Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 March 1918 — Page 2

WORLD’S BIGGEST REGIMENT NEEDS 6,000 MORE MEN

Second "Lumberjacks” Will Have 10,500 Men When Recruited to Full Strength. WILL COT TIMBER IN FRANCE Loggers, Sawmill Workers, Road Build* era and Laborers Familiar With* t Road Work Are Wanted —Officers of Regiment Are Expert Lumbermen and Foresters. JOHN L. COBB, JR.

Washington.—A nation-wide effort la being made by the forest service to assist the war department in securing six thousand men needed to complete the second “lumberjack regiment,’’ or the Twentieth engineers (forest) as it is officially known. When recruited to full strength the unit will comprise 10,500 men and will be the largest regiment in the world. Of the men needed now, three thousand should be loggers, sawmill workers and men experienced in building and operating logging railroads, and the remaining three thousand should be trained* road builders and laborers familiar with road work.

The regiment will cut from the French forests the immense amounts of trench and bridge timbers, crossties, lumber for cantonments and bunkhouses, and fuel, which our armies and those of the allies will need. A similar unit, known as the “First Lumberjack regiment,” or the Tenth engineers (forest), was organized in the summer and has been hard at work in the woods for some time. ~ Canadians Started It. The idea of the “Lumberjack regiments” is not original with this country. Early in the war Canadian forestry battalions were sent across to help manufacture the needed lumber and timber products, while last spring soon after the United States entered the struggle ten sawmill units were equipped by lumbermen of New England for service in Great Britain. Not many people think of France as having much timber. Indeed the extent of the French forests cannot compare with our own. But there is more timber than is generally known. The French have found that it pays to grow a crop of trees on poor, rocky steep land, just as it pays to grow a crop of wheat on the better soils. They have practiced forestry for generations and instead of slashing their timber Indiscriminately they handle their holdings with great care and are very loath to cut more than is produced each year

Men of the Second’ “Lumberjack” Washing Dishes After Meal.

by growth. They were consequently unwilling to turn a lot of ‘‘woods butchers” into their highly prized forests. Col. James A. Woodruff of the engineer corps was chosen by the war department to lead the Tenth engineers; Col. W. A. Mitchell to lead the Twentieth. while most of the officers under them are expert lumbermen and foresters. Calls for skilled lumberjacks and sawmill men to enlist were sent out broadcast through the land and they’came out of the far places of the land to join the new units. As those who could prove themselves adept in some form of lumbering were accepted each man was listed for the particular job with which he was most familiar. Most of Them Lumberjacks. By far the larger part of the recruits were lumberjacks, men who had been raised in the woods and knew every trick of the trade. Others were graduates of forest ■ schools who had had enough actual woods experience in addition to their technical training to qualify for a place. In the ranks of the Tenth are men from Yale, Harvard, and. Cornell, the Universities of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota In fact, practically every prominent

Kit Inspection, Preparatory to Going Across.

college In the country is represented and the men are working as axmen, teamsters, sawyers, woodchoppers, and the Uke, as though they had been bred to it and had never done anything else. Many well-known college athletes are included. Jack Hansen, of the University of Minnesota football team; “Eddie” Frey, the Cornell Intercollegiate champion two-miler, and George Kephart, coxswain of the Cornell crew, are among the best known. Sons of rich men are “high privates in the rear ranks,” shoulder to shoulder with those who have grown up in the logging camps. Most of these men are members of families long engaged in the lumber business and gave up important positions, at no little sacrifice, to do their bit to help down the Hun. Given Course of Training. The recruits were assembled at the American university, D. C., training camp and put through a course of sprouts to acquaint them with military drill and harden them for the work on the other side. As Major Dußols, formerly head of the forest service in California, said, it was “duck soup for most of them.” Hardened to out-of-door life under all kinds of weather conditions, familiar with rifle and revolver, and accustomed to carrying heavy packs for long distances, the men were quick to take hold. After' a couple of vveeks’ drill they looked like veterans, and were ready for the big adventure. As soon as the Tenth vacated the training camp, organization of the Twentieth began. Six of the ten battalions have already been formed and

THEATER IS ONE TEUTON WEAPON

Elaborate System of Using Performers to Circulate German Propaganda. PAY SALARIES OF SINGERS Paris Sees Benefit of Gayety, Refusing to Close Amusements to Save Fuel—Germans Flood Neutral Countries. Paris. —Attention has been attracted to the use the Germans make of the theater as a vehicle of propaganda by a recent suggestion that the Paris theaters be* closed to save fuel. Fortunately this short-sighted policy has not been adopted. It would have added to the war-worn atmosphere of the capital without accomplishing any good results. But the agitation has served the purpose of revealing that the allies. have made no organized attempt to keep alive in neutral countries interest in their language, their ideals, their literature, through theiy theaters and music, while the Germans have overlooked no opportunity. It is not saying too much to insist that never has the theaters been so necessary as now to public life. For today, more than ever, men —soldiers or civilians—-need the relief from the strain of war afforded by a relapse into the realm of fantasy, a visit to the unreal world.

