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About Morning Oregonian. (Portland, Or.) 1861-1937 | View Entire Issue (May 29, 1918)
THE MORNING OKEGONIAN. WEDNESDAY. 3IAY 29, 1918. 3 AMERlCAfJ ARMIES PIONEER IH FRANCE Huge Force Employed in Dig ging and Building for 'Lucky . 'Lads' at the Front. BOYS ALL EAGER TO" FIGHT Sometime!) Soldier Gets Grouch Be cause He Isn't Turned Loose for Real Battle, but All Know Their Wort Necessary. BY RHETA CHILDE DORR. (Published by arrangement with the New lork Evening Mail.) IV. The man on sentry duty on that section of the huge unfinished wharf was in a bad humor. He was in a very bad humor. If a stray cat or dog had appeared on the wharf at that moment he would probably have kicked it. As it was a woman in the khaki uniform of a war correspondent the sentry contented himself with roaring a challenge that brought her up stand ing. Having produced her pass he flood .'aside with a scowl, shouldered the rifle which had been pointed at her most menacingly, and made a ges ture with his head which meant, "Well, then, move on." But the correspondent I was the correspondent did not move on. I stopped and said mildly: "You don't seem to be enjoying yourself today. "What's the matter?" "What's the matter?" he repeated furiously. "Every darn thing is the matter. What did I leave my business for, what did I leave my wife and kids for? Why, to come over here and right the boche. And what am I do ing? Roustabout work on a blasted line' of docks, miles away from the front. Been here five months in this hcle, working like a subway digger. People Were Pioneers. "Look at the town back there where we no for a bit of amusement when the' day's over. Worse than any slum back home. Talk about the horrors of the trenches. I'd swap the mud we live in for any trench. Talk about Fritz's poison gas. When the wind's right the tumes from that picric acid factory up the river blow down and choke the lungs out of us." "Do you get these spells often?" I asked. Whereupon he grinned a little and relaxed his scowl. I asked him where he lived and he named a thriving town in Western Kansas. He had a real estate business in town, but his folks still lived tm the big farm which his father had proved up 30 years ago. It was a fine place, yielding a big in come, enough to keep the old people in comfort for the rest of their lives, and to support his young family while he was at the war. I came from the prairies myself, and I could just see that farm and the old folks who had gone out to Kansas in their lusty youth to take up Govern ment land. They had built a sod house, turned up the tough prairie grass. Ploughed and sowed and cultivated un der the burning sun, performed ter rible labor to get their first meager corn crops. They had fought drought and grass hoppers, lived through blizzards and cyclones, endured poverty and priva tions untold. They were pioneers. Of such is the greatness and the virtue of our America. 1 sat down on a nail keg and talked their backs beside the road. And a fine, husky, happy lot they were, too. Nothing in their university careers ever did fir them what this rough job of pioneering was doing. There was ojie man there who had put in a magnificent water system in his home town. When he went to France the newspapers gave him a great sendoff, described his work, and said that no doubt he would be called on to take charge of the water system in one of the large French cities. When I met him he was acting as water boy to a railroad tie-carrying squad. The engineers in this part of France publish a monthly magazine called "The Spiker." They love to get hold of these newspaper notices and to publish them with comments. From- a San Francisco paper, they gleaned that "Willie , the cotillion leader of last season's youngest set, leaves for France shortly with the Blankth Engi neers to take charge, it is understood, of the construction of a telephone sys tem contemplated by the Government to facilitate the hauling of troops to the front." The comment records that the erst while cotillion leader Private , is now on the business end of a No. 2 shovel. Engineers Call Tkemselves "P. G.'s." Well, what of it? The shovel work has to be done just as the prairie sod has to be turned. The men growl about it sometimes, but mostly they grin. They chalk "P. G." on the backs of their jumpers, the same letters appear ing in white on the vivid green uni forms of the German captives at work in many camps. They mean Prisonnier de