THE SUNDAY OREGOXIAX. PORTLAND, APRIL 21, 1918.
UNCLE SAM SEEKS YANKEE DAREDEVILS FOR TANK SERVIC
Recruits for Land Battleships That Are to Carry Stars and Stripes in ""Big Smash on Berlin" Must Be Not Only
Mechanical Experts, hut Boys ""Always Spoiling for a Fight
. a a :
Germany Stole the Tank Idea From the British, and the Result Was That in the Recent Fighting It Has Been a Case of Tank Against Tank, Both Sides Being Equipped for Armageddon With the Latest of War Monsters. '
WASHINGTON. D. C. Swivel-chair
oldlrra. or "bcTo-bor." a they
call tbera In Washlnston. where
Vncle Joe Cannon rises to remark that
the spurs worn by non-combatant offi
cers are "to keep their feet from sliding
off their desks." will hardly fill the bill
when It comes to putting craws aboard
the powerful tanks that are belnc at
tached to General Pershing's army In
'ranc and made ready to loose against
the Hun when the big American drive
la set In motion, whether that bo this
t all or the Spring of
For it Is now only too apparent that
ths lumbering tank with Its Cyclopean
eyes and dragon dimensions Is an In
atrument of warfare that has passed
out of the experimental stage and has
come to stsy; to bo developed, however,
and mado even more potent as the war
continues. Furthermore, It Is no secre
either, that L ncle Sam has turned to
the tank and Is not only preparing to
add whols fleets of land battleships to
Ms troops "over there." but speculatln
further on how the tank may be devel
aiong tne line or the tanklet." an
individual form of armament that takes
wsy back again to the knights of
Old wno tared forth to battle clad In
shiny habiliments of steel. In the re
incarnation, however, the anight of to
day Is an Iron-cased locomotive unto
himself, who operates on caterpillar
wheels and constitutes a combination of
Infantry, artillery, cavalry and navy all
la one:
Wen ' l-ee Fight."
Tnly men who love to fight." to get
eaca to tne recruiting for tank regl
mrnts. are wanted this Summer for the
American tank service. "The kind or
men we are looking for are the ones
who are anxious to go over the top and
et the Huns the kind of men who are
spoiling for a fight." says Captain
Jienry it. ueorge. in charge of tank
recruiting In New Tork City. One has
only to mlnsle among the boys who are
enlisting in this branm or the service
to learn that they are a "distinct" type
in every way. characteristic "Yankee
daredevils." who will form an Amer
ican fighting family as unique as
Itoosevelt s Hough Riders or the Astor
Battery or any of a number of famous
fighting units developed In the various
American wars. At Camp Meade. Mary
land, where are mobilised the boys of
j'ennsyivsnla. Maryland and the PIs-
inc 01 i-oiumbia. the tank recruits
have adopted aa their coat-of-arms a
great black cat atandlng on guard ready
to "claw the enemy." and with It tne
legend. "Treat "em rough.
When the first call for volunteer for
tank service was posted In the various
cantonments about six weeks ago there
was a grand ruh to get into line. Post
ers reading. "Wanted, volunteers for
tank service." were no sooner put up
than the recruiting officers were be
sieged by thousands of eager youths.
There are very special requirements
ror this branch or service, however, and
Dot all the willing youths have been ac
commodated. Men of daring and ad
venturous spirit who are unafraid in
any dilemma, who are cool and calcu
lating and willing to "take the long
rnance. are demanded In every case.
The big requirement, however. Is for
men who are skilled mechanics, for the
chaps who man these movable forts
must Include expert tractor operators
truck drivers, derrick and steam shovel
men. machinists, machine gunners,
chauffeurs and the Use. Their officers
are drawn pretty largely from the en
gineer corps of he Army.
