The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1918-11-01

AA@tHAA
OF the American line on the Lorraine
front have brought into play every
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
tard" shells and every effort has been
made to drench American positions
with deadly fumes. 1t Is considered
a tribute to the chemical warfare work
In the United States that these frantic
endeavors 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 use
by the Germans. The war department
contends that there is not a single
recorded case Of an American soldier
falling O victim to a-gas attack when
protected by the mask that IL 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 who
fails to accomplish the feat within
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 record Of four
seconds, counting from the instant the
order to don masks was given to the
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 high concentration Of gas.
the British assembled a sufficiently
large battery of projectors to put sew.
enty tons of phosgene gas into the air
at once, with consequences quite well
known to the German general staff.
There is no concentration that the
American masks will not defy. This
has been amply attested not only on
the battlefield but in the experimental
stations in this country.
The American gas mask was devel-
oped by actual manufacture. The
proper authorities obtained complete
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 300 officers and 1000 enlisted men
who are credited with the production
of this means Of defense showed the
courage Of their convictions by volun-
teering for experiments. From time
10 time they donned the masks and
exposed themselves to actual gas at
tacks. American ingenuity suggested
improvements in the original models
and as q result the officers of the al
lied armies are unanimous that the
American mask is the best on the
western front.
Although a gas mask is an uncom
Portable bit Of gear the first few times
it is worn, the soldiers soon become
accustomed to the handicap on the
natural method of breathing. 1t fits
over the head like baseball catcher's
mask. A nose clip closes the nostriis
and insures breathing through the
mouth, by means Of a tube that is
connected with a canister filled with
chemicals. The breath exhaled leaves
the mask through fiutter valve near
the chin. Air cannot reach the mouth
except by passing first through the
chemicals in the canister, and the
most exhaustive tests show that these
chemicals never fail to extract the
poison.
At the end of thorough training in
this country, American soldiers can
wear the masks for almost an indef-
mite period, and can indulge in practi-
cally any form Of activity while wear
ing them. Pershing's men-merely as
"stunt"-have played baseball and
soccer while wearing the regulation
American army masks. On numerous
occasions the soldiers have served bat
teries under hurricane fire for periods
of 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
to three-fifths Of a pound a man per
day In the various camps and canton
mcnts 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