Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The monitor. (Omaha, Neb.) 1915-1928 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 22, 1920)
WORLD'S BIGGEST NITRATE PLANT Mammoth Explosives Factory in Alabama Built in Eight Months. ALL SPEED RECORDS BROKEN Could Supply 13 Per Cent of Aires’ Needs Had War Continued. By GARRET SMITH. Lifting the ban of war secrecy has Just now brought to light for the first time one of the most stupendous feats of construction In history—the plan ning and building In less than one year of the largest ammonium nitrate plant in the world and of a city around It for the housing of its 25,000 workmen and their families. At the same time is revealed one of the chief reasons why Germany suddenly surrendered a year ago. The German high command knew that the United States was ready at Muscle Shoals, Alabama, to manufacture 13 per cent of all the high explosives needed by all the A1 lied armies on all fronts in the expect ed drive of the following spring. The first person on construction work reached Muscle Shoals on No vember 26, 1917. On February 16, 1918, ground was first broken for a permanent plant building. On Octo ber 26, 1918, eight months and eight days later, the manufacturing plant had begun the production of ammo nium nitrate. When America entered the world war in April, 1917, she had no means of producing the enormous quantities of high explosives necessary to pro vide the huge army she planned to raise. The very fact that our indus tries were already worked to capacity providing ammunition to the allies seemed to make further production for our own use Impossible. Fertilizer Process Turned to War Use. At this Juncture the Ordnance De partment turned to cyanamld, a com mercial fertilizer, which had for some years been produced successfully at Niagara Falls, by a process the Ameri can rights of which were obtained In 1907 from Germany by Frank Sher man Washburn, head of the American Cyanamld Company. By this process cyanamld was pro duced by extracting nitrogen from the air and combining it with calcium ob tained from limestone rock and carbon from coke. By putting cyanamld through three more processes both am monia and nitric acid can be extracted from it and combined Into the explo sive, ammonium nltrnte. Mr. Wash burn was invited to present plans and estimates for the construction in the shortest possible time of an ammonium nitrate plant at Muscle Shoals. Ala bama, and a contract between his com pany and the United States was enter ed into under date of November 16. 1917. To have general supervision of plan nlng and carrying out the work an or ganization known as the Air Nitrates Corporation was formed to act as agent of the Ordnance Department. This corporation provided the general designs, supervised all the work and operated the camp, the town and the plant. Tt also installed all equipment In the chemical plant. The various other sections of the work were sub let to organizations that were special ists In the directions In which they were asked to help. New City Built From the Ground. It was necessary to hulld a new town to house the laborers. For this Job Westlnghouse Church Kerr Com pany was called In as contractor. This company also built the buildings of the chemical plant. Within four months 12.000 workmen hHd been assembled and a city capable of accommodating 25.000 Inhabitants had been completed, with lodging, restaurants, stores, of fices, police headquarters, schools, fire departments, hospitals, motion picture theaters, electric light and sewerage systems. The construction of the plant proper was begun on February 16, 1918. .Tust eight months and eight days later the big plant began a steady output of am monium nitrate. The plant contains 118 permanent buildings, with a roof area of over 26 acres. To provide the electric current II was necessary to build a steam power electric plant, for It would have taken three years or more to complete the dam and hydro-electric station now un der way. This plant, built by the J. G. White Corporation, Is one of the larg eet steam plants for developing elec rrleal energy In the world. Th' output of the plant Is 300 tons of ammonium nitrate a day, and this can be produced at Muscle Shoals at a cost less than one-half the standard fixed price paid by the Government for am monium nitrate produced by other methods and one-fourth to one-fifth the cost of other high explosives of equal strength. Compared with the older process of making ammonium nitrate, the snvlngs made by this plant would have paid the $60,000,000 cost of the entire plant In about one and one-half years of operation. As a military weapon It Is one of the wisest and most economical expendi tures that the Ordnance Department has undertaken. As an agent In stop ping the war and as a future protec tion to the country Its value Is Incalcu lable. . _ BIRD’S SONG IDENTIFIES IT Once Heard, One la Not Apt to Forget the Trill of the Beautiful Dickcissel. As far as we are informed, there Is but one American bird whose song can be heard above the roar and rattle of a swiftly moving train, when the re ceiving end is on the said train. You may be "Jazzing" along at sixty ' cr seventy miles an hour In your com fortable Pullman seat, and over the tremendous bum and racket of the steel caravan will come to you from the little feathered fellow on the tele graph wire outside the Incessant song of hot-weather Joy. “Dick! Dick! Dickcissel!" Or. if yon prefer