THE NENANA DAILY NEWS
Application made April 1, 1918, at the postoffice at Nenana, Alaska,
for eniry as second class mail matter, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
“WHERE RAIL AND RIVER MEET”
Published every afternoon except Sunday, by the Nenana Printing
Company, at First and B Streets, Nenana, Alaska.
R. G. Southworth.....Editor and Manager
RATES OF SUBSCRIPTION
Single Copies.......Two Bits
By the Month, by Carrier or Mail .._.$ 2.00
Six Months, if paid in Advance .... 9.00
One Year, if paid in advance....-.. 15.00
ADVERTISING RATES
Transient Display Advertising, per inch, per issue—...$ .50
Minimum Charge ......... 1.00
Reading Notices, per line, per issue.25
Legal Advertising, per line, per issue.. .20
MEMBER OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Associated Press is exclusively entitled to the use for re-pubii
cat:on of all news dispatches credited to it or not otherwise credited in
this paper and also all the local news published herein.
PIONEER SHIPBUILDERS
New ship ways, towering trestles,
spreading shops, fields of steel
and the incessant clamor, day and
night of automatic riveters, great
steam hammers and whirring ma
chinery are the symbols of war-time
shipbuilding at Newport News, where
deep sea craft have been turned
out since the '80’s.
In this great plant 12,000 men
and women are working at top
speed. Sliding quietly from the
ways, without a semblance of the
ceremony that attended launching
in the days of peace, ship after
ship has been built and floated only
to lose itself in the maze of com
merce at this gateway to the At
lantic and to the fields of France.
When the war-time history of the
Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry
dock company is written, it will be
an interesting chapter in the rom
ance. of the destroyer. It will tell
how farmer boys from the rolling
plains of the West, who had never
seen a ship, and women whose only
experience with metals had been
in the handling of pots apd pans,
answered the call of their country
to build many of the destroyers
which steadily are removing the
menace of the submarine and keep
ing opc-n the lanes through which
the millions of American soldiers
are going to the Western front.
How well these men. and women
have done their work under the
guidance of skilled workers, is dem
onstrated by the fact that every
destroyer turned out has more than
met the express-train speed required
under the navy contract. And it is
no secret, at least not here, that
the finished ships which have gone
into the war zone have given a good
account of themselves even as the
Fanning and other pre-war products
of this yard have added new' laurels
to American naval records.
W hile all possible energy is going
into the building of the “biidge of
ships” to France and their guard
ians, the expansion of this plant
into one of the world’s greatest
shipyards is planned for after-the
war needs as well as for those of
the present. Shop after shop has
been built and cranes and other
labor saving devices installed so that
when peace comes, foreign yards
may be met in the great race that
is inevitable for the restoration of
destroyed tonnage.
Even now, there are in the build
ing two of the largest shipways in
America. Here, after the war, will
be laid down two of the monster
battle cruisers Congress authorized
in 1916, designed as the fastest and
most powerful ships of their type
on the sea.
Nearby these new ways, four
emergency ways have been thrown
up on ground “made” within the
year On these emergency ways
naval vessels are building and more
will follow when these are launched.
A few hundred yards away more
fighting ships are building, two and
three to on set of ways. On still
other stocks merchant ships and
other craft are being put together.
Turbines largely have supplanted
the old-style reciprocal drive engine
and it is on these that women have
been pressed into service, perform
ing the delic e work of finishing
t’ e myriad brass paddles against
which tne steam strikes to revolve
the turbine drum, much as water
runs a mill wheel
In the yard dispensary, where
men who are injured are treated,
nurses and doctors are constantly
on duty. A band gives concerts in
the yard each noon.
Housing has been the greatest
problem. Two miles beyond the
city on a high bluff overlooking
the river is rising a new city to
be peopled exclusively by shipyard
workers. High wages are the rule
as at other yards, with riveters,
many of them negroes, making es
high at $25 and $30 a day. Loyalty
is preached in season and out.
In peace times this yard com
pleted merchant ships in six months
or less, but it is bettering that now
even as it has more than cut in
half the time for turning out de
stroyers. Officials and workmen
alike have ever before them on a
bronze tablet set in the side of a
stone column the words of the
founder of the yard, the late Collis
P. Huntington, master railroad and
ship builder in the nation’s pioneer
days:
“Here we will build good ships;
at a profit if we can, at a loss if
we must, but always good ships.”
Behind ^he screen of swift-moving
tanks, armored motor cars and cav
alry, the assault divisions rush into
the German positions, occupying
trenches, stamping out isolated nests
of resistance and collecting the
masses of prisoners. The infantry
necessarily move more slowly than
the mobile assault forces, but when
one takes into account the width
of the usual thrust operation nowa
days and its depth, the movement
is wonderfully fast, and a day’s
operations, if successful, mean the
occupation of many square miles
of territory.
