!!;’T!^!n31!!M!l!»HWBiniiiMPiroOTHB!lilSi!R!iin!®!®ilSi;31:iii’ fX: V'V "M ' . ' '' '
am
1 Under The Camouflage
K INTIMATE WAR EXPERIENCES AND
OBSERVATIONS OF
LOWELL MELLET
(United Press Staff Correspondent)
Khmtiaiiiiniiiniifnminniiiiiniiiniiiiii.iimiiniiinmiimninmiimiiniiniinmmiiimmnifmnettiiiiimimmiHiHimiHHmiittMiiiiiiHiHiiiiiiBiiiinttniiiiiiiiHL.i.M'iui::!, iimih .mm ■
LONDON, Nov, 20. (By Mail).—
Called on Col. House at Chesterfield
House. The library in which affable
secretary and son-in-law Gordon Au
chincloss asked me to wait is the
handsomest room I ever saw. The
Manchester Gnardian man has since
told me the room was as Lord Chester
field himself designed it and that the
portraits forming a border about the
four walls are original Rembrandts and
Van Dycks. Fancy having your in
terior decorating done by those two
gentlemen.
Held short, though solemn, con
verse with the Colonel on matters of
grave import. He told me (deleted
by the author.) I am at liberty to say
also that our foremost Texas citizen
was looking extremely well, not the
least oppressed by the title given him
in the London papers, "Special Am
bassador of President Wilson to the al
lied countries."
One of those machine-tooled Eng
lish servants about which one reads
made the mistake of opening the door,
without having been sent for.
"Please go out,” '.aid the Colonel,!
without raising his voice or breaking
the continuity of his conversation, i
The servant went out like a snuffed'!
candle. It was as though the three
words were three bullets singing past
his ears.
As we departed the Associated Press
reporter remarked:
'That door man is one of the
shrewdest secret service men in
Scotland Yard.”
And I replied with that agility of j
humor which readers of this diary will
learn to admire:
“He’s wasting his time here. Col.
House will never tell him anything.”
We passed out upon the very cob
bled pave where, again according to
the Manchester Guardian man, Dr.
Samuel Johnson was kept cooling his
fat heels by Lord Chesterfield until he
got mad and went off to write his
downright opinion of his lordship.
jjf '**n‘T»Ianftoncd Mrs. Pankhurst, asking)
for an Interview.
“Wbat abut?” she asked.
“Militantism versus National Service
as a Means of Getting the Vote,” I
said.
“That’s an old story,” she responded.
“But some of our suffragists seem
to have revived it.”
“Now, don’t you think you’ll get me
to say anything against your suffrag
ists. They’re fine women.”
When I assured her I shared heri
view, that in fact I’d once or twice!
eaten of pie made by one of the self
same suffragists now reported to bei
decorating a Washington jail cell, she
relented.
“Well, of course, over here we have
found”—she began and talked at some
length.
“That’d made a good interview,” I
urged.
“Well, aren’t you getting it?” she
returned.
I was. But experience in England
having been that an interview is a
thing to be approqched through a
series of formal letters, careful man
euvering, footwork and ring general
ship, I couldn’t believe it.
She didn’t even say she must see
the copy before it was cabled.
LONDON, Nov. 21.—(By Mail)—Had
our regular Wednesday session with
Ambassador Page In his big pleasant
room at the embassy.
"Well, boys, 1 don’t know what I
can tell you,” began the ambassador
in his customary genial way. Then he
proceeded to demonstrate in his equal,
ly customary way that he knew well
what he couldn’t tell us. The ambas
sador is the sort you wouldn’t mind
having for your own personal grand
father, but you’d hate to have your
newspaper career depend on him. He
has made newslessness a subject of
private research.
When the weekly demonstration was
complete to the satisfaction of all, we
turned to the never ending topic of
the censorship.
Last Saturday the U. S. destroyer
- sank a German submarine,
which she had found fervently shell
ing a British merchantman. The epi
sode had various thrilling sidelights
and formed, we thought, just the sort
of story to stir American blood. Cen
sor killed it.
The ambassador was very sympa
thetic. Agreed that the publication of
the news might be a real service at
home; that too much mystery about
the doings of our fleet might have a '
bad effect; that it was unfortunate
that most of the truthful colorful pic-1
ture of the war could not be reflected 1
in the newspapers, remarking that fu
ture historians might find themselves!
limited to the dry unenlightenirog of-!
ficial reports.
