The frontier. (O'Neill City, Holt County, Neb.) 1880-1965, May 22, 1941, Image 3
THE STORY SO FAR: More than *00,000 foreign troops secretly assembled In Mexico by Van Hassek suddenly In vaded the United States. Vastly superior In numbers and equipment to the Amer ican forces which opposed them. Van Hassek’s troops pushed relentlessly for ward. The U. S. army was not pro * * * INSTALLMENT EIGHTEEN pared for this sudden attack, and could only retreat In the face of overwhelming force. High army officers worked des perately to organise an effective resist ance against the Invader. Intelligence Officer Denning barely escaped with his life when a dynamite-laden ship explod ed In the Panama Canal, trapping the ****** U. 8. fleet In the Pacific Ocean. Ordered to Mexico City, he learned that Van Hassek would soon bivade America'* west coast. Bennlng then left for Wash ington to report to Colonel FlagwlU. > chftef of the I). 8. Intelligence Depart ment. Now continue with the story. * * # CHAPTER XIX Colonel Flagwill had sprawled out on a cot in his office in the Muni tions Building for a few winks of sleep at sunrise, when he was shak en to wakefulness by an assistant. "Here’s our report from the Fourth Army at San Diego, sir,” the assistant reported. "Air recon naissance confirmed Major Ben Ding’s report from El Paso. Van Hassek’s troops are moving north from Guaymasl Facts confirmed by photographs taken by one of our ob servation planes." Flagwill sat up and read the re port with a blank expression. The staggering succession of events, the crushing responsibilities of the past few days had bankrupt him of emo tion. “Well—one more report from our Asiatic fleet and we’ll know the worst," he muttered. "Is Gmeral Hague at his desk yet, do you know?” "No, sir, the general has been asleep for nearly an hour. His aide refuses to let anyone disturb him on any account. Major Benning re ported in from El Paso half an hour ago. You were asleep—” "Let him come in,” Flagwill In terrupted. Benning responded at once, his face a peculiar chalky color. Flag will’s eyes centered on the major’s left arm that hung from his neck in a woolen sling. “You didn’t tell me you’d been in a Jam,” Flagwill accused. "What are all the bandages about?” Benning smiled placidly, and said: "The sawbones took a Luger slug out at El Paso, sir. I’ve only my self to blame for taking foolish chances, but at least all’s well that ends well, and I suppose I’ll always feel better about the way I handled it.” “What about Boggio?” Flagwill sharply interrupted. “When I met him, instead of shooting him at sight, I said, "Bog gio, I’m Major Benning, United States Army. I understand you claim responsibility for bombing the White House." Boggio snatched out his pis tol and went into action. I aimed very deliberately at his heart and effected u clean bull’s-eye. I didn’t even know I’d been hit until some minutes later." Flagwill nodded gravely and said: “I’m glad you did it Just that way, Benning. Hope your arm isn’t in too bad a fix." “Just a little hole, sir. El Paso gave me anti-tetanus treatment and said I’d be as good as new in a short time. Things seem to look pretty black just now. Anything new from Panama?” “Yes. Engineers affirm that it’ll take a year to put the Canal in commission.” General Hague’s aide-de-camp banged into the room with a sum mons, his ashen face and distended eyes eloquent of some major ca tastrophe that he did not wait to disclose. Flagwill got to his feet. “There must be blood on the moon, Ben ning!" he exclaimed. “Better go out to Walter Reed and get your arm treated, then report back here to me in event I need you.” Benning passed up the hospital to search through Intelligence summa ries and press reports. They reflect ed a world now black as pitch with stark omens of mighty violence. An hour later President Tannard walked slowly up and down his study, head sunk to his chest, hands tightly clenched, the tense silence of the room broken only by the soft tread of his feet and the noisy tick of a small clock. Across the room from him stood General Hague and Admiral Hunt, the latter, chief of naval operations. The President halted in front of Hague and said in a low voice, “You are sure of