Used jin German Propaganda. That it is a mistake to look upon the theater only as a place of amusement is amply demonstrated by the Germans. who have made of it a weapon. Their actors, their singers, their musicians have never been busier at home and abroad as since the beginning of the war. In neutral countries, Switzerland, .for instance, from the day of mobilization, the German actors appearing in Swiss theaters were relieved from the call to "arms. Since then, in the German-Swiss cantons there has been a positive avalanche <ff theatrical troupes and of choral and instrumental associations sent from Berlin, Vienna. Munich, Leipzig, Mannheim, Meiningen, having as conductors men like -Max Reinhardt. the two Strausses, Weingartner, Nikish. etc. This in addition to numerous Germin picture shows and dress exhibits with free refreshments, concerts and the procession of pretty models. For all these entertainments free tickets are distributed by the hundreds. The expense of renting halls, advertising in the papers and by posters is borne by subsidies. The Germans don’t expect to make any money. On the contrary, they spend much more than the receipts. The

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND.

several have already been sent forward to take up their work on the other side. In order to disturb labor conditions in the lumber Industry as little as possible, it was decided that qualified registrants under the selective draft law who have not been ordered to hold themselves in readiness for duty may be “Inducted” into the regiment. Applicants for induction should write the Forester at Washington, D. C., give their age, a full statement of experience and the names of former employers. The type of men in the Twentieth is the same as that of the Tenth. Husky, hard-handed, big-boned fellows, who can hold their own anywhere, their officers say they can lick their weight in wild cats any old day and can “log” as many sawmills as there are to cut the lumber. Go Fully .Equipped. Like the Tenth, they will take with them everything needed to produce lumber, from the “stump to the car,” as the trade phrase goes. Axes, crosscut saws, harness, canthooks, horses, rubbers, cookstoves, complete sawmills, two-ton trucks, grindstones, and all the other thousand and one articles found in a well equipped lumber camp are Included in their equipment. Their work will be behind the firing line. They will probably not fight unless the Hun springs a surprise so complete that It becomes necessary to call on all hands. But every stroke of an axe and every cut of a saw is going to count just as much as a shell, and if lumber will help win the war, those 10,000 huskies will more than do their share. •

word goes out to “paper the house." In Berlin Max Reinhardt was told: “Spend without counting the cost; when you get back we’ll settle the bill.” When the theaters are empty It makes no difference, the tour continues. All official Germans and their compatriots in neutral cities are obliged by military order to go t« these performances each night. When the troupe plays its farewell performance the ranking German diplomat or consular representative in each city gives a large banquet, where, so as to make the neutral better understand the meaning of “kultur,” champagne is given to him.

Teutons Pay Singers’ Salaries. A German consul sent for the directors of the music halls of the town where he is stationed and told them that whenever they engaged German singers' or “turns” they would have to pay -them only $1 a day, and the rest of their salary, he said, no matter how large, would be assumed by the German authorities. That is the reason why, in the music halls of the big neutral city,, in question, you hear nothing spoken but German. , This striking illustration of the thor oughness of the German propaganda which expend's millions for musical and theatrical performances is in striking contrast to the do-nothing policy of the allies in this respect. That is why Switzerland asks: “Does France scorn us, or is she broken spirited?” In Russia the Germans have established theaters at Petrograd, .Moscow, Riga, Mitau, Libau, Zoppot, Revel and Odessa. Emperor William and his satellites thoroughly understand the political Influence of the theater. From another point of view, any attempt to close the Paris theaters for economy in fuel or lighting would seem shortsighted. For the theater in the cities takes the place of country gatherings, where several families benefit by the same light and fire. Similarly the thousands of persons—audiences, artists and employers—gathered each evening in places of amusement are warmed and lighted in a mass by an amount of coal much less than all these people would have consumed in the same lime had they remained at home. To have closed the theaters would have meant increasing the sadness of Paris, the throwing out of work of 100,000 persons, who would have to be fed and supported in some other way, besides antagonizing 43 labor unions. As a high military authority said: “It would have given to France th* aspect of a vanquished nation.”

