Evening Star Newspaper, December 14, 1930, Page 92

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, DECEMBER 14, = preceded the division to New York, and pro- ceeded from New York to Washington to con- test the ofder. He came to my office and sought an inter- view, which I accorded him. When he entered my room he was accompanied by an aide, whom I permitted to remain throughout the interview. Gen. Wood acknowledged the receipt of the order keeping him in the United States, and asked if I had any objection to telling him whether it was based on physical disability. I told him that the Arthur Board had passed him physically. I was standing, fazing him, and I closed my fist and rapped him sharply on his chest and said: “There is nothing the matter with you physically.” He was a powerful, deep-chested man, an ex- foot ball player and all-round athlete. It was a great pity about his leg, but that defect was not prohibitive in an officer of his rank, in the opinion of the Arthur Board. Gen. Wood then asked me if I wculd tell him why he was not permitted to go to France. “I think you are entitled to know why,” I re- plied. “Gen. Pershing has asked specificaily that you be not sent to France, and the War Department is going to back him.” GEN. WOOD was taken completely aback at this revelation. It was clear to me that be had thought the decision was merely political, and my answer cut the ground from under him. % { g, fact that Gen. March treated the circumstance as one of military routine entirely, utterly fail- ing fo realize its political importance.” Nothing ‘could be more ludicrously untrue than that statement. PRESIDENT WILSON himself put the cap- stone on the history of this episode in a letter to the editor of the Springfield Repub- lican, which was not released until after Mr. Wilson’s death. The lstter follows: “The White House, Washington, “June 5, 1918. “To the Editor of the Republican: “I hope you will not be surprised to know that I subscribed almost in its entirety to the inclosed editorial from the Republican. “I am keenly aware of and keenly sensitive to the implications which will be drawn out of the fact that I am not sending Gen. Wood to the other side, and I want porsonal friends like yourself, upon whose approval I depend for my encouragement, to know why I am not sending him. “In the first place, I am not sending him because Gen. Pershing has said that he does not want him, and in the second place, Gen. Pershing’s disinclination to have Gen. Wood is only to> well founded. Wherever Gen. Wood goes there is controversy and conflict of judgz- ment. On this side of the waler we can take care of things of that sort bocause the fighting Theodore Roosevelt championed the war-time ambitions of Gen. Wood, who was his friend and political protege. " At first he did not know what to say, but finally he asked me whether I would object to his telling some of his political friends on the Hill what I had said. I replied sharply, “What friends? You understand clearly that no back- fire on Gen. Pershing will be permitted, and you should understand, as a military officer of high rank and experience, that we must either support Gen. Pershing or relieve him, and we don’'t propose to relieve him.” As I went on Gen. Wood became more and more disturbed. Pinall} he asked: “Is there any objection to my telling this to Senator Warren?” As Senator Warren was Gen. Pershing’s father-in-law and a man of great common sense, I knew he would not be a party to any attack on Gen. Pershing, so I told Gen. Wood at once that he could quote what I had said to Senator Warren. He then asked if he could see the-President about the matter. I went into Secretary Baker's office, where there was a private“wire to the White House, and the President fixed an hour that afternoon to see Gen. Wood. The interview with the President was very painful. Gen. Wood found him courteous but firm in his conclusions and quite frank as to his reasons. Finding he could not move the President Gen. Wood broke down and wept. Mr. Wilson, in telling afterward of the inter- view and Gen. Wood’s emotion, said: “I never felt so sorry for any one in my life.” As was inevitable an attempt was made to take this action into politics, but it got nowhere. The great adventure in which we were all en- gaged was s0 much greater than any indi- vidual that no one could make much political capital out of a personal grievance. I have given the facts in this case in some detail, partly because there has been some controversy as to the facts and partly because in & book by George Creel he says of this in- cident: “As I remember it the trouble arose from the is not being done here, but it would be fatal to let it go on at or anywhere near the front. “I have had a great deal of experience with Gen. Wood. He is a man of unusual ability, but apparently absolutely unable to submit his judgment to those who are superior to him in 1930. Gen. Peyton C. March, who as chief of the general staff gave Gen. Wood the order that kept him at home when his division sailed. Newton D. Baker. As Secretary of War he recommended Gen. Pershing instead of Gen. Wood as commander of the A.E. F. command. I am sorry that his great ability cannot be made use of in France, but, at the same time, I am glad to say that it is being made very much use of in the training of sol- Cleaning Clinkers From Boiler a Real Job. MANY a man, this time of