Semi-weekly herald., 1915-05-24
our men could have built them if the

Aeeb eiOocs
Funston's men would have marched
and marched, day after day, perhaps
ten miles; perhaps in stretch twen-
ty, while here with the British army
am daily seeing armies as large
as General Funston's moved in a
single convoy as great distance as
twenty miles an hour, and put down
at the end of their trip as fresh as
when they got up in the morning.
The thing that strikes me now is
that General Huerta's Mexican army
did have motor transports. Their
great lorries dashed about the capital
and in the mountain roads; their
armed fighting cars were ready,
everywhere. | suppose some of the
Mexican officers who had been trained
in the military schools of Europe had
picked up the idea of military auto
transportation.
This is not meant to say that the
American army is without gasoline
land transports. Perhaps the ''war
experts in Mexico who advised the
war department as to conditions there
gave ill advice. However, the fact
remains that General Funston was
sent to Vera Cruz without gasoline
transports and the Mexicans had auto
mobile transports that were fitted for
Mexican roads.
Returning to the comparison be-
tween the British and the Vera Cruz
American army, the lack of mules is
noticeable with the British. The great
Missouri jacks that outlast horse
and follow, like cows and sheep. the
tinkling bell of their leader, are only
beginning to be enlisted in the Brit
ish army The British have plenty of
horses. In fact their army affords
one great and splendid horse show of
beautiful animals that have been de-
veloped through their system of rae
ing. American horses are not an un-
common sight, however, but they've
got half-brothers at home, in Missouri
who would have stood the Journey
here just as well as they did and
would have done half again as much
york -inrsthe- rnsd- OF : Fsiuniurs. ~ +
The great Flanders horses, famous
throughout the world, are beautiful
and strong, "but they haven't nerve"
said an English hostlcr. "When they
get sick they give up the fight and
lay down and die, right there" This
is a complaint that has never been
heard against the American army
mule, who is likely to kick a man to
death while he is dying On the whole
the Missouri mule ought to be a
proud possession of the American
army, even though he is not as speedy
as gasoline
General Funston took plenty of
them to Vera Cruz together with the
big army wagons that the American
mule flirts around with.
The flying men with General Funs-
ton at Vera Cruz belonged to the
navy, not to the army. No one in the
army flying corps had any chance
for practice under war conditions at
Vera Cruz. There were no spots
around the Mexican seaport where
land machines could have aliehted
and, of necessity to work was all done
by the water machines. In the Brit
ish army war flying has been brought
to its highest efficiency. In peace
times the Britishers were not going
out for long distance records, like(
the Germans, or for fancy flying; thew
were quietly developing flying as a
war time talent. And the results
are now apparent.
If the American flying man wants
to equal his British brother. he
must be ready to climb into the air
In any wind, snow, rain and hail,
even darkness must not stop him.
There is world of difference be-
tween those hot summer days at Fort
Meyer, in 1908, when the Wrights
were showing their machine to the
American army officials and wouldn't
go into the sky until all the flags
were hanging limp in windless air,
and these war days of 1915, when
an Englash flying man flies in tor
nadoes, if necessary. There is only
one sort of day on which the flying
men do not ascend, and that is the
day on which tho clouds hang low.
This was illustrated the other day
when an officer Of an anti-aircraft
gun gent shell into the sky to
show me how the gun worked. We
couldn't see the shell burst, where
upon he ordered shell set to burst
at 300 feet aboye the oround Wa