Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 235, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 October 1918 — CARRYING WAR to the PEOPLE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CARRYING WAR to the PEOPLE

Various Government Departments Unite in Preparing Elaborate Exhibits for State Fairs and Expositions.

(Prepared by the United States De4 partment of Agriculture.) fHE United States government has combined its traveling displays of public work and is to exhibit them so as better to inform the people concerning the work of their government toward winning the war. The combined display is a war show from beginning to end, for every activity of the government now has a bearing, more or less direct, on the one national alm of preserving popular rule for the world. Thus, not only will there be vital interest in the exhibits of the war and navy departments, but in the displays of the work of the department of agriculture in stimulating increased production of food; the activities of the food administration in encouraging the conservation and equitable distribution of this fundamental war munition; the addition of new food sources through the bureau of fisheries of the department of commerce; the safeguarding of human life and indirectly increasing of coal production through the work-of the mine rescue cars of the bureau of mines, department of interior; and the spreading of official news through the committee on public information. The joint committee on government exhibits, which acts for the various departments in administrating the displays and is headed as chairman by F. Lamson-Scribner of the department of agriculture, has contracted for the exhibits to be shown simultaneously on five circuits of approximately 35 state fairs and expositions from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Organization of five circuits does not mean that any one circuit is being favored or discriminated against in the quantity or quality of displays. The government exhibit material is of such magnitude that no fair has been able to offer more space than can be filled. The army and navy exhibits have been made up in five duplicate sets. In fact, practically the only variations of note in the displays are in those of the department of agriculture, which has planned, in addition to its exhibits of general interest, displays of particular importance for specific regions. For instance, where wheatgrowing is all-absorbing, wheat will be featured, and where cattle fever tick is sucking blood and destroying meat, special emphasis will be placed on the fight to rid American territory of this parasite. The government exhibits have much to detain even the idly curious, but informing the people of government work and of important aid which the public can render the government in the national crisis is the big aim. All exhibits are educational and those of purely technical interest are rarely used. Displays are the product of years of experience in exposition methods and every effort is made to visualize subjects in such manner that observers will be informed as well as entertained. To list and describe adequately every item in the exhibits would require many words. Features selected here and there, however, may serve to give an idea of the complete show. The war department display can hardly fail to place Americans more closely in touch with their boys who are making more uneasy the heads that wear the crowns. There are Browning machine guns for infantry use and Lewis machine guns of the aircraft type; mountain cannon that can be pulled to Alpine heights; figures clothed in regulation uniforms, including an aviator’s flying togs; rifles of the latest model used “over there,” and wooden blocks showing penetration of the old and new bullets; complete equipment of the beloved “doughboy,” and a trench periscope through “which he watches for friskiness on the part of the “Fritzies;” gas masks that he dons when the Hun spreads his favorite poison; the trench helmet that protects him and the hand grenades he hurls; the shovel with which he digs a trench and the pump that takes out the water. Then there are models of the various kinds of tents used by the army, national and regimental colors in silk, storm and post flags, a portable field wireless outfit, heliograph instruments, lanterns for night signaling, day and night rockets and signal flags. And if any American hasn’t learned yet to distinguish a sergeant major from a brigadier general, he can do so from boards which carry the insignia of officers and the chevrons of enlisted men, with the wound and service chevrons authorized for officers and men serving in France. The navy display shows more of the tools that ere making this world an unsafe place for international burglars, and also some rifles captured from German soldiers. The navy shows a depth charge of the kind whose bubbles often mean the end for some submarine pirate; a naval mine and anchor, and a big torpedo with its truck. Projectties of various sizes are accompanied by bombs tlmt girplaaes drop. The clothing display includes

