGANTIC
BUSINESS SCHEME
Visitor to German Great
Headquarters Gives
His Impressions.

London. Nov. "A newspaper CORE
spondent writing from Luxembourg I'M
der date of October "a says:
have just returned from the Ger
man Great Headquarters in France, the
visit terminating abruptly on the fourth
day, when one of the Kaiser's secret
field police woke me up at o'clock IN
the morning and regretfully said that
his instructions were to see that "dld
not oversleep" the first train out. Inc
return journey along one Of the Ger
man main lines of communication
through Eastern France, across cor
ner of Belgium and through Luxembourg
was full of interest, and confirmed
,he impression gathered at the centre
of things. the Great Headquarters, that
this twentieth century warfare is in the
last ANALYSIS gigantic business propo-
sition which the Board of Directors
the Great General STAFF and the thlr-
tv-eix department heads are conducting
with the efficiency of great American
business corporation.
The westbound track is continuous
procession Of freight trains fresh con-
signments of raw material, men ana
q. ammunition, being rushed TO the hrlng
line to be ground out into victories.
The first shipment we pass is an IN
fantry battalion first ten fiatcars
loaded with baggage, ammunition, pro-
vision wagons, and field kitchens, the
latter ALREADY with fire lighted and
SOUP cooking IS the long train steams
slowly along; for the trenches are only
fifty miles away and the Germans
make point Of sending their troops
into battle with full stomachs.
After the fatcars come thirty box
cars, all decorated with green branches
and scrawled over with chalked witt
cisms at the expense of the French and
Russians. The men cheer as our train
passes. A few kilometres further,
backed on to a siding, Is train OF
some twenty hatcars, each loaded with
a touring car. Then We pass a battery
Of artillery on fatcars, the guns stu
garlanded with flowers then short
freight train six cars loaded with
nothing but spare automobile tires;
then q long train of heavy motor trucks,
then more infantry trains, then an
empty hospital train going back Tor
another load then a train OF gasolene
tank cars, more cheering infantry, more
artillery, another empty hospital train,
q pioneer train, a score OF hatcars
loaded with long heavy piles, beams,
steel girders, bridge spans and lumber,
then a passenger train load of German
railway officials and servants going 20
operate the railways toward the coast,
more infantry, food trains, ammunition
trains, train loads of railway tracks
already bolted TO metal ties and merely
needing TO be laid down and pieced to-
gether, and so on in endless succession
all through France and through Bel
GUM. The two-track road, shaky in
spots. especially when crossing rivers,
is being worked to capacity, and how
we'll the huge traffic is handled is sur
prisine even TO an American commuter.
Our fast train stops al the mouth or
q tunnel, then crawls ahead charity, for
the French, before fetreating, dyna-
mited the tunnel. One track has been
cleared, but the going is still bad. To
keep it from being blocked again by
falling debris the Germans have dug
clean through the top Of the hill. OPEN
ing UP a deep well Of light into the
tunnel. Looking up, you see a pioneer
company in once cream cOlored. now
dirty colored, fatigue uniforms still dig
Ging away and terracing the sides Of
the big hole TO prevent slides. Half an
hour later we 90 slow again IN cross
ing a new wooden bridge over the
Ieuse-only one track as yet. 1t took
me German pioneers nearly week TO
build the substitute for the old steel
railway bridge, dynamited by the
French, whose four spans lie buckled
~ in the river.
The pioneers are at work driving
piles 20 carry a second track. The
process is interesting. A forty man
power pile driver is rugged up on the
bog end OF a French river barge with
forty soldiers Juggling at forty strands
n captain in field gray, stands on the
river bank and bellows the word OF
command. Up goes the heavy iron
weight; another command, and down it
drops on the pile. It looks like 4 pain
fully slow process, but the bridges are
rebuilt lust the same.