Flight By Helicopter

A successful flight by a helicopter, a machine which rises vertically and descends in the same manner, was made at McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio, December 18, at the Experimental Base by the United States Army Air Service. The helicopter arose six feet from the ground, the flight lasting one minute and 40 seconds.

Successful operation of the machine will revolutionize flying, making it possible to take off and land on a small field.

Grant to Hawaii About February 10

The U. S. A. T. Grant will sail from New York about February 10, loaded with recruits for Hawaii. Meanwhile the recruits are being mobilized at Fort Slocum. The St. Mihiel shou'd have made a trip to Panama January 18 and again February 15, but she was called to Antwerp to bring the American troops home from the Rhine. On the trip south the Grant will stop at Charleston, S. C., and take on recruits enlisted in the Fourth Corps Area. These are being concentrated at Fort Moultrie, S. C.

Broadcasting Religious Programs

The War Department has issued instructions to Major George O. Squire, Chief Signal Officer, to co-operate in broadcasting various religious programs presented by chaplains at Army posts.

The Chief of Chaplains, Colonel John T. Axton, cites the fact that at some post where local talent for religious services is lacking the garrisons have assembled to enjoy divine worship conducted in a unique way. Signal officers have arranged to receive by radio, and reproduce through the magnavox, the entire service of some distant church as broadcasted.

Hydrogen Gas To Be Manufactured at Scott Field

A new hydrogen gas plant is being put up at Scott Field at a total cost of approximately $250,000. The equipment of the plant is being furnished by the Government, and the W. M. Sutherland Construction Co., of St. Louis, has the contract for putting up the buildings.

The plant will consist of two separate gas manufacturing units-one makes gas by the oil cracking process and the other makes gas by the electrolytic process. This plant will make a total production capacity of 6,000 cubic feet of gas per hour.

Flies 592 Miles at Rate of 140 Miles An Hour

Flying at a speed of more than 140 miles an hour, Licutenant Alexander Pearson of the United States Army Air Service on January 15 piloted a DeHaviland plane from McCook Feld, Dayton, Ohio, to Mitchel Field, Long Island, in 4 hours and 40 minutes-an air distance of 592 miles. It is said that this is a new flight record between the cities of Dayton and New York, the previous record, which was unofficial, having been 4 hours and 32 minutes.

Pearson said he maintained an average altitude of 3,000 feet during the four hours he was in the air. The fastest train covers the distance between Dayton and New York in sixteen hours.

Army Bill Reported to the House

An army of 125,000 enlisted men and 12,000 officers is provided for in the Army Appropriation bill which has been reported to the House. The bill carries $314,064,294 for military and non-military activities, or $16,010.444 less than last year. Of the total $37.000.000 goes for river and harbor projects heretofore author zed. Last year $42.815,661 was appropriated for this purpose.

The bill provides for the training of 30,000 civilians during the coming year.

Red Cross Work on Governors Island

Guy M. Storey, field director of the Home Service office of the American Red Cross at Governors Island reports that a total of 8.030 record cases were hand'ed during 1922. An analysis shows 883 soldier and sailor cla'ms; 4,024 investigations relative to discharge, furlough, medical and social; requests for family service and assistance, 408; personal problems, employment, etc., 388; connections with relatives re-established. 49; loans, 16; visits and service to patients, 394. In addition a total of 14,454 non-record cases were handled.

Pigeon Credited With Saving 70 Lives

"Happy Jack" a Belgian pigeon credited with saving the lives of 70 soldiers during the World War, was one of the attractions at the National Pigeon Show at Mount Clemens, Michigan. "Happy Jack" has just been sold to a fancier in this country.

During the battle of Mons, the story goes, "Happy Jack" was with a detachment of troops that was cut off from the main body by the Germans, their plight not being known to their comrades. The pigeon was released with a message that eventually brought relief.

"Happy Jack" served as a carrier through most of the war period and escaped without a scratch.

Field Artillery School Year Book

The Year Book of the Field Artillery School, Fort Sill, Oklahoma, is to be called "The Shrapnel." The book will conta'n data pertaining to the courses that have been given during the year.

The organization of the board has been completed and is as follows: Editor-in-Chief, Captain Zimmerman; editor, Captain Gammell; assistants, Major Crane, Captains Black. Hershey, Fye, Maris, L. F. Crane, Winlock, Lee and Oleson; art editor, Captain Haley; assistant, Captain Thompson; business manager, Captain Brenizer; assistants, Captains Whitlock and Harrison.

The board expects to have the book ready for delivery some time in May.

