Evening Star Newspaper, March 9, 1930, Page 38

© of the world 3 (Continued From Third Page.) ‘warring nations of Europe needed not only every ship their subjects owned; they bought, requisitioned, interned or confiscated every ship, of whatever own- ership, they could find. In 1916 our own position was thus described by Wil- liam Brown Meloney, in “The Heritage of Tyre’—and it was a description of reality, of a then existing condition: “We 0 other nations across the oceans by permission of their several lines of communication, not our own. in a few inconsequential in- stances our mails move by alien will and the grace of alien flags. By sea our commerce is paralyzed, a spurned beggar of ships; by land, a fettered and em- trafficker. The United States is & vassal on the seas, where only six | and fifty years ago she was an enthroned and peerless monarch. the ships are “Americanized.” All offi- cers upon an American vessel must be citizens of the United States, and st least 50 per cent of the crew. In three years two-thirds of the crew must be American_citizens. The law provides that the ships may be taken by our Gov- ernment in an emergency without en- hancement in price on account of the emergency or any consequential dam- ages. The life of a ship, like that of any other plece of machinery, is compara- tively short. New types of engines are developed, new hatchway constructions are evolved to expedite loading and un- loading. New standards of speed in ocean transportation are being estab- lished. Old ships—and by “old” is meant ships built 10 or 15 vears ago— must be replaced or remodeled. Foreign Nations Build. “In this year of 1016 the United | Btates, without a merchant marine, | bereft of ships, is more than half the | alave that she was in 1861. What boots it that labor is free if the products of #ts industry and enterprise are denied thelr markets? | ‘Warehouses Glutted. | “Turn where one will and it is to be- | hold the evidence of this vassalage.| Leave any one of our glutted seaports, with plers and warehouses and freight terminals burdened beyond capacity by | an immovable commerce, and follow the | railroad lines into the interior ACross | the continent. Go North, go South, g0 East, go West, and there is not a mile | that has not a chapter to contribute to | the tale. All of the conceivable prod- uets of 100,000,000 people lie along those steel arteries arrested by embargoes. | What moves is what the warring nations | choose to buy and will receive from the | railroads at tidewater. All else must| abide its time or rot: for as Europe con- trols the world's deep-water tonnage, so our market is limited to her will. It matters not that there are other mar- | Kets in which we could sell and intrench | ourselves to the advantage of future trade and expansion. We haven't the | ships to reach them. Orchard Crops Rot. o “pyrn from the railroads and go into the orchards of the West and North- | west and it is to find the fruit of last season mattressing the earth against the shaking down of the worthless crops of the coming one. Harken for the sound of ax and saw in the lumber regions of Oregon and Washington and | California, and harken in vain. An| army of labor stands idle; its accumu- | lated product lies .shipless in gorged outports. Nor are there cars to move 8 cutting for domestic use. The Middle ‘West and the South are utilizing the rolling stock of our rails as granaries and warehouses, and New England's depleted forests. the conservations of 25 years, are being slaughtered to sup- ply the needs of the Eastern seaboard. Industry Paralyzed. “Turn from the field and plain and | erchard and forest to the manufactur- centers and it is to find the same vsis of industry, for industry lives impc-t as well as by export. Here a factory stands silent because it can- not get tin from England: there a silk doom lies manacled because it cannot obtain the raw product from China. As Britain controls her shipping, so does Japan control hers. Japan has but to #ay to her merchant marine, ‘Our ships will carry Japanese exports from De- cember to May and imports for Japanese consumption only from June to Novem- ber’ and that is sufficient. The rest of the world may whistle. What is true of those two nations is likewise true of all 5 And thus the American people | learned, by harsh experience, the need for an American merchant marine. ‘War Produces Change. During the war, with unprecedented vigor and on an unprecedented scale, ‘we fell to shipbuilding. We constructed not merely scores, not merely hundreds, but actually thousands of ships in the space of a few years. We spent not merely scores or hundreds of millions, but thousands of millions. Our total ship bill was more than $3,000,000,000. At one time the United States Shipping Board had under its jurisdiction 4.500 ships of more than 17,500,000 gross ‘Why, then, it may be asked. do we still have a ship problem? The answer is that after ships are bullt they must be maintained, improved, replaced and, profitably operated. The failure of our Government to recognize the truth of that simple statement of | fact through many decades explains our lack of a merchant marine up to the time of the World War. Organization Yet Lacking. After the war we had the ships— many more than we could use—but we lacked the organization to operate them successfully. The shipping business is a highly technical, highly competitive one. Political interference, govern- mental “red tape,” bureaucratic inertia, cannot conduct a business in successful competition with private initiative, alert, quick, progressive and intelligent. Congress Acts. And so, very wisely, Congress pro—l vided for the sale of its merchant fleet to private operators. But, with equal wisdom, it did not provide for imme- diate, hurried dispersal simply for the purpose of avolding further loss. In- stead, the policy was adopted of dis- | posing of the ships in such a war that | they would be continued in operation under the American flag, but in private ownership. ‘Then years ago Congress adopted | this declaration of policy, which was| reaffirmed in the merchant marine act | of 1928: “That it is necessary for the national | defense and for the proper growth of its foreign and domestic commerce, that| the United States shall have a merchant marine of the best equipped