Mohave County miner., 1917-03-17


view of what Italy has been doing to
perfect her organization of military,
industrial and political forces may be
gathered from data given to The As
ISOLATED Press at the Ministry of War,
where it is declared that Italy is now
prepared to enter into a still more Wig
orous prosecution of the war.
1t is frankly stated that Italy began
the war with the feeling that she was
weak nation, poor in money and ma
terial resources, with an army that
was untitled to cope with that of Aus
tria which was far superior in artil-
lery and which for many years had
been planting heavy cannon in the
Businesses of the high mountains that
lie between her and Italy.
The Italian general staff, in COM
mand of General Cadorna, has never
made a secret of the fact that when
Italy's troops were first in May, 1915,
launched against the Austrian from
tier, along a 5O0-mile front, defended
by 25 divisions (625,OOO men) of
trained troops, it was with an Italian
army of which perhaps a mere 2OO,-
900 men might be classed as trained
troops, and troops which were lack
ing in artillery support, even in the
very clothes needed to keep them
warm in the mountains. Nor has it
been a secret that, politically, Italy be-
gan the war divided into two parties,
one of which was against war with
Germany or any kind of war at all.
Therefore, internally, one of the big
tasks of the general staff and Of the
government has been to maintain the
nations morale at the fighting pitch
by proving the nations future prog
ress. Throughout the war, on the one
hand, the army has been kept in tight
control by Cadorna while in Rome
Baron Sydney Sonnino, the head of
the department of state, has exercised
much-admired skill in handling the
opponents to the war. By his con-
tinual presence at the front, save for
total period of two weeks absence
in Rome on government business, the
King had indicated his position to the
nation. The various antagonistic,
anti-war efforts of the socialists have
been overcome by the division of that
party through one of its leaders,
Leonida Bissolatti, being taken into
the present cabinet, and also through
the influence of the Vatican, which is
notably anti-sociaistic.
One of the first enemies the Italian
general staff had to conquer, after its
first leap into Austrian territory, was
cold upon the steep mountains, noun
tains that for two thirds of its front
vary from 1000 to 1000 feet in
height. This cold is often 6 degrees
below zero (Fahrenheit). In the first
line trenches the soldiers had to have
the heaviest of clothing and boots,
while wooden barracks had to be built
for those in the second or reserve
line. In addition, extra large guam
titles of food and proper cooking
utensils had to be carried up to them,
and roads had to be built so that
wagons or automobiles could reach
them rapidly. For a single army corps
it was necessary to provide 100000
board planks, 100000 wooden blankets,
shirts and pairs of socks, $4,000 wa
terproof capes, $4,000 furcoats and
10000 fur sleeping sacks.
The Italian frontier trench line has
been continually maintained at a
length of 1900 miles, counting the
second, third, and fourth line trenches
that have been dug for reserve pur-
poses.
The new territory occupied beyond
the old frontier is no less than 132
communes comprising an area of 5000
square klometers, with a mountain
population of 100000 persons.
In order to reach the front through
this territory with the enormous guam
titles of supplies needed, the combined
forces of the army's engineering corps
and that of Italy's department of pub
lie works were required. These two
organizations began working in the
early part of the war and until the
present time has built $40 miles of
new macadam road and rebuilt, widen I
ed, and repaired 2445 miles of other
roads. Irrespective of the regular
state railroad forces, these above
named organizations have planned and
built upwards of $50 miles of airline
cables for the handling of freight, 10
bridges and 200 miles of narrow
guage railroad.
There has also been done an i'm
mense amount of construction work in
the Xvav Of wooden oT cement bay-