The Crittenden press., 1920-06-25

When the war ended there were
more than 100000 rabbit carcasses In
storage. These were finally sold as
fertilizer To the farmers In the VI
cinlty of Hutchinson. The promoters
NJ the rabbit meat war baby appeal.
ed 10 the war claims board and the
technical committee passed on their
| claim. A settlement resulted which
the claimant accepted as satisfactory,
despite tire fact that II represented
only n small fraction OF the amount
| claimed.
An interesting claim advised ON by
the technical committee was that arts.
Ing from the Unprecedented demand
for castor oil which the Liberty motors
| developed Castor oil wns then the
only oil these motors could use. aud
when II was decided to produce ilh-
erty motors 10y the tens ~ thousands
the government set ont procuring nm
| adequate supply Of this lubricant. All
the castor oil beans In the world would
not have made sufficient quantity NJ
oil. even II the allied alrplnnes had
not needed their supply. The govern.
mont sent out scouts all over the
South Ia induce the farmers tu plant
castor cil beans and more than 500
agr'culiuriSts put In crops,
Probably the grcnteSt castor oil
acreage In the world was planted In
/ the southern states during that peri
od. the seed being supplied by the de-
purtmcnt of agriculture. Farmers
I plowed mp other crops To put IN castor
, nll beans. and the government scouts
dld everything pnssihle Ia insure tire
mondouS supply Of CASTOR oil. In some
eases men were even exempted from
| military service to grow the beans be-
| cause the need was 50 vital
However there followed n sad awns.
culsg The bean vines grew luNuri-
| gutly hui there was less than one bean
pod per pluut. aud there was prncti
cully no crop Investigation showed
that while the seed hnd been success
| fully Imported. the small insrci which
fcrtlllzrs the plant hnd been forgotten.
A. the result N This futile castor oil
culture there was lpdsrd with the war
claims board claims ngrrog1i'ns srv'
eral millions Of dollars. pud additional
clalmi are Still coming ln So FAR
no basis ~ settlement hns been mr.
rived M. hut the farmers seem salts
fed that they will get square deal"
The Men Who oid II.
Othcr claims NJ nll kinds were nd.
justed through the advice ~ the tech
nlcal committee. and Il Is stated that
not more than per cent ~ The N}'bp'
Worp1 worth Of claims went through
without change although sntisfnc'
tory settlement was reached In all hut
score ~ cases Among the experts
prominently concerned IL this work
we're Campbell Scott NJ New York,
: chairman of the committee; W. u.
, Ennis. who handled rhe power and mo
chanlcal cunirncis: Ernest T., Good
= rich of New York. who placed yulun'
: iions on plants and structures huili foi
war contracts: Colonel Frank u. Malt
e by of Philadelphia. who nctcd ns cN.
pert ua construction and contracts In.
I volving civil engineering; Arthur w
e Ulxon of New York. who advised on
< chemical and mctnlurglcnl contncts
, Fred T.. Rogers ~ New York. whose
: work concerned mechanical md ma
, chine equipment. and George IT, Frnnk
5 forter Of Minneapolis, who investigated
4 chcmlcni nad explosive contracts.
}. All told there were nearly score
}. NJ the leading engineers and industrial
!. experts Of the country, who spent
q practically year of their time In M
I slsting the war claims board Ia clos
Ing up It's contracts