The daily morning oasis., 1918-10-31

method OF defense considered effec-
! tive in modern warfare, and in par
+ ticular they are making heavy use of
/ poison gas. Pershing's men have been
increasingly bombarded with> mus
/ fard' shells and every effort has been
made tie drench American positions
with deadly fumes. 1t is considered
/ Il tribute 70 the chemical warfare wori,
I IN the United States that these frantic
+ endcavers TO stay the progress of the
American offensive have proved utter
+ ly~ futile.
The American attacking forces are
| protected against gas by masks which
!. actual field tests prove are twenty
times more efficient than those in us
by the Germans. The war department
contends that there is not single
recorded case of an American soldier
falling victim to gas attack when
| protected by the mask. that is now be-
ing manufactured in the United
|! States.
Every American soldier who goes to
France is trained TO adjust his mask
with almost incredible speed The
mask is put on with just five motions
of the arms and hands. The man WING
fails to accomplish the feat within &
r>limit, of six seconds time is left behind
when his unit goes to, the front. Re-
Gently, in practice drill. one company
Of Americans set a record of -four
| seconds, counting from the instant the
order to don masks was given to thu
moment when adjustment was made
/ by the slowest man.
American masks withstand tests
that German masks cannot meet. Ger
man masks will not afford protection
against a-highN concentration of gas.
!, This was demonstrated recently when
the British assembled d sufficiently
large battery of projectors to put sew
enty tons of phosgene gas into the all
1T once, with consequences quite well
known to the German general staff
There is no concentration that til,
American masks will not defy. This
has been amply attested not only OF
the battlefield but in the experimental
StdllOuS III llllS ~COuutIS.
The American gas mask was devel
oped /by actual manufacture. The
proper authorities obtained complet,
Information about the French and
British masks, and full data as to
the efficiency they demonstrated un
der German gas attacks. With this
knowledge, an order for making sew
eral thousand masks was placed in
this country Members of the force
Of 800 officers and 1900 enlisted men
who are credited with the production
Of this means of defense showed the
eering for experiments. From time
20 time they donned the masks anC
exposed themselves to actuN gas at
tacks. American ingenuity Suggested
improvements in the original models
and as a result the officers of the al
lied armies are unanimous that tht
American mask is the best on the
western front.
Although a gas mask is an uncom
portable bit of gear the first few times
is worn, the soldiers soon become
accustomed to the handicap on the
natural method of breathing. 1t fins
over the head like baseball catcher'sl
mask. A nose clip closes the nostrils
md insures breathing through the
mouth, by means of a tube that is
Connected with a canister filled with
'hemicals. The breath exhaled leaves
The mask through flutter valve near
he chin. Air cannot reach the mouth
'Xcept by passing first through the
chemicals in the canister, and the
most exhaustive tests show that these
hepicals never fail to extract the 4
,oison.
At the end of thorough training in
his country,l American soldiers cali
year the masks for almost an indefi
mite period, and can indulge in practi
ally any form of activity while wear
ing them. Pershings men-merely as
| "stunt"-have played baseball anG
soccer while wearing the regulation
american army masks. On numerous
occasions the soldiers have served ba,
teries under hurricane fire for periods
IF twelve hours without taking off
their masks.
For the month of August waste of
foodstuffs, which include bread, cooked!
meat, grease and bones, was reduced
20 three-ffths of a pound a man per
day in the various camps and canton
ncnts of the army in this country
The facts have just been made public
by the conservation and reclamation
division Of the quartermaster corps.
This figure is much lower than that
for waste among the civilian popula
ton OF any of the larger cities in the
United States. Statistics gathered
from 81 camps and environments show
a total garbage collection of 1921
pounds per 1000 men a day.
In the course of the month the cons.
seryation and reclamation division re-
paired in the camps total of 1,733,-
l35 articles of wearing apparel-hats,
uniforms, leggings, Shoes underwear,
sweaters, blankets and the like. The
dry cleaning and pressing shops clean
ed and pressed 1,61S,S63 garments, and
there were lahndered 6,119,611 pieces.
Nc.