Republican farmer., 1918-08-09
SUMMARY OF PROGRESS MADE
 DURING FIFTEEN MONTHS OF WAR

of artillery carriages. but the artil- lery program is now approaching a point where quantity production is beginning.
 The first of four government-ovn- ed snell-fittinE plants has been com pieted and zA EsA$disning to produce. Tn addition, & number of private plants ars 4& '~e~R loading shells. Vast hz were Ene privately owned raci1rries TOT t1ie manufacture of pow der and high explosives, the govern ment has provided additional faciIi-
 ties which are very much larger than 1 those which private enterprise had l created. v
 Ordnance engineers, it seems, are well on the way to solution of the
 problem of the motorization of field artillery. The problem of motoriza- l tion of light artillery has been a con- stant factor in slowing up the ad-
 vance ofatroops to await the bringing
 forward Of their supporting guns l Trao tors have been used by all na- tions. of course, to haul heavy pieces
 along good roads, but they have been
 unable to develop tractors for haul
 
 ground. On June 3, the Ordnance 1 Department demonstrated a 5-ton ar
 mored artillery tractor which proved
 capable of negotiating the most difl-
 cult terrain. hauling a ..7 howitzer which weighed approximately 5000 pounds.
 Approximately $9000o, 900 are be- ing spent to provide for the manufac-
 ture of nitrate, which are essential
 in the manufacture of explosives, but
 which have heretofore had to be pro- | cured from Chile. The building of
 these plants will add to our powder
 output, will have large amounts of
 cargo space, and it is supposed after the war will produce nitrate for fer tilizing American farms.
 Port facilities in France: Among T the most dramatic stories of the war
 is that of the development by Ameri- can engineers and American enter prizes of port facilities on the French
 coast. It is not permissible to say
 where this development has. taken
 place, but the scope of 1t may be
 judged by the fact that 1t would be possible to han6le during the month ) of July maximum of 750,0o0 tons at the ports of the American Army in France.
 ) It was necessary, before troops of , the Expeditionary Force could be landed, to send an organization of
 foresters into the woods of France to
 send knocked down saw mills after them, to cut down trees, to shape ] them into tin1bers, and to build them
 into docks in crder that our troops
 might leave their ships. Fast as r this work was and large as the flow : of troops has teen accelerated, the r facilities for dockage have kept pace ) with the shipments of troops and supplies.
 Morale of the Army: Consensus of opinion Is that drunkenness in the 1 Army Is completely under control, 3 both in the United States and in Z France. Gen. Pershing states: X "As there is little beer sold in g France, men who drink are thus lin- T ited to the light native wines used by = all French people. Even this Is dis /; couraged among our troops in every Z possible way"
 You may travel for weeks in r France without seeing an intoxicated
 American soldier. In the Congress l sional Record on or about March 31 { there is reprinted the statement of a f journalist in France, beginnings: r Everyone is on the water wagon l at the American front. During the }. past month I have been at the front s daily and often twice a day, seeing : thousands of American soldiers. In
 that time I saw exactly one man e drunk and one other who was under = the influence of liquor"
 : The Third Assistant Secretary of [. War in ten days at a National Army ) i camp adjacent to Chicago, saw two = men intoxicated.
 - There is no permanent military s camp In the United States with a red
 light district in its vicinity. = The Commission on Classification @ of Personnel reports that a surpris- = ingly large proportion of recruits e ask to be placed in the most haz- = ardous branches of the military ser e vice. If a reply is needed to those }, who say that the men of the National
 Army are in camp because they have 2 to be, it is this, that those same men :: are going over the top because they - want to go.