THE SACRIFICE OF THE HORSE IN WARFARE
DUMB ANIMALS PRESSED INTO SERVICE -- PART PLAYED BY HORSE IN WAR --
AMERICAN STOCK DEPLETED.
So overwhelming has been the thought of human suffering in Europe, so
anxious has the world been to relieve it, that little thought has been
bestowed on the dumb sufferers. Various war photographs have shown us
the novel sight of the dogs of Belgium impressed into service for
dragging the smaller guns; but all contestants use horses, and when we
reflect that the average life of a cavalry horse at the front is not
more than a week, if that, we gain some idea of the sacrifice of animals
which modern warfare demands.
One of the pleaders for the horse is John Galsworthy, the English
novelist, who gives in the London Westminster Gazette this moral aspect
of the use of the horse in warfare, with the attendant obligation:
“Man has only a certain capacity for feeling, and that has been strained
almost to breaking-point by human needs. But now that the wants of our
wounded are being seen to with hundreds of motor ambulances and
hospitals fully equipped, now that the situation is more in hand, we can
surely turn a little to the companions of man. They, poor things, have
no option in this business; they had no responsibility, however remote
and indirect, for its inception; get no benefit out of it of any kind
whatever; know none of the sustaining sentiments of heroism; feel no
satisfaction in duty done. They do not even--as the prayer for them
untruly says--‘offer their guileless lives for the well-being of their
countries.’ They know nothing of countries; they do not offer
themselves. Nothing so little pitiable as that. They are pressed into
this service, which cuts them down before their time.”
PART PLAYED BY HORSE IN WAR
The horse still plays an important part in war, as every army service
corps officer who has had anything to do with them well knows. The men
love their mettlesome beasts, and much trouble and worry is pardoned and
lost sight of in the comradeship which arises between man and beast. The
great part played by motors and motor-driven vehicles in the present war
has tended to draw attention away from the work of horses at the front,
yet motor cavalry has not been evolved. While recognizing that for
moving big guns along a well-made road motor power is very valuable, it
is still equally true that once the roads are left it is found in
practice of little use.
A remarkable feature of the European war, new, so far as we know, to
military experience, has been the use upon an extensive scale of the
heavy draught horse, whose stately pace admits of no hurrying, but whose
great strength permits of his hauling very heavy weights where the
nature of the road does not admit of the use of the motor.
AMERICAN STOCK DEPLETED
That the European war threatened to deplete the stock of horses even in
the United States is emphasized by a careful computation which fixed at
185,023 the number of horses shipped to the warring nations from July 1,
1914, to March 31, 1915. The value of the animals, according to an
inventory compiled from the manifests of ships transporting the horses
is placed at $40,695,057. During that same period 26,976 mules, valued
at $5,143,270, were sent abroad.
Buyers representing the British, French and Russian governments were
reported as searching the country for more, and, according to estimates
made by shippers, at least 120,000 animals were to be shipped to Europe
during the summer of 1915.
Frank L. Neall, statistician, asserted that few persons realized the
extent of the raid made by European buyers on the horse market.
“Shipments,” he said, “have been made from New Orleans, Newport News,
Portland, Boston and New York. During the month of March, 33,694 horses
were shipped, representing a value of $8,088,974.”
Shippers were deeply interested when it became known for a certainty
that the German government had representatives purchasing horses in the
West. Wood Brothers, the largest horse dealers in Nebraska, were asked
to bid on a 25,000-head shipment. Ruling prices for the grade of horses
desired by foreign buyers have ranged from $175 to $200 per head.
The stockyards in New Orleans, where these animals were assembled, cover
about eight acres and shed 3,500 animals. Horses were thoroughly
examined as to their fitness for service, both at the point of purchase
and at New Orleans.
The last step before placing the horses on shipboard was to adjust
special halters to them, so that, as in the case of many horses
purchased by France, it was only necessary, when the animal reached the
other side, to snap two straps to his head-stalls and make him instantly
ready to be hitched to a gun limber or a wagon of a transport train.