Reports from virtually every canton
ment in the country show a "big drive"
to get into the tsnk service. When
the "big push" broke In the latter part
of March and It became known that
the tanks were playing such an Impor
tant part In the battle. Interest here in
tanks was only Increased the more. At
Camp Pevens. In Massachusetts, for In
stance, the recruiting officers were lit
erally swamped with applications. At
Camp Meade lit men were enrolled in
one day. Many American boys enlist
ing in tank service are likely to see
service this Summer against the Hun.
for It is known that some detachments
already have gone across, while still
others are known to have participated
In the first two 'weeks' fighting In
what is to be known in history as the
Battle of Plcardy. In the Middle West,
where the tanks have been heard of
and talked about but not yet actually
seen, as in the Kast. where several Eng
lish tank veterans bare been on parade
this Spring, the Interest Is no less gen
eral among all the enlisted men. The
great automobile manufacturing sec
tion of the Middle West Is going to send
many regiments of skilled mechanicians
to operate Uncle Sam's new fleets of
tanks.
The "suicide club." as the tank de
tachments are known In the French
army, attracts many men who have
been In service whose terms of enlist
ment here expired. This applies par
ticularly to the ambulance men. Very
many men from the ambulance service
have gone back Into the allied armies
after serving their terms on the west
ern front or In Italy and Invariably
these men strike for either the avia
tion service or the tank regiment
Just how the French came to term th
tank regiment "the suicide club" hss
not been revealed, for It Is certain
that this branch of service Is less
dangerous than many other forms of
modern fighting. To fight from th
shelter of a tank Is much less denser
ous than the warfare of the trenches,
where men are exposed continually to
the danger of machine gun and rifl
fire, gas attack or shell fire. When
It keeps on the move the tsnk afford
a shifting target for artillery and I:
Immune altogether to machine-gun
fire. In fact. It wss In an endeavor
to devise some protection from ma
rhlne-gun fire and particularly air
plane bombs, that the English first hit
upon the Idea of evolving a tank out
of the American farm tractor.
Service, In the tank division, how
ever. Is a very exacting grind that re
quires pluck and nerve. Any man given
to fits of "blues" or "grouches" h
no business In the tank service. It re
quires a very sunny disposition to ride
bottled up In the dsrk interior of
tank. Jostled from side to side and suf
fering from the heat and Inconvenience
of cramped quarters. Tank service In
this respect Is not unlike the sub
marine service, where men have to
spend long, wesry hours huddled to
aether In the dsrk Interior of the hull.
hearing only the Incessant rattle of
machinery and seeing only the mechan-
mii Intrusted to their care. The mon
ster caterpillars are a great drain on
the constitution. A man must be on
the alert every single moment and
must be prepsred to stand a terrific
nerve strain all the time.
Athletes, experienced warriors, trsv
el era, animal trainers, men who have
seen active service in perilous fields
of endeavor, find the tank service Just
to their liking. Here Is an afternoon's
roster oi recrulta at a New Tork head
quarters: Two gold miners, three
Boer War veterans, three professional
pugilists, six members or last years
varsity football team at Williams Col-
ege. six former United States marines.
hree men who had won the French
Croix de Guerre, a filibuster, an
Argentine cavalry man, a dancing
master, a lion tamer and 40 men from
he University of Chicago who had
enlisted as an ambulance unit and then
ransferred. Athletes, specialists and
men who love a fight get the pref
erence.
Recruits for the United States tank
service are being drilled In a monster
raining ramp being established near
he historic battlefield at Gettysburg.
Pa. Hbat would Pickett have done
with a score or more of the modern
anks In his drive against the Union
nes In that famous charge more than
alf a century ago? As a matter of
fact, while the tank Is a direct product
of the present world war, who shall
say that the first tank was not that
Ittle cheesebox a floating tank that
Ericsson contrived so wonderfully to
lis part against the Merrimac In
the famous naval duel of the Civil
War? Just as the armored turret of
the Monitor turned aside the Confed
erate fire and proved Itself Invulner
ble before the rattle of musketry and
small arms, so the tank today is valu-
ble for Its protection against machine
un and rifle fire. Bursting shrapnel
makes no Impression on the tank and
takes a direct hit from a piece of
powerful artillery to dent the modern
Horse of Troy or put him out of busi
es.
