The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1917-07-28
~24,OOO,OOO MEN AT
WAR, SAYS EXPERT
Gen, Sir William Robertson Gives
Graphic Facts About Pres
ent Struggle.
DEATH TOLL is APPALLING
British in France Fired 100000 Tons
Of Ammunition in Five or Six
Weeks-How Transportation
Difficulties Are Overcome.

London.-Gen. Sir William Robert
son In a speech recently gave a graph
lie impression Of some of the extraor-
binary aspects of the present war. 1t
has become merely trite to observe
that the wal has now completely over
Swallowed every other occupation and
interest In the world, but the extent to
which IT has done this Is suggested In
a most forcible way by some figures
which General Robertson employed.
In the armies of all the belligerents,
he said. there are now 24,000,000 men,
which excludes the great civilian
armies behind the front in the Fran
co-Prussian war the total Of all casual
ties was less than 100000 while in
this war the killed alone can be count
ed by the million.
During the past five or six weeks
we have. / suppose" said General Rob
ertson, expended some 100000 tons of
ammunition, which has had to be
moved by road, rail and sea from the
factories in England to the guns in
France and man-handled probably not
less than half a dozen tines
Great Transportation Task.
Two hundred thousand tons of am
munition means rather more than TO-
600 carloads as measured by the minia-
ture freight cars commonly loading
about twelve tons that are used in
England. General Robertson didn't
1900. 49, ...- -uslraaI Vaanapor xVffh
whom one talks viii promptly make
good the omission, that the mere trans
portatiOn of this one item of wal sup
plies at a time when freight cars have
been sent to France by the thousand
constitutes a terrific drain on the ccun-
try's capacity to move things.
To transport ammunition is a par
ticularly delicate and dangerous bust
ness and it is only because of splendid
organization and high efficiency among
railroad employees that there have
been so very few accidents and prac-
tlcally no real disasters as incidents to
this service. General Robertson paid
a special tribute to the men who have
organized and carried on this branch
Of war work.
Comparing the scale and scope of
the present wal with former struggles,
General Robertson was particularly in
~teresting and impressive. He observed
that the greatest popularity of the
present war is in the colossal numbers
of men employed at the front. AS a
matter of fact, he omitted to empha-
size his figures by observing that the
great proportion Of the civil popula-
ton Immediately engaged in work for
the support of the army is quite a. i'm
pressive a popularity Of this struggle.
A Warfare of Machinery.
1t is a warfare of machinery aud
mechanisms, many of them new and
heretofore almost untried. These have
required TO be produced, to be tested
and TO have great bodies of men
trained for using them.
Comparing the present war with
that of 1870 between Germany and
France, General Robertson observed
that "in the 1870 war armies were
counted by the hundred thousand, ana
at the battle Of Grayelotte. where the
heaviest losses were Incurred, the to-
tai casualties were only about $4,000
men on both sides. while for the whole
war the total casualties of both sides
were less than half a million.
'In the present war the killed alone
can be counted by the million, while
the total number of men engaged
amounts to nearly 24,000,09O. In fact,
this war is not. as in the past, a war
merely vi opposing armies, but a war
Of nations, and there is not today a
man or woman in the empire who is
not doing something either TO help or
TO hinder the winning OF the war. A