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About The frontier. (O'Neill City, Holt County, Neb.) 1880-1965 | View Entire Issue (July 15, 1937)
GETTING ACROSS£ nu«4el Celebrating the Opening of a New Bridge In Sydney, Australia. Bridges, or Lack of Them, Have Determined the Course of History Pr«par*<1 by National Geographic Society, Washington, D. C.-WNU Service. THE completion of the new steel bridge across the Golden Gate recalls some of the old metal spans, many of which have been in use for two or more centuries. To England, In 1776. fell the honor of erecting the first iron bridge. There Abraham Darby cast a bridge Bt the Coalbrookdale Iron works and erected it across the Severn. Thomas Telford, a Scotsman who lived between 1757 and 1834, is known to students of engineering the world over for his achievements In canal, harbor, road, and bridge construction. He was engineer for the parliamentary commissioners for road making and bridga build ing In the highlands of Scotland, un der which organization 1,200 bridges were erected. In England he helped build five bridges over the Severn, and was employed on canals and highways by the Swedish and Polish governments. The Menni suspension bridge in Wales, connecting Carnarvonshire with the island of Anglesey, is the ^best-known monument to his plo heerlng genius. It was opened in 3826, after seven years of work, and tas, at that time, the world’s larg it suspension bridge, being 1,710 |Teet long, with a main span of 579 leet. Ancestors of Brooklyn Bridge. Telford was a shepherd’s son. Ap prenticed to a stonemason at fifteen, he studied engineering in his spare time and published verse. A man of amazing industry and versatility, Telford invented the pavement which bears his name. Cables spun in place to swing n suspension bridge were tried in 1831 by Vicat, a French engineer, for a bridge across the Rhone. Later Roebling developed this method at Niagara Falls, Cincinnati, and Anal ly at the Brooklyn bridge. In Europe, os in America, the Nineteenth century saw vast ad vance in iron bridge building, espe cially stimulated by new railways. The Newcastle and Berwick railway alone required 110. Progress in de sign sometimes was costly. A new iron bridge across the Firth of Tay, near Dundee, Scotland, collapsed in a gale. Rushing at night into the open gap a mail train was wrecked, killing some four-score passengers. Today’s bridge excels not only in design, foundations, and methods of erection, but especially in materials. Now iron yields to steel. The Besse mer. and later Siemens-Martin proc esses, gave bridge builders some thing new and stronger—a steel cheaply produced. At any army field day you may see the speedy work of engineers, showing how emergency bridges are built, wrecked, and repaired in war time. Washington Bridge Beats George. Homer tells about pontoon bridges used in war. Darius, Cyrus, Xer xes, Alexander the Great, all em ployed them. In 1781, it took General Washing ton four days to ferry only 4,000 men across the Hudson when he moved his army south from New York to Virginia. Now, over the George Washington bridge at New York, a whole army corps—or 97, 000 men, 23,105 animals, and more than 11,000 gun carriages, trucks, and other vehicles—could be put across in eight hours! Chinese classics relate that a cer tain king once crossed a river by walking over a bridge formed by the backs of a long line of big, ac commodating turtles! In west China and Tibet, to this day, men "coast” across rivers on tightropes, sitting in a seat slung under the rope and sliding along it. To make the underslung seat slide faster the rope is often greased with butter. Dr. Joseph Rock, exploring for the National Geographic society, reports his own use of yak butter on such bridges. “I always tried to find a bridge made of new rope,” says Dr. Rock, "for the rope soon wears out.” In his "Voyage to South Ameri ca.” written many decades ago, Don Antonio de Ulloa describes va rious Inca bridges he found there. One of them, the tarabita, is much like the greasy buttered bridge of Tibet. "The tarabita is only a sin gle rope made of bejuco," says Ul loa, "or thongs of ox hide . , . This rope is fastened on each bank to strong posts. On one side is a kind of wheel, or winch, to straight en or slacken the tarabita to the degree required. From the tarabita hangs a leathern hammock capable of holding a man." Using another rope, the passenger pulls himself back and forth. Ulloa saw mules moved the same way. At Baghdad years ago, when the Turks were still waging their long war against desert tribes, their ar tillery used to lumber noisily across the Tigris on a bridge of boats, on its way to bombard some Arab mud town that had not paid its taxes. From a safe distance, when Turkish guns opened fire on the mud-walls guns opened fire on the mud-walled village, observers could see dust and timbers fly high into the air. Sometimes the Turks came back across the bridge of boats driving long lines of camels confiscated from delinquent nomads. One qui et, very hot Sunday morning, the Bedouins, shooting and shouting, rushed suddenly over the bridge, and stole their camels back again. At Mosul on the Tigris, hard by old Nineveh and in the shadow of Jonah’s tomb, is another such bridge of boats. Millions of Shiah pilgrims have