and most suitable types of vessels sufficient to carry the greater portion of its com- merce and serve as a naval or military suxiliary in time of war or national| emergency, ultimately to be owned and operated by private citizens of the United States.” I have said previously that it is not | mrgmm: that our people generally have | lacked understanding of what is being | done to maintain the American mer- chant marine. In the reorganization and adjustments that were necessary after the war, there were unfortunate disputes and conflicts of authority. The newspapers were filled with reports of “wars” within the Shipping Board and conflicts between Shipping Board, Mer- | chant Fleet Corporation and Emergency Fleet Corporation. There were charges of waste of funds, of heavy losses. Sel dom was the Fubl)c presented with clear picture of the essential and use- ful work that was going on despite con~ flicts of authority and opinion. Past Decade Shows Progress. Nevertheless, it can now be said that during the last decade substantial prog- ress has been made toward establishing & permanent American merchant ma- rine, The Government has disposed of several thousand ships. Many of them were destroyed, burned or torn apart, because they could not be profitably op~ erated by any one. Many have been sold to anne operators and are being regu- larly used to maintain essential trade routes between America and the re- mainder of the world. Leas than 600 ships still remain under the eontrol of the Shipping Board, and more than 300 of these are simply held in reserve for g:lblo emergencies of war or peace. cost to the Government of operation of its merchant fleet has, within a com- paratively few years, been reduced from more than $40,000,000 annually to less than $10,000,000. Operators Maintain Regular Service. In disposing of this vast‘fleet the !mm Board has required that buy- ers itely agree to maintain regular service from American ports to all parts own flag. Un- Meanwhile, other nations have built and are building millions of tons of new ships. The new operators of American vessels must meet the competition of Old World lines that have been estab- lished for scores or hundreds of years. The Old World lines have the benefit of aid from their governments in sub- sidles, in mail contracts, in loans for construction, in tariff preferences to goods shipped in their vessels. The great foreign steamship lines did not “just grow,” like Topsy. They were built up, year after year, with the aid of their national governments. Great Brit- ain for scores of years has aided her maritime operators. In 1903, for in- stance, she granted one British ship- ping line a fixed subsidy of $750,000 a year. When Germany challenged Great Britain by the construction of faster and larger transatlantic steamships, Great Britain loaned the Cunard co: pany $13,000,000 to builld the Maure- tania and the Lusitania at an interest rate of 2.75 per cent, repayable in 20 years. Congress Recognizes Needs. After many years of discussion the Congress of the United States finally recognized that if there ever was to be a permanent American merchant ma- rine worthy of the name, we would have to adopt the same measures of ald as those extended by other countries to their nationals. The problem was one that at last became apparent to the American farmer and American busi- ness man generally as their problem. By 1927 we were selling abroad more than one-sixth of the total products of American farms. Practically half of all the wheat which reached the market was going to foreign customers. The value of our exportable surplus for 1926 was almost $5,000,000,000. It was vital to America that this surplus should be sold and delivered abroad. Our total ocean freight bill was more than $750,000,000. Our farmers had seen ocean freight rates on wheat rise from approximately 8 cents a bushel in 1914 to 27 cents in 1915 and then soar to $1.36 a bushel. They had seen, years after the war, our ports congested with wheat and cotton for which foreign markets were clamor- ing, but for which there were no ves- sels available until our own Shipping Board reconditioned scores that had been lying at anchor unused. It wasthe availability then of American ships that gave a market for American farm prod- ucts, and the farmer at last became “ship-minded.” Foreign Market Increases. Our foreign market for manufactured had increased enormously also. Our sales abroad of finished manufac- tures in 1929 alone increased 12 per cent. Labor also came to realize its interest in adequate transportation to the markets of the world. As shown by William L. Cooper, director of the Bu- reau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce ; THE SUNDAY LI LR L LT EL PP T TEEY FEEE R TR PO PR R e L EE AL AL eyes agleam with hope. doubt. T e T T T Tt ] in this imperfect world.. rsarsEraTany several thousand dollars. tunate. At the age of 10, believe everything. (Continued From First Page) ors, Her five consorts raced forward, and with the German shells now burst- ing around or in them, with the smoke, roar and spray of the action, “we hardly noticed the ship had gone.” But Beatty swung outward to confuse the German fire and there was a lull in the action. Fifteen minutes later the range was closed once more and both lines opened fire again, Almost immediately there was another shocking disaster. ‘The Queen Mary was the third ship in Beatty’s line. Over five miles away Comdr. "Von Hase, in the control of the Department of Commerce, the cotton goods alone sold to foreign countries in 1929 represented the entire output of all mills in the-United States for 21 days, thus contributing directly to sustained employment of the men and women engaged in this industry. A foreign ship is never a salesman for American goods. But wherever the American ship goes, American trade ex- pands. Striki llust; abound. ing 1illustrations of this Annual Trade Increases. In 1914 we had five ships under th American flag in the lrulzpl.:etwem zh: United States and South America. Our total exports and imports then to the other America were $347,000,000. In :l?xlz: g‘xle;: wer: DID American ships in e, and it had n;lqgo.ooo.ooo annually. GO ere was not a single Ameri in regular operation !: MH: ct:lnl‘l‘:llp Our total trade with that whole conti- nent was only $47,000,000. In 