your estimate, General, that you haven’t sufficient forces to hold the Pacific coast against a ma jor invasion?” "Positive, sir," Hague affirmed at once. “Even if we shoved all our available troops onto the Pacific cosst, we couldn’t supply them with ammunition for more than two weeks of action, if that long. As I said before, sir, our defense plans have been laid on having an effec tive force ready in three hundred days after mobilization.” “I regret to say, General,” Pres ident Tannard responded, “that with all my years in the Senate I didn’t realize that condition.” The President turned to Admiral Hunt and asked him, “With the loss of your naval bases on the Pacific, you will have Pearl Harbor to fall back on?" “If two of our battleship divi sions and other craft are to be or dered to protect the Atlantic, sir, I’d recommend against risking what re mains of our fleet on the Pacific in Pearl Harbor. Such a division of the fleet is very dangerous.” "Then you recommend abandon ment of the Pacific coasts, at least for the time being?” President Tan nard demanded. The admiral's face went ashen; He swallowed several times and licked purple Ups. "That, sir," he said in a low, tremulous voice, "is a matter of de cision entirely beyond my province. I can only give you the facts as to the limitations of your navy." Tannard nodded slowly and re sumed his pacing of the floor. His head sunk again to his chest, the knuckles of his clenched hands were white as bleached bones. “Very well, gentlemen, I wiU de cide,” President Tannard said at last. He halted and looked from one to another. His face now was wrinkled and drawn untU he had the aspect of a very old man. "The inevitable decision," he add ed, and wet his lips with several nervous flicks of his tongue. “You, Admiral, wiU be prepared to with draw your fleet to the Atlantic to protect the country’s vital centers of population. You, General, wiU meet the invasion as best you can at the Pacific shore, and fight a delaying action. There must be no pubUc announcement of this decision tem porarUy to abandon the Pacific coast. We are simply yielding to the inevitable. That is aU, gentle men.” A momentous decision had to be made by the commander of the Fourth Army. General Brunn and “Very well, gentlemen, 1 will decide.” his general staff had been in a hud dle through long hours. American bombers, attack and pursuit planes, had hammered Van Hassek’s marching columns without greatly reducing their relentless northern movement Another complication was the monstrous specter of invasion from the Pacific, now looming nearer and nearer. Airplane observers, risking themselves far out over the sea, verified the actuality of it. Though there had been no declaration of war, yet transport and warcraft, cloaked in greasy smudge, swept toward the coast like some cata clysmic pestilence. ‘‘We have done our best here,” Brunn finally told his staff. ‘‘We have no alternative than to with draw northward to the vicinity of Sacramento. Otherwise we will find ourselves inevitably in a pocket from which we’ll be unable to extricate ourselves. Our withdrawal com mences tonight.” Benning heard the decision with a gloomy tightening of the muscles of his jaw. Events of the past few days had dulled his sense of acute feeling, left him numb and dazed. Brunn’s decision meant the aban donment of the great Naval Operat ing Base at San Diego. It meant the first move of the land forces in evac uating the Pacific coast. CHAPTER XX A plane from the 21st Reconnais sance Squadron had brought Ben ning from Washington two days be fore as Flagwill observer of the In evitable invasion. Captain Hawtry, pilot, was on the lookout for his pas senger. ‘‘Hear the news, Major?” Haw try inquired. Hawtry, a lanky Vir ginian with clear gray eyes and the relaxed features of a man who takes life as it comes, added in a laconic drawl: "It just come in a minute ago over the radio. They’ve cracked us up pretty bad off the Jersey coast with their ships. There’s hell popping on the Atlantic. It looks like Atlantic City was in for a shelling before the day’s over.” Benning merely stared at his pilot out of hollow eyes and said: ‘‘We’re NEXT WEEK Anotlf* AUonUttf OntiaUmtd pulling out