Evening Star Newspaper, September 21, 1930, Page 99

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, SEPTEMBER 21, 1930. 17 o Army to Show Covered-Wagon Days BY MAJOR R. B. LAWRENCE. €6 SHALL never be content until I have explored the Western country,” said George Washington. Our first Presi- dent had, before any other prom- inent American, a vision of west- ward development and what it would mean to - the country he founded. But Washington did not understond the vast realm to which he re- ferred, nor had his mind any boundaries suf- ficiently great to inclose even that portion of the West known as the Oregon country. Not statesmen, but pioneers, won and held this great region for the United States. At the beginning of the ninetcenth century it was dis- puted territory. Both Great Britain and the United States believed they had superior claims to the Northwest; probably one was as much justified in. its contention as the other. "From 1818 to 1846 this region was jointly occupied by reason of an agreement signed by both na- tions. During the period of the joint occupancy the disputed region was falling more and more un- der the control of the Hudson Bay Co., which seemed destined to transform it into a British province unless some occasion should arise to arouse the Americans to this danger and con- vince them of the value of the district. THE apparent apathy of our Government was due to a colossal ignorance of this vast region in spite of the information brought back by the Lewis and Clark expedition. To us it seems incomprehensible that a man like Daniel Webster could voice the following sentiment in our Senate: “What can we ever hope to do with the Western Coast—a coast of 3,000 miles, rockbound, cheerless and uninviting and with not a harbor on it? What use have we for such a country? Mr. President, I will never vote one cent from the public treasury to place the Pacific Co2st 1 inch neare~ to Boston than it is now.” No words ever uttered in the Senale were more wide of their mark and, fortunaiciy, the opinion Webster and other prominent officials expressed carried little weight with the pioneer. It was the latter’s restless spirit, the spirit of the frontier, adventure, the meat of strong men, that caused him to dare the perils of this migration to an unknown land. It was not due to the efforts of statesmen, no matter how exalted they might be. It was the strength, courage and hardihood of the pioneers, qualities beloved by men since the world began, qualities which are the very soul of the United States. The stories sent back by hunters, trappers and missionaries, and the efforts of men like Alonzo Whitman, stirred the people of the East and roused the desire of the Nation to possess this country. Mere desire, however, does not ac- complish results in itself. It was these early pioneers and trail blazers, the daring men whose fathers had settled Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri, and whose grandfathers had made up the forces of the Old Dominion in the Revolu- tion, who stubbornly contested the ownership of this region with the Hudson Bay Co. These hardy souls venturing forth, though it might- mean the lingering torments of the desert's thirst, though the privations of the mountain passes had to be faced, though death by the diabolical tortures inflicted by a cruel savage might be their fate, the intrepid pioneers ac- cepted all these risks and hesitated not to brave the perils of the plains to win for them- selves a home in the famed Oregon country and for the Nation an empire in the West. Over a 3,000-mile journey he traveled with his covered wagon, which held his dearest possessions—wife, children, perhaps an old mother—all his worldly goods were also crowded into the ark-like vehicles that carried civiliza- tion westward. THE fascination of this migration has ever been an undying theme and a source of pride to all patriotic Americans. No wonder President Hoover, on February 21, 1930, issued a proclamation commemorating the event of the Covered Wagon Centennial. For it was on the 10th of April, 1930—100 years ago—that the first wagon train left St. Louis for Oregon, pioneering the way for the thousands of men and women who settled the Pacific States. In the words of President Hoover, “To recall the national significance of this centenary of the great westward tide which established American civilization across a continent,” the United States Army, at its annual military ex- position and carnival in Wash'ngton, Septem- ber 25, 26 and 27, will feature as the principal demonstration of its program a thrilling inter- pretation of the perils encountered by the men and women of the covered wagon trains who won and held the West. The great early mid-continental highway, known as the Oregon Trail, was by way of the Missouri River up the Platte Valley, thence across the mountains. The fur traders used it, the Forty-Niners used it, the cattlemen used it in part, the railroads were to follow its course, but lastly, the men who wore deepest the wheel marks of the Oregon Trial were neither the traders nor the trappers, but the home builders, the first real emigrants to go West with the intent of making homes beyond the Rockies. It was the plow against the steel trap that decided the ownership of the