Mexico Missouri message., October 24, 1918, Image 3

About Mexico Missouri message. (Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.) 1899-1918

Image provided by: State Historical Society of Missouri; Columbia, MO

                
MEXICO MISSOURI MESSAGE, MEXICO. MISSOURI.
HG fflS FOR
UflCLEJl'S III
Day and Night Forces at Work
on Weapons for Fighters, v
PRODUCTION IN YEAR'S TIME
Plants for Manufacture of Ordnance
Have Increased More Than 90 Per
Cent Since Beginning of
the War.
From tho Committee on Tubllo Informa
tion, Washington, D. C.)
The foundries of 10 steel plants in
the United States are today doing
capacity business. Throughout the
night tho work will go on with slight
interruption. The whistles that blow
to announce closing time to one army
of workers will be a summons to an
other shift to take Its turn. The blast
of chimneys will continue to roar, and
tho glittering white-hot streams of
anolten metal will flow Into the molds.
A year ago only two of these sixteen
foundries where cannon forglngs are
-now being made were In existence.
The foundries at Bethlehem and Mid
vale represented almost our entire re
sources for the making of cannon
lorgings. Today those two plants con
stitute less than 10 per cent of our
total facilities for making such prod
ucts. In one year a new industry has been
created in this country. It Is new not
only in the sense that the 14 foundries
have been built, but that the processes
-of manufacture ore new. Making
.gun forglngs is different from making
steel forglngs for any other purpose
The heated steel must be pressed ana
not hammered. The methods of beat
treating the steel, of cooling it, and of
annealing the molten metal are all dif
ferent. Yet, within one year, this new
industry bus been built up in this
country, and today it provides the
wherewithal for the carrying out of an
.artillery program the like of which
has not been projected in any other
country.
Nor is that alL In more than a score
of other factories gun carriages, recoil
mechanisms and other parts of artil
lery are being made. For the making
of those farts, new Industries have
likewise been created. As an instance
-a new industry was established to
manufacture glass of a quality avail
able for use in telescopic sights on can
non. Such glass had never been made
in the United States before.
Handicapped at Start.
When we entered the war we were
handicapped by a lack of technical
, duiowieugc. - ne una ueea a peaceiui
.people; we hud not trained our scien
tists and engineers in the art of mu
nitions making. Therefore, we had
hut one ordnance expert for every 200
in Germany. We went into this war
with an ordnance bureau consisting of
fit officers and 820 enlisted men. Not
all of those 97 officers were ordnance
experts. Some of them were only on
detail to the ordnunce department.
In fact, not more than eight of them
were charged with the designing work
in the muuufucture of artillery. Be
fore a year had elupsed, the ordnance
department had grown into an organi
sation of 5,000 officers, 30,000 enlisted
men and 20,000 civilian employees.
It has undergone a thorough reshap
ing to adapt Itself to the. extraordinary
new conditions. The ordnance bu
teuu in the first part of the war did a
total business of $4,700,000,000. In
peace times its average annual ex
penditures were $14,000,000.
Large as these figures seem, astound
ing as this rute of expansion must ap
pear, they give only a scant idea of
tho difficulties faced by the ordnance
department in its year df preparatory
work. Ordnunce is a highly technical
tubject. The few who kuew it thor
oughly have hud the double task of
furnishing Ideas and perfecting de
signs und of imparting their know!
edge to others. They hud to be work
crs and teachers lu the Bauie duy.
The old ordnunce department of less
than 100 officers was split, up into a
.gun-carriuge division, a cannon divi
sion, a sniull-arms division, and so onr
each division being charged with the
design and production of some purt of
ordnunce material. Manufacture of
ordnunce material was curried on al
most entirely In government arsenals.
The problem of production was not
difficult. A few officers could follow a
gun through from the duy that it was
first sketched out on puper until it was
turned over to a field artillery regi
ment. But when the ordnuute depart
ment was culled upon to put through a
program Involving expenditures and
contracts totaling more than $1,500,
000,000 in a single year, the old way of
doing business had to end and the old
form of organization had to be aban
doned. Organized the Forces.
