Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-08-21

TINE old adage that 1t Is an i'll
wind which fails to blow good
to someone has seldom been
better illustrated than in the case of
the European War and the lessons
which it has taught the military SER
vices of the United States.
Prior to the commencement of the
conflict abroad, this country, in COM
mon with other world powers, realized
that its military equipment was not
exactly up-to-date, so far as efficiency
and preparedness went. Wars have to
be fought in order to prepare for war,
and there had been no conflict of any
size since the Russo-Japanese war,
the lessons of which became anti
quated and obsolete within the dec
ade which followed. The entire world
realized that their military and naval
Iarmaments needed the stimulus of act
ual warfare to perfect them, but none
of the powers desired to be the teach
ers-all wished to be pupils in the
School of Mars.
Then the European War broke and
the United States was left in the en-
viable position of being the largest
scholar, taking a course in the making
of war from a faculty of experienced
professors practically without cost.
The greatest war in the history of the
world was being fought and all Uncle
Sam had to do to benefit by the ex-
perience of nations that were spending
millions of dollars a day in the field
was to send a few military experts
abroad to study the new weapons of
war and their application in modern
campaigns.
Experts In Europe
Always on the lookout for any op-
portunity for benefiting the hundred
million persons who owe allegiance to
! the Stars and Stripes, the government
dispatched a small corps of military
experts to the seat of war soon after
the first declaration of hostilities and
the reports of these officers have in
sured the United States against lack
of preparation in military matters for
years to come.
So, when President Wilson called
upon his military experts for recon-
mendations with the idea in mind of
asking Congress to give him a larger
army and navy, those experts had the
latest information at their finger tips.
| Holding first place among the les
sons they had learned, 1t the modern
method of feeding an army in time of
war. a method which has undergone
vast Improvements within the last
three decades.
! 1t was formerly the custom to fur
nish soldiers in the field with their
rations in an uncooked state. The
troops prepared their food over camp
! fires, using their own utensils for the
purpose. But camp fire. are no longer
! Ilighted-they provide entirely too good
target for the enemy's long-range
artillery and bomb dropping aircraft.
The camp fire of the Civfl War period
has passed into history together with
the tented cities which housed the
sleeping troops. Nowadays the SOL
diers light their way with electric
flash lights and sleep in the trenches.
AS 1t is hardly practicable to cook
ones food over a pocket flash-light,
some other method had to be substi-
tuted for preparing the rations of the
| troops. The modern field kitchen, an
enormous cooking range on wheels,
capable of preparing the food for hum
dreds of soldiers. was the improvement
| finally adopted abroad and the result
has exceeded all expectations.
In the first place the field kitchen
has done away with the intestinal dis
orders and stomach troubles that
troops suffered from so extensively
when they cooked their own food.
Men who had fought hard and march
ed all day were usually too tired at
night to give their attention to cook
ing. In cons sequence, needing nourish-
ling food as they did, they provided
themselves with any makeshift and
ran down physically as a result. The
field kitchen now supplies them with
hot nutritious food, we'll cooked and
appetizlngly served.
Sure of His Meals
In modern warfare the soldier in
the trenches is certain to receive his
hot coffee and bread in the morning
a substantial monday meal, and a sup
per that will help him recuperate from
the labors of the day. Because OF
this he has greater physical vigor
Knowing 1t he will fight with more
energy and dogged determination thar
If his stomach gnawed and he looked
forward only to a crude meal hastily
prepared by the blaze of a camp fire.
AN army marches on its stomach,
said Napoleon, but the Powers en-
gagged in the war abroad have discov-
cred that an army must also fight or
it's stomach. The field kitchen is re-
garded as being of as much support &c
the men in the trenches as is the
heavy artillery.
The field kitchen most generally
used abroad is a four-wheeled We.
hicle, which may be separated in the
middle when desired. thus making tive
smaller kitchens. The rear portion
of the truck supports an explosion
lproof copper boiling vat holding zoe
iquarts, and coffee tank, holding 7C