1927 we had 19 American ships plying the trade routes to Africa, and our exports and %pg&"n had increased to over $200,~ In 1914 there was operate Pacific Coast to the P?:r.llgttmul: line of American steamers and our trade amounted to approximately $386,000,000. In 1927 there were 145 American ships engaged in trade to the Orient and our mflts and imports had risen to $1,800,~ The trade increases were not due solely, of course, to the expansion of American shipping facilities, but the latter undoubtedly were a contributing factor of large importance. Billions Spent in Acquiring Marine. We have spent billions to acquire and maintain a merchant marine. We have provided by law for a loan fund of $250,000,000 to construct American ves- sels for American foreign trade. We have not yet wrested commercial su- premacy of the sea from Great Britain, and probably we never shall, But we carried, in 1929, 40 per cent of American foreign commerce in American vessels. ‘We shall not achieve our objective until more than 50 per cent of our foreign trade is carried in our own vessels. To protect our commerce against exorbi- tant and discriminatory charges, to in- sure a market throughout the world for the products of our farms and fac- tories, to be prepared for the emergency of war among other natfons—all these call for an American merchant marine today, tomorrow and 50 years from now. Congress to Act. In the present session of Congress we shall take other needful steps to foster American shipping. Amendment of the ship-construction loan law is needed to provide the lowest possible rate of in- terest while ships are being built. One of the most important changes of law needed to insure the upbuilding and maintenance of our merchant marine under private ownership involves rea- sonable assurance of the awarding of necessary mail contracts to companies which take over routes formerly oper- ated by the Government, tower of the Derflinger, could see her clearly through the powerful glasses of instruments. “I again fixed the enemy gun turrets with my peri- scope and watched them carefully. I now saw that they were trained directly on us. . . . With each salvo of the enemy I was able to see distinctly four or five shells coming through the alr. They looked like elongated black :fiou Gradually they grew bigger and en—crash! they were here.” ‘The Queen Mary “straddled” the Derfllinger several times; only two of her shells, however, actually hit, while the Germans, favored by the light. were hitting repeatedly. Not 10 minutes after the firing had been resumed the Derfllinger put a whole salvo into her ponent—:o far away that she was “hardly visible to the naked eye.” “When the salvo fell,” says Von Hase, “heavy explosions had already begun in the Queen Mary. First of all, a vivid red flame shot up from her fore part. Then came an explosion forward which was followed by a much heavier explosion amidships; black debris of the ship flew into the air and immediately afterward the whole ship blew up with a terrific explosion.” Ship Opened Up by Blasts. Just astern of the Queen Mary was the Tiger. One of her officers saw that the Queen Mary was being hit, but she was still e?p"unuy undamaged when he notic two more shells land. “As they hit I saw a dull red glow amidships, and then the ship seemed to open out like a puff ball or one of those toadstood things when one squeezes it. Then there was another dull red glow somewhere forward and the whole ship seemed to collapse in- ward. The funnels and mast fell into the middle and the hull was blown outward. The roofs of the turrets were blown 100 feet high and then every- thing was smoke, and & bit of the stern was the only part of the ship left above water,” ~An enormous pillar of smoke arose—so Von Hase estimated it—to a height of 1,000 feet from the spot where she had been. ‘The Tiger and the New Zealand altered course to avold the wreckage and went on. ‘“Something seems to be the matter with our damn ships to- day,” was Beatty's only remark, as he ordered his four remaining vessels to close up. The frightful catastrophe, however, had not taken every one in the lost ship; the bit of stern still floating carried the aftermost turret. A gunner's mate stationed there could remember nothing unusual happening except the steady loading and firing of the guns, until the final moment: “Then came the big explosion, which shook us & bit, and on looking at the pressure gauge I saw the pressure had failed. Immediately after that came what I term the big smash, and I was dangling in the air on & bowline, which saved me from being thrown down on the floor of the turret. . Nos. 2 and 3 (sailors) of the left gun slipped down under the gun and the gun ap- peared to have fallen through its trun- nions and smashed up these two num- bers, Everything in the ship went as Another urgent need is for legislation to curb unfair competition with regu- larly established American lines by for- eign lines “skimming the cream” of ocean travel from our ports at certain seasons and leaving unprofitable busi- ness for our own vessels the remainder of the year. The establishment and maintenance of an adequate merchant marine in- volves & struggle, but from it will flow benefits of importance not only to our own generation, but to generations yet unborn, . Wirelessed Calls For Taxi to Be Tried Experiments have been carried out in land for some time with devices for calling taxicabs by wireless. Trials with the latest type of apparatus have given satisfactory results and the device will | be_put in operation soon. Wireless will be used when the taxi- cab is ordered by telephone from a cab station or other depot. The driver re- ceives the instructions on a tiny twitch- board fitted at his side. He can turn off the switch when not plying for hire. &e only of apparatus visible to under our der the present law even the crews of | roof pul & frame aerial fitted on the of cab. quiet as a church, the floor of the turret was bulged up, the guns were absolutely useless. I must mention here that there was not & sign of excitement.” . . . Escape Just in Time. Looking out, they found that the rest of the ship was & wreck, and orders were given to abandon the turret. Some men came up from the working chamber be- low, but those farther down in the m es were gone already, as the water