To meet the new problem, most of
tho ordnunce experts the regular
army officers were assembled In what
is known as the engineering bureau of
the ordnunce department, and to this
bureau was given the task of design
ing ordnance material, llow much de
signing work there is to be done In
. the ordnunce department is suggested
by the facl; that 10,000 blue prints a
duy are turned out la .Washington
for. the Information of manufacturers
of ordnance material.
The next big tusk of the ordnance
department, after designing the ma
terial, was to place contracts and pur
chase orders. It was extremely dlfll
, cult to Gpd plants where ordnance ma
terial could be mode, and In a great
many cases It was necessary to have
factories built, or to have them equip
ped throughout with new machinery
and tools. Sometimes the ordnance de
partment could not find anything more
to begin with than a group of men who
knew manufacturing . methods. It
would persuade them to undertake the
making of some pnrt, would fiDnnce
them in building a plant and In buying
machinery, and then would set them
at work manufacturing the thing need
ed in the war program. It Is clear
that the work of placing contracts and
orders on so large a scale is an in
dustrial rather than a military func
tion. Consequently nn almost entire
ly civilian personnel was selected for
the procurement .division, .men who
were experienced In the lines of In
dustry affected, as, for Instance, ex
perts in shell Industry, in explosives,
machine tools, textiles, etc.
The orders placed, it was next nec
essary to follow them up In each of
the more than 1,000 munitions fac
tories engaged upon ordnance work.
To do this, and to force quick produc
tion, a production division was organ
ised which has representatives In every
plant and which Is responsible for all
production of material. This division,
too, Is made up almost entirely of
civlliuns commissioned for the period
of the war. An inspection division has
the duty of making sure that guns and
shells are up to specifications. After
the material has been manufactured,
Inspected and accepted by the United
States government, it is next necessary
to supply it to troops in the training
camps in this country and to the Amer
ican expeditionary forces In France.
Numerous Articles Required.
The extremely difficult problem of
the supply division of the ordnance de
partment Is readily understood' when
it is known that there are more than
100,000 different articles which must
be furnished to our fighting forces and
which must be distributed under the
most difficult circumstances without a
hitch. These 100,000 articles range
from the small striker or firing pin of
a rifle or a little nut or bolt to a mam
moth railway mount for a 16-Inch how
itzer. Some of the artillery carriages
have as many as 7,000 parts and it is
the duty of the ordnance department
to repair and maintain such material.
The rifle Is the ready weapon of the
infantryman. Owing to the changed
conditions of modern warfare, it does
not retain the extraordinary place of
importance it once held. It is still,
however, the principal stand-by of the
American soldier, and the maintenance
of an adequate reserve of rifles is,
therefore, a matter of much concern.
Ilave we enough rifles for our rifle-
carrying soldiers? We have. What is
more, we aro able to outfit them with
the very best type of rifle known in the
munitions world. For a number of
years before the war the superiority
of the United States model of 1003
(popularly called the Springfield) was
well recognized. In five international
meets, extending over n period of five
years, our riflemen, using the Spring
field, won first place every time, de
feating the marksmen of 15 nations.
Moat of our opponents were armed
with types of the Mauser rifle, which
is used by the Germans. The new
United Stutes model of 1917 (popu
larly called the modified Enfield) is
substantially the equivalent of the
Springfield. It was decided to manu
facture the modified Enfield because
our American factories, which had ac
cepted large contracts from Great Brit
ain, could turn this weapon out In
larger quantities than the Springfield,
which had been made only at govern
ment arsenals.
Our rate of rifle production is to
dny 50,000 per week. Every three
months we are now making ns many
rifles as we had altogether at the be
ginning of the wnr. Yet that original
supply (600,000 Sprlngflelds and 100,-
000 rifles of other sorts) was, from tho
start, sufficient to equip the rifle-carrying
men of an army of a million. We
can congratulate ourselves about rifles,
Knottiest Problem of All.
