Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1916-08-11

laden with the variety of cargoes tina
required for army in the field
Each truck carried four five troopers in olive drat
Squatted insecurity on top of the load
The road was uneven, it was full of ruts but the
auto truck train gded along at the rate of from eigh
to ten miles hour The vehicles kept perfec
alignment The troopers sWore softly hut earnestl,
the trucks joted.
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 secret sorrow in one
far-reaching vocal effort. AS though mocking his
grief. the horns of the auto trucks footed back de
risiyely in the distance
The grief of that army mule the grief of Othel
10 with his occupation gone He sunk behind the
cactus and subsidized into painful meditation. He had
Just seen his finish.
He realized at that moment that the army mule
would again hold high place among the fac
tors which win. battles He realized that practical
poets would longer sing of the virtues which the
army mule could display upon great emergencies He
already obsolete, down and out.
Even the mule skinner" with the picturesque vo-
cabulary and the hard words, had abandoned him.
The mule skinner driving of those
auto trucks, and addressing it with strained
pOliteness when he spoke to it at all.
1t was all wrong. By the martyred mule of
Hatanzas of which the army bards sang during the
Spanish-American days, it all wrongi
There use to pull against the auto truck.
He had tried it when they hitched him to the rear
Of He decided to drag the thing back over the
1esert. But instead, he was reentlessly 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!" 1t had already
been demonstrated at the battle of the Marine,
when motor vehicles checked the German advance
and saved France.
But our department moves with excessive
elaboration 1t chung tenaciOusly TO its faith in
tho DluIe
gaumphng into Mexico, making three times the
distance that mule could make over roads which
no motor-driven vehicle could be expected to :,
travel
The consequence rush order for auto
trucks and drivers. The auto trucks are standing
I'D wonderfully we'll; They pillow through the alkali
dust up to the hubs they jolt over the rocky
places they founder through the sandy wastes that
grind the bearings, and they puff through the
mountain passes. They so anywhere the mule VIII
go, and they get there in better time.
While the long trail from Columbus 10 Nami-
uuipa is lined with the carcasses of mules and
horses the auto trucks go rumbling on In their
work of keeping the field army supplied with foou
and ammunition They perform new miraeies
upon every emergency.
There are several hundred auto trucks at the
army base at Columbus. On a pinch those trucks
could move an entire brigade In one day twice as
far as all the horses and mules In the wor'd couiu
move it. This is true despite the fact that many
of the trucks are badly racked because OF oao
driving.
Not only does the successful test of the auto
truck spell the passing of the mule train
also means the passing of cavalry, the most pic
turesoue branch of the service. Even cavalry ON
GERS in the punitive expedition Will admit that
three or four auto trucks will get company Oh III
fsntry twice as far on forced march as tins pest
mounted troop of cavalry could travel
Cavalry charges are rare in these days OF rapid
fire. r,ees and machine guns The horses afe used
only to get the men to the front, where they OPP
arote as infantry When the gasoline-fed mounts
.an oct them there so much faster than the horses
I begins to look bad for the cavalry horse
The United States army of the near fnfure VIII
rayel extensively on gasoline. There VIII De rev
more heart-breaking infantry hikes and there VIII
,e few more wild cavalry rides, leaving IN their
wake dead and dying horses. Even nsid Aruheiy
an be carried by the auto trucks
All of this should have been realized before one
= the lasting benefits of the punitive expedition
viii be the undermining of the military transpor-
at;on branch The auto truck has PASSED the
tern test 49,.
For the present the auto truck TRIMS "lth uie
- IN uaxico are not working under any definite
vstem The organization of the truck Train OF 'ie
United States army has not been DECIDED upon.
,eitber has the type of truck to be used IN the
rsonzation been decided upon Captains ana
eutensnts are busy taking notes IS TO net miie- l
90 and gasoline requirements; Also as to STABILITY
nd reliabNty of the different makes OF trucks 10
lie service
The drivers are a mixed lot. Some are regular o