Evening star., 1916-01-09


the army and the necessary regulator
Of artillery fire. ~
The trench due to the crushing
effect of monster guns has been sunk
deeper and deeper IN the earth. The
vast trenches are connected one with
the other by a network of communicat-
ing corridors. or ''CoyauX.' veritablc
fortifications. or bombproofs, eight 10 ten
meters deep. This siege warfare Is
by mines designated as
taupes or moIes. The sappers in the
battle of Arras tJune .. 19lO per
formed excellent service, an official re-
port of which has been published under
the title OF "Our Sappers in the Battle
of Arras."
This mode OF warfare. il should ha
noted. was practiced In Manchuria, and
also in the war OF the Balkans to the
lines at Tchataldja. which stopped the
victorious Bulgars in their march on
Consfantinople; also at Fiiani beyond
Janina. facts which lead us to assume
that already the Turks had received
lessons In trench warfare from Won der
GoltZ. But who could have imagined
that those apparently feeble methods
would ultimately predominate In a Eu-
These geograp phical lessons Of the
war distinguish the war from its
predecessors. But there
ndllIOdQS rs dnOtneI leeSOH-
- w., What were railroads I'm
A0 "oA' the war OF 1S7o-ls71?
What role did they play in the war in
Manchuria or the Transvaal2. The COM
batants, il may be. answered. were
moved to and from battlefelds on foot.
A single-track transsiberian railway
necessarily failed to supply the Russian
army. and the Manchurian defeat may
be properly ascribed to that defect.
Armies today are novel by rail or
motor cars or by both. In this regard
the armies of the, entente. including
Russia have shown themselves inferior
to the Austro-Germans. The latter
count seven grand lines, independent OF
each other. which may simultaneously
transport troops from west to east or
east to west. The entire frontier OF
Poland is enveloped by mesh of
railroads that cross In every direction
and which have permitted Austria
Germany to carry troops at different
times-human masses whose immense
weight precipitated Russian defeat 1t
was thus in the middle OF February.
1915, the Russians. with insufficient
transportation, were pushed back on
the Niemen AMI the Narew. Later, In
June they were again compelled to re-
tire beyond the Dneister.i and again I'm
September they fell back for the same
reason. e"-t. .-.
Another lesson i'm the war is the au-
tomobiie. which has modified immeas-
tion of troops even to the front or
battlefields. If the German Gen. Won
Kluck was able to move his troops
from the Neuse to the Somme and from
the Somme to the Disc in their rapid
march on Paris. it was due to the 5000
automobiles containing fifteen men
each and which could thus transport
$4,000 men by night.
Also il should be recalled that the
French victory of the Marine was as
sured in part by the taxi-autos OF Paris.
Gems. Gallieni and Maunoury requisi-
toned 1000 taxi-autos and have many
times transported thus a contingent Of
fresh troops to the front with five SOL
diers in each car. In one month 12,00O
French automobiles transported 25e.0OO'
troops, sr
s. x ft
On the oriental front it was the 5000
automobiles of Gen. Hindenburg which
changed the issue
Won Hindenburg's of the furious bat
tie of Bzoura, also
Automobiles. called the battle of
Jodz Thus the automobile is another
lesson of the war of which the Ger
mans believed that they alone pos
sessed the secret under the head OF
..mobel machen.'
The actual war has become a subject
of Incessant dfsquietude and. tension on
the part of, neutral states which, not
withstanding their good intentions IN
the matter of their neutrality, are at
tackled and their rights as neutrals yio-
lated This disquietude has proved
latent factor certainly In the meeting
at Washington these days OF the Pan-
America Scientific Congress. The con-
baS meana
to a closer union for the development
of their commerce and, their mutual
protection. bearing in mind the semi
official threat of a distinguished milf
tary visitor two years before the
war. '.s -f- -
There was nothing more natural than
that aviation from scientificsand eco
nomical point of view should be spe-
cial subject of discussion by this con-
gress of pan-Americans. all the more
that there was present as member
of the congress the man who is con-
sdered as the pioneer and father or
modern aviation, M. Alberto Santos
Dumont.
Leonardo da vinci, aside from his
studies on the flight of birds, prelimi-
nary to his at
Santos-Dumont's tempts at flight
conceived the gem
Aspiration. erous idea of con-
a canal between France and
Italy to facilitate the political and eco
nomfcal ties between the two. countries.
Santos Dumont would do likewise, that
is. he would have the aeroplane serve
as "A means of promoting commercial
between North and South
America and at the same time serve s
a military and naval defense of the
American coast.
Addressing the Pan-American Con-
gress on the Sd instant. when he was
given an ovation, NJ. Santos-Dumont
said:
"Is war between the United States
and a European power to be regarded
as absolutely improbable Only fleet
of great aeroplanes flying 200 kiio-
meters an hour could patrol the shores
of Brazil and Argentina. With time
and distance annihilated, the com
merciai relations so long deferred be
tween North and. South America will
spontaneously develop.
In felicitating NJ. Santos-Dumont, at
the conclusion of his lecture on How
the Aeroplane May Effect Closer Al
lance of the South American Countries
with the United States, the writer re
called to the distinguished aviator that
in his flight from the Eifel tower his
airship passed very close to the win
Llows Of the writer's apartment near
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