El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1916-06-03
j. 6. ARMY EXPERIMENTS AFTER
It Gets INTO A WAR, TOO LATE
Officers Free With Criticisms of Idle Ammunition Fac
tories, Machine Guns in Storage, When Men Are
Unframed in Their Use; Short of Trucks, Poor
Railroad transportation Horse Shortage
BY KENT A. HUNrER.

~OLUMBUS, y n, June 5.-Our
army can see itself better than
~ can all the other army experts OF
the world.
For two months and a half during
association of daily personal contact,
these naked eye impressions Of off
GERS in every branch Of our land de-
fence have been discussed and redis-
cussed here on the border
Infantry. cavalry. artillery. engi-
neers. signal corps. quarterinaS.Ier
corps. ordnance=every section OF ths
mobile army-has its glazing deIiclen
cies- and every section hopes asalnst
hope that through the war Collese,
through congress. throusn oIe ,,,P9ir ~ -
themselves when they are acQudlll su
with actual conditions. some remedy
for these deficiencies viii be erected
Always Experiment Too Late.
At Columbus, the base OF the feI-
shing punitive expedition, mere y
club where the army radicals consre-
gate. and there are one or two houses
where one may hear, first hand, "hat
the officers think Of themselves ana
their organizations
Our whole trouble said one DIG
major who has been % years in the
service, lis that we never start 70
find out how anything works unul
the necessity 10 use that particular
service necessity. When that neces-
sity crops up, we experiment quickly
enough, but how much time ana now
much money, and, perhaps, now many
lives might be conserved, If the eX-
perimentation could be done at time
when mistakes might not prove Vital-'
Value OF Machine Guns.
The big major knows machine guns
re has devoted much time and con-
siderable money from his personal
pocket 70 machine guns and their
operation.
Europe has been brought to a dead
lcck by machine guns the big major
continued stretched across the line
OF trenches that marks the contact
cage OF the worlds greatest war, are
some fifteen million men And for
every y yards. on the average, is
machine gun. with men who know how
70 handle that gun.
In the United States we have some
80 regiments Of infantry. half as many
OF cavalry Each regiment has
machine gun troop But. outside Of
that unit per regiment not three per
cent Of our enlisted men know the
first principles of machine gun fire.
To teach man 10 handle a machine
gun so that he can take il apart. re-
construct IL, fire II at night or in day
light, is a matter of three months
training with careful instructors
Volunteers Wholly Unframed.
our reserve fOrceS-vOlunteer and
national guard-knOW nothing Of the
machine gun, though. in the past few
months some effort has been made 10
give the militia that kind Of training.
Ny suggestion is this:
Train every regular soldier in the
United States 10 handle machine gun.
Grind it into him that he cannot be a
first class private until he knows
machine gun fire. Give a badge for
machine gun proficiency with a little
extra pay, as they do for marksmen.
3 ilarpShOoters and expert riflemen-
Train our regulars until they are
themselves able TO train others in ma
chine gun work
Then, If the time ever comes when
We must fight some first class power.
we viii have q rapid fire army. Don't
wait until that time comes 10 begin
the experiment
Machine Guns In Storage.
The big major unburdened himself
Of some figures He outlined the
general situation that allows more
than 1900 machine guns 10 be stored
In armOriess government warehouses
and private storage plants because
they are not Of the new type being
turned out for the army under a re-
cent contract
These guns should be in service"
said the big major. The men should
learn how TO use them Then, as new
guns are issued TO the regular army,
the national guard. the military
schools, and the military lodges
Of the country should be given
the older models As they are. no one
sees them. no one knows their mechan-
ism. and the purchase price OF approx I
mately $3.50 per gun represents
wasted jnvestmen Of $500, 000 This
system OF handling equipment down !
through a graduated scale is followed I
With infantry rifles-why not with the I
more valuable. more intrf-
,ate, and more deadly machine gun21 I
Shortage of TRANSPORTATION.
Another major, Of the quarter 4
masters corps, has had some things TO
say about the proposition that our
government goes in heavily Cor expert
nent-When field service conditions !
~ Ell RI H