But artillery manufacture was the
knottiest problem of all. It Is almost
Impossible to make the layman under
stand how difficult It Is tb manufacture
a piece of modern artillery. Perhaps
that was the reason, or one of the rea
sons, why public opinion In this conn
try failed to listen to the warnings of
ordnnnce experts and provide adequate
appropriations for artillery manufac
ture years ago. For the last 12 years
the war department has been telling
congress that artillery could not be
nindo quickly after the outbrcnk of
war. A year would be required to be
gin deliveries on any guns in quantity,
these experts told congress. To pro
vide for artillery mnnufa-.ture oa a
vast scale would take even longer, be-
cause 4h that event literully scores of
new plants would have to be built, mil
lions of dollars' worth of machine tools
and equipment would have to be pro
vided and thousands upon thousands
of men would have to be taught a
line of work unknown to them at the
outset. ' Thnt Is precisely what tho
ordnance department has been doing
since the declaration of war. It has
been creating manufacturing facili
ties to make artillery. Arrangements
were made to provide our troops with
artillery of British and French manu
facture while our own manufacturing
resources wero being' developed. Al
though, thus far, this reliance upon
the resources of our allies has proved
satisfactory, naturally the war de
partment Is anxious to gain Independ
ence in its artillery supply ati the
earliest possible moment, and that Is
the task upon which the energies of
the ordnance department are now
concentrated. Every possible effort Is.
being made to expedite production of
artillery.
YANKEE FIGHTERS NEARING COAST
A host of khnkl-clad soldiers of the
view of France where they are about
POISON GAS SHIP IN
RACE WITH U-BOAT
Destroyers Appear as Shell Falls
but Ten Feet Off
Stern.
HAS HUGE CARGO OF DEATH
Preinhter Develops Engine Trouble
and Falls Behind Convoy Sub
marine Bobs Up and Begins
Hurling Shells.
By FRAZIER HUNT
(In the Chicago Tribune.)
An American Naval Base In France.
A lad from the U. S. Destroyer
652 had just finished narrating how
close they hnd come to getting a sub
marine on the last trip when they bad
brought in a big convoy of troopers.
"Some boat she is," he remarked
offhand. "We did seven thousand
knots last month and In three sub
fights. Say, what was those funny
steel drums you had piled on the deck
of your old cargo ship when you come
In yesterday?"
A lad from the Atlantic freight ferry
boat turned to the destroyer gob.
"Those steel drums you asked about
didn't have nothing at all in them ex
cept about a million gallons of the
most dangerous poison gas ever made.
Can you Imagine what would happen
If a torpedo or even a shell had hit
one of those tanks?"
This ship, which we shall call the
Terrunce, left New York as part of a
convoy of 13 stores ships.
Cargo of Death.
On this trip it was carrying several
thousand steel drums of poison gas
that the army needed badly. It was
a dangerous cargo. Any explosion on
board would tear open these drums of
concentrated gas and In ten seconds
choke the crew to death. The only
hope would be to use respirators, so
a hundred gas masks were borrowed
from the army and the executive offi
cer of the ship called all hands for In
structions three times a day.
The first ten days of the trip were
uneventful. Then the Terrance's en
gines began acting badly. It could not
make the required ten knots and slow
ly it fell behind. There were not suffi
cient convoying destroyers to have one
remain behind, so all that stood be
tween the Terrance's drums of death
and a German submarine was the fore
and aft guns.
Finally, at six o'clock one evening,
the gas mask drill just had ended
when the lookout in the crow's nest
shouted down that a submarine was
coming to the surface on the port side,
some 0,000 yards astern. And here was
the Terrance with crippled' engines
hobbling nlong six or seven knots an
hour, with the convoy 20 miles ahead.
"Open fire with the stern gun. Cull
general quarters. Send S. O. S. to the
convoy. Send word to the chief en
gineer," were four orders the skipper
on tho bridge gave first.
Through his binoculars he could see
the submarine coming to the surface.
Even now the Terrance's stern gun
was peppering away shots, but fulling
short of the mark by 1,500 yards.
In half a minute more the subma
rine's conning tower opened and men
TEUTON SHELLS ARE BAD
From 50 to 70 Per Cent Fail to
Explode
During Ma me Retreat the Germans
Used Old Stuff to Keep Up
Morale.