AS TO RECRUITING

Letter By A National Guard Company Clerk

Deer fellers:

guess i must have pulled won of hem things they calls a fox pas in refering to orders as k. k. k. as i aint got 10 answers to what i sed in my other etter. me and mr webster are purty good frends so i am quite a stoodent of his works. that why i am always pullin some new word on you fellers. according to the book a fox pass is a offense against social convenshun. the editor of thee gardsman told me that general white was always acusin him of pullin a fox pass only the general calls it faux pas.

anyway i gess you fellers didn't like the name of our sassiety or else you wood have ansered. kompany klerk olson who own kompany f in salem rote a little ditty on recrooting which same sounded purty good to me.

onestly the bird what can't sell the nat gard to prospective recroots wood starve to death trying to sell live perservers on a sinkin ship. did ja ever stop to think what a bunch of talkin points yu got to pull on em. when a war aint achooly going on this bug they calls patreetisum is purty well cuvered up in american nachures by what the sicologists calls a digneefied scrambul for kale.

hence that fat little armory dril check cumin in every 3 mo is yur big talkin point. most folks are anxshus to be on the know about military stuff but they figur they can't afford to looze that much time. just pull that won abut 'ern while you lern and show em where the long green comes in regular and they'll be tickled to death.

on the other foot (i like that sayin better than on the other hand, its nooer) the reel young chaps are more intrested in boxin and athletics and sassiety doings than the coin. they like the jack all wright but they aint worrin none about it like me and you. theyve got an old man to handel the worry. you gotta go after them at a d'fferent slant. it'll be music to there eers when yu spill the dope about the ball games yur outfit has. the nice club room yu got with its billard tables and the like. don't forget to say something about the swel boxin bouts the co stages. i cod name a lot more things to talk about but i aint got time as i go to rite a treetis on in what reespects harold lloyd and gen, pershin are like each other.

How about gett'n' a bunch of recroots and givin 'em to the old man for a new years gift?

MILITARY HIGHWAYS

General Staff Works on Plan for

National Road System

The army general staff's plans for military highways in certain vital areas along the nation's boundaries, against which any invasion of the country probab'y would be directed have been placed in the hands of engineers of the bureau of public roads and are being incorporated in the federal aid highways system.

The roads will become strategic lines of supply, connecting centres of production and storage and industrial centres with the vital military areas outlined by the army general staff, which has been studying the subject since 1919 in collaboration with the bureau of public roads.

The important centres to be connected with the vital areas have been designated by the general staff, but location of routes has been left to the engineers.

In general the military needs of roads conforms to the commercial and economic needs. The plan submitted by the War Department is expected to be embodied in a system comprising 180,000 miles of highways.

Roads of a purely military nature, such as those leading to coast fortifications, have not been included in the plan and will be maintained by the War Department as heretofore.

Routing Passengers and Supplies for

National Guard Encampments

The Chief of the Militia Bureau has issued a circular letter calling for data for use in routing passengers and suppl'es to encampments for training the National Guard during the summer of 1923 The letter is addressed to all State Adjutants General and a total of 15 questions are propounded calculated to give the Militia Bureau data which will save considerable money on transportation during the coming year. The last part of General Rickard's letter says:

"It is expected that a saving may be made to the funds appropriated by Congress for the National Guard if the result of future conferences with the railroads is favorable to the Government's interests. It is also desired by both offices referred to to promulgate routing instructions which can be mutually and interchangeably used by both the RegularArmy and the National Guard.

"CAVALRY OF THE AIR"

Title of Pathe News Picture Made at Mitchel Field

A series of short motion picture subjects showing the activities of the Air Service is now being released as part of the Pathe Review. This series has been in course of making at Mitchel Field for the past two months and is appearing under the title of "The Cavalry of the Air." Each subject treats of a d'fferent phase of the work at an Air Service station. The first of the series has been sub-titled "Contact" and is in both normal and slow motion

photography. It shows the proper method of pulling the prop through on a D-H and the care and skill that must be exercised to avoid injury. The actual starting of the prop is shown very graphically in slow motion photography and it is possible to see the man's hand leave the blade of the prop. Later it is projected making pictures of this same subject in maximum slow motion photography as it is believed that a picture of this nature wou'd have an educational value for men who are required to do this work.

The second of the series will show a popular conception of the engineering features of an airplane and the mean ng of the various angles will be explained in a manner readily understandable to the lay mind. This subject will give the average citizen a general idea of the theory of flight. Incorporated in the subject are interesting items pertaining to construction, particularly as to the bridging used in the wings.

The third of the series will show the functioning of the Medical Research Laboratory at this Field and the rigid physical examination and tests that aviators are subjected to before they are permitted to fly. In this subject views of the orientator in actual use

will appear. This subject shows clearly the care taken by the Air Service and its allied medical branch to safe-guard the lives of the pilots and minimize accidents.

As weather and other conditions permit this series will be added to and it is intended carrying it through the summer season in order that the training of the National Guard and the Officers' Reserve Corps will appear as it is believed that this type of publicity has the tendency to stimulate interest in the Air Service training.

U. S. ARMY AS PIONEERS AND COLONIZERS

(Continued from Page Two) ice, and unloading supplies, performed directly by the American Expeditionary Force itself. In other words the American Relief was merely one of the activities of the American Expeditionary Force. The Russian relief is similarly an organization of Army officers and enlisted men, carrying on the work of American civilization as pioneers.