crossed these sway ing structures, carrying their dried and salted dead relatives and friends to sacred burial grounds around the desert holy cities of An Najaf and Karbala. In Arabic A1 Kantarah means "The Bridge.” That old Roman bridge, the Alcantara, over the Ta gus in Spain, stands today as proud and stout as when its huge arches were built, some 1,800 years ago. Bridge Into the Sea. Look at the mass, the heavy weight of these ancient bridges! They were built in, and for, one particular place. Today man cuts his steel bridges to order, ships them 5,000 miles, 10,000 miles, and erects them, by standardized prac tice, wherever they may be needed. The pieces are nil shaped, num bered, and packed in a ship’s hold like the pieces of a child’s construc tion toy in a Christmas box; blue prints are the "directions” for set ting up! Rocketing from rain clouds on an air trip around Brazil, passengers come suddenly upon an enormous suspension bridge that seems to run out into the Atlantic ocean. It does. It connects the mainland state of Santa Catharina with its capital, Florianopolis, which stands on an off-shore island. The American Bridge company erected this struc ture, shipping all the parts ready made. No other field in American over seas trade demands more ingenuity than does the bridge man’s calling. Orders come in for new bridges which may be wanted in any land from Alaska to Ecuador. No facts may be at hand about floods, river traffic, health and food conditions, or the nature of the river bed and banks, whether rock, clay, sand, or mud, at the spot where the new bridge is to be built. Since no tools, equipment, or building supplies of any kind may be available there, the American builder must take everything with him. Problems of language, food, and climate must be met. One Ameri can engineer arrived in Peru on his first visit to Latin America to build a bridge. Anxious to gain a Spanish vocabulary of bridge words, he chose a personal helper from among the workers and prac ticed diligently. Imagine his cha grin when he finally discovered that his bridge vocabulary could be used only in India, for he had picked a Hindu as a teacher! On another job food shipments were so delayed that one American foreman was found subsisting on popcorn fried with bananas. SE&N and HEARD anmnd the NATIONAL CAPITAL By Carter Field ^ Washington.—There is no disposi tion to laugh oft Governor George H. Earle’s opening gun in the fight to nominate franklin D. Roosevelt for a third term among shrewd Washington politicians. Very pri vately nine out of ten men on Capi tol Hill will tell friends that they think the probability is Roosevelt will break this precedent, as he has broken so many others. There are plenty of people who knew Calvin Coolidge fairly well who believe that he wanted to break that precedent. *Tke’’ Hoover in his memoirs leaves no doubt as to his own judgment on that point, and made a very interesting case to prove it. Coolidge, according to “Ike” Hoover’s theory, expected too much. He wanted to keep on declining, in more and more forceful lan guage, but to have the nomination forced on him. Roosevelt, observ ers think now, is not going to make any such mistake. The two situations are interesting chiefly by contrast rather than by similarity. Right up to that day in the Black Hills of South Dakota when Coolidge said he did not “choose” to run, every one assumed he would be the candidate. There was not a hint of opposition. There was no prospect of a fight against his nomination. There was not even much discussion of the third term idea. Coolidge was popular, the country was prosperous. When the topic did come up in conversation most folks said the less than two years of President Harding’s term which Coolidge had served before becoming President in his own right would not count as making another election a third term. As a matter of fact, Coolidge never mentioned any prejudice against the third term idea. He Just made it partially clear that he did not want to run again. And the Republican convention took him at his word. Whereas in the present case Governor Earle and some of the union leaders have come out flatly for a third term for Roose velt, more than two years earlier, comparably, than Coolidge an nounced he would not be a candi date. Coolidge’s announcement was more than seven months after the 1926 election had returned majori ties in both houses of congress to uphold his hands. Everybody knew the Democratic party was split so wide open by the religious battle which had come to its climax at Madison Square Garden, that there was virtually no hope of its being really formidable at the fol lowing election. The national con ventions were barely a year off. Time Inopportune The opening gun of the Roosevelt third term campaign is fired more than a year before the mid-term congressional election. It resounds when there is a revolt against the President on the part of conserva tive Democrats so pronounced that a harmony conference between the President and the national legisla tors was to begin two days later at the Jefferson Island club. It came at a time when nobody really knew whether the revolt on Capitol Hill had much popular back ing or not. One point about it, however, was rather obvious. Gov ernor Earle, whose declaration at tracted the most attention, was