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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (July 4, 1920)
THE SUNDAY OREGOXIAN, PORTLAND, JULY 4, 1920 7, JOHN B, PAYNE, GENERAL SUPERINTENDENT OF THE U. S. Developing the Vast Untouched Resources of the Nation and Bringing Those Now Contributing to Our Wealth to a Higher Degree of Efficiency Is This Man's Job BY RENE BACTTE. OBBLE. gobble!" A flock of I -y turkeys coming along the road, 300 strong. Behind them a young white man, a Virginia negro and a small boy, helping to drive the birds. The small boy, 12 years old, "was John Barton Payne, who, now a man of 55, has become the secretary of the interior in President Wilson's cabinet. The day he herded turkeys was the occasion of his first visit to Washing ton, and the few dollars he earned by driving those turkeys all the way from the village of Orleans, Va., were spent for a shotgun, possession of which was his earliest ambition. The young man whom he accompanied on the drive was his school teacher, and the turkeys were the property of an Orleans merchant. But the first money ever earned by the boy was gained by chickens. His father was the village doctor and in cidentally a farmer. He gave to little John, when the latter was 10 years old, a rooster and two pullets with which to start a flock of his own. The youngster had a separate chicken house of his own and sold to the local merchant his eggs and broilers. John was one of a big family; he bad four brothers and five sisters. When his school days at Orleans were over he studied law and later prac ticed that profession in Chicago, where he became judge of the superior court. During the late war he was general counsel to the United States shipping board and the railroad administration. He became chairman of the shipping board nearly a year ago and held that job until appointed secretary of the Interior. Judge Payne has brought Into the cabinet a new and very breezy element. Lacking the whiskers, he is otherwise a reminder of "Uncle Jerry" Rusk, erstwhile secretary of agriculture, full to the brim with the same sort of dry humor and a chronic rebel against conventions. He calls a spade a spade, and about him there is no "dog." Ordinarily the sanctum of a mem ber of the cabinet is rigorously guarded against intruders, and to obtain admission to the presence is difficult. He sits in private, like a brooding Buddha, while his anteroom presents a melancholy scene, the "waits" being usually content to obtain, each in his turn, a word with his private secretary. With the new secretary of the ln ' terior it Is different. The door of his private office is wide open all the time. Anybody can walk right in. Oroups of people go in and out, gathering about his desk while he talks to them. He says that he can do business much quicker that way. A couple of days after he was in ducted into his new office the judge happened to notice a couple of negro messengers in the ball outside his anteroom. "What do you do?" he asked. "Us, suh?" replied one of the startled negroes, stammering. "We is here for emergencies, suh." "There aren't any emergencies around here," said the secretary. "Go to Mr. Harvey, my private secretary, and tell him to. get you some work to do." One day a high official of the de partment, speaking of an expected visitor who had made an appointment by phone, said to the judge. "I don't think you want to see that man. He Is a crook." "Crook, eh?" was the reply. "I don't give a damn. If he's the crookedest crook this side of Hades he can see me." When lie gathers his chief men to gether for a conference he does not attempt to dominate, but tries to get at the real views of each one. "What do you think about this?" he will say Recently much consideration has had to be given to the land-leasing law, which governs coal lands, oil lands, etc., on the public domain, mostly in the west. He has asked the governors of the states to pick out representa tive men acquainted with these mat ters and send them to Washington to talk to him and thresh the business out. Practical working regulations are needed. The west hitherto has thought itself regulated to death; it is suspicious of federal interference. Judge Payne deals frankly with the western men. He says to them. "What is fair? Let us find out and do that." A phrase that often passes his lips Is. "Let's get this thing done, let's get it working!" When a decision is wanted, he gives It quickly. Says he: "It's a damn eight better to decide wrong than not" to decide at all." These few sketchy remarks will give a notion of the kind of man the new secretary of the interior is. To talk to him is a joy. "I'm rather worried about Alaska," he said the other day. Can you blame me? Its population is hardly more . than half what It was five years ago. The war drew the people out of .Alaska, and they are not going back in any such numbers as they ought. "I've been pounding away at the problem. Soon after I came in here, I appointed a commission, with co operation of the postoffice depart ment, the department of agriculture and the shipping board, to study con ditions. They've been out in Seattle. One thing I've suggested Is that it may be advisable to establish a direct lino of steamers running btween Seattle and Seward, Alaska. Th way chips now go, tha distance