Guerre, war prisoner, and when the weather is cold and rainy and letters from home are delayed, and spirits sink, you can hard ly blame the men for feeling at times a" little like prisoners. They had ex pected excitement and, perhaps, eome glory, and hard work and isolation is their lot. But what they are doing, tedious enough day by day, is in the aggregate splendid and invaluable to the success of our Army. The like of it was neve done before by any army in the world. When the Germans see it, as they will some day through their newspapers, they will be aghast at the hugeness of it. They had sneered at the idea of the Americans sending a large army to France. How could they send an army? An army can't swim, nor can it fly, and the Americans had no ships. Even if they found ships and sent men enough, how could they feed, clothe and equip them? How could they keep up their supplies? The Americans could and did jjerform all these miracles because they had in them the blood of pioneers, of men and women whom no difficulties could afrright, no obstacles turn back. Our soldiers have proved themselves in countless army camps abroad to be worthy sons of the breed. I remember one big aviation camp which was built in a few months out of short lengths of boards because the colonel and his staff couldn't get any better lumber. They were told that they couldn't buy any lumber at all, that there was none available in that part of France. But they did get It and they built the camp. The men lived in tents during the coldest weeks of winter with icy winds blowing over the barren piain JM aviatlon camps are built on big plains. Conduct of Americana Epic. In spite of .the cold, the men had no stoves furnished them. No doubt stoves were contemplated, but they did not reach camp. But you can't freeze pio neers. Those boys just went to work and built stoves, built them out of mud, brick and stones and biscuit tins and any other old junk they could find lying around. They made stovepipes out of tfn cans, and they kept warm. I met and talked with a half dozen of those engineers who were caught in that German counter drive near Cambrai last November. The men, it will be remembered, were engaged In peaceful labor behind the British front linking up railroad communications and forwarding supplies needed by the English soldiers farther up the line No one supposed that the engineers were in any danger, and the squads wnnout guns or revolvers. CHARGE PURCHASES TODAY AND BALANCE OF MONTH CO ON JUNE BILLS, PAYABLE JUNE J BUY THRIFT STAMPS TODAY On Side Accommodation Desk, Main Floor c Merchandise ccJ Merit Only" BUY A SMILE AGE BOOK FOR YOUR SOLDIER Accommodation Desk, Main Floor j This Store Uses No Comparative Prices They Are Misleading and Often Untrue Shop Today Store Closed Thursday Decoration Day Smocks and Middies But iinoTno.t.lv t- ' . to that lonely, homesick, aggrieved sol-j over the British lines and the Ameri dlor about the pioneers. From England can engineers suddenly found them - first, and later from every other coun try in the world they had come, moved by the divine unrest of ambitious spir its, to the United States. Americana Pioneering; in France. They had crossed the plains in rough wagons, daring weather, starvation thirst, hostile Indians. They had lev eled forests; they had built homes with no tools but axes and handsaws. They had farmed arid lands. They had lived in caves and dugouts. They had raised corn that some years they had been forced to burn for fuel because there was no market for it. But they lived, and won out, and built homes for their children. And now, once more the Americans are pioneering. They are pioneering in France. They are building an army and doing it, as their fathers before them, from the ground up. "If you were not building these miles of docks and warehouses, if we didn't have hun dreds of thousands of men constructing ice plants, storage warehouses, rail roads, barracks, bakeries, hangars, hos pitals, how would the men in the trenches get food and ammunition and clothes and medical supplies and every thing else they have to have before they can win the war?" I put it to him straight, and he turned an uncom fortable pink. "Of course, you are right," he said. "But we have to blow off once in a while. You see we didn't know any thing about it before we came. We drew our numbers in the draft, and most of us were mighty glad of it. We had the time of our lives in training camp, and we thought we were going right into