Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1916-08-04


80 80 auto trucks. They were heavil,
laden with the variety of cargoes tina
required for an army in the field
Each truck carried four five troopers in olive dral
Squatted insecurity on top of the load
The road was uneven, it full of ruts but thu
auto truck train gided along at the rate Of from egh
to ten miles an hour. The vehicles kept a perfec
alignment. The troopers swore softly but earnestl.
sas the trucks jolted.
Even as the army mule watched, the sweating, swear
ing truck train disappeared into cloud of dust be
yond the border line Then the mule tilted back his
detected head and gave vent to secret sorrow in on
iSar-reaching vocal effort AS though hooking his
grief the horns of the auto trucks footed back de
ieisvely in the distance.
The grief of that army mule the grief of Othel
10 with his occupation gone He sunk behind the Soto
cactus and subsidized into painful meditation He haC
just seen his finish
He realized at that moment that the army mule
would never again hold high place among the fac
tors which win battles He realized that practca
poets would longer sing of the virtues which the
army mule could display upon great emergencies He
was already obsolete, down and out.
Even the mule skinner" with the picturesque vo
.cabulary and the hard words, had abandoned him
The mule skinner now driving one of those
auto trucks, and addressing it with strained
politeness when he spoke to it at all.
1t all wrong. By the martyred mule Of
Matanzas, of which the army bards sang during the
Spansh-Amercan days, it all wrong!
There was no use to pull against the auto truck.
He had tried it when they htched him to the
of He decided to drag the thing back the
desert. But, instead he was relentlessly dragged
on his launches for mile, and he gave it up.
The Columbus expedition has demonstrated that
in the matter of army transportation the mule is
dead long live the auto truck!" It had already
been demonstrated at the battle of the Marine,
when motor vehicles checked the German advance
and saved France.
But our war department moves with excessive
ldeliberaton. 1t chung stenaciousy to it's faith in
1.-THE mule until the first auto truck train went
igalumphing into Mexico, making three times the
distance that mule could make over roads which
mo motor-driven vehicle could be expected to
itravel.
The consequence was rush order for auto
trucks and drivers. The auto trucks are standing
up wonderfully well. They pillow through the a1ka
dust up to the hubs they jolt the rocky
places they founder through the sandy wastes that
grind the bearings, and they puff through the
mountain passes. They go anywhere the mule will
: CO. and they get there in better time.
While the long trail from Columbus to Nam-
uuipa is lined with the carcasses of mules and
horses the auto trucks go rumbling in their
work of keeping the field army supplied with food
and ammunition. They perform new miracles
upon every new emergency.
There are several hundred auto trucks at the
army base at Columbus On pinch those trucks
could move an entire brigade III one day twice as
far as all the horses and mules in the world could
move it. This is true, despite the fact that many
of the trucks are badly racked because Of bad
driving.
! Not only does the successful test of the auto
truck spell the passing of the mule train. 1t
also means the passing of cavalry, the most pic
turesuue branch of the service. Even cavalry Off
GERS in the punitive expedition will admit that
three or four auto trucks will get company OF in
fantry twice as far on forced march as the best
mounted troop Of cavalry could travel.
(Novo chs rarc in
fire rifles and machine guns. The horses are used
only to get the men to the front, where they OPP
crate as infantry When the gasoline-fed mounts
an get them there so much faster than the horses,
1t begins to look bad for the cavalry horse
The United States army of the near future will
travel extensively on gasoline There will be few
more heartbreakng infantry hikes, and there will
be few more wild cavalry rides, leaving in their
wake dead and dying horses. Even field artillery
can be carried by the auto trucks
All of this should have been realized before One
of the lasting benefits of the punitive expedition
will he the undermining of the military transport
tation branch. The auto truck has passed the
stern test.
For the present the auto truck trains with the
army in Mexico not working under any definite
Svstem The organization of the truck train of the
United States army has not been decided upOn
Neither has the type of truck to be used in the
organization been decided upon. Captains and
Ieutenants are busy taking notes as to net mile
age and gasoline requirements also, as to stability
and reliability of the different makes OF trucks in
the service.
The drivers are mixed lot Soma are regular