As th tractor has come more and
mora Into general use In the Army the
horse hss been dethroned, and it would
not seem Improbable that the time
would come when even the famous old
rmy mule would be displaced by the
gasoline motor. Experiments con-
One Farm Tractor Can Do as Much Work as 20 Horses and Is, Therefore, a Boon to Civilization Owing to Scarcity of Man Power and Unprecedented Demands for Food,
ducted In our West several years ago
brought th tractor Into use for heavy
hauling even before Great Britain had
taken hold of the American farm
tractor and transformed it into a
modern battle tank. Today the tractor
Is as essential as the big gun. for the
big gun could not be moved at will on
the battlefield except for the cater
pillar tractor unless hundreds of horses
or mules were employed.
Eater the "Taakleft
The "tanklet" Is being considered by
the War Department. Henry Ford, who
is building the "Eaglea" .or the Navy
Department, believes the two man tank
suggested by ordnance experts is every
bit as feasible as the new anti-submarine
device named the "Eagle" by
order of Secretary Daniels. Two men
would fit into one of the "tanklets"
and Ford would put them on the bat
tlefields of France by the thousand.
Each of the large tanks is held by
he British to be the equivalent of 00
fighting men. Ford holds the "tank
let" would be equivalent to 150 men at
least. They would be produced at the
rate of 1000 or 2000 a day. and once
production was under way 90,000 could
be turned out In three months. They
could be distributed along the battle
front, he maintains, 18 feet apart. In
each tank two men, shielded by amor-
plat with a machine gun, would have
the offensive power of 0 soldiers with
rifles.
Tanks Here to Stay.
Regardless of the fate of th "baby'
tank. It la certain that the mammoth
tank in use now in the titanic struggle
In France Is destined to remain a per
manent fixture In the implements of
warfare and to be enlarged and car
ried forward to greater things. The
estlny of the tank was settled at
Cambral. when a great fleet of British
anks smashed their way through the
famous Hindenburg line In what was
p to that time the greatest surprise
ttack of the war on land. It is re
corded that In two days the British
accomplished more than they had in
two months of the Somme offensive.
In those two days they advanced more
than six miles on a front eight miles
lde, and were partly instrumental In
the capture of 10,000 prisoners and 150
guns. In the recent fighting the per
formance of the tank has even mora
startled the world.
Just as Germany "stole" the sub
marine Idea from this Nation and per
fected it as the most ruthless weapon
of all wars, so she "stole" the tank
from the British soon after its ap
pearance on the western battlefields of
Europe. The surprise of the "Tom
mies' at the initial appearance of the
tank, when they went laughing Into
battle behind lta cumbersome propor
tions, expecting the way to Berlin to
be "ironed out before them, was no
mora genuine than the Germans when
they first beheld the huge steel ele
phantine monster crawling upon them.
And when In the course of events some
of the monsters fell into the hands of
the Germans It did not take Frits long
to copy them and Start building them
Krupps and elsewhere beyond the
Rhine. The result was that in the re
cent fighting U has been b case of
tank against tank, both aides being. here In the United States and the Do-
equipped for Armageddon, with the minion of Canada, where the food sup
latest of war monsters.
The tank Is only getting under way
as an instrument of warfare. Certain
It Is that as the war continues the
tank Is to be developed on a marvel
ous scale. Who will deny that it is
only a step from the dreadnought tank
that now disports upon the mottled
landscape of France to the terrific
grinding machine rending its way
through cities, crushing huge build
ings like eggshells, the awesome ma
chine depicted on the covers of the
popular science magasines and in the
books of the novelists? If modern ar
tillery has been perfected so that It
shoots 80 or 90 miles; If the battleship
of the Spanish-American War period
is but a gunboat alongside the super
dreadnought of the world war; if the
torpedo that Farragut "cussed" at Mo
bile is but a percussion cap alongside
the depth bomb of today, then may
not the tank of 1918 grow into the
great steel dragon menacing whole
cities In a few more years?
In bright contrast to the tractor as
an implement of war is the tractor as
an Instrument of peace. The food
tractor today Js even more powerful
than the tank of the battlefield, for
plies of the allied nations are being
produced, the food tractor la a god
send In a time of farm labor scarcity.