had come up the trunk on the heels of the survivors and “the bottom of the ship must have been out of her.” As the remnant of the turret crew got on deck the stern fragment began to capsize; they clambered up, ran over the bottom as it turned, scrambled over the bilge keel and dropped into the water, A moment later there was a final ex- plosion and the stern sank. ‘The nature of what had happened was indicated by the experience of Beatty’s flagship, the Lion. Not long after the action had begun an 1l-inch shell landed upon the roof of her mid- ship turret, penetrated and burst inside, killing or wounding every man in the gun house. It also started smouldering fires in the rubbish, clothing fragments and 50 on with which it had strewn the turret, and by a peculiar accident it i n the breech g@f one of the STAR, WASHINGTO: Y 10-year-old nephew took $6 of his hard- earned money and sent it to some gentle- man who advertised he might win $4,500. For the first few days after he had m-ile.d his letter my nephew waited eagerly for the postman, his Slowly the hope faded into It was a painful process to witness. The snake of skepticism was creeping into the garden of his faith, and nothing could be done to protect him. When, at length, he knew that he would never have any word from those deceiving gentlemen, that his $6 was gone forever, I talked to him about the ways of men I told him about a certain powerful publisher. When he was a young reporter he was hired by a real estate company to write a booklet. So convinced was he by his own arguments that he took all his own savings and invested them in the proposition. He lost I pointed out to my nephew that he himself was for- and with a tuition fee of only $6, he had learned the important lesson that one may not D. “This loss should make you cautious,’ I said. “But not too cautious. You must keep on believing. “Consider this great publ spoken. What has made his millions? The same pas- sionate belief which led him to lose thousands in that e proposition. Only most of his be- lieving has been in sound enterprises, in honest men. “And there are more honest men than crooks,” I said. “More good businesses than bad businesses. More years of prosperity than of panic; more reward for faith than unsound real es for doubt.” Mirabeau, watching the face of the young Robe- spierre, exclaimed: “That young man will travel far; he believes every word he says.” O, MARCH 9, 1930—PART TWO. her of whom I have BYNEREEREINIIIIINSENEN ERERRIEITERRIRIARE J. P. Morgan said that he often loaned money with- out collateral, relying on his faith in the borrowers. When he died there were several million dollars of worthless stocks in his box, testifying that he had some- times believed too much. But there were many times several millions of good stocks to prove that his faith had been much more often justified than not. It costs something to belong to the believers. But the rewards are the big successes, the big fortunes and the big fun. Copyright. 1030. cordite charge in this gun fell out upon | flame, the floor. Fortunately the commander | everything seems of the turret, mortally wounded and still stunned by the shell burst, retained just enough presence of mind to call down the voice tubes to the men below, or- dering them to close the magazine doors and flood the magazines. ‘This they did, and by this action alone were the ship, her crew and the ad- miral saved. A moment later the cordite charge took fire; the whole turret was converted instantaneously into a vast Roman candle; from its top a great sheet of flame sprang up above the Lion’s mastheads, while the flash, . g downward into the working ¢ bers and handling rooms, in a moment wiped out every one of the 60 or 70 men comprising the turret crew. Save for the closing of the doors the ship would have blown up. Beatty Forced to Flee. Just after the disappearance of the Queen Mary, Beatty learned for the first time of the approach of the German high seas fleet, and a few minutes later actually made out the ominous forms of Von Scheer's battleships com- ing up from the south. The British ad- miral promptly swung round and raced back northward for the protection of his own grand fleet: Von Hipper's battle cruisers turned likewise, conforming to the movement, so that the whole battle was simply revarsed. ‘The Germans so far had suffered, but much less severely. It was the one fatal and unsuspected weakness of the British ships that their magazines were not protected against ammunition fires in the shell hoists. Their opponents, who had realized the danger after the Dog- ger Bank action, had taken precautions against it, and although several of their ships were hit in the same way as the British, and great ammunition fires de- stroyed en masse numbers of their tur- ret crews, the ships were not lost. Ammunition fires were not the only chance. An officer in the engine room of the Tiger described the narrow es- cape of that vessel: “A heavy thud, followed by a deafen- ing report immediately overhead, inti- mated that a heavy shell had penetrated the side armor and had burst inboard. The base of the shell * * * penetrated the upper deck and the armored deck and punched a neat hole in the steel bracket supporting the main steam pipe. TS B the pase struck the pipe * * * the whole en- gine-room staff would have been wiped out.” They would have been instantly suffocated in the live steam; the ship would have been halted, and in the time necessary to shut off the steam, put in a new engine room crew and start up again she would undoubtedly have been destroyed. As it was, there was a bad cordite fire fed by the 6-inch ammunition on the decks above. “To add to the difficulties water from the severed mains poured through the damaged decks overhead, over the separators and over the main steam pipes on to the platform, so that the men stationed there were subjected as the ship rolled to alternate cascades of cold and semi-bolling water * ¢ ¢ T:fi roar of heavy guns continued the while.” Ship Saved by Hair's Breadth. A hair's-breadth chance had saved the Tiger; in all these expensive, com- plex and powerful floating fortresses it seemed to be & mere throw of the dice whether they kert on in the fight or vanished suddenly in the North Sea. ‘The British were to suffer still another disaster when, later