The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1915-08-26

ing QUALIFICATIONS eRoE9Whef0 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 30
seized in the city Of New York alone
amounted to $66,000.O0o.
The United States was working fu-
riously 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, shrap-
mel, big guns and gun carriages. AT
Watervliet and Indian Head the ca
pacity of the shops had been enlarged
immensely, and there was not a mo-
ment In the day or the night when
there was pause In the headlong la
Dor. Powder was being made In the
middle west, in places safe from any
possible attack by aeroplanes. The fly
ing machine works of Hammondsport.
and Buffalo, In New York. San Die
go, California, and Overland park in
Kansas were turning out machines at
the rate of one and sometimes two a
month. Half a dozen other factories
were being erected.
A group of automobile factories had
agreed to turn out two ton trucks at
the rate Of forty day, and, indeed.
already were producing thirty a day.
One concern was working under con-
tract to produce enough automobiles
every day to carry one regiment each
machine capable of making 100 miles
a day with four men and ten days ra-
tons Of food and ammunition. Others
had agreed between them to produce
enough motors in every working day
to carry five or six regiments
All the industrial efficiency on the
land could not provide 1900 trained
and experienced officers, and that num-
Der was needed If the country was to
put half a million volunteers into the
neld.
All the efficiency Of men and engines
could not correct, except by tedious,
slow training. the defects In any army
system that had made 1t impossible in
peace times to concentrate 10000 men
and officers at the San Antonio border
OF Texas In less than three, months aft
er the order was issued.
All the efficiency could not alter the
fact that Of the whole militia force
Of the United States, enrolled as ''men
armed with the rife" exclusive OF the
four divisions already with the army,
there were only 24,0oo, or 3S per cent,
yHa oh 10 nolr
them suitable for battle purposes.
There were only 425,000 rifles in re-
serve. The volunteers would have to
drin without arms till 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, breech.
es. underwear The four leading cities
in the manufacture of cotton goods.
the four that led in making wooden
goods and the leaders In making cloth.
ing were cut of from the United
States.
The volunteers needed shoes. More
than all, they needed shoes-shoes,
shoes and again shoes! Americans re-
allied with heavy hearts how these
unromantic things were making them
helpless; what a blow it had been to
their defense when the great Massa-
chusetts factories of Lynn, Brockton,
HaveFhiH and Boston with their un-
replaceable machinery had been taken.
These cities and cities scattered through
the rest of lost New England had pro-
duced 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
500 field artillery. To put the army Of
100000 volunteers into the field It
would need at least 1900. In the days
Of peace it 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 blaekened EFatervliet
roaring and changing as never factory
had labored before, guns were being
| turned out at a rate that promised to
reach surprising Dimensions when all
the shops were fully at work.
I But at best there we're sir months
during which nothing could be done
except to prepare. During those six
months while the country poured forth
IT'S money prodigally to make up In
wasteful speed what It had aeGieeted
during long years the invader could sit
In the conquered seaboard cities and
suck them dry.
The volunteers had to learn every
thing They had to learn TO shoot TO
survive slush and rain and cod. to dig