Do you know that the Army started our steel industry, guided it through its early development, and, in cooperation with the Navy Department, stimulated it throughout its expansion to the present gigantic proportions? Our Interior Department was an outgrowth of the activities of the War Department-in fact the latter once consisted of three parts which are now the War Department proper, the Navy Department, and the Interior Department. The Bureau of Public Roads grew out of the work of the Corps of Engineers. The Signal Corps can be said to have played a major part in development of telegraph industries. The development of our life saving service was possible largely through the co-operation of hundreds of miles of Governmental telegraph lines. operated by the Signal Corps. The Lighthouse Service that plays such an important part in coastwise and terminal ocean traffic, was built up by the Army and turned over to civil agencies only after its success was assured. In all of these ways the Army has proved that it can lead the way as pioneer, not only through forests and over the prairies, but also through the fields of science and industry.

an ever

The dominating influences in building up "Steel" have been the provision of markets, the increasing adaptation in employment, and the specifications for design. The Army was the original market for steel products--offered greater field for the use of steel-and led the entire industry in specifications for design. High grade steel, as we know it today, dates from the Civil War when the Army called for superior quality in gun metal. In 1880 the requirements for high carbon steel in making guns were fully 50 per cent more severe than were the general industrial specifications. The Ordnance Department introduced alloy steels in the manufacture of army material, and prescribed the use of nickel steel at a time when there were very few commercial uses for nickel steel in the entire country and when only two or three commercial concerns were capable of its manufacture. In 1875, the Board of Investigation at the Water

town Arsenal established a program of investigation and built an emery testing machine that was the largest in the world-this machine is still in daily use and was only recently superseded in its 1 ne rank as the largest in the world. work of Watertown Arsenal was truly pioneer work in this country, and it has a tremendous influence in stimulating similar investigations on the part of technical schools and colleges. Until the creation of the Bureau of Standards the Arsenal was a recognized leader in metallurgical study and it is, even today doing very original work which must have a noteworthy effect in the future.

When the American citizen takes his. family out for a day in the country he frequently meets with a mishap, perhaps breaking a part in his automobile. Docs he seek a country blacksmith or a machine shop to repair his Ford? Not he! Proceeding to the nearest garage, he finds a stock of spare parts which meet his wants and enable him to go "flivving" off in short order. He might, if he is scientifically inclined, utter a brief prayer to the inventor of "interchangeable manufacture" which produces spare parts. If he were historically inclined as well, he could look back over a century and discover that he owes this happy development to the filling of a contract for 10,000 muskets in 1798. That was the beginning of interchangeable manufacture. When the War of 1812 was forced on us, the art was so well established that interchangeability had become a normal contract specification of the War Department. One of our contracts in that year contained a clause which reads as follows: "The component parts of pistols are to correspond so exactly that any limb or part of one pistol may be fitted to any other pistol of the twenty thousand."

It is natural that out of this early development in Army arsenals should have come some consideration for the problem which we now call "scientific management." We feel that America leads the world in the art of the efficiency expert. Does my inquiring friend know that in this field as in so many others, the Army appeared as a pioneer?

I refer him to Dr. Taylor who is well known as a noted protagonist of scientific management and who makes frequent mention of the work of the Army in this respect. In one of his books he observes that the card system of shop rereturns was invented and introduced as a complete system for the first time, in the Government shops of the Frankford Arsenal and that th's was a distinct advance in the art of efficiency management. My prospect is thus brought once more to ap

preciate that the by-products of our national defense cannot sensibly be ignored.

Does the citizen know that the Army organized the Weather Bureau and that during Army control this Bureau gave out information that was of tremendous interest throughout the scientific world? Does he know that the Army has played a prominent part in diverting our explosives production into fields that offer great hopes of building up a great American nitrate industry which would be of inestimable benefit to the farmer? Does he know what the Army has done in helping to conserve our resources? The Army engineers have led us in flood prevention and have assisted greatly in forest protection. At the present time. the Air Service is co-operating, as much as funds will permit, in the work of the Department of Agriculture concerning forest fire prevention. In the past year. over 100.000 square miles of forest lands were covered by flyers. Of 1248 fires occurring in the National Preserves of California in three months, the aerial patrols reported 664, and were first to report 376.

"Why must such products come from the Army?" I am asked. "Why cannot some other agency do all of this work?"

I reply that neither the Government nor any individuals could afford to maintain a great pioneer organization with no other functions. Such benefits can come only from the work of an organized and trained public force which can produce them virtually as by-products, and still perform its primary tasks. About the middle of last April the Mississippi River rose to the point of threatening disaster to thousands of families along its banks. Members of Congress from that region visited the War Department for advice, and varying degrees of concern were manifested by officials of the states affected. It was apparent that there was no organization other than the Army that could drop its routine tasks and handle such an emergency. The War Department had experienced this situation in the past and had prepared detailed regulations to govern the forces which might have to operate under these conditions. It was necessary on'y to put the existing machinery into motion. The Governors of four states were notified that certain military authorities would be assigned districts in their states. Military authorities were informed of depots which would furnish supplies needed. Commanding Generals of Corps Areas were advised of the situation and they made arrangements for utilizing troops that might be necessary. Our fears were not realized. The danger passed. There was an excellent illustration, however, of the potential value of an organization like ours.