Trench and camp. (Augusta, Ga.) 1917-1919, March 13, 1918, Image 6

Trench and camp., March 13, 1918, Page Page 6, Image 6

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Newspaper Page TextIJ' ( Act 1 w \ r a IfTi I i I E I TRENCH & CAMP Published weekly at the National Camps and Cantonments fr-r the soldiers of the United States. National Headquarters Room 504, Pulitzer Building: New York City JOHN STEWART BRYAN Chairman of Advisory Board of Co-operating Publishers Camp nnd Location Newspaper Publisher Camp Beauregard, "Alexandria, LaNew Orleans Times PicayuneD. D. Moore Camp Bowie, Fort Worth. Texas Fort Worth Star TelegramAmon C. Carter Camp Cody, Deming, N. MexEl Paso Herald.H. D. Slater ■Camp Custer, Battle Creek, Michßattle Creek Enquirer-NewsA. L. Miller Camp Devens, Ayer. Massßoston Globe Charles H. Taylor, Jr. Camp Dix. Wrightstown, N. JTrenton Times James Kerney Camp Dodge, Des Moines, lowaDes Moines Register. Gardner Cowles Camp Doniphan, Fort Sill, Okla Oklahoma City OklahomanE. K. Gaylord Camp Fremont, Palo Alto. Cal San Francisco Bulletinß. A. Crothers Camp Funston. Fort Riley, Kan Topeka State Journal Frank P. MacLennan Camp Gordon, Atlanta, GaAtlanta Constitution Clark Howell Camp Grant, Rockford. 11l The Chicago Daily News Victor F. Lawson Camp Greene. Charlotte, N. CCharlotte ObserverW. P. Sullivan Camp Hancock, Augusta, GaAugusta Herald.'. Bowdre Phinlzy Camp Jackson. Columbia, 8. C.. Columbia StateW. W. Ball Camp Johnston, Jacksonville, Fla Jacksonville Times-UnionW. A. Elliott Camp Kearny, Linda Vista, Cal Los Angeles Times Harry Chandler Camp Lee, Petersburg, Vaßichmond News Leader John Stewart Bryan Camp Lewis, American Lakes, Wash.. .Tacoma Tribune;..F. S. Baker Camp I,ogan. Houston, Texas Houston PostGough J. Palmer Camp McArthur, Waco, Texas Waco Morning NewsGiiarles E. Marsh Camp McClellan, Anniston, Alaßirmingham (Ala.) NewsF. P. Glass Camp Meade, Admiral, MdWash., D. C., Evening Star Fleming Newbold Fort Oglethorpe, GaChattanooga (Tenn.) TimesH. C. Adler camp Pike, Little Rock, Ark...... Arkansas Democrat Elmer E. Clarke Camp Sevier, Greenville, S. CCharleston, S. C., News and Courier..R. C. Siegling Camp Shelby, Hattiesburg, Miss New Orleans Item James M. Thomson Camp Sheridan. Montgomery, Ala Montgomery AdvertiserC. H. Allen Camp Zachary Taylor, Louisville, Ky. .Louisville Courier Journalßruce Haldeman C amp Travis, San Antonio Tmis ) -Kelly Field and Camp Stanley Z’J P*" Antonio Light Charles S. Diehl Camp Upton, Yaphank, L. 1., N. Y. . . ..New York World Don C. Seitz Camp Wheeler, Macon, GaMacon TelegraphP. T. Anderson Published under the auspices of the National War Work Council, Y. M. C. A. of the United states, with the co-operation of the above named publishers and papers. Distributed free to the soldiers in the National Camps and Cantonments. Civilian subscription rates on application. “Out there,” in the silence of the listening post, in the sentry go of the trenches, in the cold watchfulness of the front line—men hear voices that are lost in the clamor of noisy cities. What those voices tell may not always be put into language. But this one thing the hearers know—that deep an swers unto deep, and certainty sup plants doubt, and God Hitpself comes very near. Why not, for is not this God’s war? Is America seeking any selfish advantage, or is her work taint ed with any sordid motive? Far from it. As a nation we can stand before the judgment of history and before the bar of God, upright and unashamed. We are seeking neither Belgian fac tories nor French coal mines. When the war is over, we are coming home without one backward glance of envy at anything that Europe possesses. Russia’s seaports. Roumania’s oil wells, the rich plains of Asia Minor, the art treasures of Italy incite no cupidity in our breasts. We arc not drilling a nation and building a fleet to gain any prize of booty. Our tax payers look to no spoils of victory to repay the costs of this war. . To the German mind we are Quixo tic simpletons, who deserve to lose, as we shall lose, in their opinion, our money and our sons. But there is one fact that the German mind has over looked because it has been blinded by ' lust of power and lust, of blood and gross atheism. That fact is the invin cible appeal of man’s higher self. Ger many will not see our aim and object until long after the Stars and Stripes Beaten at their own game, the. Ge rmans are now appealing to the Geneva Red Cross to protest against the use of poison gases in battle. The German army first introduced poison gases into warfare in April, 1915, when it made a surprise attack on the Franco-British troops in Ypres. Use of gas as a weapon of warfare Was specifically prohibited by solemn cov enant signed by representatives of Germany, but this covenant was sim ply another “scrap of paper’’ which Germany held in contempt and pre ferred to disregard. In the face of the poison gas the French had to retire and the Canadians saved Ypres by desperate, costlv fight ing. The British and French were com pelled to fight fire with fire and their chemists were put to work devising STOKY OF A MAJOR The following story is being told about a Brooklyn, N. Y., major now in camp: " Soon after his promotion he was looking at the gold leaf on his shoul ders somewhat quizzically. “You see, it’s something like this,” he ex plained. “Some years ago, when I was a first lieutenant, a friend of mine asked me what were the func tions of the various ranks and I told him that a first lieutenant is supposed to know everything and do every thing, a captain is supposed to know everything and do nothing and a major is supposed to know nothing ,and do nothing.” j “The friend heard about my pro motion and I received a telegram from him which read: ‘You ought to make a fine major.’ **- Page 6 OUR SOLE A IM—VICTORY have waved above that squatty crow that masquerades as the Prussian eagle. But this aim will become clear even to the German intellect some day, and when the Huns see what the driv ing force was behind America, they will understand why it was impossible for us to lose. The time may come for Germany when even the channel ports of Bel gium and the coal mines of the Briey basin will not seem worth the blood that they will cost and so Germany may decide to throw up the sponge. But no such time can come for Amer ica. Our prize is so high that to gain it is worth the last dolkAand the last drop of blood—and to lose it is to lose everything else that makes life worth living. Germany's piratical purposes can be cooled in blood, but nothing can satisfy the soul of America except to gain the end we sought when, in April, 1917, we entered the war. And what is that end? It is victory. We are in this struggle for only one thing—to win. That means the utter crushing of Prussianism and with that the liberation, not only of Serbia, Rou mania, France and Belgium, but of the Germans as well. It means the res toration of the plunder and the repara tion of the wrong perpetrated by the Huns. It means the reestablishment of morality, the revival of religion, the rehabilitation of man’s soul and the retreat of wickedness. These are great ends. They cannot be computed by dollars or measured by provinces. Only one word embraces them all. That word is the moving ideal of America today—Victory. THE SQUEALING HUN means to give the Hun a dose of his own rpedicir.e. For many months the gases used by the British and French have been distinctively superior over the kinds used by the Germans and the gas masks devised by Americans and their Allies practically completely nullify the effects .of German gases. It was not until the Hun realized this superiority on the part of our Allies that he began to squeal. The Germans have various uses for the Red Cross. They employ its em blem as a target when they wish to sink hospital ships carrying sick and wounded soldiers and then attempt to use the humanitarian organization to bring about a discontinuance of firing gas shells which would not have been even thought of by our Allies but for the fact that defense against a bar barous enemy made it necessary. A QUICK NIGHT A trainload of newly drafted men reached their cantonment late in the afternoon. By the time they had passed through the receiving station and the hands of the Doctors it w’as nearly midnight. Several of them were awakened at four o’clock the following morning to assist the cooks in preparing breakfast. As one well built. sleepy drafted man got to his feet, he stretched and yawned: “It doesn’t take long to spend a night in the army.”——Everybody’s Magazine. “SHOOT THE MOON” Orderly Sergeant: Lights out, there. Voice from the Hut: It’s the moon, sergeant. Orderly Sergeant: I don’t give a d—n what it is. Put it out. —Punch. TRENCH AND CAMP CANTONMENT TYPES THE OLD ARMY NON-COM. THIS is in praise of the Regular Army Non-Com. and his glories. “Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,” wrote Will Shakespeare. Probably with the R. A. N.-C. in mind. The strange oaths are wholesomely meant. No gingerbread, tripping niceties of speech escape him. His language is his own. He isn’t bearded any more, but that is an insignificant matter. The Regular Army Non-Com. has a speech characteristic of his manner of doing everything. He is direct, blunt, smacking not a whit of molly coddleism. He is apt to be stocky in shape and close knit of body. Ability to take a man’s part in a rough-and-tumble is plainly his. As he has no frills of speech, so is foppery in dress foreign to him. His plainness is a matter of pride. He prefers old clothes to new, clothes with the stamp of service on them, good but not gaudy. Frankness, dependability, simplicity—a trio of graces! And who doesn’t admire them and agree on their Americanism. The Regular Army Non-Com. carries the imagination to Western plains, Fort parade grounds and peace-time recruiting stations. In himself, he is an American Barrack Room Ballad. He is a democrat, a man for whom fairness has become a protective coloring. His sense of injustice is uncanny. And yet, he has respect—for discipline and all it implies. He has it without taint of servility. Confidence and mutual repose of trust exist between him and his officers of superior rank. The Non-Com. knows his job—how far it goes. He keeps within limits recognized as traditional and right. He is jealous for recognition of his province, and deserves it on his merits, sterling and abiding. Stores Trench Gun Beats German Mine-ThroWers An artillery problem developed in France