the big show. "We thought the engineers would be right up at the front building rail roads for the artillery. Instead of that we are kept down here, hundreds of miles from the fighting, doing the kind of hard labor some of us have money enough to hire done at home." laborers All V severalty Students. "Why, do you know," he continued, "that in ." naming a nearby en gineering camp where immense sea plane hangars were being built, "there is one company of 250 men, every one a graduate of a university or a technical school? All of those men are in over alls, doing day labor." I did know these men. I had seen them, or some of them, the day before at the noon hour smoking short pipes nnd cigarettes, sitting or sprawling on YOUR LIVER NEEDS Stirring I'p and Stimulating in the Spring. Its sluggish lack of vigor is a large factor in causing the dullness, depres sion and weakness that hang on to you like lead in your shoes from morning till night. Hood's Pills are the best liver stimu lant and family cathartic best because they do their work well and do not deplete the blood like purgative salts and waters, which often leave a woeful train of catarrhal discharges that are unnatural and weakening. Then you may get the splendid blood enriching qualities of Hood's Sarsapa rilla and the iron-building effects of I'eptiron into the combination, and the three medicines working together give the grandest health-uplift it is possible to have .from medicine. Any one of the three medicines will do you good the use of all three will accomplish wonderful results for you. . Try this treatment this Spring. Adv. .e ,n tne miaale of a battle. Some of them seized arms from fallen men and sailed into the fight like seasoned soldiers. Others had no rh3. . . hold of firearms, but did they retreat? bo mai you could notice it. They went for the Germans with their picks and shovels, and what they did to them was epic. In describing their vnrlr K British General in command said it was oestow praise on the Ameri cans. wnat they did was beyond When I met these men they were just finishing up a piece of construc tion work at a camp in Central France. It was not an especially interesting work, just day labor. But when the big push began In March these men, being free to move, were sent up to n.o num. iu ouiia more railroads. Pick Good War Weapon. Aren t they the lucky stiffs?" sroanea a man In another labor group. "But our turn will come. I'll ht k-oi. The lucky stiffs agreed that rh' were lucky, but they refrained out of politenessfrom saying too much about it. Of course, every man hopes to get up into the big show. But the work behind the lines has to be done. That is the spirit of the Army, except on occasions when the men have to blow off steam. Bidding the lucky ones good-by, I ex- """"i a nope mat they would be al uweu to carry revolvers when they went near a fighting line. They said that they were going to carry side arms, but one man said: "What's the matter with a good sharp pick when you meet up with. Heinle? He knows what a gun will do to him and he is game. But a Yankee guy with a pick has got him backed off the map. Jim here killed two and chased two more with nothing in his hands but a shovel. I had a pick and I was better off than him." Which was his modest way of tVlIing tha he and his pick had accounted for three German soldiers armed with rifles and bayonets. Thus had his nuuiiurr lougnc wolves in some Western forest, or killed rattler, in prairie grass. Pioneers! You can't beat them. In my next article I want to tell what these new pioneers, in less than one year's time, have built in France. For Your Outing JACK TAR MIDDIES $1.25 Splendid quality jean middies, in reg ulation style ; white or white with navy trimming. Sizes from misses 16 to women's 44. Others $1.50 to $3.50. NEW SMOCKS at $2.49 Sizes from misses 12 to women's 44. Made of beach cloth, in all white or white with Copen or rose trimming. Slipover style with buttons and smock ing for trimming. CREPE SMOCKS, $3.95 and $4.95 All the newest colors in the fetching crepe smocks ; many in pretty pastel shades. VOILE SMOCKS, $3.95 and $4.95 The daintiest of shades pink, blue and white, and pretty combinations of colors; many with smock ing or tucks for trimming; in all sizes. Fourth Floor Lip man, ' Wolfe 6r Co. CRYSTAL GLASS CEMETERY VASES, 23c A very special price for Decoration Day vases. Colonial designs, graceful and practical. ONE DAY ONLY at 23 cents. Sixth Floor Lip man. Wolfe & Co. For Thursday's Picnic You'll Need White Crepe Paper Napkins, best of quality, at 15c a hundred. Paper Plates, two sizes, dozen, 8c. Drinking Cups at 5c package. Twenty-four Paper Towels, in san itary package, at 10c. Meteor Picnic Sets, complete, con taining a tablecloth. 