Norwich bulletin., 1917-02-23
5SE{iG5 
THE WAR PRIMER By National Geographic Society

Cost Keeping Tn the War-The Na-
 Jional Geographic Society, with head
 quarters in Washington, has recently
 made an economic summary of the
 great munitions trade of the European 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 strug- gle. Discussing the vastness of muni- ton consumption, the Society, in a statement issued recently, considers 1t from three viewpoints:-the cost of equipping a single soldier, the cost of single battle, and the immense auan- titles of material required to maintain armies iD Lhe field. The Societys
 bulletin says.
 are today under arms more than twenty -four million soldiers, Tn the European war, the in1mensity 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 S100 to outfit a soldier. Of this $25 goes for his gun ard $35 for his one thousand 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
 
 "An idea can be gained of the im- mensity of the outlay required in the prosecution of a great battle by ref erence to some of the figures from Verdun A 75 centimeter gun can fire about 400 projectiles a day. Each of these projectiies costs Approximately six dollars. Counting this and the depreciation of the gun, which is par ticularly rapid, the daily outlay for its operation amounts to $2,70o. It is es- cd "a cannon in an army corps, fired all day, cost in munitions and depreciation s20,o00. In addition to- this, each army corps has about 40 pieces of heavy artillery. Explosives and de- preciation for single days work for them totals $500.00o, making the total artillery expense of an army corps
 "The fighting of ohe hundred days around verdun cost an amount which is represented by a column of gold one yard square and 312 feet high, or approximately as high as the statue of Liberty on the capital dome at Wash ington.
 "If the outlay fin gun metal and powder is heavy, it is no more go than the outlay for materials demanded by the present necessities of trench war fare. 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 winter requires a | million and a quarter running feet of three by three timber, thirty-six thous- | and running feet of corrugated iron, 1 six and a quarter million sand bags weighing one thousand tons, and twen- y-four thousand standards and pick l cts, to the mile. Tn addition to this, | nine hundred miles of barbed wire has to be used, weighing 110 tons. When | one stops to recall the hundreds of | miles of trenches which stretch across | Europe in different directions. and how often sections of these trenches have | to be rebuilt, he can gain some idea of | the tremendous amount of material l in their outfitting.
 Another picture of the vastness of l the munitioning trade and the imr1en-