Sioux County pioneer. (Fort Yates, Sioux County, N.D.) 1914-1929, 1916-08-04

are required for an army In the field
Each truck carried four five troopers in olive dra
squatted insecurity on top of the load
The road was uneven it was full of ruts, but tn
auto truck train glided along the rate of from egh
to ten miles an hour. The vehicles kept perfec
alignment. The troopers swOre softly but earnestl,
as 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 hi
far-reaching vocal effort AS though hooking hi
grief the horns Of the auto trucks footed back de
risively in the distance.
The grief of that army mule was the grief of Othel
10 with his occupation gone He sunk behind the Sot,
cactus and subsidized into painful meditation He ha(
just seen his finish
He realized at that moment that the army null,
would never again hold high place among the fac
tors which win battles He realized that practica
poets would no longer sing of the virtues which the
army mule could display upon great emergencies. HI
was already. obsolete, down and out.
Even the mule skinner" with the picturesque 70
cabulary and the hard words, had abandoned him
The mule skinner was now driving Of those
auto trucks and was addressing it with strained
politeness when he spoke toit at all.
1t was all wrong. BY the martyred mule of
Matanzas of which the army bards sang during the
Spanish-American war days. it was all wrong!
There use to pull against the auto truck.
of one He decided to drag the thing back over the
desert. But instead, he was relentlessly dragged
on his launches for mile, and he gave 1t up.
The Columbus expedition has demonstrated that
in the matter of army transportation 1.-THE mule is
dead, long live the auto truck" 1t had already
been demonstrated at the battle of the Marne
when motor vehicles checked the German advance
and saved France
But our war department moves with excessive
elaboration. 1t chung tenaciously to its faith in
the mule until the first auto truck train went
galumphing into Mexico, making three times the
distance that mule could make over roads which
motor-driven vehicle could be expected to
travel.
The consequence was rush order for auto
trucks and drivers. The auto trucks are standing
up 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 go anywhere the mule will
co. and they get there In better time.
While the long trail from Columbus to Namf-
quipa 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 food
and ammunition. They perform new miracles
upon every new 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 world could
move it. This Is true, despite the fact that many
of the trucks 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
turesque 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 forced march as the best
mounted troop of cavalry could travel
Cavalry charges are rare in these days<bf rapid
fire rifles and machine guns The horses are used
only to get the men to the front, where they op-
crate as infantry. When the gasoline-fed mounts
can get them there much faster than the horses.
It begins to look bad for the cavalry horse
The United States army of the near future will
travel extensively gasoline. There will be few
more heartbreaking 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 be the undermining of the military transpor-
tation branch The auto truck has passed the
stern test.
For the present the auto truck trains with the
army in Mexico are not working under any definite
SYSTEM 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
lieutenants are busy taking notes as to net mile
age and gasoline requirements; also to stability
and reliability of the different makes of trucks in
the service.
The drivers are a mixed lot. Some are regular