The New York Times man was’
rather bitter. “The upshot of the cen
sorship policy,” he declared, “is that
most of the correspondents are writ
ing humorous stuff. People at home
are apt to get the impression that
either this isn’t a serious war or that
wer are a lot of ghouls who can't see
anything but fun in the whole terrible
business."
The ambassador was sympathetic—■
genuinely, without question—but he
didn’t commit himself to the opinion
that the censorship is entirely mis-'
quided.
—
Talked with Admiral Hall at the
admiralty. He wras so enthusiastic
over yesterday’s big advance toward
Cambrai that he couldn’t get his mind
on the navy. They talked about the
jealousy between the navy and the
army, but the admiral was so proud
of the work of the tanks that he in
sisted on referring to their commander
as, “The Admiral.”
We tried our kick about the
destroyer incident on him.
“Did you think of this?” he asked.
We hadn’t. “This” was a phase of
anti-U-boat warfare to remote from the
-’s fight that the connection
between the two never would have
occurred to anybody not responsible
for the whole campaign. We had to
agree that the story really shouldn’t;
be told for a few days yet.
“What I can’t understand,” said
the admiral, “is why our sailors \
thought it necessary to save any G.er-!
man lives.”
“Isn’t that the British practice?”
someone asked.
“Yes,” he answered with a grin, “but;
you shouldn't emulate our weak
nesses.”
-*
SOLDIER INSURANCE PLAN
__
The treasury department issues the
following:
A million checks a month will soon
be going forth from the Bureau of
War-Risk Insurance to safeguard
America’s fighting forces and their
families, according to an announce-'
■ment made recently by Secretary Mc
!Adoo.
To administer the military and naval
insurance act there has been develop-\
ed within the treasury department,
almost overnight, a mammoth war ma
chine—a war machine three months I
old, but already working full blast.
Applications Nearing Four Billions.
Up to January 12 applications for
$3,633,213,000 of insurance had been
received by the military and naval
division of the bureau. This repres
ents 427,811 soldiers and sailors in
sured by the government against
death and total disability. Prom 5,
000 to 15,000 applications are received
daily, and the average amount ap
plied for is well above $8,500, the mini
mum permitted by the act being $1,
000 and the maximum $10,000.
With concerted effort now in pro
gress to make America’s fighting
iorces “100 per cent insured,” these
totals, great as they are, are regarded
as only a beginning. The distribution
of the official insurance certificates
to all persons insured will be started
shortly. The usual elaborate, intri
cate, and lengthy policy has been
abandoned in favor of a simple and
compact certificate, behind which all
the resources of the United States are
arrayed.
Four Measures in One.
The act which the bureau is ad
ministering is in reality four measures
coordinated for a common purpose.
The first is a system of allotments and
allowances, in which the fighter and
the government are partners, for the
care, during the war, of the enlisted
■man’s family. This work alone is
keeping more than 500 persons in the
bureau busy. Fifteen minutes after
the regular day staff finishes work at
4:45 o’clock the night staff comes on,
to work until midnight. The bureau’s
entire night shift numbers about 500
employees.
More than 300,000 allowance and al
lotment checks have already been sent
out by the bureau. Up to December
31, 1917. the bureau had received
about 600,000 of the information blanks
which must be filled out by every en
listed man in the army and navy. In
300.000 of these cases awards were
made, the other enlisted men not hav
ing any dependents entitled to allow
ances under the act. At least $7,500,
000 in monthly allowance and allot
ment payments has already been re
ceived by the families of enlisted men.
The distribution of these checks be
gan on December 22, the first batch
reaching their destination on or be
fore Christmas.
I
Daily Mail Capacity.
As many as 25,000 allotment and al
lowance awards are often made in one
day. The disbursing office can sign
70.000 checks in one day and put more
than 30.000 checks into the mails. The
average allotment and allowance
check amounts to $25 or $30.
In addition to insurance and the
system of allotments and allowances,
the act provides two other measures
of protection. They are the stated
compensation for death and partial
and total disability incurred in the
line of duty, and the program of re
education and rehabilitation for men
disabled in the war. The compensa
tion, paid without regard to rank and
without any cost to the insured, ranges
from $20 to $100 a month.
More Than 1,800 Employees.
To handle this huge task the Bu
reau of War Risks Insurance has had
to expand enormously. More than 1.
800 persons, 75 per cent of them girls
and women, are now on its pay roll.
