Evening star., 1915-05-30

CdSn, 1unOS, redllzable securities anh
notes belonging to the state. city and
local governments. Every bank was
warned. under threat Of condisn pun
ishment. 20 deliver over everything
that might be considered public prop
erty. In New York city they seized
from bank 100000 that was depos
tied by state department to paw a
draft, and they issued a warning that
if the holder of the draft attempted to
collect the amount or permitted it TO
pass from his possession his house and
lands would be coufiscatedn' -
They declared themselves possessed
as absolute owners by right of con-
quest of all public property besides
cash. Thus in New York they asserted
ownership Of 500 9,00o. 900 worth of sus-
pension bridges. and in Boston they
took bridges to the value Of ten and a
quarter millions. They took the New
York city armories, valued at fifteen
millions They declared that they
owned the subways, valued at one hun
dred millions.
All United States property, compris-
ing fortifications everywhere IN the
conquered territory, navy yards, post
offices. custom houses. lighthouses.
treasury buildings and courthouses.
were listed in proclamations through
out the occupied country as good and
legal prizes of war. The property so
seized IN the city OF New York alone
amounted to sixty-six millions.S
ously for defense. In the steel coun
try of Pennsylvania and the west all
the works were being altered to turn
them into factories for shells, shrapnel,
big guns and gun carriages. At Water
vliet and Indian Head the capacity of
the shops had been enlarged immense
1y. and there was not moment in the
day or the night when there was a
pause in the headlong labor. Powder
was being made In the middle west, in
~1ar f0 fVNt Ia q n
aeroplanes. The flying machine works
of Hammondsport and Buffalo. in New
York; San Diego. Cal. and Overland
Park, in Kansas. were turning out ma
times two a month. Half dozen other
factories were being erected"
A group of automobile factories had
agreed to turn out two-ton trucks AT
the rate of forty a day. and, indeed, al
ready were producing thirty day
One concern was working under a
contract to produce enough automo-
biIes every day to carry one regiment,
each machine capable of making l"o
miles a day, with four men and ten
days rations of food and ammunition
Others had agreed between them to
produce enough motors in every work
ing day to carry five or six regiments.
The efficient land was rising to the
occasion with magnificent ability and
temper. So far those were JUSTIFIED
who said that America could meet a
crisis with miraculous speed. But there
were things that could not be met with
speed, and these things were vital.
All the Industrial efficiency on the
land could not provide $4,000 trained
and experienced officers; and that mum l.
ber was needed if the country was to
put half a million volunteers into the
field All the efficiency Of men and
tedious, slow training, the defects in
an army system that had made 1t I'M
possible in peace times to concentrate
10000 men and officers at the San An
tonic border of Texas in less than three
months after the order was isued."
All the efficiency could not alter the
fact that Of the whole militia force OF
the United States. enrolled as men
armed with the rifle" exclusive of the
four divisions already with the army,
there were only $4,000. or Ss per oen., s
who could shoot well enough to make
them suitable for battle purposes. 10
The capture of Massachusetts, and
Connecticut had cut off at one blow the
source of 6S per cent of all the am
munition and weapon works of the
United States. The army already short
of cartridges. would have to remain
short until all the complicated and
minutely accurate machinery for maxi
ing them could be built and estab-
lished.H
There were only 425.oo0 rifles in re-
serve. The volunteers would have to
drill without arms until factories could
be put into operation.
Seven militia mobilization camps
were in the territory lost to the United
States. One thousand acres of powder
works in New Jersey were in the pos
session of the invaders.
The volunteers needed shirts.
breeches. underwear. The four leading
cities in the manufacture OF cotton
goods, the four that led in making
woolen goods and the leaders in MAX
ing clothing were cut off from the
United States.
The volunteers needed shoes. More
than all, they needed shoes, shoes,
shoes, and again shoes! Americans real
lied with heavy hearts how these un-
romantic things were making them
helpless-what a blow it had been to
their defense when the great Massa-
chusetts factories of Lynn, Brockton,
Haverhill and Boston, with their un-
replaceable machinery. had been taken.
These cities and cities scattered
through the rest of lost New England
had produced 81 per cent of the boots
and shoes for the United States.
The army was short, even under its
old economical estimates of more than
100000 volunteers into the field, it
would need at least 1900. In the days
of peace 1t had been calculated that
the shortage then existing could not be
made good in less than two years. Now,
with half a hundred factories toiling,
with blackened Watervliet roaring and
changing as never a factory had la
bored before, guns were being turned
out at a rate that promised to reach
surprising dimensions when all the
shOpa were fully at work
But at best there were six months
during which nothing could be done ex-
cept to prepare. During those six
months, while the country poured forth
it's money prodigally to make up in
wasteful speed what 1T had neglected
during long years. the invader could sit
in the conquered seaboard cities and
suck them dry.
volunteers had to learn everything.
They had to learn to shoot, to survive
slush and rain and cold. to dig trenches
and to march twenty and more miles j.
pan. plate. knife, fork. water bottle.
first-atd kit. an emergency ration. an
intrenching tool and bayonet. a heavy
rifle and ninety heavy cartridges.
The militia regiments had to be
raised from peace strength to war
strength. That meant that into every
company of sixty-f1ve trained or par
TALLY trained men there would have to
IS. Not large sum compared with some i'm
posts laid on quite small and unimportant towns
In wars o dnrfng @ the past century One such levy
cording to European writer's rs - WIG ''
o See am ease Pf seizure BY MAJ Cen Otis Of
tion of a draft held by insurgents. Report.
Charles E Magoon, Nag law officer division of insu
is List OF non-assessable federal property. New
York, 1914