Is 3200 miles, but a straight trip would be only 1400 mires. "We want to encourage people to go to Alaska, and to stay there. It's a great country. The railroad the government is building ought to do a ' lot to open it up and encourage set tlement. It is already built and in operation for 255 miles running due north from Seward. Then there is break, unfinished, for 90 miles, and following that a completed stretch of about 150 miles to Fairbanks, on the Tanana river, which is a tributary of the Yukon. "There is supposed to Te a great deal of oil in Alaska, but that is not a matter of certainty as yet. We do Itnow that the territory has immense resources of coal, and we are startin to get it out. The Matanuska fields, in South-Central Alaska, offer 48 square miles of possible coal, bitu minous; but the formation is irregu small power, for cooking, for heating and other purposes. "The work of this department in watering and thereby reclaiming des ert lands in the west is going right ahead, and a new scheme is being successfully operated, by which the irrigating jobs are paid for without taking money out of the treasury. The settlers raise the money for them selves, forming irrigation districts un der the laws of the state in which those districts are located, and is suing bonds. "A question in this line came tip the other day that had a strong hu man touch. In Arizona, not far from the Salt river irrigated area the place- you know, where the Roosevelt 1 1 ;Xv 1 KB HI i!!!Kili Msrlc8- III Ml I r-j'B litiV1--? J -- Z IT1 S ' t.ixt t -Li v ? 8 S R5 o4 S wvw "AST J4 Some of Mr Parne'i proposed developmenta. On the rant an rlrHrio lines fed by coal and water and at tne wit ateaniahlp line to Alanka. THE DEPAJRTMEHiT OF" THE INTERIOR BUILDING, WASHINGTON, D, lar, the beds covered by gravels and exposed only on stream-banks, so that no estimate can be ventured of the quantity available. "For an investigation of this scheme and the development of the plan, con gress has given the interior depart ment $125,000. It contemplates avast "Much the samo description applies to the Bering fields, near the coast and east of the mouth of Copper river. They can be reached by constructing a branch from the existing Copper river railroad, which was built to de velop very important copper deposits near tne neaawaiers oi mac stream. "We are starting in to develop the Matanuska fields for the navy. Up to now the coal needed for our war- hips on the Pacific coast has been carried across the continent by rail. but before long an adequate supply will be obtained from Alaska. Speaking of fuel, one of the most interesting of new projects relating our national development is what is called the 'super-power plan," which contemplates the combining of power plants at coal mines and on rivers into one great system for economy in power production on a vastly aug mented scale. Under this plan the whole region from Portland, Me, to Washington. D. C. will become a ingle electrical area. "The scheme is to interconnect the electric power systems of this great region and put them within reach of the cheapest - sources of steam and water power; this to be accompa nied by a general electrification of the railroads. Existing power com panies and railroads already electri fied will form a nucleus for the con templated system. Coal, for the pro duction of power, will be burned as near the mines as possible, and water powers will be developed whenever this can be done to advantage. A fundamental object is to save coal, and to relieve the railroads of the burden of hauling coal for their own use and for power purposes this haulage being over one-third of their total traffic. It is suggested that there shall be a main 250,000-volt line extending all the way from Washington to Boston, fed by "tap lines' from a group of large power stations at the nearest soft coal fields and from another group at the hard coal fields, supple mented by auxiliary water powers de veloped on the Delaware and Susque hanna rivers. The tap line from the soft coal fields to the main line at Philadelphia will be 150 miles long, and a second tap line of about the same length will connect New York with the hard coal fields. Possibly a third tap line might brin electricity 250 miles from Cedar Rapids, on the St. Lawrence river, to the point where the main line crosses Jho Hudson. "The great "base load' of the super power system will be carried by large steam and hydi o-electric plants. Groups of small eteam powers, or water powers, will be connected with the nearest distributing systems, and not with the main, 250,000-volt line. extension of the utilization of elec tricity, and the application of it wherever economically possible in factories and on the railroads. The rail cargo will be cut one-half, and thereby rail capacity will be auto matically increased without increase of track mileage. To substitute elec tricity for steam in locomotives with in the area covered by the proposed system will, it is reckoned, cave 14, 000,000 tons of coal annually. Add to this 24,000,000 tons caved in run-1 ning industrial plants by operating them from high-efficiency control stations, and you have a total of 38, 000,000 tons, which, at $5 a ton, rep resents J190.000.000. "The extent to which electricity is now used for minor purposes is far beyond