In particular, speed has been ap
plied to the movement of artillery,
which is the vital thing in holding
the positions won. Mechancial im
provements have been applied to
gun tractors so that now guns can
be brought up in a quarter of the
time that was necessary a few
months ago In the same way the
tank has become a mobile gun bat
tery. able to fire as it advances.
Motor transport is the essential
factor in concentrating infantry.
Food, ammunition, water and all
supplies are carried up in motor
trucks.
As fast as the line moves, the
engineers are busy extending the
light railways, and as fast as the
rails are laid, they begin to carrv
their burden of supplies and ammu
nition. Many miles of track can
now be laid by a single section of
engineers in a day, and by the even
ing after a successful attack, the
late field of battle is criss-crossed
with line after line of steel rails,
all hard at work consolidating and
preparing for a further step for
ward.
As speed of attack develops on
the Allied side, so the helter-skelter
character of the German movement
in the opposite direction must in
crease. The effect of a sudden
push-back on the German line is like
the impact of a locomotive on a
train of freight cars—the shock
drives the farthest freight car far
thest back. The effect of the Allied
blow is immeasurably enhanced by
the speed with which it is delivered.
1,185,000 tons of sugar will be
saved the first year if each of us
uses one ounce less each day. This
will keep sugar plentiful and cheap.
GERMANS SAVE
i MANPOWER NOW
AS ARMY FADES
_
WITH THE AMERICAN’S.—Con- j
servation is the word one hears com
ing over the German lines now. Al
: ways economical, the Germans are
1 savinp now more than ever before
j in their manpower. Since the day
| the Germans started backward from
: the Marne they have been conserv
! inp their numbers as never before
and they have done it in a most ad-:
; mirable manner. But it has been '
1 at the expense of positions,
j The German losses in men have |
| not been so great as might have
1 been expected. In the fighting north )
of the Marne the retreat was skil- j
fully planned and carried out in a {
manner that excited admiration.'
Machine guns were substituted for
men at almost every point and the
way in which the German army built
around that particular bit of ord
nance has been very thoroughly
demonstrated
j Every backward step of the enmy
i was guarded by the automatic guns.
I Get back the artillery and the bulk
j of the infantry was the order re
; peated in the German army as the
i French and Americans prodded them
i In almost every instance the rear-1
| gnard action meant the resistance of!
i little machine gun units and because 1
of the clever manner in which the ■
! “nests” were placed they were able |
1 to hold their own long enough to!
enable the main armies behind them!
to fall back.
They were not always placed in j
tlines but left here and there just!
over the brow of a hill or in the
deep woods, on the ground and in
the trees and almost always skill
fully camouflaged. But always,
their disposition was co-ordinate. In
the end it was up to every machine
gun crew to fight its own way out
; or to resist to the last, until swept
away by the Allies’ artillery or over
by their tanks or infantry, but they
. were so placed that until that time
came their fire was so directed that
, it swept very effectively the ad
vancing lines. The Germans have
lost thousands of their machine guns
by such tactics, but they saved pro
portionately in men.
It is this evident intention to save
manpower, so different from their
attitude eariler in the war, that has
gone far towards convincing many
that their big military machine is
cracking and that they will not be
able to withstand a winter campaign.
SWISS TO PROTECT GOODS
FROM THE GERMANS
WASHINGTON, D. C.—Regula
tions intended to prevent German
| owned firms with factories in
Switzerland from exporting their
product under the guise of Swiss
goods after the war. have been
adopted by Swiss chambers of com
merce in connection with the estab
! lishment of a new national trade!
mark for all Swiss exports.
The regulations provide that use I
of the trade mark be confined to
firms two-thirds of whose capital is
Swiss and to goods that actually
are made in Switzerland exclusively
by the Swiss. It is known that
many firms operating in the country
which are ostensibly Swiss, have
been established by German capital,
or acquired from their original
owners by German manufacturers
in order that an apparently neutral
outlet might be secured for German
made goods in the post-war period.
The president of the Geneva Cham
ber of Commerce is quoted in ad
vices receiced here as stating that
control of these will not be easy,
but that the chamber is alive to
the probability of improper use of
the trade mark, and Swiss manu
facturers are being asked to bring
cases of this kind to official notice.
Millions of moths recently swarm
ed into Seward from some place un
known. They were found hanging
in all sorts of places, especially
where lights were turned on. The
insects were of the regular cloth
eating variety. Oldtimers claim;
never to have seen anything like' it. j
MONUMENT WILL
BE ERECTED TO
HONOR YANKEES
PARIS.—In memoriam to the first
three soldiers of the American army
who fell in action on November 3,
1917, a monument consisting of a!
tall granite column designed by
Louis Majorelle will be erected at
Batheiement, located in the sector
where the heroes fell
One side of the shaft will be en
graved with the following inscrip
tion :
“Sons of their great and glorious
country, they fought for liberty
and civilization against German im
perialism. the scourago of the human
race. They died on the field of
honor."
