El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1917-02-10

shore. It's Iife-saving stations
: there are 222 of them-wil be outloob
! posts. forming a continuous chain
! linked by telephone and telegraph
Many Wireless Plants.
{ All along our coasts the Navy de
partment has established wireless
. plants, at intervals of zoe miles. to
: gather news in time of war An
! enem'- would inevitably try to dis
f; able some OF these plants But each
: of them is IN communication with lie
saving stations for hundreds OF miles,
and a call for help would promptly
summon a dozen or more swift power
! boats. each carrying a crew of armed
men Entertainments would be thrown
up along the beach. and the foe would
find himself opposed by force OF
fighters trained for this special kind
Of work.
For news getting purposes however
the Coast Guard expects to rely large
" upon flying machines-an adjunct
of the service undreamed of until re-
Gently This branch Of the work is
being organized in the belief that II
can be turned TO useful account in
peace Aeroplanes are to be en-
ployed to search for -derelicts"
FLOATING wrecks that menace naviga-
tom. and to locate vessels in distress.
first spying them out and then keep
ing them in sight until wireless mes
sages can bring help
Il is believed that. with one flying
machine for every roo miles of coast
tanned that no movement of an enemy
off shore can escape observation War
news thus obtained viii be transmitted
70 the wireless stations nearest at
hand and will thence be forwarded TO
The Navy department at Washington
Always Near Telephone Box.
The surfrlan who patrols the beach
Is never more than mile or two from
a telephone box If he sees suspected
warships on the horizon. he speaks a
warning 70 his station. The keeper
phones the nearest naval wireless
plant. which sends the message along
wireless towers. across the Potomac
from Washington Arlington tells
Navy department which sends out pre-
cautionary orders to the fleet and the
cOast-defense forts
OF course. in time of wa. the rev
cnue cutters viii do what they can TO
gather news Then. too. there are the
lighthouses which scattered all along
the coast will serve as signal towers,
sending information by ''wigwag''
flags or telephone. supplemented in
the night time by electric lamps of dif-
ferent cOlors manipulated in code
fashion
once war is declared. even the
Lighthouse service automatically be-
comes an adjunct Of the, navy. accord
ing to the new law. All government
gathering usefulness, in fact. are
coordinated into one great organiza-
tion for collecting information.
News Is All Important.
News Is all important in warfare,
whether on sea or land In earlier
days when fighting ships were moved
by sails, months might be required to
get it: and for lack OF prompt and
accurate information. opportunities
that involved success or failure in
wars were lost On one occasion
Gibraltar would have been taken.
through starvation of its garrison. II
the foe had known in time the where
abouts of a convoy that brought sup
plies.
But nowadays war news from the
sea is gathered with almost in
CT reliable quickness. and transmitted /
simultaneously by wireless The old !
time naval scout. which was n swift I
frigate, has been replaced by the |
light cruiser" which. like the frigate. |
can put up a good fight. and which 1
travels with the speed OF an express I
train Even though outfought and /
destroyed. she will have had time to !