New Britain Herald Newspaper, August 12, 1915, Page 10

"~ STATIO P s os by American Press Assoclation. have taken up devices which we were first to appreciate and utilize and make practical and, by concentrating the at- | ine i tention of the best minds that the meuirpeli e countries possessed, have carried théfn B : > : ; # ; to a high stage of development, and we T hlexandcicnnamatel S — ; : - o i : 2 s 4 should not only keep up with the pros Reville Wright i = i £ cession, but take our natural place just a little ahead of the others. “It would also seem necessary, for the best results, that consuitation should be had with the greatest in- ventive minds ‘of the country in the working out of the most important sug- gestions which require special knowl- edge and special talent for their per- fection. With Mr. Edison so willingly and cheerfully responding to my re- quest, 1 feel sure that the advisory council, when the names are announced will be composed of men of suct prominence as to make the country fee that what it is possible for the humar mind to devise will be devised for our navy."” Mr. Daniels’ announcement of his in- tent to form the advisory committee which would consider ideas has already resulted in a number of persons taking the opportunity to put forward some new devices or ideas. Letters are be#g received at the nayy department daily | from all parts of the United States, | telling of these devices and suggesting jdeas for the improvement of the nava. | Aghting force. 2—Thomas A. Edison Secretary Daniels. 3.—Wright oplane. 4—Hudson Maxim. 5— enry Ford. the advisory board all organizations will select men of the highest caliber. Already some high naval officers have been studying every new develop- ment brought out by the war in Eu- rope and have done important experi- mental work. This work would have progressed much more satisfactorily had these officers and their expert as- sistarits had the benefit of advice from civilian inventors and engineers. Country’s Genius Available. “In a broad way,” said the secretary in speaking of his committee, “the un- derlying idea is to make available the latent inventive genius of our country to improve our navy. It is American inventive genius that has made practi- the ironclad, the submarine and aeroplane. In one way it is our createst military asset, which in the past has been of more value to us than many regiments of troops or ships of the line, and I feel sure that it will not fail us now. Under the stress of actual war conditions other countries ANY a poor man has hit: upon some device that he, believed would be of benefi: | to the fighting forces of the d States, but as he was without s and had no “pull” with the offi-} . at Washington his invention has'! permitted to die a natural death. etary Daniels wants to correct this. jrefore the civilian advisory com- ee to be composed of leading engi- s and inventors throughout the htry is being formed. Members of [board are to be selected by eight of leading scientific societies in the ptry. pomas A. Edison, who has already jified his willingness to become a bber of this board, will be perhaps best--- known member. Orville ‘the aviator, likewise has agreed ceept a place. 1 this committee is fully organ- any person, no matter what his tion in life may be, will be free to make appointments In accordance with recommendations made by scien- tific societies. This plan was decided upon in the hope that it would enlist the support of such bodies as a whole for the general plan and avoid pos bility of charges of favoritism if Mr. Daniels himself made the selections in the first instance. The eight organizations that have each been asked to nominate two of their members of the advisory board are the American Society of Civil En- gineers, American Chemical ociety, American Institute of Electrical gineers, American Institute of Mining "At the present time we have a small|to secure for its head America’s great | testing station at Annapolis,” said Sec-|inventor, Thomas A. ldison. After Mr. | retary Daniels. “I am hopeful that aft- | Edison accepted the invitation of Se: er the advisory committee for the navy | retary Daniels it was natural that they has had an opportunity to show its|should confer as to further details. usefulness we may be able to construct | This they did. At this conference plans | a great experimental station. If we|were discussed as to how the commit- can show congress the wisdom of ap-|tee should operate. The secretary also| propriating for this experimental and|received the advice of Mr. dison as to| development station I don’t believe we! who should be invited to make up the will have much trouble in getting ap-|committee. | propriations. Already I have had let-| Secretary Daniels then invited eight ters from a number of members of con- | scientific societies in the United States gress who are pleased with the move-|each to name two of their members for they are hoping for is the establish-| €Nt we have started to get new ideas service on the naval advisory board of ment of a great laboratory where may | foF the navy. A United States senator|inventions of which Thomas A. Edison be put to a practical