About half of these girls came to
Washington to answer the call for war
workers. Every state in the Union i3
represented in the organization.
The bureau is housed in the erst
while dance hall above the Center
market, in the marble structure known
the world over as the New National
museum, in the former Washington
home of the Order of the Elks, and in
the capital’s old emergency hospital.
The staff works night and day with
the spirited but well-ordered enthus
iasm of a regiment in the thick of bat
tle.
Patriotism Animates Workers.
In its four scattered homes the bu
reau already occupies approximately
70.000 square feet of floor space. It
is animated only by a desire to keep
pace with its swiftly expanding work,
and to speed up that work in every
way possible. Each claim that is ad
justed, each award that is made, each
check that is written, represents a
vital human problem for some fam
ily. To expedite each award and to
rush each check, that is the paramount
task to which all else must of neces
sity be subordinated.
The stone-age relics and the serene
statuary housed in the main halls of
the National museum were politely
ejected to make room for clattering
batteries of stenographers and typ
ists; the division of mammals was
forthwith commandeered by a crew of
compensation experts; and the solemn
collections of geological exhibits capit.
ulated to the onrushing allotment and
allowance claims; to the Bureau of
War-Rish Insurance the staid audi
torium of the museum, accustomed to
the tread of scholars’ feet, meant only
7.000 more square feet; and soon the
bureau battalions swarmed in with
their heavy artillery of typewriters
multigraphs, and adding machines.
Surrounded by Prized Relics.
Art, science, commerce, and inven
tion mingle with the multiplex activ
ities of the bureau. Beneath the price
less model of Langley’s first flying
machine scores of girls are busily in
dexing and cross-indexing all the en
listed men in the army and navy; be
neath a brilliant painting of “Joffre,
the Glory of France,” a staff of legal
experts is turning out rules and regu
lations; and from the former dance
hall above the Center Market the dis
bursing department, 500 strong, is
sending out hundreds of thousands of
checks, each one of which is a sinew
of war and a tangible proof of Amer
ica’s fairness, far-sightedness, and
generosity in protecting its defenders.
-♦
LIGHT HOUSE SERVICE
MEN ARE COMMENDED
FOR THEIR BRAVERY
(By United Press)
WASHINGTON, Feb. 1.—Perform
ing their duties under unusual and
harduous conditions, braving storms
and waves to save life and property
150 employees in the Lighthouse Serv
ice won commendations for bravery in
1911, secretary of commerce announ
ced today.
Rescues of men from drowning, sav
ing and repairing a damaged govern
ment hydroplane landing on the surf,
and furnishing food and lodging to 115
shipwrecked men, are some of the
feats that have won the commenda
tion of the department of commerce.
BUSH
I “DO YOUR BEST’’
| For the
I
| And Help
WIN THE WAR
. I
-
_ ]
| Special to Mothers 1
f WE WISH TO ANNOUNCE to the MOTHERS’of
Cordova and vicinity that we are adding
to our store an
| Infants’ and Children’s Department
And will give this department the same careful atten
tion and will carry only the most high class merchandise
that the market affords. Any suggestions from the
Mothers pertaining to this department, wouid be greatly
appreciated.
F tT | j
II
r-.. 3
mmmfmtnramHMnttimMmiiHiimum mm! tMLMinni i iiman ..
SL—'VS2E—SSE■■ ■■ ■ i
WESTERN UNION UNIT
WASHINGTON, Feb. 1.—A large
number of old men—fifty to seventy
years—are employed as messengers in
Washington. A French officer, newly
arrived, saluted one is a very deferen
tial manner and turning to his more
experienced companion said:
“To what branch of the service do
these old men belong?"
“The Western Union," his fellow
officer replied.
The Frenchman was satisfied.
--+
Feed our children. Use less cream
so that they may have w’hole milk.
--»
Eat at least one meatless meal a
day.
-«
Conserve food, especially beef,
sugar, fats and waste.
-1
Eat at least one wheatless meal
a day.
I Alaskan Hotel |
ROBERT GOTT8CHALK—Proprietor* |j
“TKe House of Comfort." p
THE BEST EQUIPPED HOTEL IN I
ALASKA |
BARBER SHOP IN CONNECTION. |
Hot and Cold Water, Electric Bells, §.
Electric Lights, Steam Heat, Suites &
With Bath. |
CORDOVA . ALASKA |
The Time’s Want Ads Bring Results j