1 2 napkins and 12 paper plates. 15c Mapleware Lunch Set, complete for six people, at 25c. Main Floor Lipman, W olfe & Co. SILK GLOVES that are seasonable and durable, with the style, fit and finish of kid gloves. Black white and colors. 75c, 85c to $2.00 Main Floor Lipman, Wolfe 6r Co. Fibrikoid BAG SPECIAL $7 Just the bag to take over Decora tion Day if you're planning for a short trip ; 1 8 inches inside meas urement, with strong lock and lift catches, sewed edges and corners; well lined. Mezzanine Floor Lipman, Wolfe & Co. The- Daintiest BLOUSES are Special at $3 Hundreds of new blouses of fine crepe de chine and Georgette crepe; white, flesh and maize colored, with the new horseshoe collar or high collars and fancy plaited and tucked styles. Some with hem stitching. Very special at $3.00. SMART WHITE TAILORED SKIRTS, $3.95 Just the skirt for your Decoration Day outing. Tailored style of white gabardine and pique, mide with vanch pockets and detachable vest-like belts. You couldn't make such smart skirts for this mod erate price. NEW SHETLAND WOOL SLIPONS at $3.45 Smart and practical slipons of fine Shetland wool. The colors will add charm to any Summer cos tume; pretty shades of rose, turquoise and Nile. Sleeveless, with deep sailor collars and revers; many trimmed with double rows of white stripes. Very special at $3.45. Third Floor Lipman, Wolfe & Co. DIVISION TALKED OF Oregon Military Departments May Be Segregated. OFFICIALS CONSIDER STEP MUCH LUMBER SOLD TO U. S. Purchases From Oregon Companies Made by Quartermaster-General. OREGOXIAN NEWS BUREAU. Wash ington. May 28. The Quartermaster General Monday announced that recent purchases of Douglas fir have been made from the following Oregon lum ber companies, the size of purchase not being stated: Albany Lumber Company. Albany; Benton County Lumber Company, Philomath; Brown Petzel Lumber Company. St. Helena; Col umbia River Door Company, Rainier; East Side Mill and Lumber Company. Portland: Elmira Lumber Company, Rainier: Fischer Lumber Company. Marcola: Fischer Bout ins Lumber Company, Spring-field; Gouch Lumber and Shingle Company, Gouch; Jew ett Mill Company, Gardiner: Leona Mills Company, Leona; Mohawk Lumber Com pany. Kiigene: North Bend Mill and Lumber Company. North Bend: Oregon Lumber Com pany. Portland; Oatrander Railway and Timber Company. Ostrander. Wash.: Doug las Fir Portland Lumber Company, Port land; H. J. Potter RIdgefleld. Wash.: Chaa. K. Spalding Logging Company, Portland; Rice Kinder Lumber Company. Lenta; Tier man Lumber Company, Portland; Webfoot Lumber Company, Portland; Westport Lum bar Company. W est port. Read The Oregonian classified ads. Business and Professional Men in Home Guard Object to Leaving Home Points Governor Is Withholding: Action. SALEM. Or., May 28. (Special.) Following a conference here between Governor Withycombe, Adutant-Generat Williams and Maor Deich, of the State Military Police, the Governor has in structed the two officers to go over with the general staff the question of segregation of military departments in the state as outlined at'the recent war conference in Portland and to submit a report as to the probable effect and feasibility of dividing the departments. The quetsion of particular interest is as to whether or not the Home Guard companies should remain as an Integral part of the regular military organiza tion, or as a part of the militia, coming directly under the control of the Adjutant-General's office, or whether the guard should be directly under the control of the Governor himself with out relation to the AdJutant-GeneraL "Shnntlna" Objected To. Many members of the Home Guard companies are business and profes sional men and they have made ob jection to being part of a military or ganization that is mobile in its nature and apt to be shunted from place to place, while they are willing to go the limit for home defense. So far the Governor is inclined to be favorable to the contention made by these members, and believes that there is considerable merit in it. He de clines to taker any actual step in that direction, however, until he receives a complete report as to the effect of the move prepared by competent military authorities. While reports have been circulated