Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1918-06-13

CHAMBER out of dugouts into the slush and the
freezing wind of winter night to feel their way
along broken wire, sometimes the shel-pit-
ted open ground behind the trenches until they
find the break, then sitting in ice water under fire
they repair it as carefully and skillfuy if they
were at work in the shop at home 1t often takes
three or four men to repair one OF these breaks;
the first men sent out may never come back.
Repaired at all costs the wire must be- and dam
ger does not excuse spshod bit of work. For
the signal system Of the army is what the nery-
GUS system is to the human body.
Without it the modern army covering 100 miles
of front cannot see, feel or move. The army COM
mander wishing to move portion of his line 80
miles away or to change the rapidly of his artil-
lery fire or to receive information Of enemy move
ents is as helpless without the slender threads Of
copper as he would be if he wished to move his
right arm and found the nerves parayZed.
.There are still people of intelligence who think
that the transmission Of military thought is summed
up in the of the notebook, the orderly and his
horse" writes Brig. Gen. George P. Scriven. But
these passing, and the trained soldier and the
educated volunteer understand the vital impor-
tance of information.
"Hence the necessity for signal corps or its
equivalent for without It's aid modern armies can
no more be controlled than can great railway sys-
tens; the commander in the field remains blind
and deaf to the events occurring around him, In
capable of maintaining touch with conditions and
out of reach of his superiors those under his
thorty upon whom he depends for the execution Of
his plans. The brain lacks the power to control
because the nerves are lacking.
"Tme is the main factor in war; to arrive first
with the greatest number of and with the
clearest understanding Of the situation is to sue
coed. The last and often the first OF these condi-
lions depends upon the lines of information of the
army"
And these lines in turn depend upon the obscure
but daring work Of the repairnan the grimy
nucky, hard-fsted mechanic who crawls on his
belly through shell fire calculated to appall the
stoutest heart and connects the break between the
commander and the point ne wishes to reach.
Somehow the lines kept open all the time or
are broken for only short intervals and the con-
slant tending of them has made possible in France
system of wire communication that is a marvel
of efficiency Indeed so perfect is it that London
and Paris are in direct connection with general
headquarters the British front which in turn is
in touch with every division and brigade staff on
the line. wire could be put straight through SO
that Lloyd George If he wished could hear the
bursting of high explosives and shrapnel on the
AmienS front.
This tremendous use of the telephone and tele-
graph in warfare is partly the result of the i'm
petus arising from the American application of
electrical communication large scale in the
Spanish The signal corps as it now exists is
comparatively recent evolution.
In the American army the idea first arose in
the mind of young army surgeon Albert James
Myer. The Office Of signal officer Of the army was
created in June, 1860 the first Of its kind and
Myer was appointed. He at once sent with
an expedition against Navajo Indians in New Mex
leo, and his crude apparatus lat once demon
strated its worth.
When the Civil war began he was ordered East
and opened school for signalers, and in that was
the definite beginning of the present signal corps.
Wires We're carried on horse or muleback then, the
instruments were imperfect and telegraphie COM
munication was rare and precious thing. The
service took on tremendous Importance in the
Spanish war and followed the troops through Cuba
and the Philippines and in China was the only