On another side will be inscribed I
the names of the heroes as follows:]
“Corporal J. B. Gresham, Evans
ville.
“Private Thomas P. Enright,, j
Pittsburg.
“Private Merle Hay, Glidden.”
The cross of Lorraine is sculp
tured on another side. It is en
circled in a symbolical wreath. The
cross bears the inscription, “France
United States 1917; from Lorraine
to the United States.”
Bathlement was in the direct line
of fire in the operation in which
the three Americans participated.
It has not been thought appropriate
to erect the column on the exact
spot where the heroes fell. The
work of providing the recognition
was supervised by M Mirman, pre
fect of the department Meurthe-et
Moselle, where Bethlemont is located.
A reproduction of the monument
will be placed in Nancy and a fac
simile sent to William G. Sharp, the
United States ambassadar to France.
FRANCE USING LAUNCHES !
IN RAM Hi SUBS
A French Atlantic Port.—France!
in her work of safeguarding the
coast from mines and submarines
is using a large number of motor1
launches of the standardized Ameri-'
can type which came over under'
their own steam with a loss of only '
one out of fifty
One of the most successful boats
used for the work is the canonniere J
which, working with Diesel engines, 1
can steam 3,000 miles at ten knots'
an hour without refuelling, and so j
could cross to the United States I
under its own power. The craft j
carries guns big enough to deal with j
any submarine, as well as depth;
charges, and its low draught en-1
ables it to travel over minefields1
that would wreck a destroyer. The;
average size of this vessel is about
400 tons.
For mine-sweeping the French use !
an economical form of trawl. The
sweep is towed astern, being held
out by floats, and the trawl itself j
has ingenious under-water appliances
for keeping it at the required
depth, and a new device for cutting
a mine adrift whenever it touches
the trawl line.
The fact that one outfit is drill- j
ing for oil in the Seward peninsula
is interesting a good many others
who believe they know somewhere
on the Peninsula there are “seepage
indications." Some of these have
expressed their intention of doing j
some exploratory work at an early
date. It would give the cheechacoes ;
the surprise of their life if in the
eleventh hour of Nome's depression
oil was struck and the camp started
to booming. Stranger things have
happened.
FOR SALE, CHEAP—Large tank.
heater and pipe drum; flush toilet, j
good as new: also sink. Inquire'
Simson's.
i *
:•
fwff c
WXR. SA'ISGS STAMPS
I13UZD BY THE
VNITSa STATES
COVE1INMXMT
//e/p
Your
Uncle
Sam
with
War
Savings
Stamps
Good any time
Good all the time
Insure good times
Walter Ahrens of Nome, v»ho
shipped on the Sea Wolf out of
Nome, recently elected to remain in
Anadir, Siberia, when the schooner
reached that port, and all efforts
on the part of the officers of the
ship to induce hin\ to return to
Nome proved unavailing. Ahrens
said that he would try his luck pros
pecting in that section. whence
goodly reports were received from
those already engaged in mining
there.
WANT ADS
WANTED—Lady for work at tha
Nenana Club Apply to Mrs. M
J. Cooney.
DOG FISH- -8e a pound. Johnson's
Store. 13
FOR SALE - Panoramic views of
the town of Nenana in 1916 and
1917; taken by Johnson, of Fair
hanks, from hill overlooking the
town. Apply at News office.
LOST—Pair of nose glasses last
night at fire. Finder please leave
at News office. Reward.
FOR SALE—Horse and fine basket
sleigh. Apply A. J. Ghezzi.
Keep Out the Cold—Felt 3 trips
For Doors and Windows, 25c and 50c
st Anderson Bros. & Norland.
CHOP SUEY
Chicken Noodles
at the
Northern Cafe
I
Dr. R. R. MYERS
DENTIST
ARCTIC HOTEL
s
RUST HOUSE
Mr*. Ed. William*, Prop.
A and FIFTH STREETS
ROOMS AND BOARD
ROOMS 75c and $1.00
Coffee and Doughnut* 25c
DOG KENNELS
Don’t Leave
ALASKA
4
Men wanting employment can
obtain work at good wages at
Juneau, Kennecott and Latouche.
If you go out you will only
come back ‘'But*ed" in tke spring
TAKE EMPLOYMENT FOR THE
WINTER.
Two hundred men wanted at
Juneau and vicinity; one hundred
and fifty at Latoucbe and
Kennecott.
ALASKA PUBLICITY
BUREAU
Juneau Alaska.
Skof House
UKDER NEW MANAGEMENT
Mrs Norman Campbell
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