f the Belgian and French army was of a size large
enough to look after several corps. By this means, recruits could be
constantly forwarded to the field of war, secure in the knowledge
that no matter how rapidly men were rushed to the front, the
question of supplies was already considered and the requisites were
in place awaiting the use of the new troops.

England's mobilization, especially when it is remembered that after
the first 150,000 it was all volunteers, was a marvelous thing. How
many men were sent no one could tell but Kitchener, and if ever a
man was born with a gift for telling nothing, that man is Kitchener.
How steadily recruits poured over no one knew. Officially, only
enough men were sent to fill up the losses in the 150,000, but
before the end of the year England's trained forces were immense.
The details of the mobilization of that first 100,000 men (the first
group of the expeditionary force) were marvelous. The railroads
running to the southeast were put into Government hands, trains were
scheduled at twelve minutes' distance apart, to run day and night,
every troop train was on schedule, and every one was unloaded and
out of the depot in time for the next train to pull in, every
transport was at the dock waiting, with another ready to take her
place, and the expeditionary force was in Boulogne in less than
forty-eight hours after the first mobilization order had been sent
out. It is not to be forgotten that Britain commandeered every ship
she needed from her huge mercantile marine, and thus had transports
not only for troops but also for supplies.

For a moment one may glance at a side issue, but an important one in
the mobilization, namely the mobilization of horses. The French
bought horses by the thousand in Texas. Yet English farriers
inspected them, paid for them, put them in charge of their own men
on their own ships, landed them in England or Bordeaux, fed them
into prime condition at England's own expense, and then delivered
them to the French battle line ready for service. In the first week
of the war the total output of the English rifle factories was
10,000 rifles a week (a rifle will shoot well for only 4,000
rounds), by the seventh week of the war there were eleven factories
with a weekly output of 40,000 rifles each, and more being built on
every hand. In addition to this, between August and December, 1914,
English money mobilized--it is the word--rifle orders in the United
States