what is generally realised. Only the other day one of the large electrical companies closed an order for 1,000,000 motors for electric wash ers. The electric range, the toaster, the fan, the curling iron, and all the little, implements depending on the "Juice" consume a great aggregate of electricity. The amount of power used by a one-kilowatt washer in an hour would move a 40-ton freight car a half mile. "If the contemplated super-power system accomplishes what is expected of It, its relative economy will make electricity much cheaper; and, as the cost of it is reduced, it will find much more employment in the home, for dam Is located there are 95,000 acres that could be watered by the devel opment of another river, the Verde, supplemented by three minor streams. Some folks have got together for this purpose, and have built two dams on the Verde, to impound water for what they propose to call the Paradise project. "Well, the Salt river people don't approve of the scheme at all. The don't want the Paradise project de veloped, because there might com a time when they would want to use the water of the Verde river them selves. There might be a long drought, and the water would come in handy, Meanwhile they are satisfied to al low it to run to waste. "When they presented their case to me I said to them, 'I think you are like the fellow at the wedding. Whe the preacher inquired in the usual way if anybody knev.- oi any reaso why the "ceremony should not be a complished. a little man rose up : the back of the church and .snouted. "I object!" Of course there was a sensation, and the little man was asked to step forward and explain. "On what ground do you object?" de manded the preacher. And the little man replied, "Because I want the girl myself." "" 1 guess well let the Verde poopl do what they want." I said. Tf drought comes along It will be time enough then to tackle the problem.' "One of the most important things accomplished by this department within the last few years haa been the cutting down of the death rate among miners. I am told that prob ably 5000 lives have already been saved by the safety regulations wo have imposed, and particularly by the thorough training of miners, -under the direction of the bureau of mines, in first-aid and mine-rescue work. More than 100.000 miners have received this sort of training. In this Important business we- ars co-operating with the mining author ities of the states. There la plenty f work in the same line still to be one, as may be Judged from the trag- , , ic fact that even now more than 3000 miners are killed? annually in the United States. We are going right ahead with it, and the prospect is that we shall succeed in cutting the mining fatalities at least in half. "I wonder if y&rr know that tho United States patent office is hav ing a huge boom at the present time. It's a fact. More patents are being ssued than at any previous time in the history of the institution. The excess profits tax is doing It. Manu facturers all over the country hare discovered that they can spend money in developing new inventions without its costing them anything. They can charge it off in their accounts against Income as "expenses." Clever of them and tough on Uncle Sam; but it is likely to have a beneficial effect by developing our arts and industries. "Speaking of patents, the Indians who, as you know, are wards of this department are getting patents for land, wnereby they become citizens. Formerly lands were given to the tribes. Now poor Lo If he lives in Oklahoma he Is likely to be rich Lo. with oil wells on his property gets a title in fee simple and thereupon becomes a full-fledged voter. "I am also, as you know, temporary suzerain and lord high manager of the national parks, regarding which was called upon to make a de cision a few days ago. There was a project on foot to construct reser voirs and build power dams in the Yellowstone park. The senate passed bill that gave permission, and it was on the house list wnen Repre sentative Mondell of Wyoming, came to ask me for my approval. I said never in the world. So long as I was secretary I would oppose strenuously any encroachment by commercial en terprises upon the pleasure grounds of the people. "You can put anything you like into this interview, but you musn't bother me to correct it in the manu script. I haven't got the time. Tho principal difficulty about any sort of interview, by the way. Is to wind it up at the point where it ought to terminate. "Which reminds mt that a few years ago I was In the office of Sir Alfred Jones, active partner In con trol of a number of steamship lines running between London and the West Indies. He had to see a great many people, and his well-known practice was, when he desired an interview to end, to rise from his seat and hand to the visitor a banana. He always had a few bananas on his desk. When he handed me a banana I knew it was time to get out. Un fortunately. I have no bananas. "Must you go? Delighted to hav seen you. Good-by!" VICTORY AT SEA OF AMERICA AND ALLIES IS GRAPHICALLY SET FORTH BY EXPERT Admiral William Sowden Sims Continues Account of Fleet Operations and Tells of German U-Boats Operating in American Waters. (Continued From Page 3.) convoy were protected in the sub marine danger zone in European waters. This is a fact