With the American Army in France.
American artillery officers estimated
recer.vly that at certain stages of the
German retreat north of the Murne
from 50 to 70 per cent of the shells
fired by the enemy fulled to explode.
One night, after the Germans crossed
the Vesle the enemy fired 72 shells
of large caliber Into a wooded tract
where American troops were supposed
to be quartered and artillery experts
of -one of the divisions engaged re
ported that only four of these shells
bad exploded. ' .
Nono'of the American officers sug
ested that the German f hells wr dir-
t
United States lining the rails of an American lighter as they get their first
to disembark.
crawled out and uncovered the subma
rine's two guns. In another minute the
first shell came whining toward the
Terrance. It. too, fell away short
Call for Help.
In the radio room the operator was
pounding out the call for help, and
now came the answer that the destroy
ers were comng to aid. Down below
the whole engine force was working
madly. Suddenly a miracle happened
and the starboard engines began sup
plying power to the propeller. From
a bare seven knots, the ship Jumped
to ten then eleven, twelve.
Meantime on the bridge the officers
with gas masks strapped at alert po
sition were getting the thrill of their
whole life as the old boat picked up
speed. Sub shells now were falling
within 300 yards of the ship.
With the Terrance's new speed the
sub gained slowly, but the skipper
and officers knew Its guns would out
range their own and soon find a mark.
It was a great race with life or death
for the goal. ,
Then from the edge of the world
DYE INDUSTRY GROWING
Government Report Shows Re
markable Progress Made.
One Hundred and Ninety American
Firms Now Make Dyea
and Drugs.
Washington. The remarkable suc
cess of the American chemists and
chemical manufacturers In developing
the dyestuffs Industry, when the sup
plies of dyes from Germany were cut
off, Is strikingly shown In a report
just Issued by the United States tariff
commission entitled, "Census of Dyes
and Coal-Tar Chemicals. 1917."
At the outbreak of the European
war, Germany dominated the world's
trade in dyes and drugs derived from
coal-tnr. Before the war, seven Amer
ican firms manufactured dyes from
imported German materials. In 1917,
190 American concerns were engaged
In the manufacture of dyes, drugs and
other chemiculs derived from coal-tar,
and of this number, 81 firms produced
coal-tnr dyes from Atnertcnn materials
which were approximately equivalent
In total weight to the annual imports
before the war. The total output of
the 190 firms, exclusive of those en
gaged In the manufacture of explo
sives and synthetic resins, was over
54,000,000 pounds with a value of
about $09,000,000.
Large amounts of the staple dyes
for which there Is a great demand are
now being manufactured In the United
Stntes, A few of the important dyes,
such as the vnt dyes derived from aliz
arin, anthracene, und cnrbnzol, are
still not made. The needs of the wool
Industry ure being more satisfactorily
met than the needs of the cotton in
dustry. The report gives In detail the names
of the manufacturers of each dye or
other product and tho qunntlty and
value of each produced, except in
cases where the number of producers
Is so small that the operations of In-
terioratlng. There had been day after
day of rain during the retreat, nnd it
was believed possible that In the with
drawal the Germans had not been able
to take the usual precautions against
dampness, the result being that many
projectiles from some of the big guns
failed to do anything more than strike
tho earth with a thud.
One officer suggested that possibly
the Germans had been firing old shells
rather thun no shells at all, tho offi
cers realizing thnt only a few of them
were exploding, but preferring to keep
the. big guns pounding away merely la
an effort to keep up the morale of the
men putting up the reur-guard fight.
The average number of faulty shells
Is geuernlly from 2 to 8 per cent
An Arizona scientist hopes to fix the
tlmo of the cliff dwellers by comparing
the age rings of tree trunks still stand
ing In their homes with the rings on
the oldtt&t trees uovr living.
OF FRANCE
t. 9
WosHrn Nwtpsrf ITn'on f"i -ft''
NEW ZEALANDERS EAT
E PRISONERS, HUNS TOLD ?
London. New Zealand troops
always eat their prisoners. Such
is the Intest output of the Ger
man behlnd-the-llnes propa
ganda which recently armed the
Americans with tomahawks and
shotguns.
