The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1917-05-11
ENORMOUS COST OF
EQUlPPINC AN ARMY
1t Is Estimated That the Expenditure
for Each Soldier is 500.

The National Geographic oociety
has recently made an economic sum-
mary of the geography Of the great
munitions trade of the European war.
Never before in the history of the
world has there been such an unprec-
edented demand for materials of ev-
cry kind as Europe is compelled to
employ in this great, epochal strug-
gle. Discussing the vastness of mu-
milton consumption, the society con-
siders it from three viewpoints-the
cost of equipping a single soldier, the
cost of a single battle and the i'm
mense quantities of material required
to maintain armies in the field. The
society's bulletin says:
"When it is remembered that there
are today under arms more than
%, 600. 900 soldiers in the European
war, the immensely of the task of
keeping these men in the field n
keeping them supplied with the mu-
nitions with which to wage war will
appear. 1t has been stimated that
it costs approximately 500 to outfit
a soldier. Of this $25 goes for his
gun and $35 for his 1000 rounds of
cartridges. The average life of
uniform under modern service condi-
| tons is very short; that of the ordi-
nary rife is six months. In all the
history of war there has never been
| such a rapid exhaustion of all the
| materials with which it is made.
"An idea can be gained of the i'm
mensity of the outlay required in the
prosecution of a great battle by ref
erence to some of the figures from
| Verdun. A seventy-fve-centimeter
| gun can fire about 400 projectiles a
day. Each of these projectiles costs
| approximately Sc. Counting this and
the depreciation of the gun, which is
particularly rapid, the daily outlay
for its operation amounts to $4,000.
1t is estimated that the 1870 seventy
ive-centimeter cannon in an army
corps fired all day, cost in munitions
and depreciation $4,000. In addi-
ton to this, each army corps has
about forty pieces of heavy artillery.
Explosives and depreciation for a
single days work for them total
$500, 600, making the total artillery
expense of an army corps $500, 900
a day.
Outlay for Material.
"The fighting of 100 days around
Verdun cost an amount which is rep
resented by a column of gold n
yard square and 312 feet high, or ap-
proximately as high as the Statute
of Liberty on the capitol dome at
Washington. -.
"If the outlay in gun metal and
than the outlay for materials demand
ed by the present necessities OF
trench warfare. An officer who has
studied this phase of the present war
carefully says that to put a trench
in a state fit for occupation in win
ter requires 1.250,000 running feet
of 3 by 3 timber, $4,000 running feet
of corrugated iron, 6,125,000 sand
| bags, weighing 1000 tons, and 24,0OO
standards and pickets to the mile.
"In addition to this, 900 miles of
barbed wire has to be used, weighing
ITO tons. When one stops to recall
the hundreds of miles of trenches
which stretch across Europe in diff
ferent directions, and how often sec
tons of these trenches have to be re-
built. he can gain some idea of the
tremendous amount OF material re-
quired in their Quitting.
another picture of the vastness
of the munitioning trade and the m
mensity of the task of keeping the
armies in the field and in fighting
condition may be had from the state
ment that there are now more than
1000 controlled munition plants in
Great Britain alone. Of these nine
teen out of twenty never produced
.,-.- ~,.+o,,o1e Lnfora tha vuar hrnkQ
out. They employ nearly 5000, 900
men and nearly three-quarters OF a
million The vastness of the
industry in England is not out of pro-
portion to that in France. Although
Germany holds 70 per cent Of
Frances coal and some so per cent
of her iron, France has been able, by
the opening up of new furnaces, and
by immense imp~ortations of ore and
pig metal, largely to overcome this
handicap.
Growth of Munition Trade.
"While it is very difficult to pre-
sent authentic figures upon the pro-
| portion sof the munitions used by the
allies furnished by the United States,
the iugres of the department of COM
| merce do show something of the
| growth of the munition trade. Au-
| thorities widely disagree as to the
percentage of Americas contribution
to munitions. One authority puts it
as low as 2 per cent, while another
| says that it does not exceed 5 per
cent.
Whatever the percentage may be,
| the figures of the department of com
.-.. al.,- +l,+ l,,rinrr tha fret aIOhf
| months of 1914 u exports of horses,
mules. copper and manufacturers of
copper. explosives, india rubber prod
ucts, iron and steel manufactures,
lead. leather and manufactures OF
! Weather. nickel, mineral oils, sugar,
surgical apparatus, tin, zinc and
manufactures Of zinc amounted to
| S443. 900, 900. During the first eight
months of 1916 BUR exports of these
same materials amounted to 1885,