The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-10-06
in GIGANTIC TASK
Railroads Have Moved 100000
Men to Training Camps.
Third Division of New National
Army Starting Today.

Twenty-Five per cent of the men in
the new national army or approx
mately 172, 200 are included in the
movement to training camps beginning
today and lasting until October 7, ac-
cordlng to statement from the rail-
roads war board as issued today by
J. M. Council, general passenger agent
for the Santa Fe railway. Approx
mately, 10000 men. including those
in the national army, the regular
army and state troops have already
been transported under a policy, to
paraphrase the railroads board, sat
isfactory to the government"
The statement follows:
1t is the biggest troop movement
ever attempted in this country. in
Guiding the national guard, the regu-
lar army and the new national army.
The railroads to date have moved APP
proximately 10000 soldiers from
their homes to training camps, or en-
barkation points. The great bulk of
the army-aIl of it, in fact, except the
32,549 men included in the first per
cent of the national army that moved
by regular train on September has
required special train service involv-
ing the use of 1880 passenger cars,
including 1900 Pullman and tourist
sleepers, 1000 baggage cars and $500
freight cars.
THE troop movement problem has
been most difficult to handle as it
comprises not only the movement or
the men selected for the national
army environments, but the movement
of hundreds of thousands of troops in
the national guard and the regular
army. as well, either to training
camps, or embarkation points Some
slight conception of what this prob
lem means may be deduced from the
TACT that in the national army move
ment alone the railroads have had to
prepare special schedules covering the
4,531 towns and cities designated by
the provost marshal general as the
points of local concentration from
which the recruits of the new national
army proceed to the environments. In
addition, the special train movements
have had to be so directed as to pre-
Senger service.
Long Haul to Riley.
THE longest haul made in the new
national army movement to date was
that of the special train which moved
the citizen soldiers from Yuma, Ari-
iona, to Fort Riley. Kansas, a dis
lance of 1.514 miles. This trip oc-
cupied forty eight hours. The short
est distance Travelled by any unit of
the new national army was that of
the District of Columbia unit to
! Camp Meade, in Maryland, a trip of
less than twenty-five miles.
Practically all of the national
guard movements to date have been
of great length. The longest one was
that made by battalion of San Fran
cisco engineers from San Francisco to
a point on the Atlantic coast This
battalion included sos men and 18
OFFICERS. They occupied a special
train which left San Francisco at 4
p. m. on September 1 and arrived at
destination at 1915 a. m. Septem Der
! 8.
New Draft Movement.
Twenty-Five per cent of the men
in the new national army, or approx
mately $4,000, are included in the
division that will be entrained for the
environments. From now on until
october II it is expected that
the balance of the citizen SOL
dierS will be entrained. The
railroads have taken every step pos
sible to safeguard the lives that the
government has intrusted to them and
to complete the troop movement with
out delay, and also without interfering
with the abnormal amount of COM
mercial traffic that the war has pro-
duced.
For obvious reasons it would not
be wise to divulge in detail the plans
which have been followed in moving
the men to the various cantonments
and cmbarkation points. Perhaps it
is sufficient to say that the movement
is progressing smoothly and to the
complete satisfaction of the govern
ment."