The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-02-17
NR WASHINGTON, February 16
 NW Special. .)-The National Geo

AW\W (CpSCldl. lS NdbiOhdi MY
 V V graphic society, with headquar- ters in this city, has recently made an economic summary of the geography or the great munitions trade of the Euro pean war Never before in the history of the world has there been such an un- precedented demand for materials of every kind, as Europe is compelled to employ in this great. epochal struggle. Discussing the vastness of munitlon con- sumption, the society, in a statement is- points, The cost of equipping single soldier, the cost of a single battle, and the immense quantities of material re- quired to maintain armies in the fleld. The Society's bulletin says:
 'When it is remembered that there are today under arms more than 24,oO0,Ooo SOL diers in the European war, the immensity of the task of keeping these men in the field and keeping them supplied with the munitions with which they wage war will appear. It has been estimated that it costs approximately $100 to outfit sol dier Of this $25 goes for his gun and $35 for his 1000 rounds of cartridges. The average life of a uniform under modern service conditions is very short; that of the ordinary rifle is six months. In all of the history of war there has never been such rapid exhaustion of all Of the materials with which it is made.
 "An idea can be gained of the immen- sity of the outlay required in the prose- cution of great battle by reference to some of the figures from Verdun. A 7S- centimeter gun can fire about 400 pro- jectiles a day. Each of these projectiles costs approximately s6. Counting this 1 and the depreciation of the gun, which is particularly rapid, the daily outlay for | its operation amounts to s2700. It is esti- mated that the 12o 75-centimeter cannon | in an army corps, fired all day, cost in munitions and depreciation $320, GOO. In ad- dition to this, each army corps has about 40 pieces of heavy artillery. Explosives and depreciation for a single days work for them totals s50o,O0o, making the total artillery expense of an army corps 900 I a day.
 srrhe fighting of 100 days around Yer I dun cost an amount which is represented by column of gold one yard square and S12 feet high, or approximately as high as ! the Statute of Liberty or the capitol dome at washington.
 "If the outlay in gun metal and powder ;% fhor, O nv1f-
 lay for materials demanded by the pres
 ent necessities of trench warfare. An of
 ficer who has studied this phase of the
 present war carefully says that to put a
 trench in state fit for occupation in
 winter requires 1,250,000 running feet of
 sx3 timber, SS,oO0 running feet of corru- gated iron, 625O,00O sand bags, weighing
 1000 tons, and 24,000 standards and pick cts to the mile. In addition to this, 900 miles of barbed wire has to be used, weighing no tons When one stops to re- call the hundreds of miles of trenches which stretch across Europe in differen.
 directions, and how often sections of :, these trenches have to be rebuilt, he can gain some idea of the tremendous amount
 
 of material required in their outfitting
 "Another picture of the yastness of the lmunitioning trade and the immensity oi the task of keeping the armies in the 1 field and in fighting condition may be had from the statement that there arc now more than 4000 controlled munitior plants in Great Britain alone. Of these
 10 out of 20 never produced war materials before the war broke out. They employ
 nearly 100000 men and nearly 10000 women. The vastness of the industry in England is not out of proportion tt
 that in France. Although Germany hold
 70 per cent of Frances coal and som' } 80 per cent of her iron, France has beel able by the opening up of new furnaces
 and by immense importations of ore ant lpig metal largely to overcome this han ldicap.
 While it is very difficult to presen
 authentic figures upon the proportions o
 the munitions used by the allies furnislte
 by the United States. the figures of tn