in rather a hot spot. It was obvious that no matter what might happen later, the Pennsylvania governor had made plenty of enemies by his action in declaring martial law at Johnstown. He had acted openly when the President was aiding the same side without any such frank avowal. So lots of important folks figured they could shoot at Earle in safety, whereas they might not dare shoot at the President. Earle's action tended to make the President the target for all such shots at him, and for this reason his timing did not make such a hit at the White House as his subject matter might have on some other occasion. Tariff Hearings The same group of interests in this country which so successfully obtained the independence act for the Philippines, long after the armed insurrection of Aguinaldo, the moral appeal of William Jen nings Bryan and the shrewd lobby ing of Manuel Quezon had failed, is now on the job to prevent being deprived of the fruits of their vic tory. What has happened is that a joint committee, consisting of experts ap pointed by both tiie United States and the Philippines governments, is conducting hearings with a view to determining the tariff policy which shall exist between the two coun tries after independence is actually achieved. At first this independence date, being fixed in 1946, seemed far off to the business interests affected. Moreover, at first there was a ten dency among those who knew about it to discount its importance. They figured that there would be only recommendations—that when the recommendations reached congress would be time enough to make a fight. They knew th£y had won when the test came in congress. By shrewd log-rolling they had won enough votes to give the islands the independence act. So they thought the same log-rolliqg would be sure to work next time, which would be, they thought, when the recommen dations are formally taken up in congress. Also, a considerable group of those interested actually knew noth ing about the hearings. There was too much going on in Washington for the newspapers to get excited about hearings on something which would have no effect until 1946, But several things have happened to change all that. First, there is quite a movement to move forward the independence date. The same interests affected by the tariff hear ings were concerned in that, and this made any present hearings much more significant. Important Factor But much more important is an other factor. The prospect now is that there is not going to be any re peal of the reciprocal trade treaty powers of the President—that this power will be extended indefinitely. This will mean, if true, that if and when the report of this joint com mittee comes up, immediately after independence is achieved or imme diately before, it may not be pos sible to ignore its ideas simply by having enough votes in congress to prevent action on Capitol Hill. For it is certain that any recom mendations such a committee will make would have a great deal of ef fect on the State department, and naturally on the Philippine govern ment. So that, under the reciprocal treaty making power, it could easily be that a lot of tariff duties on Phil ippine products coming into the United States might be sliced in half—fifty per cent being the extent of the change in any duty which can be made by the State department without further reference to con gress. For instance, if the duty on sugar should be two cents a pound, under the reciprocal treaty power the State department could make a treaty with the Philippines which would cut that duty to one cent, or boost it to three cents. Sugar is picked for an illustra tion chiefly because it is simple, and was one of the big reasons why the islands obtained the present prom ise of independence. There are plen ty of others, notably coconut oil. Future of G. O. P. Despite the “harmony” meeting of Democratic senators and repre sentatives with President Roosevelt at the Jefferson Island club there are growing signs of cleavage as between what might be called the old line Democrats and the New Dealers. So much so that certain impor tant Republicans, more interested in economic principles than in party organization, are quietly putting forth a new thought with respect to future G. O. P. activities. In short, they would have the na tional Republican organization vol untarily disband, shut up shop, and announce to the country that as a national party the Republicans were through. While most of those talking about it do not want their names used for the present, it is said that Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg of Michigan, regarded by many as the outstand ing Republican in the country since the last election, is not out of sym pathy with the idea. The plan is so far advanced that the effect on individual senators and members of the house now bear ing the Republican label has been considered. There are still many districts which send Republicans to the house regardless of Democratic landslides and New Deal tendencies. At least two states, Vermont and Maine, still promise to send Repub lican senators to Washington. The idea would not be to deprive the Republicans representing these districts and states of their label. They could run as “Republicans,” just as Senator Robert M. La Fol lette runs as a “Progressive” or