River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1917-11-01


shops, have been sent to France and
put into service on the lines of com
munication. Thousands of miles of
railroad track, hundreds of locomo-
. tives for use on both broad and mar
row gauge track, tens of thousands of
cars have been pouring in a steady
stream into France and the stream
still flows. About half of the cars and
more than half of the larger locomo-
tives now operating in the sector Of
British operations in France were
taken from British railways. This of
course necessitated the imposition of
rigorous restrictions upon traffic at
home.
After restricting travel in Great Bril-
tain to the utmost, it was still impos-
sible to spare as many locomotives and
cars for service in France as were nee
essary. SO the Colonials were called
upon and immense amounts of rolling
stock have been sent from them.
Thousands of cars have been specially
constructed for the military work of
this country. Hospital trains and
larmored trains have been built, and
special trucks have had to be con-
structed for the movement of heavy
artillery.
Military Railroads Built.
In a recent despatch Sir Douglas
Haig told something about the work of
the railways in France. At the end of
1916 the increase of the armies and
the expansion of material resources
had tasked the roads and railroads to
their extreme capacity. The broad and
narrow gauge railway lines were I'M
able to handle the growing volume,
and so recourse was had to the high
ways. Thousands of motor trucks
were pressed into the service, and of
course the roadbeds suffered fearfully.
To relieve these it became necessary
to build still more military railroads,
and a new network of these was de-
cided upon.
Before these lines had been COM
pleted, the Germans retired from q
large section which they had occupied
from the beginning of the war, de-
stroying railways, bridges, highways,
every means of communication; and
the British army confronted the huge
task of gridironing this additional area
with means Of transportation. The
fact that it has been accomplished,
and accomplished with unbelievable
rapidity and thoroughness, constitutes
one of the most remarkable achieve
ments-either military or Industrial
of the entire war.
No Fuss About 1t.
All this development has been car
ried on so quietly that almost nobody
realized it was taking place. Some
months ago M. BRAND, who was then
the premier, visited an immense rail-
road workshop behind the British
lines. Every brick, every piece of tim
Der, every tool or machine in it had
been transported from England to be
set up in the most convenient place.
The French statesman went through
the establishment, and his comment at
the conclusion of his inspection was
just about what everybody else says
who looks into the Industrial marvels
of the last three years:
''The great fault I have to find with
you English he said, sis that you do
such enormous things, but nobody ever
gets an idea Of what you are doing"
Great Britain declared war on Au-
gust 4, and at midnight following the
declaration the government announced
it's assumption of the entire railway
control of the kingdom.
The railway executive committee,
consisting of the general managers Of
the chief companies, was put in charge
of the railway lines for the purpose Of
insuring that both government and pri-
vate traffic would be as well cared for
as possible. This committee was in
fact appointed four days before the
declaration of war, testifying to the
fact that there were some people in
the British government who even then
realized that tremendous things were
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