another analysis: “Chip! Chip! Chee-chee-chee!” So the Dickcissel has a distinct stunt of his own—something that no other bird can imitate or rival. Some times we think Dick is_ a bit proud of It, too, for he lines the railway right of way clear across the middle west ern and plains states in such numbers his song is ever In our ears while you are traveling. The Dickcissel was formerly called the block-throated bunting nnd is a very beautiful creature ns well as very useful. He is mostly of a rich yellow hue, with a black throat—but nobody need Identify him by his dress, for his song Is Inimitable. In our experience we never heard any of :he mocking birds attempt to imitate the “Chip! ! Chip! Chee-chee-chee!" of the hot weather friend. He is really a salamander of tfie air, too, for he is late in arriving and early in departing, and does his best vocal stunts when you and I are gasp ing beneath an electric fan. He eats lots of bugs and weed seeds and ts a mighty good citizen.—Omaha NWirld Herald. — POETS BRAVE FIGHTING MEN Writers of Deathless Lines Also Won Immortality on the Bloody Fields of Battle. What power have the sacred Nine over their loved ones to make poet* take to war? Sidney, writer of deathless lines, died a gallant soldier. Dante defended his tenets in arms. Byron contracted a mortal fever help ing to free Greece from her tyranny, and Burns was a member of Scotch dragoons, with no opportunity arising for heroics that marked him a soldier. He was, however, valiant, and left what is probably the greatest war ; poem in all poetry, “Scots Wha Hae I Wi’ Wallace Bled !” And now out of the great defenders | of humanity in the war just being ' straightened out comes D'Annunzio, j Italy’s bard, fighting the fight of a cap j tain who will hold out “If it lasts all 1 summer!” Joyce Kilmer sleeps in France. Allan Seeger is proud “a few brave i drops were ours.” And Robert Service was at the front bringing In the mangled, and has given us a poem in his “Rhymes of a Red i Cross Man,” entitled “Grand Pere," that will make the bravest shudder. O, ye, who called the land to arms, ye hypocrites that gave an outburst of line fire with your pens, redden with shame and bow an humble head to these who, as Edwin Markham says, | “fought the poetry they sang."*—Mil I waukee Sentinel. _ Land Question in Chile. The land question, particularly as It relates to the Indians, has of late been ! receiving attention from those inter ested in the future of ChUe. The tendency has been to take every ad i vantage of these natives, who, despite the many handicaps that official und unofficial greed have placed in their way, are admitted to be making sub stantial progress. They have, as might have been expected, shown themselves particularly proficient in agriculture and cattle breeding. Crying evils in the administration of the lands have been pointed out in the public press, but as yet the authorities do not seem to be sufficiently Interested In remedy ing a state of affairs that does much to alienate the sympathies of an im portant, if subordinate, part of the population. Preserving American Scenery. While the members of the Associ ated Mountaineering Clubs of North Aiserica are not all devoted to moun taineering, they have a common bond of Interest In the preservation of American scenery and In the protec tion of plant and bird life In their natural environment. The association Is co-operating with the national park service for the creation and develop ment of national parks and ‘•monu ments." A line collection of litera ture on mountaineering has been form ed by the association at the New York public library and bibliographies are being compiled and published. When this organisation was founded In 1910, It embraced nine clubs and societies. Now there were 29 and the aggregate membership Is over 45,000. Bombarding Sky With Name*. By means of new wireless Invention It will be possible to project sounds Into the air which will enable an avi ator to know exactly where he Is. For example, suppose he were passing over Calgary, from the moment he approached the region be would re ceive the message “This is Calgary" until he had left it behind him. And so on with all places over which he may pass. In this way his chances of losing his way will be considerably diminished. THIS CITY BUILT WHILE YOU WAIT Fourth Largest Town in Alabama Full Grown in One Year. HAD A MODEL GOVERNMENT Permanent Settlement Around U. S. Nitrate Plant Presented Unusual Problems. By GARRET SMITH. The fourth largest city In Alabama, peopled with 25,000 souls> of diverse races and religions, uprooted from far scattered communities In every part of the United States and Canada sprang into being almost overnight around the great new government am rnonium nitrate plant down on the open cotton and coni fields at Muscle Shoals on the Tennessee Kiver during the last year of the World War. Here was a problem In city building, munic- j Ipal government and continuity wel fare that has seldom been equalled and the success of Its solution has never been excelled. The Job was In the hands of the Air Nitrates Corporation which had been organized under the direction of the Ordnance Department to build plant and city ut Muscle Shoals. Karly in j January, 1918, this new town had a few temporary buildings and a popu lation of 300. Tide had Jumped by the middle of August to more than 21,000. A population multiplied by 70 In 7 j months. In the management of ths new towns