England showed the way and now the
civilised world is following suit. Last
year more than 6000 huge food tractors
were worked 24 hours by sunlight and
electric light producing foodstuffs for
the United Kingdom. Standing orders
here for foreign shipments are greater
than can be accommodated because of
th scarcity of shipping. Canada buys
25 a day In the United States, and
would take more if she could get them.
In the United States there are approx
imately 250,000 gasoline tractors In use
this Spring, with all the tractor fac
tories working day and night on rush
orders. One company is manufacturing
100.000 food tractors on one order.
Great as was the invention of Cyrus
McCormick's harvester and Eli Whit
ney's cotton gin, the farm tractor is
destined to go down in history as one
of the most valuable contributions to
the science of agriculture. Probably
no other scientific offering of the last
century has offered more toward the
hoDe of developing our natural re
source on a comprehensive scale.
The tractor now is hauling out the
THE HOUSEBOAT ON THE STYX
(Continued From First Page.)
William?" asked Napoleon. "Trying to
stampede Anne Hathaway into starting
something?"
"That is not mistletoe," reiorieu
ShakesDeare. "That is laurel."
"O. indeed!" said Napoleon. "Latest
thing in Spring bonnets up your way,
I presume?"
"Not at all." said Shakespeare coldly.
"I always wear the laurel as a matter
of right on my birthday.'
"O I see." said Napoleon. "The far
famed spinach of Parnassus, eh? Fine!
If vou nut a little mayonnaise on it
it'll be mora dressy. Bill."
"So today Is your birthday, t it.
William?" said Homer. "Well, well.
well! What a. big boy you are getting
to be!"
"Must have reached his second child
hood," said Aeschylus. -
"I am 301 years old today," said
ShakesDeare. with frigid dignity, "as
you might have known for yourselves
if you had ever read about anybody
but yourselves in the latest edition of
Who's Who in Baaes v
"Congratulations, William, congratu
lations." said Homer. "We had forgot
ten. Nepenthe had us In her grip; but
we stand ready to make amends. Gen
tlemen," he added, rising and address
ing the large group of those present.
today is the natal day or our Kara oi
Avon, the dulcet voiced swan or btrat
ford. the sweet singer of soft suspira
tions that stir the soul and make the
pulses throb like a gibbering Jitney on
an unscaleable slope."
"Three cheers for the spark-plug of
letters!" cried Raleigh. "May his tire
never deflate!"
Shakespeare bowed In acknowledg
ment of the tribute. -
'11 eeuu to me, gentlemen,- con
tinued Homer, "that today being the
anniversary already alluded to, this
club will honor itself by doing honor
to the greatest dramatist of all time."
Shakespeare lif ted his hand in depre
cating assent.
"I repeat," said Homer, "that our
brother's connection with the stage
makes it fitting that we should drain
a cup to the health of that master of
bis craft, of that rare spirit who has
touched nothing that he did not adorn,
of that great genius whose wit has the
keenness of the razor, and the tem
pered flexibility of the. Damascus blade,
whose knowledge of human weakness
withal "
"Aren't you piling It on rather thick.
Homer?" whispered Herodotus.
"Just wait don't interrupt," said
Homer, sotto voce. "In short, gentle
men," he added aloud, raising his glass,
"I give you the greatest dramatist of
all time " --
Homer paused, possibly for dramatic
effect, and then turning to the blush
ing Shakespeare, he finishing In ring
ing tones:
"That greatest dramatist of all time,
whose name I doubt not has already
suggested Itself to ypu Mr. George
Bernard Shaw!"
There was a roar, a rush, a sound of
tinkling glass, and a splash. Shakes
peare had dived through the window
into the river, making the black waters
of the Styx fairly boil as he swam
madly up the channel.
"Hi Bill," cried Homer, leaning over
the rail, and calling to the puffing
poet. "You've left your life preserver
behind you!"
And he tossed the laurel wreath.
which in Shakespeare's angry flight
had fallen to the floor, into the seeth
ing wake of the hero of the day. i
big lumber resources of the West.