to the effect that the effort being made to divorce the Home Guard companies from the control of the Adjutant-General's office is a slap at Adjutant-eGn-eral Williams, the executive is inclined to scout these reports as without foun dation. He said today that he thinks there is no effort being made to se cure the "scalp" of the Adjutant General. Tax to Raise S82S,0O0. It is understood that Governor Withycombe is considering the ad visability of asking the Legislature to provide that the 1250,000 deficiency ap propriation made by the Emergency Board for the State Military Police be paid out of the $918,000 which is to be raised under the 1-mill emergency war tax bill, in event that bill is made a law by the people. The war tax bill is proposed by the State Council of Defense and in pro posing it the council has taken the ground that the money so raised should cover all military exigencies arising during the course of the war. It is un derstood that the council will agree that if it is passed the Legislature will not be asked to pass any appropriations whatsoever for military purposes. With this end in view It is consid ered likely that the (250,000 emergency appropriation deficiency will be han dled out of that fund and take that burden from the Legislature, which may be somewhat hampered in its ap propriations by the 6 per cent limita tion amendment. If this is done the deficiency appropriations so far made, as far as the Legislature is concerned, would be cut down to a little over $50,000. Military Fsad Will Grow. " The war tax measure, if it passes, may raise considerably over 9928.000 the second year after its passage, pro viding the war continues. With the addition of the great shipyards and war industries, the assessed valuation of the state no doubt will increase wonderfully in another year, and in event it does, the amount to be raised under the tax will probably be in ex cess of $1,000,000 a year. When it is considered that heretofore military ex penditures have not exceeded $200,000 for a biennium. at the outside, this ac count for any one year would be greatly in excess of anything hereto fore attempted in the state. The money would go toward caring for the Home Guards. State Militia, State Police, State Council of Defense and the allied war labors to come up. such as the Oregon Social Hygiene So ciety and State Board of Health. FAITH STANDS TEST Largest Concrete Ship Afloat Ends Maiden Voyage. HEAD SEAS BUCKED NICELY GERMAN LOSSES ARE HUGE More Than 42,000 Prisoners Em ployed on British Farms. LONDON. May 28. There are 85,000 German -prisoners of war in Great Britain, it was announced in the House of Commons today by James Ian Mao Pharson, parliamentary secretary to the War Office. Of these, he said 42,000 were em ployed in farming and other work of national Importance while 10,000 more had been designated for similar em ployment. SOLDIERS TO GET BERTHS Problem of Demobilization After War Discussed by Ministers. LONDON.'via 'Ottawa, May 28. Dis cussing the problem of demobilization after the war, the Minister of Labor, George. H. Roberts, said in a speech today, that 400,000 discharged soldiers had been provided for already. Of these, 60 per cent have returned to their old employers. Graduates Forego Expenses. KIDGEFIELD. Wash.. May 28. (Spe cial.) Ridgefield High School will have only two graduates this year, Arthur Buker and Charles Hancock. The boys are both very patriotic and they decided it wasn t the proper war time spirit to have an elaborate com mencement, sending out of town and getting a speaker, and defraying other expenses that could be gotten along without. These two boy graduates have given up all this and will have no special exercises when they receive their diplomas and have each given Ha to the Red Cross Instead. POISON OAK OR IVY NO LONGER TO BE DREADED Craft Acts Like Any Other Vessel, Captain Says, and Experts Who Studied Stresses Ilold Steamer Success. A PACIFIC PORT. May 28. 