some worn In winter weather by the boys aboard our submarines. Trumpets, drums, rifles, swords, flags and pennants are some of the other things shown. But it is expected that nowhere will the crowds be thicker than around the models of modern battleships, dreadnaughts, cruisers, destroyers and other vessels that will be shown at all the fairs and expositions. The scope of work of the department of agriculture is so wide and the quantity of its exhibit material is so great that its displays vary in different sections of the country, but in every case they have been selected to clinch some reason why American agricultural production must be increased, and again increased, and to show some of the numerous ways by which It can be done. These exhibits are not for the farmer alone. They are for him first, but food production has become the business and concern of everybody in America, and nearly everybody has come to know it. More than that, the agricultural exhibits are attractive, interesting and informing enough to hold the attention of even the novice who cannot tell a solo from a silo. The weather bureau shows how it is able to forecast storms, frosts and floods to protect agriculture, commerce and navigation, and displays its daily weather map showing conditions in the immediate locality of the exhibition. The bureau of animal Industry shows hosv to improve and increase the country’s supplies of meat, milk and poultry, how it guards the health of the public and our soldiers and sailors through its meat inspection system, and how to drive out the destructive animal diseases that annually take a toll of meat worth many millions of dollars. That other great co-ordinated branch of the department of agriculture, the bureau of plant industry, treats its field in the same manner, with special attention to methods of bettering and stimulating plant production and eradicating plant diseases. Broad features of forest service work are presented In popular and striking form. Models urge the burning of local fuel wood to release coal for cities and war purposes and relieve transportation, contrast proper methods of logging with the wasteful ways, and show the proper handling of tree windbreaks for increasing crop and animal production. Other forest service displays show how forest fires are prevented or discovered and fought; how valuable timber can be saved for war uses; and the need of retaining forests to retard soil erosion on slopes. Distinctive exhibits of the bureau of chemistry illustrate the enforcement of the food and drugs act, production and preservation of food products, use of tanning materials, production of colors and other chemical industries. Differences between true and imitation commercial articles are shown, and light is thrown on adulterated or misbranded medicinal preparations, including headache “remedies,” “beauty” preparations, asthma, consumption and other alleged “cures.” Samples of the soils that occur in the United States, including some local to the neighborhood of the particular exhibition, together with information relating to their best use in farming, are among the bureau of soils displays. The states relations service shows its work, in co-operation with the, state agricultural colleges, in spreading farming information through county agents, home demonstration agents and boys’ and girls’ clubs, and Illustrates food conservation by canning and drying. The bureau of entomology’s exhibits of destructive insects and ways of combating them are particularly interesting at this time of need for more food production and conservation. Likewise, the bureau of biological survey’s displays of stuffed animals and birds, representing the control or destruction of the predatory species and the conservation of the desirable kinds, take added significance. Demands on the railways, with growing use of motor routes, stress the importance of the good-roads construction and maintenance exhibits of the office of public roads and rural engineering. and war conditions also lend Interest to the bureau of markets’ display of safe methods of shipping grain, distribution of farm products, grain srandards and cotton standards, and various' types of shipping containers. Agriculture has been called the most peaceful industry in the world, but it is believed that the department's displays will remove any question as to efficient farming being absolutely essential iu an effective war machine. ' But America must not feed itself alone. It must sustain millions of the citizens and fighting men of our valiant allies. The food administration, in its exhibits, drives that fact deep. Feature dis-

plays are decorative panels contributed by representative American Illustrators to Illustrate twelve points in a recent speech by Herbert Hoqyer, food administrator. The purpose, scope and accomplishments of the food administration, the situation With which it is dealing, and work being done by the home conservation department are shown. The bureau of fisheries of the department of commerce has displays to urge the utilization of fishery products now used little or not at all, but that are available to help supply the demand for meat. Samples and posters of whale, shark, grayfish, sablefish, eulachons, burbots, drums, tilefish, skates and rays represent some of the dining table strangers shown. The fisheries exhibit also display tanned skins of aquatic animals—add most people know that leather is valuable now’ —w’ith a demonstration of pearl button manufacture, one of the industries that Germany dominated before the war. Programs of moving pictures treating many wartime themes are shown in connection with the other exhibits. They screen American soldiers at the fighting front and in camp; farmers striving for bigger crops Jn the country; methods of conserving as well as increasing the food Supply, views of beautiful landscapes in the national parks; reclamation of arid lands, highway construction and other activities, many of them Tn direct relation to winning the war. At every fair where the combined exhibits are displayed, the Four-Minute Men —the volunteer speakers who are fighting disloyal propaganda and urging unstinted public support for every war movement—gather in state conclaves. They speak thq regulation four minutes between the official motion pictures, and assist the soldiers and sailors and department representatives in explaining displays. The Four-Minute Men have headquarters nt booths maintained by the committee-on public information. At a number of the fairs where trackage facilities can be provided in or near the grounds, one of the mine rescue cars of the bureau of mines, department of the interior, will be open to the public. Full crews of five men will be on duty to explain the intricate rescue apparatus.