PROPER CARE Of BATTERY ON CAR

Must Be Kept Charged and Pre- • vented From Freezing. TWO THINGS OF IMPORTANCE ' ~ r— L . . < Equipment Standing Idle for Any Length of Time LosesTts Charge— Reading Is Indicated by the Hydrometer.(F. E. ANDREWS, Colorado Agricultural College, Fort Collins. Colo.) Many automobile owners do not realize the importance and necessity of giylng their starting and lighting batteries proper attention in the winter. The battefy is a delicate piece of apparatus, 'and If mistreated, will very quickly depreciate. Two things are of prime importance: the battery should be kept fully charged, and It should not be allowed to freeze. A battery when standing idle for any length of time, gradually loses its charge. Therefore if the car is not run regularly during the winter, in order to keep the battery fully charged the, engine should be run at regular periods to charge, or else the battery should be charged from an outside source of current. This should be done every two or three, weeks. Charge Easily Read. The state of charge can be easily read from a specific gravity hydrometer syringe, which can be purchased for about a dollar from an auto supply dealer. A reading of from 1,250 to 1,300 Indicates full charge. The reading is indicated by the number on the hydrometer at the level of the liquid. If the battery is fully charged. It is not apt to freeze when the temperature is above zero, Fahrenheit. It is best, however, to take the battery froih the car and into the house in extremely cold weather.

External Charging.

External charging can be done from an electric lamp socket if the current is direct, by the use of a resistance to limit the current going into the battery. If the current is alternating, a rectifier must be used to make it direct. Small lamp socket rectifiers are now made quite reasonably.

KEEP SPARE TIRES COVERED

Manufacturer Takes Pains to Wrap It Thoroughly for Protection From Light and Air. A cover for the spare tire is something more than a hit of decoration. You will notice that the careful tire manufacturer takes pains to wrap the new tire thoroughly. This is to protect it from light and air. The action of sun and storm on the spare tire hardens the rubber and injures it so that its mileage will be less when it is put in service. A well-fitted cover is an economy and will more than pay for itself? by protecting your tire investment

WHEELS WITH LOOSE SPOKES

Squeaking Noise Which Is Quite Annoying May Be Eliminated by Any Wheelwright. Wooden wheels with loose spokes emit a squeaking sound which is intensely annoying. The noise will be more distinct when the car is being driven lyound a corner. Sometimes this looseness may be obviated by replacing one or more spokes, or it may be cured by forcing small wooden wedges between the spokes and the hub. A wheelwright can do the job In a few minutes.

PRACTICAL AUTOMOBILE KITCHEN TO FOLLOW OUR SOLDIER BOYS AT FRONT

TRAVELING KITCHEN, RUN BY MOTOR POWER.

Feeding our soldiers Is an importaiit matter, and the problems It presents have interested many of our inventors. The traveling kitchen, run by motor power is a very natural product of the times. There are several types. The kitchen with its big kettles, large enough tovcook food for two hundred and fifty men at one operation, is mounted upon an automobile truck, which can also carry reserve supplies to-feed two hundred and fifty additionR.l moil For the chauffeur a protected cab is provided in front and the cook may attend to his work to the kitchen even while the truck is moving from place to place by standing upon a step in the rear. To prevent his being jolted onreugh reads f hind rail has been provided to which he can hold.Popular Science Monthly.

NEW DEVICE FOR HEADLIGHT

Motorist With Can of Paint Should Be Able to Fix Lights to Suit Laws of Any State. The Illinois law requiring the dimming of headlights on approaching an-’ other vehicle does little more than make a formality of what has long been a custom. More drastic laws in other states, however, bid fair to get the Chicago motorist into trouble If he tours far afield without-due preparation. ; ■ ■ ' Many headlight devices have been approved for use In these states, but the simplest suggestion for comply-, ing with the most of the varying regulations seems to be that suggested by Macey F. Deming, who framed the law now in. effect in New York. Mr. Deming says five minutes spent in painting your light bulbs will give a motorist an effective nonglare device tn anystate.FOr New York he describes the method as ■ follows: YPaint the right side of the light bulbs green and at the tip of each bulb make a circle of green paint onehalf the diameter of the bulb. The paint should cover the right of the bulbs, looking with the car, for an arc of 150 degrees.” Painting the right side of the bulbs is prescribed because the New York law limits the apiount of light that many be directed-to the left of the car. The reason for this is the fact (which some motorists know and many don’t) that the light rays which come from

Reflection of Light

the right side of a bulb strike the reflector and aire thrown to the left-hand side of the road—and, of course, vice versa, as indicated in the diagram. Keeping this In mind, and remembering that to limit the light thrown upward one must paint the lower side of the bulbs, the motorist with a can of paint should be able to adapt his headlights to almost any state law.

