Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1914-12-04
EEZD NLEGARH QZZZZT
communicate

communication VIII IL ~ 'S oIhSA SNNS
of the enemy.
Homing pigeons have been used from time i'm
memorial, and they also were used at Santiago.
Today a different condition exists. AS the Ger
mans were sweeping down on Paris the operator
in Eifel tower whispered through the very air the
Germans were breathing to convey information to
st. Petersburg or Petrograd.
The swish of the wireless was unstoppable. The
Spaniards shot down the American signal men on
the embankments in front of Santiago, but the
rife bullets from the Germans could not interfere
with the wireless message as it went on its way.
One of the most wonderful developments of the
wireless telegraphy came at the opening of the Eu
ropean war when it became possible to talk all
the way from Berlin to Long island. Germany
talked across the British fleet to her own ships
sailing the Atlantic and warned them of the
sudden tremor
The only way to stop the wireless was to de-
stroy the operator and he was thousands Of miles
away. In our last war wires were stretched all
over the fields back of the fighting men. Dis
patchers carried word from colonel to general
where there had not been time to string the
Tires.
In this war wires, too, have been stretched on
the fields, pigeons still have carried messages,
dispatchers have galloped back and forth. but in
addition to all these messengers OF war the night
ers all depended more on the invention of Mar
conf, the great wireless telegraph.
The wireless telegraph has proved its value
right on the field of battle. The man in the front
ranks, or the outpost miles from the headquarters,
could place himself in instant communication with
his chief. The wireless telegraph made it pos-i-
BILE for a German soldier fighting his way through
Belgium to talk to a German soldier defending
Alsace. 1t made it possible for a soldier at Brus-
sells to shout news of victory back to Berlin with
out an instant's delay.
It made it possible for the French and British
to keep in communication with each other and
map out g new line of defense when the Germans
were hurting their mighty hosts against them.
Marconi had already made himself famous be-
fore the war broke out. His invention was one
of the greatest boons to humanity because 1t
saved lives aboard ship in time of sea horror. 1t
brought rescue to the distressed and expedited
shipping. From an instrument of humanity and
peace it sprang to an instrument of war and ter
ror.
Like the pigeon or dove, the personifcation of
peace. it became an instrument of war.
Perhaps next to the wireless stations, the most
efficient messengers of war are the homing pig
cons. These birds, the wisest Of their kind, are
employed to great advantage in English, French,
German, Austrian, Italian, Russian and Japanese
armies. Military authorities hold there is no bet
ter means for small attachments to communicate
with their headquarters nor could they want bet
ser.
On the fields of Europe the flights of the birds
are in most instances so short that they do not
have to stop for a rest, thus preventing the mes
sages from falling into the hands Of the enemy.
A pigeon in its flight scars so high 1t is almost
invisible to the naked eye. thus it necessitates
the use of high power guns to bring it to the
ground. And any man who ever makes such a
shot can we'll call it a miracle.
The king of England and the emperor of Ger
many, as we'll as other rulers of European nations,
have their own flying kits, and in time of peace
they enter their birds in races with birds belong
ing to their subjects. The crowned heads deem
this royal sport.
A bird equipped for flying with a message is
encased in a bottlelike tube, the shape of it's
body. ..
A spy puts his message in his pocket, proceeds
on his mission, quickly writes his discoveries on
small bits of paper and places them in a tube