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