test all ideas and| {0ld me that it was a good thing and| is to be chairman. Engineers, American Mathematical so- inventions which may prove beneficial| he thought congress would be glad| The board will comprise at least sev-| ciety, American Society of Mechanical not only to the navy, but to the army | 0 co-operate. Of course we have got [ ; enteen members and probably more, | Engineers, American Aeronautical and marine corps as well. It is the be-| t0 Work out a definite plan before we|pecause it is Secretary Daniels’ pur-|ciety and the Inventors’ guild lief of Secretary Daniels that the time| ¢30 80 to congress and ask for large|pose to invite other scientific bodies in| In the socicties named and in others is not far off before such a laboratory | aPPropriations.” adadition to those already designated,to|to which invitations of like purpose will be established by the go\'ernn}ent.J Edison Suggests Other Members. nominate scientists for representation|vill be addressed are to be found the What he and Mr. Edison are setting| The first step in the organization of|in the body. most eminent scientists of the United out to do is to show congress the wis-| the naval advisory committce, as the| Secretary Daniels decided after con-| States. It is the belief of Secretary bmit any device or idea to the| dom of such a plant. body has already become known, was 'AMOUS BATTLE PASSES OF THE ALPS @ st Osborne Making Men Over at Sing Sing board. It will then be studied by the navy’s civilian board. If the idea or device is considered at all feasible one of the expert officers of the navy will take it and put it to a practical test. If it proves a success the government will enter into negotiations to purchase it. If it does not it will be tossed aside. May Establish Big Laboratory. At first this will apply only to inven- tions which may be of practical use in the naval service of the government. But neither Secretary Daniels nor Mr. Edison intends to stop here. What s0- | cai the only part of the plan of reform, whieh There had been no fight, as far|is based upon the Mutual Welfare a court of justice which, un-|as they were concerned. Consciously|league. Mr. Osborne founded the like any other court with|or unconsciously, they had reverted to|league at Auburn prison, nearly twe which they had had to do, they be-|the old ethics of the penitentiary, never years ago, after he voluntarily had lieved to be functioning for the highest [to “squeal” upon a comrade. | spent a week in that in _itution as a good of both. There were five judges| Some of the men were lying. The convict. When he became warden of on the bench, a shorthand reporter,|warden explained to them patiently|Sing Sing he brought the idea with rounsel, witnesses and thirty or forty|that the condition of the victim proved| him. Any good he may have accom- spectators in the seats reserved for the beyond doubt that he had been engaged | plished has been by and. through tie public. with more than one assailant. Nor organization. Without it, the warden The case was one of alleged corrup-|could such an affair have taken place! of Sing Sing could never be more than tion in an election. It happens every day? Not at all; for all the participants, from presiding judge to defendant, were convicts in Sing Sing. Their courtroom was the prison chapel. The politics they were triving to keep pure was their own stem of self government. The plain- tiff, an Italian who could neither read nor write English, had asked the aid of a compatriot in filling out a ballot. He wished to vote for a certain man as the representative of his shop in the inmates’ board of delegates, but believed that the defendant had taken advantage of his ignorance to sub- stitute the name of another candidate. A clean cut case. Just how it was decided is of no importance. But it spells a revolution in prison methods. Under the tyranny that Thomas Mott Osborne found in vogue when he took charge of Sing Sing on Dec. 1, 1914, the idea of convicts having a vote on any question would have been con- sidered moonshine. That they might which lasted from the breaking up of the Carolingian empire in the tenth and eleventh centuries until the crystalli tion of the Helvetic republic by poleon Bonaparte's act of mediation in 1803—all these fill the chronicles and make nearly every practicable foot of Swiss territory heroic ground. Historic |in another way is Mount Pilatus | named, as legend tells, because it was the last refuge and burial place of Pon- tius Pilate, the Roman procurator of Tudea, who delivered up Jesus Christ to be crucified. When Napoleon entered Italy he crossed the Alps with an army of 30,- 900 by the Great St. Bernard pass, May 1800. Later he constructed the military road over the Simplon from Brieg, Switzerland. to Domo- dossola, in Italy, and thence to Milan. The Alpine passes. from German Ba- varia and the Austrian Tyrol, and those guarding the gates of the Trentino province—notably the Stelvio, the To- nale and the Toblach, together with Pjoecken and Predil, on the Ttalo-Aus- trian frontier, leading into the upper valley of the Isonzo river—now figure | in the daily war news. The Stelvio pass, aititude 9, feet, is the highest car- riage road in Europe. The Ttalian objectives of Tolmino, Goritz, Gradisca and Monfalcone lie in this order in the Isonzo valley, be- tween the Predil pass, near Pontebba, in the Carnic Alps, and Trieste, on the Adriatic. Since Italy entered the war, her troops that they had even seen the HE other day a plaintiff and|admit “confederates” and Austrian oppressors, defendant faced each other in| fight. so a kindly autocrat. He might do away with some abuses, but his charges would remain enemies of society, upon Photos by American Press Association. 