Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-09-02
No Wonder Germany Quit
by MAJOR FRANK C. MAIIIN
OF the Army Recruiting Station

The spent runner who hurled
himself through the gate of ancient
Athens and with his dying breath
gasped out the news of the brilliant
success of the Athenian troops
against the Persian at Marathon in
the year 400 B. c. was the first
famous soldier of a signal corps,
but since then the exploits of the
bearers of military tidings have fill
ed the pages of legend and story.
high perfection in modern finest
Just as other branches of military
science have been brought to a high
perfection in modern times, so in
equal degree has the art of military
signaling progressed in efficiency.
Where the ancient athlete once ex-
hausted his strength in bearing
military messages long distances in
the field, the modern Mercury uses
the wireless phone. In Civil War
days the pony express rider brought
from some desperate stand the
story of the lack of ammunition;
to-day the ammunition-suppl or
ganization is in constant touch with
the front by means of telegraph or
the long-distance telephone. In
the Indian campaigns in our own
West messages from beleaguered
parties were som etimes conveyed by
ksignal smokes; the lost battalion
in the Argonne sent news OF It's
bplight by carrier pigeon. Modern
warfare has indeed retained the old,
but it has also developed the new
in transmitting military udlngs.
So important is this branch OF
fighting that it is put in the hanos
of a specialized organization, which
in the American Army is known as
the Signal Corps. The Signal Corps
not only had charge of the opera
tions of the various communicating
devices in 1917 and 1918 in the held
of operations Except latterly In the
air), but it also had charge of the
manufacture of the equipment Tor
this work. The production OF sig
mailing equipment was far greater
than the uninformed person would
imagine. AS an instance, there was
one special type of telephone WIRE
n form unknown to commerclal use
before the war which, before NO
yember II, 1918, was being pro
duced at the rate OF 20, ,OOO miles
month, at a cost OF S5'ooO,ooo per
month. requiring the complete ca
nacitv of the day and night opera
tion of all fine wire machinery in
The limited States. except that which
wos working on Navy contracts.
MANY other production activities OF
the Signal Corps were earned
through on a similar scale. Until
after the Civil War. the operation
of large units of troops was greatly
handicapped by the limitations of
n,ilitary signaling as then known.
force could not be effective in
combat that could not be readily
reached in all quarters by runners
or riders or by visual signals. The
deyelopment of the telegraph and
telephone and the invention of radio
changed all this, so that in the
great war armies stretched out on
fronts 100 miles or more in length
with every part of them in i'm
m mediate touch with every other
part through the exact and COM
plete systems of signaling on the
field. Military signals to-day in
clude the telephone, the telegraph,
radio telegraphy and telephony, the
buzzer, the buzzer phone, panels,
pyrotechnics, flags. smoke signals,
pigeons, dogs. mounted orderlies
and runners. Each of these means
of signaling is an adjunct to the
others; when one fails, another is
employed to get the message
| through. Some have special uses
| for branches of the service with
peculiar requirements. The radio
phone is especially suited for COM