in the action, the battle cruiser Invincible abruptly blew ggl and sank like her two consorts. eir battleships, more heavily armored and less severely hit, escaped. But chance must have helped. ‘The fifth battle squadron—four new and fast battleships armed with 15-inch guns—was acting in sup rt of Beatty. Some 5 or 6 miles behind him when the action opened, they had been too far away to do much during the first phase, but as he came rushing back they passed him, then turned and, fol- lowing in his wake, they now received the fire from Von Hipper's battle cruisers and the leading German battle- ships. Their experience is interesting, because these four ship are still impor- tant units in Great Britain's “treaty navy.” A midshipman on the after bridge of the Malaya saw a shell land on the roof of the 15 'h turret just below. It failed to penetrate, but the roof “had er like & badly made saucer, see-sawing on the top of the turret.” The guns, however, were not put out of of the projectile | g Modern Navies of Various Nations stink, impenetrable dust and fall everywhere with an appalling noise. But by far the greater number, in both fleets, perished in the ammunition fires that were always breaking out and flaring through the ships. The British were now {;mn. the advantage of the light, as the set sun dazzled the German observers. The crews of two of the Seydlitz’s turretssdied suddenly, as had the men in the midship turret of the Lion., On the other hand, a shell touched off the ammunition in the starboard 6- inch battery of the Malaya and the flash obliterated the crews at the guns on that side. Fortunately, the bulkhead doors were closed and the port 6-inch gun crews were uninjured. cordite would blaze up in great sheets of flame and dense brown smoke. Its searing touch killed instantly, but the heat quickly and the bodies were scarcely burned. Except in the immediate neighbor- hood the fall of the enemy shells was | scarcely noticed in the terrific uproar and the concussion from the ship’s own guns. Some commanders mistook the burst of enemy shells in their vessels for the fire from their own secondary bat- teries. As the Warspite came within range her executive “felt one or two very heavy shakes, but didn't think very much of it at the time, and it never oc curred to me that we were being hit.” Only later, when he went down into the ship to report and, if possible, to re- pair damage, did the frightful nature of what was happening become clear to him. He gives a long account of his recollections as he passed frantically up and down the ship, organizing fire parties, endeavoring to plug holes or to put screens up over the great gaps torn in the sides—gaps through which tons of water were flung by the bursting shells alongside. Many Wounded Were Drowned. Some of the wounded, indeed, appear to have been drowned by the water sloshing about the decks, elther thrown in by the shells or pouring from the broken mains, and through the shock, bloodshed and destruction the thing which seemed to have impressed him most was the “appalling noise.” So Von Hase also, though inclosed in the armored control position of the Derffiinger, speaks of the “stupefying in.” The shells which pitched along- side, he says, raised “colossal splashes” which “stood up for quite 5 or 10 sec- onds before they completely collapsed again, * It uently occurred that these waterspouts broke over the ship, swamping everything, but at the same time putting out any fires.” When a shell struck on their armor, “the ter- rific crash of the explosion was followed by a vibration of the whole ship, af- fecting even the conning tower. The shells which exploded in the interfor of the ship caused a dull roar, which was transmitted all over by countless voice pipes and telephones.” ~ Meanwhile, “the four English battle cruisers were tra eling at top speed, and it was not long before they vanished from our view in mist and smoke.” Shock, noise, the blast of the great guns and, far away through the murk and fading light and geysers of sea water that leaped higher than the fun- nel tops as the salvos fell around, the dim gray smudges that marked the enemy, spitting gun flashes through their pall of smoke, so the battle passed northward into the long North- ern twilight and into the arms of Jelli- coe’s battle line, the mightiest armads ever brought into action on the seas. Beatty Repays “Surprise.” For, repaying the surprise into which Von Hipper had led him, Beatty had led the Germans in turn into a pre- :l‘!‘)fiy :lel'lnlhr.Atut for them a more ter- 3 e. & quarter past 6 the Derfllinger suddenly found herself inder heavy fire. It flashed out on all lldu} We could only make out the ships’ hulls indistinctly, but as far as I Was able to see the horizon, enemy ships were all around us, * * * It was now Derfectly clear to us that we were faced with the whole lish fleet.” tb'}fndlold maneuvering p ning came (it was here tha Invincible went up), the eonmnom‘ 3:; last ohances as Jellicoe deployed his 23 fresh dreadnaught battleships, with their overwhelming gun power, have often been studied. Had the battle be- §un some hours earlier, it is reasonable to suppose that the German high seas fleet would have been annihilated. action. Throughout the fleet a few—a | the very few—men died of concussion from the tremendous shock as great shells struck or bul:tlednur tnh;:‘ Others, of course, were killed by sp! b{ falling again the razor-sharp edges of torn and broken plates. The execu- tive officer in the Warspite, one of the Malaya's sisters, described a shell burst: Ammunition Fires Prove Costly. “Was just forward when a 13- inch m%” side armor on boys' mess deck. sheet of golden Jellicos had Von Scheer entrapped in a great arc of steel and did not know it. Von Scheer extricated himself from the trap once, before he knew of its exist- ence, and again, with equal skill and resolution, when he was only partly aware of true mvm of his situa- tion. Some of the British dreadnaughts As | ever Untested scarcely saw the enemy at all, and it was not until 7:30, when Jellicoe’s line was alweady steaming off to the south- ward, that Von Scheer knew the whole British fleet was present. Ships Took Terrific Punishment. ‘Throughout those two or three con- fused hours, however, it was Von Hip- per’s battle crulsers which were closest