The Twin City star., 1918-06-15

magazine section. Ihey
Chamber out of dugouts into the slush and the
freezing wind of winter night to feel their way
along broken wire, sometimes over the shell-pit-
ted open ground behind the trenches until they
find the break then sitting In ice water under hre
they repair it carefully and skilfully as II 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 slipshod bit of work. For
the signal system Of the army Is what the nerv-
GUS system is to the human body.
Without it the modern army covering 100 miles
of front ca mot see, feel move The army COM
manGer wishing to move portion OF his line oo
miles away or to change the rapdity OF his artil-
lery fire or to receive information Of enemy move
ments 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 paralyzed. I
"There are still people of intelliger"e who think
that the transmission Of military thous Int is summed
up in the of the notebook, the orderly and his
horse" writes Brig Gen. George P Scriven. But
these are passing, and the trained soldier and the
educated volunteer understand the vital impor-
tance Of information
& Hence the necessity for a signal corps or Its
equivalent for without its 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
C0paDIe OF MAINTAINING COucn WIFI COuultIOnS dnu
out Of reach of his superiOrs or those under his au
thority upon whom he depends for the execution Of
his plans. The brain lacks the power to control
because the nerves are lacking
"Time is the main factor in war; to arrive first
with the greatest number Of men and with the
clearest understanding of the situation is to sue
ceed. The last and often the first, of these condi
lions depends upon the lines Of information Of the
army" t........
And these lines in turn depend upon the obscure
but daring work of the repairman, the grmy,
mucky, 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 he wishes to reach.
Somehow the lines are kept open all the time or
are broken for only short intervals, and the con-
stant tending of them has made possible in France
a system Of wire communication that is marvel
Of efficiency. Indeed so perfect Is 1t that London
! and Paris are in direct connection with general
headquarters on the British 'front.' which in turn is
An 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 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 1t now exists is
. "a comparatively recent evolution.
IN In the American army the idea first arose in
lthe mind Of a young army surgeon. Albert James
Myer. The Office of signal officer Of the army was
created in June, 1850 the frst Of its kind, and
1 Myer was appointed. He at once sent with
an expedition against Navajo Indians in New Mex
leo, and his crude apparatus at once demon
strated its worth.
4 When the Civil war began he was ordered East
and opened school for sgnalers, and In that was
the definite beginning Of the present signal corps.
Wires were carried on horse muleback then, the
instruments were imperfect and telegraphic COM
municatioA was rare and precious thing. The
service took on tremendous Importance In the
Spanish war and followed the troops through Cuba
and .he Philippines. and Ia China was the only