which even many naval men did not seem to grasp. Yet I have already explained that we knew practically where every German submarine was at a given time. We knew whenever one left a German port; and we kept track of it day by day until it returned home. No U-boat ever made a voyage across the Atlantic without our knowledge. The submarine was a slow traveler, and required a minimum of 30 days for such a trip; normally the time would be much longer, for a submarine on this long voyage seldom cruised at more than five knots an hour. Our destroyers and anti-submarine craft were much faster, and could easily cross the Atlantic in ten days. It is therefore apparent that a flotilla of destroyers stationed in European waters could protct the American coast from submarines almost as suc cessfully as if it were stationed at Hampton Roads or Newport. Such a flotilla would be of no use at these American stations unless there were submarines attacking shipping off the coast; but as soon as the German started for America a detail of which, as I shall explain, we always were in fact informed we could send our destroyers after them. These agile vessels would reach home waters about three weeks before tho sub marines arrived; they would thus have plenty of time to refit and to welcome the uninvited guests. From any conceivable point of view, there fore, there was no excuse for keep ing destroyers in the eastern Atlantic for "home defense." Moreover, the fact that we could keep this close track of submarines in itself formed a great protection against them. have already explained how we routed convoys entering British waters in such ways that they could sail around the U-boat and thus escape csntact. I think that this slmpla procedure saved more shipping than any other method. In the same way we could keep these vessels sailing from Amer ican ports outside of the area in which the submarines were known to be operating in our own waters. Yet the enemy cent, no submarines stand, for that was just the period when a campaign of this kind .might have served their purpose. During this time, however, we had repeated Indications that the Germans did not take the American entrance into the war very seriously; moreover, look ing forward to conditions, after the peace, they perhaps hoped that they might soon be able to establish once again friendly relations. In 1917 they therefore refrained from any acts which might arouse popular hatred against them. We had more than one indication of this attitude. Early in the summer of 1917 we obtained from to our coast in 1917; why they did not do so may seem difficult to under one of the captured German sub marines a set of orders Issued to it by the German admiralty staff. Among these was one dated May 8, 1917, in which the submarine com manders were informed ' that Ger many had not declared war upon the United States, and that, until further Instructions were received, the sub- arines were to continue to look upon America and American shipping as neutral. The submarine com manders were especially warned against attacking or committing any overt act against such American war vessels as might he encountered in European waters. The orders ex plained that no official confirmation had been received by the German gov ernment of the news which had been published in the press that America had declared war, and that, there fore, the Germans officially were ignoring our belligerence. From their own standpoint such a policy of en deavoring not to offend America, even after she became a belligerent, may have seemed politically wise: from a military point or view, their failure to attempt the submarine demonstra tion off our coast in 1917 was a great mistake; for when they finally start ed warfare on our coast, the United States was deeply Involved in hostill ties, and had already begun the trans portation of the great army which produced such decisive results on the western front. The time had passed as experience soon showed when any mere demonstration on our coast would disturb the calm of the Araer ican people or affect their will to victory. Ia late April, 1918, 1 learned through secret service enannels that one of the large submarines of the Deutsch land class had left its German base on the 19th of April for a long cruise. On the first of May, 1918, I therefore cabled to the department that there were Indications that this submarine was bound for our own coast. A few days afterward I received more spe cific information, through the inter ception of radio dispatches between the submarine and its German -base; and therefore I cabled the depart ment, this time Informing them that the submarine was the U-151. that it was now well on Its way across the Atlantic, and that it could be expected to begin operations off the American coast any. time after May 20. I gave complete description of the vessel and the probable nature of her cruise and her essential military character istics. She carried a supply of mines and I therefore Invited the attention of the department to the fact that the favorite areas for laying mines were those places where the ships stopped to pick up pilots. Since at Delaware bay pilots for large ships' were taken on Just south of the Five Fathom Bank light. I suggested that it was, not unlikely that the U-161 would attempt to lay