The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-10-27
Washington. D. c.

 7 7 7NCLE sAMs army of scientistsl It is already numbered by tens K y of thousands, and the govern
 ment has just taken over the colleges to educate thousands more. talked today with a group of univer- sity men who have been at work for months preparing a text book of mili- tary geology to be used by the boys of the draft, and other text books will be made, dealing with physics and chemistry as applied to the war. Today the physicist, geologist and chemist are even more important to military success than the strategist and tactic ian, and, in fact all strategy and tactics have to be based on the work done by them. General Pershing has his regiments of foresters, who handle all problems of lumber and care for the timber from the French woods. He has his corps of geologists who tell him where trenches can be located, so that the water will drain away from rather than into them. A mistaken survey fills the excavations with mud and brings on the curse of trench feet which so often puts our men out of business. General Pershing has his camouflage division, experts in the sci = has his individual topographers and mapmakers who survey and plat out the ground, showing the best places for railroads to carry men and sup plies to the front and bring back the wounded. From such maps the arr tillery officers determine the heights and the hollows where the big guns are to be placed. They show where the rivers can be forded or bridged, and the best routes for motor car roads. Many of these topographers are men from our geological survey. They have been plating the United States for years and showing it's drainage. Some have had to do with the retaining the deserts of the far west and others with draining the swamps of the Mississippi valley
 Connected with the army in France is the chemical service selected from the ablest men of that branch of science from all over the union, and allied to it is the vast number of chemists who are working upon war problems at home. We have, in fact, as part of the bureau of ordnance at Washington a division of chemical war far which deals with poisonous gases as a means of human destruction
 And then there is the army of scient- ists connected with the health of the soidler. have not the latest statistics, but not long ago we had 1SOOO doctors actually working. and it was then es- timated that we would need 24,000 nurses to help them There are also thousands of doctors doing war work at home, both here at Washington and in hospitals all over the country. Some are engaged in rebuilding the wounded and In making plans whereby they may be taught trades and still do their work in the world. We have large number of medical psychol- ogists whose business 1t is to test avia- tors and others and to show how to build up the minds of the men affected by shock, and we have opticians and spe- cialists of every description. Among the doctors are the Mayos, who have left their enormous practice to work fof the war, and others who have been mak- ing tens of thousands of dollars a year and who now work for Uncle Sam on the salaries of captains, majors and col opels.
 We have enough dentists already en- listed to take care of an army of b.000,0O0 men, The total number of such officers when the war began was only 5S It now approximates coco, and there Is large number of such men in the ranks. Dur ing the draft something like 15,O0o dent