4 whom society was revenging Itself, One of the passes in the Alps and General Cadorna, Italian commander. HE legendary Alps, with their famous battle passes, once again loom large on the war map of Iurope. Switzerland becomes an overshadowing interroga- tion point. Her mountains and the men behind them for twice a thousand years have been the rocks on which empires | have split. Will K ory now repeat it- selt? ‘With Italy’s aggressive dash into the fray the Alpine frontiers of the four | great belligerent powers surrounding | the bold, rugged and independent little | republic of Switzerland assume unprec- | pibal's dented strategic importance. The Al- | pine barriers of today are the same that | have challenged the enterprise. re sources and courage of mighty wa ors of the ages—Hannibal, Caesar, | Ronanarta and Garihaldi Carn Already among the Swiss-Itali lakes a new generation of Garibaldian “Cacciatori Alpini” are advancing upon their hereditary foe in the Trentino. and the boom of siege guns in the hil around Garda recalls Napoleon's v tory over the Austrians at Rivoli. Irom the Cottian chain marking tl boundary of France in the west to the » and Julian Alps north and east of the Adriatic, in Austria, ther literally a thousand passes and routc of more or less note. The Iineyclopae- dia Britannica categorically enumer- ates severa! hundred of them. Mont Cenis pass have been Han- route when, in the e 218 B O the Carthaginian congieror invaded | italy with a large army, half of which he lost amid the Alpine sne The conques® of some by Augustus, the desultory war Maciaman Ttk - A A Alpine tribes | re of | the outset. k len under General Cadorna, chief of staff, have advanced into Austrian territory at more than a dozen points along the irregular, mountainous frontier line from the Stelvio pass to the westward of the Trentino to the gulf of Trieste the east. All these movements, converged toward the main ‘tive, which is the Adriatic ste, and incidentally the towns—principaily Tol- mino, rlise ri Monfalcone —along the Isonzo river. The prin- cipal gates of entry from Ttaly into this particular bit of Austrian territory the Ploecken pass and the Predil pass, in the Carnic Alps, which important strategic points the Ialians seized at irther west, mite Aly he Toblach pass has afford- nother ltulian column from Verona ingre y ths Trentino: \ting ith a third force from E enter- ing via the Tonale pass in the Rhaetian on however, Ttalian abj seaport of Tr| territory and and are ©o-0y be trusted to power to acquit or inflict punishment, would fashioned keeper. were governing themselves and holding the s as the cit in the United Stat The this ele not thority warden as a nnle that out he 1 the Dolo- | by no means discouraging. the boiler shop had been badly pounded | in a fight inv found silence [Fass try their fellows, with fairly terrified the old In four months they have les of justice at least as evenly | sens of any free community not s heard. to an higher court becomes so present when e does make his au- appeal to the is taken, or tangled warden wa ion ecase it desi felt unless W find e a problem the p for themselves. had to interfere The last in which was serious, but | A man in}| nd laid up in hospital. An tigation was opened, but the court elf baffled by a conspiracy of | The sixty odd members of ailar manad daclines without many in the shop. S, as well as those who had been in the fig 2t, were lying. Emphasis is laid on the prisoners'| court at Sing Sing becaus Attt Aea Photcs by American Press Association oners cannot straighten it | View of Sing Sing and Warden Thomas Mott Osborne. attracting the attention of The silent witness of ite fun- ‘Vhls mistake in time while stupidly depriving them of any incentive to come to terms. With the, league he is able to reclaim much waste human material by restoring to men their self respect and hope for the future, and by teaching them the lessons in citizenship which their pre ence in jail that they did mot learn outsid At Sing Sing it is a republic withih the prizon walle embracing all but & handful of the 1,700 inmates. Its forr 1d methods of opera- tion decided upon the men themselves. In Mr, Osborne's earliest conception of the movement he thought that a board of reformers from the out- side would hate to evolyve a scheme and impose it ready made upon those whom it was to benefit. He realized Since self - ernment was to be the mest important feature of the league It was impera- tive that its members should be free proves its constitution a were by =4 anuman | tn ahands hoaw thew should ha governed.