mines in that vicinity. Now the fact is that we obtained this piece of Information from the radio we had intercepted; as there was a good chance that our own cable might fall into German hands we did not care to give the news in the precise form in which we had received it, as we did not in tend that they should know that, he had means of keeping so accurately Informed. . As had been predicted, the U-151 proceeded directly to the vicin ity of this- Five Fathom Bank off Delaware bay, laid her mines and then, cruising north up the coast, be gan her demonstration on the 25th of May by sinking two small wooden schooners. On July 29th I informed Washing ton that another U-boat was then coming down the west coast of Ire land, bound for the United States, and that it would arrive some time after July 15. Complete reports of this vessel were sent from day to day, as it made its slow progress across the ocean. On July 6 I cabled that still another U-boat had started for our coast; and that the progress of this adventurer, with all details as to its character and probable area of opera tions, were also forwarded regularly. From the end of May until October there was nearly always one subma rine operating off our coast. The largest number active at any one time was in August, when for a week or ten days three were more or less active in attacking coastwise vessels. These three performed all the way from Cape Hatteras to Newfoundland, attempting by these tactics to create the impression that dozens of hostile U-boats were preying upon our com- erce and threatening our shores. These submarines, however, attacked almost exclusively sailing vessels and small coastwise steamers, rarely if ever using torpedoes. A number of mines were laid at different points off our ports on what the Germans believed to be the traffic routes; but the information which we had con cerning them made it possible to counter successfully their efforts and. from a military point of view, the whole of the submarine operations off our coast can be dismissed as one of the minor incidents of the war, as the secretary of the navy described it in his annual report. The five subma rines sunk in all approximately 110, 000 tons of shipping but the vessels were, for the most part, small and of no great military importance. The only real victory was the destruction of the cruiser San Diego, which was sunk by a mine which had been laid by the U-156 off Fire Island. Copyright. 1920. by the World's Work. The copyright of these articles in Great Britain is strictly reserved by Pearson's Magazine, London; without their permis slon no quotation may be made. Published by special arrangement with the McClure Newspaper Syndicate. Another article next Wednesday. Judge Mates Personal Inquiry. Pittsburg Chronicle-Telegraph. When the prisoner had been duly fined for cruelty to the wife of his bosom, he was asked to go to the magistrate's private room. There he found that great man waiting. "Look here," eald the latter, "your wife in her evidence Just now said you had her completely terrorized." "She did sir," agreed the man "but '" "'Now, look here. I am not speak ing to you as in my official capacity. but as man to man. You understand?" "Yes, sir!" "Well, how did you do it?" Landru, French Bluebeard, Despairs of Race. Man Arcnne of Mnrderlner Eleven Womrn Ahorkrd . W hen Told House Robbed by Burglars. )ARIS. July 3. Landru. the Gam bais bluebeard. as the police call him., who has been in La Sante prison for 14 months awaiting trial on mur der charges prrowing out of the dis appearance of 11 women to whom he is alleged to have promised marriage. received what he told his lawyer to be the" greatest shock of his lifs a few days ago. His lawyer had just informed him that his villa at Gambais. There Lan dru is accused by the police of having done away with his numerous fian cees, had been ransacked and pillaged by burglars. The villa is famous, as it was the last place that the missing women entered and from it they were never seen to come out. The police charge that Landru mur dered his victims in the villa, dis posing of the bodies by cremating them in a little kitchen stove. Human bones, hair and little trinkets belong ing to the missing women were also found in the villa, the police say. "What a world we live in," ex claimed Landru when his lawyer broke the news to him. "Our generation re spects nothing, nothing is sacred to them. It is enough to make one de spair of the human race." Radio Stations In Patagonia. BUENOS AIRES. Radiographic service in Argentina is soon to bs augmented and devoted to commer cial uses, it is announced. The in stallations at present in use are em ployed mostly for government dis patches. Radio stations are to be set up at the Patagonian ports of Gayman, Rawson and Puerto Gal legos and one at Buenos Aires. It le intended-later to supplement them with others at Corrientes. Ba.hia Blanca, Comodoro, Rivadavla and Ushuaia. Stations already existing will be increased In power. Railway Develops Stines. CALGARY, Alberta. Drumheller coal operators claim that they can supply all the coal that Manitoba and Ontario need, especially when tho Canadian Pacific railways gets its new line to that territory completed this year. The daily output now is 2000 tons, which is above the aver age for this season. 4