under the fire of the British grand fleet; they were hit again and again, and, though they did not sink and did not blow up, they sustained a terrible punishment. The Lutzow, Von Hipper’s flagship, was practically out of action and the admiral left here. In the Von der Tann not a single heavy gun could be fired. At 7:13 a shell landed on one of the after turrets of the Derfflinger and there was a great ammunition fire; a few minutes later the companion tur- rit was hit. As in the. Lion and the other ships, the great tongues of fire sprang forth high above the turret 1! ingled with clouds of yellow while all but six of the 158 men manning the two turrets perished Instantly. The fires continued to burn. An hour afterward the turrets “were still smoking and giving out clouds of thick yellow gas,” and presently the smoke “and poisonous gases from the turrets began to seep back through the volce tubes, rendering the control sta- tions untenable. A few minutes later Comdr. Von Hase himself experienced a direct hit upon the conning tower where he was standing: “Suddenly we heard & noise like the crack of doom: there was a tremendous roar, a terrific detonation, and then darkness came down uj us. We felt & fearful blow; the whole conning tower rocked as if it had been struck by a glant’s fist, seeming to lift upward, and then settled vibrating into its old posi- tion.” The shell failed to penetrate the armor, but it “renched open the heavy armored door and jammed it so that it was impossible to shut it. But a little later a second heavy shell struck almost a8 near and the door was flung shut. Lesson Not Easy to Learn. How much more the ships might have withstood no one can say; Vol: Scheer ordered them out of the desperate situ- ation in which they had been placed, the German fleet slipped off to the west- ward, and as night closed down the roar of battle died away into the sporadic outbursts of gunfire as the destroyers or light cruisers encountered each other in the darkness, while the heavy ships pounded steadily on. There were many terrible moments throughout the night, as when the people in a small British vessel suddenly saw a great ship burst out into a column of fire before their eyes and then disuprear, or when a British destroyer collided with a Ger- mun light cruiser and had her upper works wrecked—not by the projectiles, but by the blast of the cruiser’s guns, fired just above them. And ultimately there was silence, the chance to recover, to count losses and to ask what the lesson had been. Even that question is not to answer. In the battle-cruiser action the weaker forces inflicted by far the heavier damage; in the fleet action the side possessing overwhelmingly superior- ity quite failed to overwhelm. During the night the Germans realized that the Lutzow, with her compartments rapidly filling, could not be saved; they sank her themselves after taking off the crew. It was their only loss of a capital ship, as against the three battle cruisers lost by the British. Von Scheer, who ought to have been wiped out, passed across the wake of the British line in the night and got clear away. And vet, though the book estimates were unset, they were also confirmed. Curiousiy enough, the whole fantastic incident was as unnecessary as it was accidental. Before the action, theory indicated that the Germans could not risk a battle; after the action, they never risked one again. It achieved nothing that had not been assumed be- forehand; it led to no change ip the naval position. The two fleets exercised exactly the same influence on the war after the encounter as they had done before it. British Vessels Superior. This was partly because the British superiority was so very great; the expe- rience of the individual ships at least suggest that the exactly d fleets now being discussed at London might emerge from a real action, should there another naval war, in a very different position from that which could be forecast on the basis of the tonnage On the other hand, the very es | figures. impossibility of predicting the results when one side is not overwhelmingly superior might have much the same effect as the certainty of the result when such superiority does exist. ‘Throughout the brief history of mod- ern war vessels one may note the curious fact that these great engines of war are 80 very expensive, so powerful while they when are destroy seldom can be risked in actual battle. (Continued Prom Third Page.) tween 4 and 5 feet deep. Parts of them have cost as much as $22,000 per mile. While huge steam shovels and trac- tors dig the canals of today, those util- ized by the ancient Indian farmers were patiently excavated by hand. Stone “hoes” and sharpened sticks loosened the earth; bare hands scraped it into baskets which women and children car- ried out and emptied above the borders. This is not pure conjecture. Stone hoes, frequently broken ones, have been found along the canal banks; the primi- tive tribes of the Southwest had no metal tools, no beasts of burden, until after the Spaniards arrived in 1540. 8o far as we know them today the sedentary or village Indians of our Southwest have always been commu- nistic. They worked together. Hence there is every reason for believing that the prehistoric canals along the Rio Salado were community enterprises, and that every member of the village had & hand in constructing what meant life to his family and his relatives. Ruins of Ancient Strongholds. On bold promontories a short distance to the northward, rock-walled ruins oc- cupy well-nigh impregnable positions. I have had no opportunity thoroughly to examine these broken structures, but it seems to me not unlikely they represent defensive works to which the valley In- dians retreated in times of greal ex- tremity. As white pioneers of the 1870s had their Apaches, so the earlier Indian farmers had their hereditary enemies. Marauding bands may well have forced family groups into larger communities, as they did in better known archeologi- cal areas of the Southwest. Continued harassment by these bands, coupled with possible deepening of the river channel below the canal levels, would have been ample cause for the gradual abandonment of the aboriginal farming villages. Many absurd beliefs have grown up | about these ancient folk. For instance, it has been asserted that