Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1918-04-17
tie planes have been supplied them
in this arrangement"

IN this arrangement"
In producing combat planes at
home-defining the term to include
both offensive and defensive ma
| chines-the minority said about 25
plants were engaged, either on COM
Dlete machines or parts.
Referring to difficulties of airplane
production, the minority declared:
When war began the United
States government had purchased al
together less than 200 airplanes in
it's entire history and probably not
one factory was making over five or
six a month. 1t is hardly possible
to grasp the magnitude Of the task
the factories contracting 1850 COM
bat planes found before them"
New plants had to be erected, the
report said, new tools fashioned for
delicate and complicated. machines
requiring 1000 parts and 2,8O0
drawings-almost as many as for
battleship.
Steady Production.
"To state that this complicated
equipment is in steady and adequate
production, it added, "and that fac
tories are now about in shape for
quantity production Of combat
planes, and have about con pleted
the foundation for what Is as diff
cult and responsible task as has
| ever fallen to the hand and brain Of
man, is to state the truth, and at the
same time to recite an accomplish
ment unparalleled in all history for
| SO short a time"
How 1t was necessary to send to
India for seeds producing special air
plane oil, how 10000 acres of them
have been planted, how an acetone
plant costing s20,00O,000 to produce
liquid for painting airplane wings has
been erected, and other accomplish
ments, were detailed by the minor
ity.
To secure spruce for airplanes, it
said regiments of workers were put
In the forests to cut billion feet Of
lumber, for 100,000,000 feet of
spruce, and to secure mahogany for
propellers it was necessary to 60 to
the tropics.
Turning to the Liberty motor, the
minority said 1t could not "fairly
have been called an experimental
and untried device.
"It represented" the report as
serted, "a combination of what had
been demonstrated to be the best in
all motor construction. The signal
corps engineers understood that q
| foreign motor could not be adapted
to American manufacture and turned
out In sufficient quantities in any
where near the time in which the
Liberty motor could be produced.
Furthermore, the Liberty motor
Is capable Of 100 more horsepower
than any foreign motor except the
Rolls-Royce.. The Liberty motor has
become SO we'll established that the
British government has asked for
large number. AS soon as 1t was
designed arrangements we're made
for the manufacture Of a large num-
Der before the close Of 1918"
The Hadley-Paige airplane, the
minority report said, was first offered
to the American government when 1t
was untried and undeveloped and
had not been accepted by the British
government, and the signal corps,
sending commission abroad to
study airplanes, accepted certain sim
gle-seat fighting types "only after
careful and personal study"
Died Of Fright ?
Brunswick, Ca, April 11.-Whe-
ther he was frightened to death or
not when arrested as deserter Is
not yet known, but it looks like that
Is what happened to Jesse Williams. a
Brunswick negro, arrested few
days ago in Detroit. The local ex-
emption board received notice last
week that williams had been arrest
ed in that city as deserter, not
having registered before he loft this
city. Yesterday information came
that the negro was dead. An effort
Is now being made to locate his rela-
ftives here. So &