Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1916-08-04

laden with the variety of cargoes tn.
are required for an army in the feel
Each truck carried or five troopers in olive drs
squatted insecurity on top of the load
The road uneven, 1t was full of ruts but II
auto truck train gded along at the rate of from eg
to ten miles an hour. The vehicles kept a perfe
alignment. The troopers swore softly but earnest
as the trucks jolted
Even as the army mule watched the sweating swea
ing truck train disappeared into a cloud of dust b
yond the border line. Then the mule tilted back b
detected head and gave vent to secret sorrow In oil
far-reaching vocal effort. AS though mocking h
grief, the horns of the auto trucks footed back d
risively in the distance.
The grief of that army mule was the grief of Othe
10 with his occupation gone He sunk behind the Sol
cactus and subsidized into painful meditation He hs
just seen his finish
He realized at that moment that the army mu
would never again hold high place among the fa
tors which win battles. He realized that practic
poets would no longer sing of the virtues which I'll
army mule could display upon great emergencies. d
was already obsolete, down and out
Even the mule skinner with the picturesque "
cabuary and the hard words, had abandoned hlr
The mule skinner driving one of those
auto trucks, and addressing it with strained
politeness when he spoke to 1t at all.
1t was all wrong BY the martyred mule OF
Matanzas. of which the army bards sang during the
Spansh-American days, 1t was all wrongl
There was no use to pull against the auto truck.
He had tried it when they htched him to the rear
of one. He decided to drag the thing back the
desert. But instead, he was relentessly 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 tenaciousy to Its faith In
the mule until the first auto truck train went
galumphng into Mexico, making three times the
distance that mule could make roads which
no motor-driven vehicle could be expected to
travel
The consequence q rush order for auto
trucks and drivers. The auto trucks are standing
up wonderfully WELL They pillow through the alkal
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
go, and they get there in better time.
While the long trail from Columbus to Nami-
quipa is lined with the carcassos 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 several hundred auto trucks at the
army base at Columbus. On pinch those trucks
could move entire brigade in one day twice
far all the horses and mules in the world could
move II. ThlS is true, despite the fnct 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 Off
GERS in the punitive expedition will admit that
three or four auto trucks win get company of in
fantry twice far on a 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 used
only to get the men to the 'front.' where they OPP
crate as infantry. When the gasoline-fed mounts
can get them there so 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 on gasoline. There will be few
more heart-breakng 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 undertaking of the military transpor-
.ation branch. The auto truck has passed the
stern test.
3 For the present the auto truck trains with the
army in Mexico 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 to net mile
age and gasoline requirements als0 as to stability
end reliability Of the different makes of trucks In
the service
The drivers are mixed lot Some are regular