all the 250 miles of canals they bullt were in use at the same time; that it is possible to estimate the prehistoric population from the number of acres these canals would have irrigated. From the ground, but more clearly from the air, one sees W} a’given canal has been suj another, Its heading may have washed out or the river channel measurably deepened, thus necessitating an extension of the ditch up stream. Low lying farms may have been waterlof dered unfit for cultivation, as happened only a few years ago east of Tempe, until pumping plants were installed to lower the water table. I present these thoughts with a question because neither I nor any one else may know with certainty. Builders of the Waterways. Nor can we say what m built these ancient waterways. To Mor- mons, the builders were the Lamanites; to others they were the Lost Tribes of Israel. Out in Phoenix the other day a gentleman hopefully inquired whether I did not think we had in these ancient canals proof of the Lost Atlantis. And I had to reply that, from my point of view, the canal builders were merely the ancestors of some of our present Southwestern tribes; that, sooner or later, archeological exploration would solve the mystery. ‘The Yaqui Indians of Mexico were formerly among the most expert of irrigationists. Padre Kino in 1687 found the Pimas cultivating very considerable fields by means of main canals and a clever system of laterals. The related Papagos, and the Maricopas, were also farmers when first visited by whites and they remain so today. One day, un- doubtedly, some painstaking student of prehistory, with the privilege of sticking to a tedious and unremunerative job, will disclose the real answer to this much mooted question. Just now we may be grateful that a means has been found for mapping the ancient canals; perhaps even recoverin, those which have been obliterated by modern agriculture. Salling back and forth across Salt River Valley, I looked down from the blue Douglas upon & veritable paradise. Sites of Former Dwellings. ‘Through the orchards, through green gardens and freshly plowed flelds, I saw the leveled sites of numerous ancient Indian dwellings—adobe walled dwellings clustered about the remains of a larger, central structure. I saw, :00, the disconnected fragments of hand- dug canals that watered the flelds asso- ciated with those prehistoric settlements. Yet how little of all this one observes when on the ground! In their rapid press forward, good citizens of the pres- ent have wiped out, literally, nearly every monument erected ‘lxo their predecessors of 500, perhaps 1,000, years ago. Modern civilization rises from the ruins of the past! And what had already taken place throughout the Salt River Valley is now being repeated along the Rio Gila. Here 56,000 acres of desert land are being cleared and prepared for irrigation at the rate of 20 acres a day. Completion of the Coolidge Dam made this colossdl enterprise a reality; within & very short while prosperous farmers will harvest golden crops where ocatilla and the giant sahuaro now flourish. Congress has finally rewarded the patient Pima and is returning to him, with interest, the water taken from him nearly half a century ago. Pimas Industrious Farmers, Always the Pimas have been peaceful, industrious farmers; always they have been friends and loyal supporters of the white man, even when the latter crowd- ed in and settled upon their tribal lands. In 1687 and for two decades thereafter the Pimas welcomed Father Kino whenever his work brought him to the Gila Valley: they fed him and his followers from their abundant stores and pastured his mules in green meadows. From these same grass lands and from neighboring fields the Pimas furnished unbelievable quantities of hay, wheat and beans to Gen, Kearney dur- ing the Mexican War; to the gold seek- ers of '49; to the Army posts throughout the prolonged Apache campaign: to Union troops recruited in California to resist the Texas invasion of Arizona during the Civil War. Without Pima and Maricopa ald the Pony Express and the Overland Mail Co. would have been seriiously handicapped; American settlement of California doubtless would have been measurably delayed. The contribution of Pima, Maricopa and Papago scouts toward successful termination of the Apache troubles has not yet adequately been recognized. Hereditary enemies of the marauding Apache. these sedentary tribes of the middle Gila played a not inconsiderable part in the early American occupation of Southern and Central Arizona. But these settlers required water with which to irrigate their farms; the more water they used the less there re- mained for the Pimas further down river. Then came the cattle days of the 1870s and 1880s, when “critters” in countless thousands ranged hill and valley. They cropped the grass faster than it grew and thus soon destroyed much of the natural ground cover. Unchecked rain waters rushed madly into newly carved arroyos and thence on down the Gila in uncontrollable floods that rapidly deepened the river channel and w: out each flimsy diversion dam. Miles of cmmnydprep.red“ Indian ry and graduslly filled with blowh sand. Fields su % cultivated for years at last 12 fal- Modern fighting ships are too val as a threat to be lightly endan, by fighting. So far they have exerted most of their influence upon history by their existence rather than by their shells, It is & fact which lends to the debates over statistics a certain reality, since it is not impossible that the statistics will prove of greater importance in future naval than any actual shooting, A by | the right, as we sail and thus ren-|good g ' the side of the rear cockpit. 