One has only to consider the fact that
one tractor is capable of performing
the work of as many as 20 horses
or more to realize the importance of
this adjunct to farming and forestry. -With
the tractor it is likely this Na
tlon will turn to agricultural pursuits
upon a hitherto unattempted scale.
At one move the problem of farm
labor seems greatly relieved, in view
of the fact that one tractor is capable
or doing as much work as half i
dozen men. The "back to the farm'
propaganda is likely to be benefited
in that the tractor abrogates much of
the toilsome drudgery of farm life and
makes the business of producing food
more attractive for the lad who is not
at all averse to tinkering with a gaso
line engine or driving an automobile
in the furrows. Automotive engineer
intr in the agricultural schools is very
apt to prove a fascinating proposition
for the American boy both in theory
and practice.
After the War.
In the affairs of the world, then, the
tractor occupies a unique position. So
long as the war lasts the tank is going
to be developed as a more powerful
death-dealing engine of destruction.
If the war goes forward to 1920 or
later we shall probably see land navies
of monster proportions indulging in
mortal hand-to-hand combats upon the
soil of Germany as the allies smash
their way to Berlin. Development of
the tank may bring about the elimina
tion of trench warfare altogether and.
land fighting may resolve itself into
the duels of these gigantic fleets of
tractor battleships freighted with
heavy ordnance and moving to battle
under a barrage of massive artillery
having a range of a hundred miles or
more. Wild dream? That's what they
sard when Jules Verne wrote of the
submarine and Alfred Tennyson of
the battles in the air and H. G. Wells
of the tanks. But here they are!
After the war, however, the tractor
will do more toward mending the fear
ful devastation of man than possibly
any other agency. Nations turning;
from their artillery and machine guns
will take up the latest evolutions of
science and use them to the repair of
all the horrible injury inflicted upon
mankind and upon Mother Earth.
Food production will be resumed upon
a more elaborate scale. In every na
tion there will be a great development
of natural resources. Italy has
learned that she must develop her
waterways in order not to be depend
ent upon foreign shipments of coal for
production of power. France and Eng
land will move along the same lines,
making themselves more resourceful
in the production of foods, fuel, lights
heat, etc. The future looms up in won
derful proportions the great futura
when man shall turn again from de
struction to construction! C. W. D. 'i
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Simple Way to
End Dandruff
There Is one sure way that has never
failed to remove dandruff at once, and
that la to dissolve It, then you destroy
it entirely. To do this, just get about
four ounces of plain, common liquid
arvon from any drug store (this Is all
you will need), apply It at night when
retiring; use enough to moisten the
scalp and rub It In gently with the fin
ger tips.
By morning most, if not all. of your
dandruff will be gone, and three or four
more applications will completely dis
solve and entirely destroy every single
sign and trace of it, no matter how
much dandruff you may have.
Tou will find all Itching and digging
of the scalp will ntop instantly, and
your hair will be fluffy, lustrous, glos
sy, silky and soft, and look and feel a
hundred times better. Adv.
TODAY'S BEAUTY HINT I
t
It Is not necessary to shampoo your
hair so frequently If It is entirely and
properly cleansed each time by the usgj
of a really good shampoo. The easiest
to use and quickest drying shampoOi
that we can recommend to our readers
is one that brings out all th natural
beauty of the hair and may be en
Joyed at very little, expense, by dis
solving a teaspoonful of Canthrox,
which can be obtained from any drug;
gist, in a cup of hot water. This makes
a full cup of shampoo liquid, enough
so it Is easy to apply it to all the hair
instead of Just to the top of the head.
This, when rubbed into the scalp and
onto every strand of hair, chemically
dissolves all impurities. It is very
soothing and cooling in Its action, aa
rwell as beneficial to both scalp and
hair. After rinsing out the lather
so created, you will find the scalp la
fresh, clean and free from dandruff.
while the hair dries quickly and evenly,
developing a bright luster and a soft
fluffiness that makes it seem very.
heavy. Adv. - ?