year, as he tosses a shovelful or two of coal on his furnace, has a vague sort of an idea that if he were to attempt it, he could easily become a fireman and keep the safety valves popping on a big steam boiler. Keeping up steam on a large boiler, however, is no mere matter of throwing on some coal now and then, with an occasional shake of the grate bars to keep the ashes down. It is a job which requires great skill, powerful mus- cles and a large amount of stick-to-it-iveness. o Probably the hardest trick of all is in cleaning the fires. Naturally soft coal,.burned at the high temperatures of a 125 or 150 horsepower boller, develops clinkers which will not go through the grate bars. This being the case, they have to be taken out of the coaling door and taken out in such a manner that the boiler "will go on delivering steam without inter- ruption. There are two commonly accepted ways of cleaning a fire. The less skillful and less satis- factory method is to pile the fire high on either the right or left side of the fire bed, allowing the other side to burn out as.the high mass of coal opposite is becoming thoroughly ignited. ‘When the burning side is coming along nicely the side which is to be cleaned is raked clear of cinders and other dead or dying coal. With the grate bars on that side clear a slice bar, a steel pipe which will reach to the back of the firebox, is forced through the live coal and a large part of the burning coal is pressed over onto the cleaned side. The operation is re- peated on the remaining side and the fire is ready to go on for some hours more, depending upon the amount of work placed on the boiler. The method of cleaning a fire known as jump- ing is based on the same general method as that described above, but the fire is cleaned half at a time, figuring from side to side rather than front to back. Cleaning the front half is easy, but when it comes to hauling the clinkers up over the burning coal in front from the rear the job becomes arduous in the extreme. It is a blistering undertaking and one which cannot be accomplished as quickly as the other. It has the advantage, however, of giving the boiler balanced temperature all the way across. Bee-K eeping on Increase. THI-: bee industry seems to be decidedly grow- ing in popular favor, if the figures on annual output of apiarists’ equpiment can be taken as a criterion. The 1929 turnout was valued at $2,200,000, an increase of 42 per cent over the figure for 1927. Poultrymen’s and dairymen’s equipment showed large gains also, the grand total of all three being $42,250,000, an increase of nearly 15 per cent. diers on this side of the water, a task for which he is eminently fitted and which he is per- forming with diligence and success. “With sincere regard, “Faithfully, (Signed) “WOODROW WILSON.” New Feeding Systems. TflE American taste in meat has undergone a considerable change of late years, and this change has had its repercussions on the stock farms, with the result that feeding sys- tems have been altered to meet the new tastes of the consumers. The consumer prefers small, tender and pal- atable cuts of beef nowadays, rather than the large chunks of beef of former y2ars. In order to supply this meat of sufficient size and yet as tender as desired, experts of the Department of Agriculture have conducted experiments that have produced calves 100 pounds heavier in eight months than the average under former methods of feeding. The calves were fed grain when 10 weeks old instead of waiting until they were weaned. The grain was supplied in small inclosures, or creeps, placed in the fields. These creeps had small entrances which admitted the calves at will, but which were too small for the cows to enter. The calves fed with grain while still running with their dams attained a weight of 550 pounds in eight months, which averaged a good hundred pounds over the weight of calves fed no grain. Income From Forests. O much is heard of appropriations for the national forests that it is common belief that the flow of money is all in one direction from the Federal Treasury to the great oute doors. This, however, is not true. In fact, so far is it from truth that for the fiscal year that ended last Summer the national forests showed a revenue of $6,751,000, an increase of 7 per cent over the preceding year. The income from the forests is, largely ob- tained from the sale of timber rights, the leas- ing of grazing areas and rentals of Summer home and resort sites. The receipts do not return in their entirety to the Treasury, however. Twenty-five per cent is allotted to the States within the borders of which the forests are located. This money is prorated to the counties in lieu of taxes and the money used by the counties for school and road work. In addition to this payment, the Forest Serv- ice saves out 10 per cent of the total income to be added each year to the road-building ap- propriation for the forests. In this way the development of the road system is speeded faster than would be possible through - direct appropriation. Musical Instruments. TH.!: United States may be a nation of musie lovers, but if the figures on production of musical instruments may be an indication, Americans are more prone to listen than pere form. The 1929 output was more than 40 per cent under that of 1927, and the 124 estabe lishments engaged in manufacture in 1827 shrank to 81, with & 38 per cent loss in labor.