GAUGE DOES NOT REGISTER

Trouble May Be Caused by Leaky Pump and Is Put Into Action by Priming Feed Line. In cars' equipped with oil pressure gauges and a piston type oil pump the owner often is at a loss to know why the gauge does not register, knowing that there is sufficient oil in the engine. This trouble may be caused by a leaky pump. It may be put into action in many cases by priming. In doing this disconnect the oil line back of the gauge and while the engine is running slowly squirt oil into the feed •line by means of an oil can. Continue doing this until oil is squirted back through the feed line, after which the line should be connected.

USING GASOLINE IN WINTER

Average Car Shows Tendency to Consume More During Cold Weather Than In Summer Months. It is the common experience of motorists that the average car shows a marked tendency to use nrore gasoline in winter weather than . during the warm months. A cold engine prevents the proper vaporization of the fuel and necessitates a very rich mixture. Cost of operation is thus excessive during the starting and warming-up processes. The problem is’ to shorten or eliminate this period of costly operation by heating up the engine fast, as an engine will work as well, winter or summer, after it is heated up to the even-run-ning temperature. 1

Home Town Helps

NO PLACE IN PARK SYSTEM Small Cities Make Mistake In Placing; Public Buildings In Their Beautiful Breathing Places.

The first and most Important law of landscape gardening is to preserve open lawn centers. In city planning, as in al! art, the same law prevails, and we have the modern civic center, with buildings around a small park. San Francisco’s new civic center is a grand example of this type. Many of opr small cities lar aspirations and some have made a splendid beginning. One of these Is the little city of Inglewood, Cal. But now they are offered a Carnegie library and it is purposed to place it In the center or middle of the park system. With such a precedent the whole area may some time, be covered with buildings so that where now is a generous and beautiful, breathing place there will then be the most congested district in the municipality. Or, If but the one bdildlng is allowed to violate the scheme all other public buildings will be staring at this poor little structure, seemingly wondering why this one impertinent individual has been allowed to so trespass and the remainder have been excluded. And all -visitors will be-struck with a like wonder. Aside from the violation of the proper-spirit, the fine long view, the system’s greatest charm, will be destroyed. The high and grammar schools, the city hall, engine house and other building .lots now face the park and it is hoped that the city will secure another lot for a library site. If this is not done it will ever be a cause of regret and a step backward admitted by all who know. Several, citizens of taste have already objected to the proposed site. Other cities will do well to avoid making such mistakes.

REMEMBER SPRING ‘CLEANUP’

Just Now Is Not at All Too Early to Make Plahs for Betterment of the Home City. With the approach of spring “city beautiful” work should have the attention of householders and others who appreciate the importance of clean streets, clean yards and well-kept lawns. Birmingham is noted for its mountain-llke scenery, its elegant homes and its fine landscape effects. Such attractions form a distinct civic asset. In the fashionable sections the grounds making up the setting for stylish houses are carefully tended, and in many of the humbler districts evidences of good sanitation and refined taste are seen; but flowers and greensward should be the rule everywhere. It costs little ihoney to keep a pretty yard; but many a grass plot’“downtown" is marred by thoughtless pedestrians. Not only is this so on the corner lots, but the spaces between the curbing and the sidewalk that should be lush and green during the greater* part of the year is soon ruined after the advent of spring by being trampled upon. The public parks are usually in excellent condition, and it should be the same way with the strips of green along the sidewalks, - The City Beautiful association did a great educational work a few years ago and it should again display its activity in the little things that contribute to the quiet adornment of Birmingham. Now is the time to plan for a new educational drive in respect of the restful and the wholesome; —Birmingham (Ala.) AgeHerald.

Urges Need of Play.

The necessity and desirability of sufficient play to relieve the strain of daily effort are dwelt upon in a bulletin recently issued by Dr. Samuel G. Dixon, health commissioner of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, who says: “Most people Would say that play’s first requisite was that it should consist of one do. fl sortfl duefl resfl artfl thfl tifl tfl