and army cantonments that sprang up during the wur th,<> old- | time evils that attended the growth of mushroom cities have been avoided by the application of modern welfare systems. But nowhere were condi tions more difficult than at Muscle Shoals Here was a malarial region threatened at the same time with other deadly disease epidemics. Trans portation was lacking. No nearby labor was available and the general labor shortage was at Its most acute stage. Costs of labor and supplies were leaping over night. Furthermore, Muscle Shoals differed from all the other new war towns inasmuch as it was to be permanent. New Government Devised. The managers, besides city govern ment, had to handle the entire retail business of the town. A camp super visor's department was put in charge of the maintenance of all buildings, fire protection and sanitation. The camp supervisor looked after every thing from the mending of a lock to the remodeling of groups of buildings j or laying sewers or steam mains. For the bachelor contingent a commissary department was necessary. The business department managed the stores, canteens, motion picture theaters, |>ool parlors, tailor shops, dry cleaning establishments, barber shops, newsstands, a hotel, a vegetable farm mid a hog funn where 1,000 hogs were raised on the wastes from eat ing places. It maintained a slaughter house where these hogs were put through the regular packing house course. It operated a laundry which cleaned 7,493 pieces a day. Then ; there was a real estate department that rented and managed the family quarters and a housing department which assigned to quarters everybody excepting the families. Under separate Jurisdiction from Its community director were the police. The health department. In charge of a physician from New York city, started with a small office In one of the temporary buildings, and was soon full grown and splendidly equipped. Conditions were favorable to disease. The winter waa the severest on record in northern Ala bama. The men were compelled to work either in deep snow or mud above (heir knees. As a result a pneumonia epidemic developed among the Negroes that spring. I^ter In the year a typhoid epidemic was threatened. Moreover, the site of the plant waa In the heart of the malaria district But the pneumonia epidemic was checked, the typhoid threat nipped In the bud, and malaria stamped out A Health Record Established The little flrat-ald hospital present ly grew to a complete modern Institu tion with a nurses' home and a sep arate dispensary for dental, eye, ear, nose, throat, genlto-urlnary clinics and • surgical dispensary for first-a Id work. During tha eight montha when the death rate was not affected by the in fluenza and pneumonia epidemlca the general health rate was 12.4 per thou sand per year, which Is lower than in most cities in the ssme latitude and climate, and the pneumonia death rate during the epidemic was lower than in moat army cantonments. Much of the success of the health administration is due to the establish ment of the Muscle Shoals sanitary district by the United States Public Health Service. The education and welfare depart ment also had a vital work to perform. There wus a school population of over 1,000. The Secretary of War created the community organization branch of the Ordnance Department which, with advice and aid of some of the greatest school men of the country, prescribed the courses of study and recruited teachers from the beat e* tnbllshed systems. ANOTHER DAVIS JURY HAS BEEN DISCHARGED Unable to Reach an Agreement After Forty-Seven Hours* Deliberation —Vote Was Eight to Four. After forty-seven hours’ delibera tion the jury which heard the second trial of George Davis, 1512 North Twenty-eighth street, charged with assault with intent to murder Mayor Smith during the court house riot, re ported that it was unable to reach an agreement and was discharged at 4:45 Monday by Judge Redick. The vote stood eight to four throughout the entire time the jurors deliberated, they reported, but no in dication was given as to whether the majority was for conviction or ac quittal. Judge Redick called the jury in at 2 o’clock and inquired if there was any possibility of an agreement. “I don’t believe there is the slight est chance of a verdict, your honor," replied the foreman. “Your honor, I am convinced that we could stay in there for a year without coming any nearer to an agreement," said one of the othei jurors. Judge Redick then inquired if there was any disposition on the part of any juror to refuse to discuss the case. The foreman said there was not, but that there had been no change in the vote since the first ballot was taken. Judge Redick then sent the men back to the jury room with a request that they try again to reach a verdict. At 4:45 they were again called in and discharged. County Attorney Shot well said Dav is will probably be placed on trial a third time, but that he could not say definitely. Charges of conspiracy to murder William Brown, the Negro who was lynched by the mob, and unlawful as semblage and rioting are also pend ing against Davis. Davis’ first trial resulted in a dis agreement of the jury December 30. MAGAZINE COMPLIMENTS NEGRO NAVIGATORS “That Negroes Can Be Good Navi gators and Seamen Has Been Known From the Hays of Egypt’s Maritime Glory”—“Negro Masters Have Commanded Trading Ships in the British, French, Portuguese, Brazilian and Long Distance Trades —Most of the West Indian