The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1917-06-14
RAILWAYS OF THE UNITED STATES in single SYSTEM FOR war
Under Government Direction and With European Lessons in View
They Are Preparing to Handle Armies and Supplies - Mis-
takes of the SpanishAmercan War Will Not Be Repeat
ed-Effcency the WatchWord.

and another car substituted and sent
on through, with the same placard.
One Of the chief troubles at Tampa
was that the freight was not labeled.
Nobody knew what the cars contained
or where any specific supplies were
along the line.
For months before diplomatic rela-
lions were broken with Germany the
committee on transportation and
communication of the advisory COM
mission of the Council for National
Defense, headed by Daniel Willard,
President of the Baltimore & Ohio
railroad, had been in close communi
cation with the officials of the war
department. When the danger became
an actual menace the work of prompt
ly organizing the railroads for defense
fell upon the executive committee of
the American Railway association.
Col. John l.. Taylor of the bureau
of explosives of the American Railway
association said last week that in the
whole world there was no such broad
and highly developed system as that
possessed by Uncle Sam. 1t was Gre
ated, however, for the pursuits of
peace; it made no claims to efficiency
on special military lines comparable
with the transportation of Germany,
for instance.
System in Germany.
By the end of 1907 the normal
tracks in Germany constituted more
than one-sixth of the whole Of Europe
"a system larger than that Of any
other European country with one ex-
ception, Russia. The kaiser has been
ex officio the chief of the Imperial
railway Office. He has appointed it's
members. He has had the power to
demand and to prescribe lower than
the normal rates for the transporta-
ton of provisions in case Of emer-
gency. He, in connection with the up
per house of parliament, may call for
the conveyance Of soldiers and the ma
terials Of war.
Not long after the war began Ger
many called to the colorS every avail
able man. This gave total of 4J0OO,-
600 men in the field to be supplied with
food, clothing, ammunition, and every
thing needed for actual service. There
were probably 100000 horses also in
the field, and they too had to be fed.
The ammunition and the guns had to
be carried to the front by rail, and
much of it was transported back and
forth several times. Germany'S rail-
road arrangements had been complete
even before the war started. A war
timetable, revised as occasion de-
manded, has from the first been in the
possession of railway officers through
out the country, capable of being put
into force at the shortest notice. Short
strategic lines built by Germany on
the French and Belgian frontiers have
been of the greatest Importance, and,
in addition, most Of the main lines are
so located as to have the greatest eff
ficiency for military purposes.
Every railroad car in Germany has
stenciled On it the number of men or
horses it is expected to accommodate.
In Germany the world has its most
complete example of the state-owned
railway. Bismarck worked for impe-
rial ownership. The foundation Of
such a net as we now see in operation
was laid in 1871, when the lines Of
Alsace-Lorraine came to the empire as
result of the Franco-P russian war.
In that war Germany used her seven
railway lines in the north and three
in the south, only one having double
track, to transport 16 army corps,
numbering 100000 men, to the frontier,
and accomplished the strategic feat in
II days. Today Germany has II dou-
ble-track lines grilling her broad sur
face, and the manner in which she has
made use of them to prosecute the
world war has been a striking exam
Pile of the railroad as weapon for