The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1918-06-27


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 fire
they repair 1t carefully and skiIlfully as If they
at work in the shop at home 1t often takes
three four men repair 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 nerT-
GUS system is to the human body.
Without it the modern army covering 100 miles
of front mot see feel or move. The army COM
mander wishing to portion Of his line 90
miles away to change the rapidity of his art1I-
Iery fire or to receive fnformatfon of enemy move
ments helpless without the slender threads OF
copper he would be If he wished to move his
right and found the nerves paralyzed.
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
lance of Information.
Hence the necessity for a signal corps its
equivalent, for without its aid modern armies can
no more be controlled than 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
of reach Of his superiors 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 lacking
Thine is the main factor in war; to arrive first
with the greatest number Of men and with the
clearest understanding of the situation to sue
ceed The last, and often the first, O these condi-
tons depends upon the lines of information of the
army"
And these lines in turn depend upon the obscure
but daring work of the repairman, the grimy
mucky, hard-fisted mechanic who crawls on his
belly through shell fire calculated to appan 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
broken for only short intervals and the
slant tending of them has made possible in France
q system of wire communication that is marvel
Of efficiency. Indeed perfect is it that London
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
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 on large scale in the
Spanish war. The signal corps as it now exists is
a 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
MyeE appointed. He was at once sent with
expedition against Navajo Indians in New Mex
leo, and his crude apparatus at 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 were carried horse or muleback then tbe
instruments were imperfect and telegraphic COM
munication and precious thing The
service took tremendous importance in the
Spanish war and followed the troops through Cuba
and the Philippines, and In China was the only