Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 86, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 January 1918 — WOOD-CHOPPING BEES [ARTICLE]

WOOD-CHOPPING BEES

Wood-chopping bees in Rush and other counties are trying to mak| up for the shortage of coal. It is an admirable way of helping the fuel shortage. Employes of Ifactories that were closed for a fiveday period have, in some cases, organized tb go to the woods and chop and saw. If this Course is widely pursued the situation will soon, be helped. There is still an abundance of timber in this and other states good for fuel, but for several years not much wood has been cut because it has been cheaper and more convenient to use coal. Even the farmers have become large consumers of coal though

they have an ample acreage of timberland for wood. The county fuel administrator at’ Winchester has given orders that no coal be sold to farmers except in cases of sickness in the family that would keep the farmers from going into the woods and cutting their own fuel. A revival meeting in a Summitville church was about to be by a ruling of the state ifuel administrator that coal could not be used for heat. Members of the church soon supplied enough wood to keep the meetings going. A Shelby county farmer, whfo appears to have been actuated by a spirit of profiteering, or a desire to burn coal instead of wood, took a load of wood to Shelbyville, and after selling it for $7 tried to buy coal. One dealer refused to sell to him. Another did sell, but before the farmer got away the deal wavs discovered by the authorities and the farmer was compelled to return to the country with an empty wagon. Re will have to cut wood or go cold. If every farmer in the state will resolve not only to cut wood for his own use, but to cu/t a few additional cords tor sale in the cities and towns, it will not be long until the fuel situation is greatly improved. And the improvement can be greatly expedited by wood-chop-ping bees among factory employes and others of the cities and towns who may well hvail themselves of the opportunity to provide fuel on the days on which factory business is suspended by government orders. ,Our fuel resources are adequate. Railroad transportation has not proved sufficient to deliver coal where it is needed.—lndianapolis News. b-

Men qualified along certain lines, although registered under the se-lective-service law, may be inducted into the land division of the signal corps, which is in need of men Ifor the following duties: Chauffeurs, motorcycle drivers, and gas engine repairmen for duty in field and telegraph battalions; telegraphers, both wire and radio; telephone men, including switchboard operators, telephone repairmen, and men skilled in testing and repairing telephone lines; telephone and telegraph linemen; photographers, still and moving; homing-pigeon men; radio men who are familiar with installing radio aparatus; men qualified as cooks, clerks, stenographers, blacksmiths, meteorologists, cobblers, cable men, etc. Men inducted for this division, unless otherwise requested by the Chief Signal Officer Df the army, are sent to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

! There were 1,428,650 enlisted men and 110,865 officers in the , United States army at the opening jof 1918, more than one and onehalf times as large as any force ever before mobilized by this nation, according to a statement by 'Secretary of War Baker. During the war with Spain the army of the United States at its maximum strength aggregated 272,000 men and officers. The army in the field and In training now is practically . six times as great as the maximum

number under arms the SpanishAmerican war. About 45,000 officers were commissioned from civil life in the two esries of training camps, nearly eight times as many as the number of officers in the regular army April 1, 1917. Examination of the records of 10,000 men passed for military service by local boards and then! rejected by camp surgeons show that nearly 22 per cent of the final ■ rejections were caused by defective eyes. Teeth were responsible for 8.50 per cent; hernia, 7.47 per cent; ear, 5.94 per cent; disease, 5.87 per cent; tuberculosis, 5.3 7 per cent. Attempts to evade military duty by deception regard-, ing physical condition were very few. " ( Postmasters are directed not to accept for shipment to members of. the Expeditionary Forces packages containing matches, cigar lighters,: or solidified alcohol, including the j preparation called “Sterno” or can-j ned heat. It is not deemed safe to admit these articles to. mails for' (foreign countries or for United States naval vessels, including marines on shore in other countries. “We wonder how the kaiser is going to make peace with God.”—Detroit Free Press. He fully expects, after he has conquered the earth, that God will sue for peace with him. Howyt must strafe those haughty flyer crews to be compelled to take a siding while a battered old coal train crawls by and limbers up on the track before them. Government estimates of the production of petroleum in the United States in 1917 place it at nearly 14 per cent greater than any previous year. . * Haiti has forbidden the export of food-stuffs to countries at war with the United States and countries associated with them in the war. The year of 1917 established new high production records for corn, oats, rye, white and sweet potatoes, tobacco, beans and onions.