3 threat of sctual starvation low. The B sought an honest living tilling small patches of soil opposite white settle- ments on the Rio Salado. And now, 30 years after it was first proposed, the San Carlos project be- comes a reality. The Pimas are happy once more as they anticipate such peace and prosperity as their forefathers ands, o verde an roots fgum the sandy soil or following glant steel drags, Pima workmen fre- quently expose the silt-filled channels of ancient canals, the presence of which was unknown even to the Indians themselves. How old these former irrigation ditches really are no one knows. Nor can any one say who planned and dug them. They are the work of the Ho-ho-kam—the old people-—according to the Pimas, and you can learn noth- ing more by questioning. Except that the Pimas have always dwelt here on the Gila since the world was made. From the northwestern foot of the Tortilla Mountains these ancient Gila canals stretch westward to the Estrel- las. Some of them curve northward to P-Al below the present little Indian vil- age of Santan; others turn soithward to Casa Grande, a huge earthen-walled structure that stood in ruins when Father Kino passed by over 200 years ago. The Gila River Valley is less tamed than that of the Rio Salado despite the fact that it was settled earlier. It was the Roosevelt Dam that brought Phoenix and its neighbors so rapidly out of the brambles. And now theé dusty towns along the Gila are to have their blossoming. A Mosaic of Tilled Gardens. From far above Florence and the Pima agency at Sacaton, one looks down |ilron a mosaic of tilled gardens and wild, unkept desert. On winding brown threads bug-like autos seem to creep at 60 miles an hour. Westward some 70-odd miles, the sandy bed of the Gila turns sharply to join the Rio Colorado. Sixty miles to the north, Tempe Butte and the newer buildings of Phoenix are clearly visible. Off on k to the Superstition Mountains lift their ragged heads to remind us of the murderous hose depredations cost h American lives before Crook set out upon a trail that knew no quarter. Further to the northeast, sf out between bare mountain masses that show blood red under the setting sum, Foosevelt Dam stands ready to impound the waters that shall the canals th’ lead far away across Salt River in, those HI’ and I readily confess a of relie! as the leutenant turned the mnose of the ship out over more level country. From a few thousand feet the desert at least looks smooth, for its dusty cover blends so easily with the drab abode soil. One sees their shadows nr.h:; than the thorny trees and 1 make no pretense at being a good sailor, especially when the air is bumpy. And an open rear cockpit, while it might grovlde all an Army fyer desires, nevertheless tends to discourage my habit of looking around as I go. Every time I peered over the side the rather prominent elastic nose I have in- herited from my paternal ancestors would be flattened out against my cheek. The propeller, driving along at 115 miles an hour, creates too great a draft. I don't like it. Cameraman Stands Up. It was this propeller slip that in- creased my admiration for Sergt. Stock- well and his photographic ability. Stockwell is a husky young m: he is 50 much at home in the air and he knows his camera so well that he never bothers to use the special moun!t{xnl ol: e just stands up, holds the 42-pound Fairchild to his eye and shoots his obliques down across the tail. It takes a real man to do that, and it takes Army training and long years of experience to be sure you are getting what you want to get under new conditions in an unfamiliar country. Across the Rio Salado from Tempe Butte lies the Hole-in-the-Rocks, a red sandstone mass that looks Tluu as though it had been shot full of holes by some playful ogre of geological anti- qulg.g Just beyond, Camel Back squats on open plain to guard new groves of grapefruit, oranges and dates. A few miles to the norhwest Squaw Peak frowns down upon the sprawling gray buildings of the new Biltmore Hotel, Artists’ studios and the sumptuous Win- ter homes of other outlanders lie here and there -monf the sahuaro forests. We became familiar with most of these lonely looking places during the course of our serial survey, for each has its own individuality; each served well as a landmark on the carefully charted courses we were to fly. We be- came familiar, too, even intimate, with the jagged igneous and sandstone buttes that border the wide valley floor. At midday these colossal rock piles flatten out and are lost among their sur- roundings. But in late afternoon they turn red and then wrap themselves in a blanket of soft purple haze. Across their irregular crests sun rays streak down— rays so solid one could almost coast their full length. The sahuaro cast long, slim-fingered schadows eastwardly. Indian Custom Recalled. In times past—times still unmeas- ured as to years—brown-bodied Indian farmers came in from their fields to stand a while on their roof tops and gaze prayerfully upon these same eve- ning shadows. For the sun was then, as now, the great Sky Father who made all life possible; who brought forth the newly planted seeds in Springtime, saw them mature and ripen for the harvests, But without water, gardens withered and died under the warmth of the sus tireless rays. Where rain rarely falls canals were needed to convey water {from the river to the flelds. The people who cultivated those flelds are gone; nfemlr former homes are razed and for- n. Only disconnected remnants of canals they dug with such infinite ;}:s tience remain today as evidence of their industry; of the civilization they rea: on the ‘sturdy foundation of agriculture, By aid of skilled airmen and an army ghowgr-phlc plane those ancient canals iave finally been charted as thoroughly as may be. Henceforth we shall have additional and more trustworthy data ‘C't":t r'llhu.:“w com;}uc nt:m rehistory of al_Arizona of United States. s LI (Copyright, 1930, by the New York Times Co.) Small English Town Co-operates to Gain ‘The depression in and nnr";hn Tlittle town of Brynmawr, England, is almost over, and now only about 500 of its 9,000 irhabitants have no work. The people of the place, despairing of help from outside, have set about the attempt to Pux‘ lr!a‘llga‘mw the tmml g a ning, a careful surve e ing made, with the view of wor::’n’: ::c an economic policy for the future. Of more immediate practical value is the setting up of an organization in tme form of a company to obtain expert advice about startiing new industries on oo-onn't.lhvle‘ un;:‘ch“i:h loans the , W trying to obta: & fund of $75,000. v 7 As & very 3 wr - t- making industry, which is um? - ing high wages at the rate of §' .l=’l ear. B W is also endeavoris ttael? & holiday resort. m“&:’:‘;‘..'fif every one tries his best to trans- orm an industrial town into a place mure ople can stay for a holiday, An first en feature of the scheme is the plan for some Ployed on' the Toada-orme of the uncar-