The Red Cloud chief. [volume] (Red Cloud, Webster Co., Neb.) 1873-1923, 1916-08-03

punitive expedition swept n train OF
30 auto trucks. They heavily
laden with the variety of cargOcs that
are required for an army in the field.
Ench truck carried four five troopers in olive drab
squatted insecurely on top Of the Load
The road was uneven, 1t fun of ruts but the
auto truck train ged along the rate of from eight
to ten miles an hour. The vehicles kept perfect
alignment The troopers swore softly but earnestly
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 in
far-reaching vocal effort. As though hooking his
grief, the horns of the auto trucks footed back de-
riSively in the distance.
The grief of that army mule was the grief of Othci
10 with his occupation gone He sunk behind the Soto
cactus and subsidized into painful meditation. lie had
just his finish
lie realized ut that moment that the army mule
would never again hold high place among the tao.
tors which win battles lie realized that practical
poets would no longer sing of the virtues which the
army mule could display upon great emergencies lie
already obsolete down and out.
Even the mule skinner" with the picturesque vo
cabulary and the hard words, had abandoned hin
The mule skinner now driving of those
auto trucks and addressing ii with strained
politeness when he spoke to it AT all
1t was all wrong BY the martyred mule Of
Matanzas of which the army bar'is sang during the
Spanish American war days ii was all wrong!
lie had tried it when they hitched him to the
OF one. lie decided to drag the thing back the
desert. But instead he was relentlessly dragged
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 Marine.
when motor vehicles checked the German advance
and saved France.
But our war department moves with excessive
dol OH n
the mule until the first auto truck train went
galumphng 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 Hre standing
up wonderfully well. They pillow through the alkai
dust up to the hubs. they jolt over the rocky
places they founder through the sandy wastes that
grind the bearings and they pun 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 Mani.
uupa Is lined with the carcasses OF mules and
horses the auto trucks go rumblng on In their
work OF keeping the field army supplied with food
and ammunition. They perform new miracles
upon every emergency.
There are several hundred auto trucks at the
army base at Columbus On pinch those trucks
could move an entire brigade In one day twice az
far as all the horses and mules In the world cou'u
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
turesque branch of the service. Even cavalry of,-
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
Cavalry charges rare in these days OF rapid
fire rifles and machine guns The horses are used
only to get the to the front, where they OPP
crate as infantry. When the gasollne-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 VIII
travel extensively on gasoline There will be few
more Misunderstanding 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 transpOr-
tatton 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 ana
Iieutenants are busy taking notes as to net mile
age and gasoline requirements; also as to stability
x,nd reliability of the different makes OF trucks In
the service. -, 49, ,