"First the New Zealanders
give you cigarettes, then you fig- X
ure in their menu," officers had t
Informed a bunch of Huns re-
cently enptured. They refused T
the' cigarettes.
came the smoke of destroyers shoot
ing ahead like flaming arrows. Thirty
knots and more they were making. In
another minute they could trace their
outline. But the sub was nearlng, too.
One shell broke less, than thirty yards
away.
Seconds seemed like hours, but each
brought the rescuing destroyers near
er. They were heading straight for
the sub, and no sub cares for that.
There was one more shot, then the
gunners ran to the conning tower and
climbed Inside. Two minutes later
she submerged. Their last shot hit
within ten feet of the Terrance's stern.
dividual firms would be disclosed.
Seventeen hundred nnd thirty-three
chemists or engineers were engaged
In research and chemical control of
this new Industry, or 8.8 per cent of
the total of 19,043 employees. The
report also contains an interesting ac
count of the history and development
of the Industry since the outbreak of
the European war.
ALABAMA BUCK KEEPS WORD
Former Negro Preacher Evolves Per-
feet Answer to Theology
of Huns.
Paris. "Rev." Arthur Jefferson Is
his name. Before the war he used to
"preach 'roun" in northern Alabama.
Now he's the buckest buck private In
a negro regiment that has already
earned fame in the line. He evolved
the perfect answer to Prussian theol
ogy 15 minutes nfter he got Into that
line. The Germans opposite It was
a quiet sector had hung out a big
sign bearing the Potsdam profanation,
"Gott mit uns."
Arthur Jefferson took one long look
at It. Then he disappeared into a
dugout. He appeared later with the
legend, laboriously inscribed on. a box
"Germans: Consign your souls to
the Lord. In 'bout four minutes your
bodies going to belong to Alabama."
And they did.
CHASES KAISER IN SLEEP
Ohio Man Dreams He's Fighting Ger
mans and Shoots Self in
Shoulder.
Toledo, O. John Brooks. while
dreaming he was fighting the Germans
nnd had ihe kaiser chasing upstairs
in tne palace at Wilhelmstras.se, drew
n revolver from beneath his pillow anil
fired nt the fleeing Hun. Doctors
called to take care of Brooks said that
the bullet hud passed through his
shoulder, but that he would recover.
CHARGES DEATH TO SAVE MEN
American Staff Officer Falls Mortalry
t Wounded in Gallant Action in
Lorraine.
With the American Army tn Lor
rniue. The fighting on the new Amer
ican front In Lorraine was featured by
the gallant action of un American
staff officer.
w uen tne omeer saw there was
danger of part of his advancing forces
being outtluuked by German machine
gunners he personally led his men In a
charge against the guns.
He captured one gun himself and
Ids men tKk the others. The officer
Was wounded, probably mortally.
The office r's troops belonged to the
division operating on the eastern wing
of the American offensive sector. They
had taken the village of Norroy and
were pressing onward In the face of
opposition from machine gun nests.
The Irregular advance suddeidy ex
posed one uult to a flanking fire and
the officer forgot that he as a staff
officer was supposed to stay away trout
the fighting and rushed la. .
Lives 200 Years I
tho (sniouit national remedy of Holland.
hiiH been recognized nn an infallible relief
from all forma of kidney and bladder di
ordera. lta very age ia proof that it miut
have unusual merit. . ',
If you are troubled with paina or aches
in the back, feci tired in the morning.
headaches, indigestion, insomnia, tminful
or too frequent passive of urine, irritation
or stone in the hlnrtuer, you will nlmot
certainly lind relief in GOLD MKDAL
Haarlem Oil Capsules. This is the good
old remedy that haa ntood the test for
Hundreds of years, prepared in the proper
?uantity and convenient form to take,
t ia imported direct from Holland lab
oratories, and you can get it at any
onig atore. it ia a stanuura, old-tima
Dome remedy and needs no introduction.
Each capsule contains one dose of live
drops and is nteaaant and easy to take.