Pilots Are Colored.” Half a century ago ocean-going vessels were navigated by white men exclusively and persons of a darker hue could only find employment in a subordinate capacity on the ships which sailed the seven seas. Nowa days steamers manned by Japanese officers and sadors predominate in the Pacific and are to be found in all quarters of the globe. With the ad vent of the Black Stars Line, which is to be owned, controlled and manned by black men exclusively, the erst while monopoly of the white race in the shipping field is threatened from another quarter__ That Negroes can be good navi gators and seamen has been known from the days of Egypt’s maritime glory. The Krumen, famous through out the West coast of Africa as mar iners, habe furnished many recruits for British war and merchant ships. In more recent days Negro masters have commanded trading ships in the British, French, Portuguese and Bra zilian coasting and long-distance trades. Most of the West Indian pilots are colored and Caribbean crews are almost universally black. There is nothing in the record of the black race, therefore, to justify doubts as to their being capable navi gators. But success of the Black Star Line as a trading venture and as an instrumentality of disposing of goods made by Americans to African Negroes will depend on the business ' acumen displayed by its backers. In these days of intense Negro race- j consciousness the furtherance by the , black people of America of trade re- ] lations between themselves and their kin in other countries should result in some interesting developments.— The Nautical Gazette. MANY FOREIGN STUDENTS IN AMERICAN COLLEGES The University of Wisconsin Alone Has Representatives From Fifteen Countries—China Leads List. Madison, Wis., Jan. 19.—Exactly eighty-six foreign students, repre senting fifteen countries, are attend ing the University of Wisconsin this year, making 1 per cent of the total enrollment, according to figures just compiled. China leads the list with twenty-four students; Nomay is sec ond with seventeen, and the Philip pine Islands rank next with fourteen; Canada sends nine; France, five; Japan, five; India, two; Peru, two; Porto Rico, two, and Armenia, Bra zil, England, Guatemala, Colombia and Iceland, one each. Iceland has never sent a student to Wisconsin before. The largest number of foreign stu dents heretofore enrolled at the uni versity was sixty-nine in 1916-17. In the year 1917-18, fifty-three foreign students attended the university. Amusements for Employees. The secret of having thoughtful care for the amusement of employees Is pot a new discovery. It has been In use for more thnn a generation by one of the most successful department store proprietors now in this country. The "Bon Marche” also introduced the Idea in Paris years ago. New York merchants arrange picnics and dances 'or their wontun und man clerks. Be kind. FOR COLORED. I have a number of bargains in houses, 4, 5 and 7 rooms; well located, and able to sell for $150.00 and up, cash; balance monthly payments.— Davis, Webster 2420.—2t Words That Mean Much. The sonorous opening of Lincoln's Gettysburg speech, “Four score nnd seven yours ngo.” Is not equivalent to eighty-seven years ngo! Prose hnth her harmonies, no less thiin poetry. It Is such subtleties that moke up the full effect of literary expression. “Vletnnls" Is not equivalent to "food,” “dealhlessness" Is not the same as “Immortality”— ns Lowell showed when he suggested that we try con verting Wordsworth's title, "Intimn tlons of Immortality” into "Hints of Deathlessness.”—North American Re view. Puzzle for the Jury. Here Is n summing up which Is hard to beat for succinctness; “Gentle men of the jury; In this case the counsel on both sides are unintelli gible, the witnesses Incredible, nnd the plaintiffs and defendants are both such had character* that to me It Is a matter of Indifference how you give your ver dict.” Two Things Seemed Evident. An Irishman was brought up for Stealing darks. The evidence against him was overwhelming, yet witnesses followed on each other’s heels to tes tify to his white and blameless life and ids stainless character. “Oentle men of (he Jury:” the judge summed up, “I think you will agree with me that the prisoner stole the ducks, and that he is the most popular man in the county.” MAKE THIS BANK YOUR BANK SAVE YOUR MONEY and then get INTEREST On it in our SAVINGS DEPARTMENT New Entrance S. W. Corner 16th and Farnam Sts. First National Bank 16th and Farnam jj January Sales at jj jl Thompson-Belden & Co. := SUBSTANTIAL SAVINGS £ On the Best Grades Jj s of Merchandise. Ir •: v THE MONARCH DANCE HALL 109 South 11th Street—Upstairs (HOME OF POPULAR PRICED DANCES) The University Boys Will Give a Dancing Party Every Friday Evening MUSIC BY PERKINS’ JAZZ ORCHESTRA j We pride ourselves with having the best dance floor in the city. Our motto: Courteous treatment to all; no rowdyism tolerated. We Solicit Your Patronage. ADMISSION 35 CENTS i Call Webster 5743 for Rates. CLARK & JONES, Proprietors. I When on the South Side I I Eat at I I McGill & Davis Restaurant I I 2516 Q ST. I HH hi I “The Home of the Big 25c Meal” I jB No better coffee made than ours. H ■ Home made pies like mother’s. X X Meal tickets $3.75, good for $4.00. X I Tobacco, Cigars and Soft Drinks in Connection I I Don’t stay out of a job. See us. We are employment agents for the packing X X plants. U R Welcome at our new, up-to-date location—2516 Q Street. X