Evening Star Newspaper, November 9, 1930, Page 89

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, NOVEMBER 9, 1930. " Future WAR to Have No UNKNOWN SOLDIER Bearing the body of the Unknown Soldier to the shrine at Arlington, where the Nation pays tribute to all her sons who fell “Over There.” d'ragedies of Unidentified Dead Will Be Unheard of in Another War, Believes a Philadelphia Physician, If All Men Bear Tiny Tattoo Marks to Supplement Metal Disks. BY FRANK CARLYN. HE tragedy of unknown soldiers, ex< emplified by the simple white tomb in front of the memorial amphitheater in the Arlington National Cemetery, 3 ordinary method of identifi- cation by means of little metallic discs may be supplanted or at least augmented by a system which would mark the body of the soldier in such a manner that his ‘identity might be established even though his disc were lost in the heat of conflict and the hail of steel and lead. Tue chief drawback to the metal discs was that they might become separated from the body of the wounded or dying soldier and lost in the maelstrom of “No Man’s Land.” To avoid this, the actual marking of the soldier’s body seems to be the most positive means of guaranteeing identification.. Since the war countless methods of obtaining this end have been suggested, the most recent of which is that of Dr. Josef B. Nylin, chief of the departe ment of physiotherapy at the Martin Maloney Memo:i~1 Clinic of the University of Pennsyl- vania E-spital. He suggests using the tattoo to prevent the tragedy of lost identification of a fallen hero, He would place the symbols or code letters and figures on several portions of the body, thus insuring identification even if an arm or leg or other part is shot away. The symbols would not be huge or blatant to form a possible handi- eap to the bearer after he was discharged from the sole of the foot or some other part of the body not usually exposed. GPTATICUING scems to me to be the best possible way of avoiding the tragedy of unknown-soldier cases,” said Dr. Nylin. “To mark the skin with an indelible brand seems to offer a guarantee that identification will be much easier in case the usual disc becomes lost, Of course, when I say tattoo I do not mean the immense designs and figures such as are often sprawled over the arms and chest of old- time deep-sea sailors. The numerals or code markings need be only very small, almost in- visible. They could be placed on several paris of the body at once to guarantee identification even if the victim is mutilated by shellfire, Another great advantage of the tattoo system is that as long as the flesh remains the identi- ficaiion mark will remain. It would not be affected by death. “This is due to the fact that during life the lymph stream which s part of the circulation fs continually striving to carry the tattoo pig- mentation away, gradually obliterating the dyes. Death would halt this cleansing action of the blood stream. “Of course, branding by hot irons as cattle are marked in the West would be the and surest way of marking the skin, but this would be cruel and barbarous—entirely out of the question. No doubt many soldiers would object even to a tiny tatoo brand, but I think that the end sought would offset any objections of this type. “The marking symbol could be made exclu- sive to the defenders of the country by Gov- ernment rule, so that it would not be copied. In this manner it would serve as a real badge of honor, an indelible reminder of patriotism and heroism.” Dr. Nylin does not suggest the com- plete supplanting of the metal disc by the tattoo. Each is as indispensable as the other. In France last September the fleshless forms of 10 soldiers, three French and seven German, were found in the depths of Belleau Wood by W. B. Fitts, in Park. In this case the metal furnish identification, whereas W hen the “gobs” go in for tattooing they do it in a big way, but the identifica- sion marks suggested by Dr. Nylin would be only & fraction of an inch in size. in battle, marks on the body would have sup- plied the necessary data. Recent statistics compiled in Germany ecite 10,000,000 killed in the World War. It is to be expected, then, that thousands of these should g0 down in history unidentified. In France a single grave contains 30,000 of these heroes. The United States, with perhaps the smallest number of unknown dead among the nations participating?in the World War, lists more than a thousand such tragedies. Another point in favor of marking the body indelibly is the aid such a mark would render in the tracing of prisoners of war. This may seem a small item until one considers the report of the “Prisoners of War Support Association,” formed in Germany by the kin of prisoners who have never returned to their native land. Ger- many alone lists 24,000 of these; France, 48,000; England, rumored at 8,000, despite denials by the British war office; Italy, 5,000. Many of these prisoners are among the wne identified dead, since numbers were shot at- tempting to from the various prison camps in each country. Since they had re- moved identification tags before making the escape attempt, it can be seen that their deaths could not be registered. Among the other methods advanced to pre- vent unknown-soldier tragedies was one calling for identification by means of an ink stamp, similar to that employed by the Government after inspection in the packing houses. The chief objection to this is that it is a mereg surface mark, lacking the depth of the tattoo, and is liable to wear off in a short time or be- eome so blurred as to be unintelligible, Early in the World War military authoritiep tried to surmount the difficulty caused by losh identification tags by securing the tags more firmly to the body. The old leather and fiber thongs around the neck were replaced in some instances by metal chains. THE violet ray or sun ray stencil has been suggested in lieu of the tattoo for making an identification symbol on the soldier’s skin. Although an expert on the violet ray and head of the largest and finest equipped physio- therapy department in the United States, Dr. Nylin does not think the violet-ray stencil will ever be developed to such a stage where it may be useful in marking soldiers for identification purposes. (Copiyright, 1930.) Cane Made More Productive R 10 years the experts of the Bureau of Plant Industry of the Department of Agri- " culture have been attempting to develop a sugar cane which was not only disease resistant but woumuwmmoutamamyhldotmm. The investigators at the Canal Point (Fla.) Ex- perimental Station have at last achieved suc- cess and announce the production of a cane will yield a ton more sugar an acre than roduced by the best of the earlier types