They will quickly relieve those stiffened
joints, that backache, rheumatism, lum
bago, sciatica, gall stones, gravel, "brick
dust," etc. Your money promptly refund
ed if they do not relieve you. But be sure
to get the genuine (ULI MtlML Drana.
In boxes, three sizes. Adv.
Oculist's "Break."
A woman alert of figure and attrac
rlvely groomed was having her eyes
tested. And while the oculist treated
them she seemed to think it necessary
to explain :
"I'm afraid I have overtaxed my
eyes, l use tnem nil day and tnen
read half the night."
The oculist Interrupted to contrib
ute his share to the sociability:
'Xotllng to worry over. The eye
always need stronger glusses as one
gets along In years."
For the barest flash the womaa.-
bnd the appearance of one who haa
received an unexpected shock. Then
il-.e rallied and took another turn:
"Of course, I never thought of that.
I ought to realize that I am getting old.
but, somehow, I feel so young Inside."
Which shows that one oculist in this
town would be In n bad way if hi
Skill was on a level with his tact. -Washington
Star.
And Then He Wasn't Pleased.
After Thomas Soar, Esq., had been a
member of the city council for several
years he thought that at the earliest
opportunity he would endenvor to get
a permanent record of his term of of
fice there. Nothing could be more fit
ting than to have a street called sXter
him.
After having expressed his desire t
several of his cronies on the strict Q.
T. he got ills wish. They had a plac
named after him :
"Soar place." London Mall.
What He Could Do.
"What:" snarled the rapid-fire rea
taurunt's customer who had too many
double chins on the buck of his neck.
Only one lump of sugar for my cof
fee? I want four lumps : Can't a maa
get what he wants in this dump if be)
pays for It?"
"He can want what he gets," coldly
replied Hortense, the waitress, "or he
can get outwith a ketchup bottle bust
ed on his heud. See?" Kansas City
Star.
Cutlcura Kills Dandruff.
Anoint spots of dandruff with Cutl
cura Ointment. Follow at once by a
bot shampoo with Cutlcura Soap, if a
man; next morning if a woman. For
free samples address, "Cutlcura, Dept
X Boston." At druggists and by mall.
Soap 25, Ointment 25 and 50. Adv.
Inexorable Law.
The law of reaping us we sow runs
through the universe. The man who
sows pennies will reap a penny crop.
The man who sows dollars will reap
dollars.
When Baby is Teelhlni
GROTB'S BABY UOWHL MH1HC1NM wilt Co
me etuuaun una uowei troaDit. ieridcur
leu. See dlrecUoiu oa tlie bouin
Male gossips are the worst of the
breed.
WOMAN WORKS
15 HOURS A DAY
Marvelous Story of Woman's
Change from Weakness
to Strength by Taking
Druggist's Advice.
Peru, Ind. " I suffered from a dis
placement with backache and dragging
down pains so
badly that at times
I could not be on
my feet and it did
not seem as though
'1 could stand I L i
tried dillerent
medicines without
any benefit and
.several doctors
told me nothing
but an operation
would do me any
good. My drug-
E'st told ma of
ydia E. Pink
ham's Vegetable
Compound. I took
it with the result
that I am now well
and strone. 1 tret
nn In the mornintr at four o'clock, do my
housework, then go to a factory and work
all day, come home and get supper and
feel good. I don't know how many of
my friends I have told what Lydia E.
Pinkham'e Vegetable Compound ha)
done for me, "Airs. Anna Ubtebiano,
SO West 10th St, Peru, Ind.
Women who suffer from any such ail
ments should not fail to try this f amoua
root and herb remedy, Lydia E. Pink
ham's Vegetable Compound. .
fK Vm mm ProrlcW Kleetrloity for ll(kt
thklXlHiO J houMhuld power, wfm.il
mm eoi. feiwple eUeut ete; Beetle
rdllll IltUw eueolloo It Usee fete et
f ff tUelt. Ijllvet iBsyruyed tyiM
-U" of I lertrto flaut, buOl te tea
Plant ew-Wrlu lor terUomUwe (.
UbXa oif. auto ca. jm m, l