Evening star., 1918-05-26
SOLDIER OVERSEAS
MUST HAVE 'EATS"
Stupendous Task for U. S.
Government to Keep Food
Plentiful.
BY JUNIUS b. WOOD.
Special Correspondence of The Evening
Star and Chicago Daily News.

BY JUNIUS b. WOOD.
Special Correspondence of The Evening
Star and Chicago Daily News.
ALONG THE AMERICAN LINES OF
COMMUNICATIONS. April 19.-If a
merchant should hang out the sign,
Open for Business" and start TAX
ing care of customers as soon as he
acquired the site for his store and
his first shipment of supplies he would
be regarded as more enterprising than
practical. That, however. in a nut
shell was the situation of the Ameri-
can expedition at the start. The il
lustration does not cxaggerate the sit
uation-in fact. understates it, for
this store. must be built and stocked
on scale which will care for 1.O00.-
600 or 1.50e.000 men or whatever num-
ber Is reached by the expedition. In
some commodities the estimates call
Tor reserve supply sufficient for
ninety days in advance.
Soldier Has Big Appetite.
The first soldier to land in France
was hungry. Every soldier to land
since then has been hungry. He is
hungry every day afterward. for
sol'tiCI Is always hungry. MOI lHdt
he is not given sufficient to eat, but
he is never satisfied with what he
gets. He gets more than in civilian
life (when rationed by our own gov
ernmenD and he needs more and al
ways seems to have room for more
tfan he gets. 1t is not unusual for
a plutocratic soldier to lunch on a
dozen fried eggs (even dozen and
n hal0. a pound Of bread and three
cups of chocolate at the Salvation
A rp~,N ~ h.a
lar company mess after that appetiz-
er" Not much,
When the soldiers are coming, not
singly but by thousands. the feeding
must have enough tn keep him happy.
healthy and strong. He must be
clothed from head to toe. he must be
munitioned and ammunitioned and he
must be dnctored when he is i'll or
injured. Supplies If food and am
munition must be replenished daily.
new shoes and clothes are needed by
each man every few weeks and even
and buildings wear out.
Big Store" for Troops.
This store" must be on a scale to
care for 100000 fighting men. A
city with 100000 man voters would
have population of between 100000
anu OsVUUsUUV. All dIIy ol l,UOV,VOV
fighting men would mean roughly that
many behind the lines.
When we talk enthusiastically about
the expedition's going to have the
biggest single ice plant in the world"
biggest" it must be remembered that
more than one biggest ice plant" will
be needed to care for this expedition.
This biggest" is not OF the combined
capacity of all the ice plants needed
for city Of that size.
The first thousands had to be sup
piled the moment they arrived. The
demand increased constantly as other
thousands came. A few buildings were
rented for the time being. entirely in
pedition started putting up its own
buildings. Not only must the supplies
which come in be handled, but the
material must be brought for the
buildings and the buildings must be
put up to care for the supplies That
BILE what it will be once things are
fairly started.
America Must Send Everything.
At first the expedition had nothing
to show for it's big plants except blue
prints of prospective buildings and
sites. tracts or prairie or swamp land.
Practically all the material for the
structures as we'll as the supplies
must be brought from America. Rail-
road tracks must be laid, earth or
sand hauled for ballasting. highways
supervised and graded. forests cut
down and entire cities built where
there had been wilderness before.
In one of the supply bases the ord
nance department has seven and
half acres covered with one-story
steel storage sheds. The ordnance
department is only one branch which
handles the munitions. ammunition.
harness and similar supplies. 1t has
most storage sheds at other bases.
The quartermaster's department re-
quires even more storage space. Then
there Is the aviation supply depart
ment. the gas section. the hospital
corps engineering, all of which are
additional The motor transportation
department is putting up immense
tanks to store its supplies of gasoline
All of these must be functioning and
have been doing so while the process
OF construction has been going on.
Sixty Miles of Warehouses.
Another base is fairly started on
building project which calls for sixty
miles of warehouse. not strung out in
one line, but sandwiched in between
some $50 miles of switch tracks.
plant like that Is hard to picture un-
til one has seen the start which al
raady has heen made What has al