Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1918-08-29
SCIENTISTS BACK
Up PERSH|NG
Department Of Interior Experts
Mobilize Country's Natural
Resources For War
SECRETARY LANES JOB

Six thousand American 1nQlanS, Vol
unteering for service in modern war
fare. are now with General Pershing's
army in France Most OF them have
been assigned to scout duty-a
task which arouses latent instincts in
this PIONEER American race and re-
calls TO the younger warrior ancestral
stories of tribal battles.
The story of the Indians with the
American Expeditionary Forces is one
answer to the query; What is the In
terror Department doing in this war?
Ordinarily that department is one of
domestic affairs, homestead claims, ir-
rigation projects, Indian awards, ma
ton parks, pensions and patents. Lit
tie is said about its activities, for they
are not sensational.
One of the first men TO reach Cen
eral Pershing's side in France was an
Alaskan engineer. for twenty years an
explorer and geologist for the Depart
ment of the Interior. Today he is adj
vising American officers and soldiers
how to dig trenches so they will drain
properly. He is locating the more
suitable places for dugouts, and re-
ducing the mud and danger of trench
feet He is just one of the depart
ment's scientists who have gone 10
war in a most scientifis of all wars.
When hostilities broke the Interior
Department raised no armies and
built no ships. Its functions were diff
ferent. 1t merely set to work to mobi-
lie the resources of the country, to
meet shortages in war materials, to
invent better gas masks, to send its
biologists and map-makers to Europe,
and to stand behind the man behind
the gun.
Not until peace and reconstruction
brings an inventory of the nation re-
sources can there be written the full
story of this departments wartime ac-
tivities.
HOmesteads Protected
Early in the war hardy Western
miner entered the Office of Secretary
Lane and said he wanted to go to war.
He explained, however, that if he went
away he could not hold his mining
claims, and some Stacker" might
jump his claim while he was at the
front The case was typical of num-
Der of miners and homesteaders, one
of whom wrote the Interior Depart
ment:
81 expect the President will need
some of us, and we don't want TO be
considered slow in coming forward.
You tell him we are with him. But
say to him some other chap can grab
our homestead claims if we go to war.
Now this isn't fair A man ought to
have a place to come back to, if he
gets chance to come back. So we
hope you will get Congress to let
things stand pat, just as they are, un-
til we come home again. We don't ask
you to give us anything; only just a
chance to keep what we have got"
The administration had little trou-
BILE in convincing Congress that home
steaders and claim holders, who vol
unteer for duty "over there" should
have residence, improvements and
payment liabilities waived while he is
in the service. The status of these
pioneers is preserved while they are
away at war.
This is but an index of the way the
Interior Department has fitted condi-
tions of peace into conditions of war !;
how, from its topographers, who are
surveying and plating the land for
American troops in France to the
miner and homesteaders bearing a
rife, the Interior Departments great
outdoor family will play vital part
on the battlefronts of democracy and
freedom.
A Georgia capitalist and manufac-
turer asked Secretary Lane for war
work, just something useful without
pay or titles.
why don't you see that the pyrite
mines in your own section of the
country are developed. We need py-
rites for the war;" said Mr.. Lane.
Today that man is an altruistic py-
rite promoter, and production steadi-
ly increases.
Turned To Wars Account