of here, Hawtry. I want to get to the Puget Sound country as soon as possible." They took off at Mice for San Francisco. Below them they saw the roads massed black with flee ing thousands from Los Angeles. Pasadena, and towns along the path of impending invasion. At San Francisco they put down for the night because of heavy fogs. The city was in a panic. Steady streams of people were pouring out of the city on all roads. The Mint was being emptied, money and se curities from banks being shipped by train and truck. A new terror fed the panic. Fog had engulfed most of the coastline from Seattle to San Francisco. Vis ibility had been stripped from the sea b.v vast blankets of fog. Air ob servers were land-bound. If the fog held out through the next few days, the invader would be able to put ashore in whaleboats and establish a foothold unhampered by Ameri can fighting planes. With nightfall word came to San Francisco that the Fourth Army was retreating north from San Diego. General Brunn refused to make any announcement, but the secret leaked that his divisions were headed into the region of Sacramento. News of this retreat converted panic into frenzy. In the morning Hawtry took a chance against the fog. He found a hole at Medford and put down to re fuel. Four hours later, Hawtry nosed about in the fleecy sky over Fort Lewis until he found a rift and dived to a landing. Here on Puget Sound, some two thousand miles north of Brunn’s re treating divisions, was the northern most element of his Fourth Army. For defense of the Northwest were two National Guard Divisions and part of the Third Regulars. Benning reported to Lieutenant Colonel Marsh, G-2, at Fort Lewis headquarters, whence operations in the field were being directed. Marsh's bloodless, drawn face re flected stunned hopelessness; his voice was a contained but colorless monotone as he sketched over the operations map with Benning. ‘‘This fog has us stumped,’’ he groaned. "We know enemy trans ports are not far oil shore—they may make a landing tonight. But they can land anywhere from Gray Harbor on down the coast into Ore gon. All we can do is watch and wait, keeping our reserves massed and mobile. When they do land, all we can do is light them in suc cessive positions for a day or two and then pull out for the Cascades!” Astride his machine gun on the sandy beach south of Aberdeen, Pri vate John Rand, 161st Infantry, thought he heard a rift in the mo notonous splash of the Incoming tide. The gun crew held its breath to strain into the washing waves. "There’s men moving,’’ someone hoarsely whispered. Private Rand knew that friendly patrols were not allowed in front of his own position. His heart pounded so hard he heard nothing else. A stab of flame leaped from the muzzle of Rand’s gun. A succes sion of sharp flames followed as he poured the murderous might of his machine gun into the night. A shrill cry rang out in front Rand did not live to near the howling, maddening storm that swiftly grew out of that first bark of his machine gun. Shadows loomed out of the fog and bore in on his crew. The long steel fang of a bay onet bit into his breast. From a mile behind the shoreline the commander of a battalion of howitzers barked an order. Muzzle flashes cut the night momentarily to ribbons. The earth rocked from the force of the explosion that sent high-explosive shells screaming to the unseen shoreline. From the sea came now the roar of thunder as heavy naval guns picked up the brawl to mock the puny deflance of the howitzers. The violence spread in length and depth, swiftly rose in fury until it became a ceaseless roar of mighty thunder. There was no such thing in this foggy night as observation, no such thing as gauging the tidal wave of invasion, or co-ordinating resist ance. Only by sound could the in vader be estimated. Ten thousand men, the staff decided at dawn, must have landed on the beach un der cover of darkness. Men enough to force a human bridgehead for an army to follow under the savage protection of naval guns. Through the stricken, sodden day that followed, Benning remained at Fort Lewis while the Fourth Army's Puget Sound divisions slowly dropped back. They fought the In vader from successive