'She acted Just like any other vessel," was the way Captain R. E. ConnelU com manding the steamer Faith, the larg est concrete ship in the world, com mented upon the vessel's behavior dur ing her trial voyage from another Pa cific port to this port, where she ar rived today. "W had some very rough weather and some very good weather, and the Faith ' certainly stood the test." con tinued the captain. "She responded readily to her helm throughout the voyage." A detailed story of the voyage, mark ing an epoch in maritime history, will be told In the official report made by the experts of the Emergency Fleet Corporation, who made the voyage in the new type of craft. The following statement was issued by F. R. McMillan and H. S. Loeffler. research engineers of the Emergency Fleet Corporation, and C. C. Brush, of the United States Lighthouse Service, official observers for the fleet . cor poration : "Continuous stress records at various parts of the ship were taken by means of recording strain guages designed especially for this purpose. The seas encountered were very heavy and gave a good opportunity to study the action of the reinforced concrete hull under conditions ordinarily expected in serv ice. In our opinion, the trip was very successful and the indications are all very favorable toward, the success of concrete ships." Those who made the voyage seemed unanimously of the opinion that the test conditions were almost ideal, and the Faith had been given a good "shak ing down." Storm succeeded calm, and the craft battled her way ' through stiff gales and heavy seas always "be having nicely," according to. the report. Sometimes the head winds slowed her down to four miles an hour, but always she kept forging ahead. Early this morning she entered the straits leading to the local harbor, and at 3 P. M. was warped into a local dock. The new vessel immediately attract ed hundreds of persons to the water- Offi icers Unif orms Cotton Gabardine and Khaki Summer Uniforms; Wool Serge, Wool Gabar dine and Wool Whipcord Uniforms Cordovan Put tees Stetson Hats MercKandiso of O Merit Only" front. Permission to go aboard was obtainable only by means of passes. Lebanon Aids Red Cross. LEBAJCON". Or, May 18. (Special.) One of the best money-making under takings for the Lebanon Red Cross was that given this week by the Lebanon Woman's Civic Clib, when they pre sented the musical farce of "Mellnda's Wedding Day" and "Ka Zoo" concert. The local opera-house was filled to its capacity on both nights. A number of the leading society ladies of the city took part and appeared in darky cos tumes and makeup. Mrs. Wilma Wag goner, president of the civic club, was the originator of the scheme, and Mrs. Dr. John Reed was director of the comedy, and Mrs. R. G. Miller directed the music. The net proceeds turned over to the Red Cross Society was $163. 10. Regimental Bands to Grow. WASHINGTON, May 28. The Army general staff has ordered, on General Pershing's recommendation, that all regimental bands be increased from 28 to 50 pieces, a War Department an nouncement today says. A bugle and drum corps for each Infantry regiment will be created. The Oregonian runs no cuts, borders or display type in its classified col umns: every advertiser has at equal representation. ANYONE who has ever experienced ing. fever and cold sores and insect the tortures of poison oak or ivy bites. A remarkable soothing and heal- will be grateful for the information ln lotion. Men use it after shaving that this extremely irritating annoy- and women for the complexion and for ance is no longer to be feared. The the baby's skin. pain. Itching, fever and irritation dis- Santiseptic is easily procured at most appear almost like magic with a few drug stores,. a good-sized bottle costing applications of Santiseptic Lotion, and but 60c If your druggist cannot supply the eruption and redness of 'the skin It, his name and twenty-five cents in soon follows. Timely use of Santiseptic stamps or coin sent to the manufactur will even prevent the poisoning in era. the Eabencott Laboratories, Port many oases. Santiseptic heals other land. Oregon, will secure, postpaid, a skin irritations, such as sunburn, chaf- large introductory bottle. Adv. WITH NO RUBBING LAUNDRY HELP You can wash your clothes beautifully white and clean without any rubbing whatsoever. It won't hurt your hands. It doesn't harm the finest materials. It does the business and MAKES WASHING A PLEASURE 25c package contains enough for 10 washings.' Most dealers have it. Geo. E. Wightman Go, 90 Eleventh St. Bdwy. 1903 THOMPSOTS i Deep Cam Laisaa V. 1 An Better (Trademark Registered) THE SIGN OF PERFECT SERVICE Eyes carefully examined and properly fitted with glasses without the use of drugs by skilled specialists. Complete lens grinding factory on the premises. SAVE YOUR EYES THOMPSON OPTICAL INSTITUTE portland's largest, most modern. best eq l ipped exclusive: optical, est a b l.ish 51 ext. 209-10-11 CORBETT BUILDING FIFTH AND MORRISON SLNCE 1903 'ft Aa"i. I c I ! i I i j t