Oregon country. The trap would cease to be a factor with the passing of the fur-bearing animals, but there was a permanency to the plow, and this per- manency even the Indians apprepriated, for this humble instrument of industry, lashed to the tailboard of every immigrant wogan, be- came a hated symbol to the savage brain. It was the white man’s powerful medicine that the Indians believed would obliterate the buffalo, which to him meant sustenance and life itself. The relations between the fur traders and the Indians were most amicable. The fur traders possessed articles which they were ever ready to barter to the Indians for pelts, but the settlers did not buy anything and had nothing to sell. They were interested only in homesites—land Carnival and Exposition of This Week to Give Authentic Picture of Oregon Trail in 1847. A Battle With the Indians. “The Covered W agon.” A special poster for the program of the Army’s Military Exposition and Carnival at Washington Barracks. in which the plow could sink its share, where crops could be grown. So the Indian regarded the settlers as a menace and nearly a century of Indian war§ followed. Even Daniel Webster seems less grand of proportion than does the plain and poor pioneer with a half-pint of seed wheat carefully stored amid the household goods on his covered wagon. After the first few thousand settlers were established in Oregon with their American civilization symbolzed by the flag flyng over the little school house, the spirit of '76 and 1812 seemed to have suddenly been aroused through- out the Nation. Then was heard the cry in the land, “Fifty-four Forty or Fight.” Then the statesmen realized something must be done about this Oregon question. American civili- zation on the Western Coast could not be aban- doned. What the pioneer had won was con- solidated and assured by a treaty with Great Britain which eventually brought three great States of the Northwest into the Union. In the passage of the Oregon Trail we first began to be great. Our national horizon extended im- measurably along that dusty way. 'HEY were portentous days, those of the first years of the last century—dramatic, ro- mantic days, oftentimes tragic and terrible. The Oregon Trail will remain meaningless to us today unless we consider what it meant to the men and women of that day. What and who were these men and women? What were their ideals and aspirations? What did it mean to take the Oregon Trail in the great adventure of forever abandoning the known and the safe and setting out for Oregon at a time when every- thing in the Far West was new and unknown? How did these people travel? What hardships and perils did they encounter? To answer these questions the Army has un- dertaken a gigantic task, realizing that to graphically portray these people, what . they wore, how they talked, their methods of travel, meant extensive study and painstaking efforts. Both officers and men of the Army stationed about Washington have given unstintingly of their periods of recreation and rest in this ef- fort that the people of Washington and its vi- cinity shall receive a realistic portrayal of these stirring times. With a faithfulness of fact and an exactness to detail worthy of a De Mille or a D. W. Griffith, the Army will stage this drama of the covered wagon days, “The Perils of the Plains.” At the afternoon and evening performances, on September 25, 26 and 27, the thousands of spectators gathered on the parade grounds of the War College, will see this panorama of an earlier day unfolded. Slow, swaying, stately, the ox-teams come on. The teams do not hasten, do not abate their speed, but moving in an unagitated advance that gives the massed column something irresistibly epochal in appearance. There are outriders, there are clumps of driven cattle. Along the flanks walk tall men who fling over the low- headed cattle on admonitory lash whose keen report is heard faint and far-off. Lean boys and brown, barefooted girls, flank the train with driven stock. Chickens cluck in the coops at the wagon sides; children thrust out tousled heads from the openings of the canvas covers. Dogs beneath, jostling the tar buckets, bark in hostile salutation. Women in slatted sunbonnets turn impassive gaze from the high front seats, back of which, swung to the bows by leather loops, hangs the inevitable family rifle in each wagon. And now, at the tailgate of every wagon, lashed for its last long journey, hangs the family plow. The train will be attacked by Indians, with their methods of warfare, their marvelous horsemanship, their barbaric costume truth- fully depicted. Then the rescue by the Cavalry, net clothed in spick and span olive-drab uni- Autumn Agarn. By Daniel Whitehead Hicky. ‘Autumn again, and the old Summer going In arrows of beauty swift on the wind; Sycamore, oak and the maple leaves blowing, Glorious legions that soon shall be thinned! Southward they fly like a ribbon aflutter, Bright with their splendor, the birds with a cry That cuts at the heart! What mortal could utter A word or a song that would shatter the sky? Autumn again, and the old Summer going, Deep valleys yellow with goldenrod’s flood!