lines of ridges, but the die was cast, the command given. The Forty-First was to cover the withdrawal to the Cascade passes. The conquest of the Northwest waited only consoli dation by the now victorious divi sions of the Invader. (TO BE CONTINUED> PLANT TISSUE ‘MIRRORS’ SOIL Furnishes Accurate Test For Essential Minerals. By DR. GEORGE D. SCAR SETH (Soil Chemist. Purdue University Agricul ture Espariment Station) An effective checkup of the "con veyor belts” that supply farm crop* with food from the soil can be made during the growing season by means of Tissue Tests. These tests will tell whether the growing plants are receiving their principal nourish ment—nitrogen, phosphorus and pot ash—in balanced amounts. The tissue test of plants, like the rapid chemical test of the soil, af fords a quick diagnosis of plant nu trition or starvation. The proper use of either of these tests make it possible for the farmer more accu rately to determine the fertilizer needs of various crops on individual fields. The tissue test consists of splitting open stalks or leaf stems of corn or other growing crops and cutting out thin pieces of tissue. These pieces are placed in a glass vial containing a chemical agent. The reaction of the chemical to the plant tissue re veals the presence or absence of the necessary plant foods. Usually six or eight samples rep resentative of the type of plants growing in a field will suffice. Cer tain parts of a plant give more reli able Indications of fertilizer needs than others. In analyzing com, tis sue from the base of the main stalk is best suited for a nitrogen test. For phosphorus, the tip of the main stalk or the main stalk Just below the tassel is best, while for potash the base of the leaf at the ear node is most effective. If the nitrogen supply of corn plants is deficient, the test for ni trates will be negative, while those for phosphates and potash may be high. The corn plants in such a case are likely to be stunted. Leaves will be greenish yellow, with yellowing tissues following the mid rib from the tip end. If the phosphate “conveyor belt” runs empty, tests are likely to show: Nitrates high, phosphates negative and potash high. Physical symptoms will be plants dark green in color with spindly growth, but with leaves otherwise normal. When potash is insufficient, tests will show nitrates and phosphorus both high while potash is low. Plants will be weak, dark green in color with leaves showing a mar ginal scorch. L AGRICULTURE 1 IN INDUSTRY | By Florence C. Weed (Tbit it oat oi t ttriet of trticlet tbow ing bow itrm products trt finding ta im portant market ia industry.) Milk It is a modern miracle that a man can tip his hat made of milk and yet it won’t spill. Following the lead of Italy, American research workers have produced a "milk wool” which they claim is much superior to the foreign product It is cheap, long wearing and takes color well and can probably be used for upholstering material. At pres ent, it is going into men’s hats. In recent years, the ingenuity of government and dairy scientists has uncovered new uses for 30,000,000, 000 quarts which once was wasted. It goes into casein for coating pa per, making window shades and manufacturing a paste paint which is thinned with water. It is the base for insecticide sprays and a filler for cloth. Textiles, leather tan ning, and color plating industries use lactic acid in their manufac turing processes. Akin to the many food uses are the new milk-derived animal feeds for poultry and livestock. Some in gredients for popular vitamin cap sules are also obtained from milk. Milk plastics are being made into small articles such as buttons, door handles and book ends. Casein is fabricated into lamp bases, backs for pin-up lamps, and bowl diffus ers for indirect lighting. Still in the experimental stage are wines of sherry and sauterne type which can be made from milk whey. A resin made from lactose may be adaptable as lining for food con tainers. There is probably more research going on in dairies and creameries than in any other industry, but in spite of the advance, there remain 24,000,000,000 quarts of skimmed milk without a commercial outlet. Agriculture News The farmer’s share of the consum er’s dollar spent for 58 different foods, averaged 42 cents in 1940, compared with 41 cents in 1939 and 40 cents in 1938. • • • Farmers of the United States are now passing up every year $150,000, 000 of income that could be realized through better management of farm woods, says the U. S. forest service. *Ksk Me Another 0 A General Quiz ii— 1. Are alligators the slow, creeping creatures they appear to be? 2. Are all national flags alike on both sides? 