when the opposing armies set tled down to warfare in .the trenches, in'some places only a score of yards apart. The enemy was safe from shells from the big rifles which passed over and burst far to the rear, while it was difficult for the large-calibre howitzers to land a shot squarely in the ditch. A gun was needed which would gently lob a quantity of high explosive across the narrow space be tween the fighting lines. The Germans set to work and pro duced their “minenwerfer,’’ a small trench mortar, but the British re sponded with a superior article, the Americans Still Have Hard Row to Hoe to Beat \ Germans, Says Veteran Who Left Leg in Trenches “Don’t go over to France think ing that all you have to do is to walk into Germany. The war is a long ways from being over yet.” This warning is brought back to American soldiers and to the Amer ican people in general by Rufus Reynolds, of Gloucester, Massachu setts, who went to France with the Canadian forces February 12, 1914. Three times he went over the top and camo back unharmed, in liis fourth great battle he was so severely wounded that his right leg had to he amputated. The four teen hours that he lay on the field wounded and locked on at the fighting turned his hair white and made him resolve to “come back and wake up the American people to the fact that this is not little toy war,” as he puts it. “We make a big mistake over hero in thinking that the war may be over almost any time,” said Rey nolds. “If we put ten million men instantly upon the battlefield, we could drive the Germans back, but REPLACEMENT CAMPS PLANNED Replacement camps are to be es tablished in at least two of the camps and cantonments at present occupied by National Guard and National Array troops. When the soldiers now in these camps and cantonments have been sent overseas, the Division of Operations of the General Staff of the Army will select two or more of the sites for quarters for divisions of 50,000 men who will be held in read iness to fill vacancies in the Expedi tionary Force. ’ The replacement troops, which will be selected from men coming in from the draft, will re ceive special training so as to fit them to fill vacancies abroad. SCHOOL FOR CHAPLAINS A school for Army chaplains has been established at Fort Monroe to give them special training. At this school the appointees will receive in struction in military law, military sci ence, tactics and hygiene. At pres ent there are about 570 chaplains in the army. General Pershing has rec ommended that a chaplain be appoint ed for every 1,200 officers and men. It is expected this recommendation will be adopted and that several thou sand chaplains will be trained at the Fort Monroe School. - Stokes gun, which has proved so ef fective that it ranks with the Mills and Hale grenades and the Lewis ma chine gun. The Stokes trench mortar is light enough to be carried by one man. Th® butt is set upon the ground and a pair of legs, attached near the muz zle, make it possible to elevate the gun to the desired range. Firing is simple. The gun is sight ed and the shell dropped into its muz zle. The rod explodes the carrying charge, and off sails the projectile on its errand of destruction in the enemy’s trench, only a few hundred yards or less away. we would sacrifice eight million men in doing it. It’s all right for our boys to go over in good spirits, but they want to get it out of their heads that they’re going to knock the Germans out in two or three weeks, because the Huns arc a long way from being beaten yet. The only way we can hope to win this war is to sit still and hold tight, and wear them out.” Two years, at the, very least, will be needed to end the war, in Rey nolds’ opinion, and there can be no uncertainty about the outcome. America and her allies are bound to win. “That first winter of the war, 150,000 of us held the lines against 4,000,000 Germans,” he said. “It stands to reason that if Germany couldn't break through our lines then, she can’t do it now . But she's still a long way from being on her last legs. The United States must stand the brunt of the war now, both in men and in money. France and England are pretty nearly spent. It's up to us.” OBEYED ORDERS The German soldier does exactly what he is told, and no more. A German officer was drilling re cruits, and had just given them the order: “Quick march!” when he no ticed his sweetheart coming across the barrack square. Forgetting all about the recruits, he entered into conversation with the girl and went away with her. Six months later the same officer was walking down the main street of the same town when he saw some tat tered and tired soldiers approaching him. One of the soldiers, recogniz ing the officer, went up to him and, saluting, said: ( “Please, sir, what about a halt?” CIVIL COURTS’ JURISDICTION According to an opinion by tho Judge Advocate General of the Army, "The civil authorities do not have the legal right to hold in arrest for misdemeanors persons in the military service, and it is their duty, upon re quest, to surrender such persons, without trial, to the military author ities. The Government is entitled to the services ft its soldiers and local courts should not be permitted to de prive the Government of such serv ices.” ■- > March 13.