Senator Henrik Shipstead runs as a “Farmer-Laborite.” These gentle men seem to have little difficulty getting elected, despite the fact that there is no real national organiza tion of their parties to back them. Might Be Help Representative Bertrand H. Snell of New York comes down regularly from the Potsdam district of the Empire state, no matter if Demo cratic national candidates do c#ry the state by more than a million. The same is true of Representative Allen T. Treadway and Representa tive Edith Nourse Rogers of Massa chusetts. Some of the advocates of the plan say that actually it would be a help to such Republicans not to have any national Republican organization cluttering up the situation. Of course, in Mr. Snell's case it would deprive him of the leadership of the Republicans in the house—perhaps —and it might play hob with com mittee assignments in both house and senate. But the real objective, of course, is to encourage the split in the Democratic party—to permit the country to have two real parties again. Nor is it an answer, say those advocating it, to say that the Republican party polled more than 15,000,000 votes in the last election, and that anything as strong as that should be preserved. ® Bell Syndicate,—WNU Service. 1 Complete Play Ensemble No. 1335 Whether you swing a racket or watch the play from the side lines, you’ll enjoy this complete summer ensemble. The dress with swing skirt has a side closing that can be fastened with buttons or with one of the long slide fasten ers in contrasting color. Fore most, it’s a dress easy to get into and short enough for lots of ac tion if you’re an expert and take your game seriously. This play ensemble is equally smart on the beach. You can take off the dress as easily as you would a wrap and sun in your shorts with halter to match. Pattern includes design for all four pieces. It’s the new est idea in a play ensemble and as simple as your a. b. c’s to make. Try it in acetate sharkskin, seersucker or broadcloth. Barbara Bell Pattern No. 1335 is available for sizes 12, 14, 16, 18 and 20. Corresponding bust measurements JO, 32, 34, 36 and 38. Size 14 (32) requires 5% yards of 35 or 39 inch material for the four pieces. Send your order to The Sewing Circle Pattern Dept., Room 1020. 211 W. Wacker Dr., Chicago, 111. Price of patterns, 15 cents (in coins) each. © Bell Syndicate.—WNU Service. FOR FLAKIER PASTRY THAN YOU'VE EVER BAKED BEFORE Find out whjr millions prefer this Special Blend of fine cooking fats to i any other short- | ening, regardless of price!.. . for pan frying, deep frying, delicious cakes, hot breads, etc. Also Think Wait—but think as well. Any body can merely wait. Cheerfulness Cheerfulness is one of the off shoots of Goodness. OlOUR TOUHI-1JOUR STORES I J Our community includes the farm homes surrounding the town. The town stores are there for the accommodation and to serve the people of our farm homes. The merchants who advertise “specials” are mer chants who are sure they can meet all competition in both quality and prices. Foreign Words ^ and Phrases * Resurgam. (L.) I shall rise again. Presto maturo, presto marcio. (It.) Soon ripe, Soon rotten. Lis litem generat.(L.) Strife be gets strife. Hominis est errare. (L.) It is common for man to err. Fide, sed cui vide. (L.) Trust, but see whom. Bacio di bocca spesso cuor non tocca. (It.) A kiss of the mouth often does not touch the heart. Detur digniori. (L.) Let it be given to the more worthy. Buqh! can't You 4/NK OP ANYTHING \ UT EA77N0—EVEN ) n Your vacation?y r~--o IF YOU'RE SO X, FOND OF FISH \ /lUERE'S A LIMIT X YOU CAN CLEAN Y TO MY PATIENCE , \ 'EM AND COOK 'EM,] BETTY. I'M SICK } YOURSELF — I'M I AND TIRED OF YOUR NO HIRED y\ BEING SO CROSS / s^6/RLy^^^^^^AUL THE T/ME^/ --v X WELL, IF YOU'D 'YOU WOULDN'T BEV LISTEN To THE AROUND CHIRPING \ DOCTOR, YOU EITHER IF YOU HAD WOULDN'T HAVE TO MY HEADACHE / BE SO GROUCHY. AND HADN'T SLEPT A ALL 7HE TlME ! s \^ALL NIGHT'^V THE DOCTOR TOLD YOU THAT YOUR HEADACHES AND SLEEPLESSNESS WERE CAUSED BY C NERVES. WHY DON'T TAKE HIS ADVICE ANI < TRY ftDSTUM FOR X^3o DAYS? 30 DAYS LATER W You WOULDN'T KNOW |t SHE WAS THE SAME V WOMAN NOW THAT Y SHE DOESN'T HAVE A HEADACHES AND 7 ^SLEEPS WELL./Jr , ^rj^RlGHT^ f SWITCHING TO | # POSTUM SURE ! f: MADE A NEW -V-H* WOMAN OR Jr \ S WER/r'' r? t ~^<rVOUR MONEY SACK— v \ IF SWITCHING To POSTUM ■ \doesn‘t help you ' 1 \ J \ If you cannot safely drink coffee... try Postum's 30-day test. Buy a can of Postum and drink it instead of coffee for a hill month. If...after 30 days...you do not feel better, return the top of the Postum container to General Foods, Battle Creek, Michigan, and we will cheerfully refund the full purchase price, plus postage! (If you live in Canada, ad dress General Foods, Limited, Cobourg, Ontario.) Postum contains no caffein. It is simply whole wheat and bran, roasted and slightly sweetened. Postum comes in two forms...Postum Cereal, the kind you boil or perco late... and Instant Postum, made instantly in the cup. It is economical, easy to make, delicious. You may miss coffee at first, but after 30 days, you'll love Postum for its own rich, full-bodied fla vor. A product of General Foods. ^ A ’ Don't bb a gloom. t DRINK Po9ruM{Jr~j5ov) Copr. 1987, King Features Syndicate, G. F. Corp. Licensee (Thia offer expiree Dec. 31, 1937)