3. What lake, 12,500 feet above sea level, is the highest large body of navigable water in the world? 4. Are marriages in England restricted as to the time per formed? 5. What is a tympanist? 6. What is the principal lan guage of Brazil? The Answers 1. No. They are real sprinters when they care to run. Their legs stretch out to 18 inches in length when in top speed. 2. The national flags of Para guay, Lithuania and Yemen, Ara bia, are not alike on both sides. 3. Lake Titicaca (in Bolivia). 4. Marriages in England are legal only when performed be tween 8 a. m. and 6 p. m. on week days. 5. A drummer. 6. Portuguese. Italian and Ger man are widely spoken in the southern states. NEW IDEAS -^04 Jf6m*-moJt4bdr^ B< »CfH WYETH i££!_= PRESS SIM EDGES OF COVER BACK ON RUFFLE COVtR (M(i S-g WITH <*P *'x»“ JfLf boards 4ML SCREWS D^J to bottom” BOARDS SCREW* Xf* BOARDS FLAT OH UNDER _ SIDE Of PLY WOOD CUT TO FIT TOP ^ OF CAMP STOOL_ CO MANY clever slip cover ^ tricks are being used now that it is possible to transform an en tire house with a few yards of gay chintz. Old chairs of all types step right out and become the life of the party in smart new frocks. Even tables and lamp shades are slip-covered but the best trick is to make something out of next to nothing by slip-covering it. A smart coffee table from a camp stool for instance. The lower sketch shows how to make a substantial removable top for the stool. The 2-inch boards which are screwed to all four sides of the top fit down over the stool. Flowered chintz is used for the top of the cover and a plain 3-inch glazed chintz frill is added repeating one of the tones in the flower pattern. The seam allow ance around the cover may be tacked to the removable top of the table and the whole thing may then be folded away in a small space when not in use. • • • NOTE: You will find direction* lor re modeling and slip-coveting many type* of chair*, a* well as an out-moded couch tn Book S of the series of home-making book let* offered with these article*. The new Book 7 contains a number of ways to use slip covers. In it boxes become ottomans: and an old wicker chair Is padded and tufted. Each book contains more than thirty useful home-making projects with complete directions for making. Send order to: ^^mrnmmmmrnmmm» MRS. RUTH WYETH SPEARS Drawer to Bedford Hllli New York Enclose 10 cents for each book ordered. Name .... Address .... AND YOUR OLD T1RK 6.00-76 firestone CONVOY TIRES tire miles of ependable service with extra safety, priced down i to bedrock. [ Hurry, k Saleends June 1st. PAY WEEKLY V IF YOU [ \ PREFER 4.40/4.50-21 v>4§5 LIFETIME GUARANTEE i Every Fireatone tire L eemee a written lifetime J % guarantee—not limited to I II 12, 18 or 24 monthi, but ' jl for full life of tire without IlLume or mileaie limit Lfire$ton« § STANDARD TIRE I AND YOUR OLD TIRE J — 6.00-16 P This famous tire with a V patented cord body, 1 exclusive safety tread r and extra long mileage tread compound has always been a popular thrift-buy — make extra savings during thi s sale. 4.40/4.60-21 | $520 ♦ 75/5.90 19 $jj 25 5.28/8.60-18 $599 5.2S/5.W-17 Tir*$ton* HIGH SPEED TIRE IAND YOUR OLD TIRE 6.00-16 FIRST QUALITY AT A BARGAIN PRICE Don’t miss this big tire value. JtooJl! BATTERY sale A powerful battery, guaranteed. Now at a big saving. 89 EXCHANGE Come In aed get your complimen tary package of the new Idabelle Firestone Marigold flower teeds. ’ They are years for the atklng Listen to the Voice of Firestone with Richard Crooks, Margaret Speaks and tho Firestone Symphony r Orchestra, under tho direction of Alfred Wallenstein, Monday evenings, over N. I. C. Red Network SEE YOUR NEARBY FIRESTONE DEALER OR STORE AND TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THESE AMAZING BARGAINS