— And ah, who can tell the pang I am knowing, The cry of lost April that leaps in my blood? forms of today, but in the old romantic blue of the days of 1847. All this under the eyes of veteran retired officers who fought the Indians and know their ways. It will be & spoken drama with the thou- sands of spectators hearing every word, due to the microphone and the public address system used. A one-act play, held on the large pa- rade ground at the War College. It will be a thing of signal value from an educational standpoint and every student in the schools of Washington’s metropolitan area, Virginia and Maryland should witness this pageant. It is a picture done on a vast canvas—that of the frontier of '47: a picture of might, of inevitableness; a picture to thrill the onlookers. A Texas Helium Plants. HILE most other important nations woul@ pay exceedingly well for it, Uncle Sam has 80 much helium it has been found necessary to run the plant at Amarillo, Tex., at only about one-third its capacity. Running only 10 months in the past year, the plant produced 800,000 cubic feet more than the greatest output of the Fort Worth plant. The output was limited to the demands of the Army and Navy for the lighter-than-air craft. Should the demand exist, the plant could turn out about 24,000,000 cubic feet a year. B Helium-bearing natural gas for the Ama- rillo plant is drawn from Government-owned gas wells on the cliffside structure northwest of Amarillo, Tex., where the Government controls gas rights in about 50,000 acres of land. It is transported to the plant through a Government- owned pipe line. 5 In the plant the helium is extracted by cool- ing the natural gas under pressure to a very low temperature, at which all of its constituents; except the helium, are liquefied. ~After the helium has been drawn off, the other con- stituents are returned to the gaseous state by warming them up to atmospheric temperature. Each cubic foot of natural gas that enters the plant is cocled from atmospheric temperature to about 300 degrees Fahrenheit below zero and returned to atmospheric temperature in less than one minute. The gas from which the helium has been extracted is dischagred into a pipe line, with its heating value improved by the extraction of the helium, and is cold for use as domestic and industrial fuel. All of the equip- ment for production and transportation of the natural gas and the extraction of the helium is operated by the Bureau of Mines. . The gress operating costs for the 10 operating months of the year were $140,146.75, or $14.30 per 1,000 cubic feet of helium produced. The net costs were $109,562.15, or $11.16 per 1,000 cubic feet. The lowest operating costs of the Fort Worth plant over a fiscal year’s operation were about $34 per 1,000 cubic feet of airship gas, containing about 95 per cent of helium: The airship gas produced at Amarillo is about 98 per cent helium, and the reported production and costs for that plant are based on the actual quantity of helium contained in its product. The standby costs of the Amarillo plant for the two months of December and February, when it was closed for lack of orders, were $19,181.14 gross, or $19,046.22 net. - Under present conditions it costs less to operate Government airships with non-flamma- ble helium than it would cost to operate them with flammable hydrogen. The first cost of hydrogen, as produced for airship operation; may be somewhat less than the present cost pf . helium. However, when_diffusion of air inté the gas envelope reduces the purity of the hydrogen to about 85 per cent the envelope must be deflated because of decreased buoyancy, fire risk and danger of explosion. As no safe and economical process for purifying this hy- drogen has been found, it is allowed to escape into the atmosphere, and the ship must be reinflated with new hydrogen. This operation is necessary eight to ten times a year. - When air diffuses into a helium filled ship the only serious effect is to decrease the lifting power. In this cace, however, the helium can be purified at a cost of from 50 cents to $1.50 per 1,000 feet in plants that have been designed and built by the Bureau of Mines. The new helium required over the course of a year’s operation is only about one and a half or two times the volume of the ships, compared with eigt to ten times the volume in the case of hydrogen, Thus helium, though possibly somewhat more expensive in first cost, now has considerable advantage over hydrogen in cost over a year’s operation, in addition to its ines- timable advantage of safety from fire and <xplosion. Paul Revere, Silversmith. - PAUL REVERE may go down in history to the world at large for his famous ride to rouse the Miniule Men and warn them of the approach of the British, but in New England a personal touch will be added to the stories told of him through the fact that many same ples of his skill as a silversmith still exist and are highly prized heirlooms in many a home. His example in designing silver has been followed so successfully that the silversmiths of New England now enjoy a reputation wherever table silver is known. The silver used in the manufacture of tab! ware comes into the factories in ingots, shem or wires. It is stamped into the various oute, lines and designs desired and then gradualy_ worked into the shapes sought. The silver is annealed hetween steps in order to keep % soft and pliable.