Clearwater Republican. [volume] (Orofino, Idaho) 1912-1922, 1920-06-04
Lessons Learned lover There"
to Be Used in Making
of Maps.
WORK NOW WELL UNDER WAY
Plan Worked Out by Which Various
Government Boards Will Coop.
crate in Making Large Scale
Map of Country.

New York.-While drawing nm ,
summary of intelligence for n corns NJ
maheuver in France last winter the
onicer IN charge found himself in need
OF little outside information. Turn
ing TO his sergeant, he said Sergeant
where is the island Of st. Helena p
Sir. said the sergeant, Il do not
know; but If the colonel will furnish
me with car and hachured man
III find it,
our three armies went to the front
win supply Of maps which contrib
uted nightly to our success. Last
July, says the New York Post, the en-
gineering council called President VIII
sons attention to the lack of co-ordIna-
ZION In the map-making agencies of
this country. The matter was not
pigeon-holed; various bureaus were re-
quested to confer and decide upon a
general plan by which the work could
De carried on most expeditiously and
"lthout overlapping or duplication.
10 Map 5000, 900 Square Miles.
10 make large-scale maps of over
three million square miles of territory
Is gigantic task. But it Is hoped and
beiieved that it will be achieved. One
uahger lies in reorganization. There
are at present no fewer than eleven
map-making and three map.using
boards operating under government
control. 1t will readily be seen that
the bureau of soils needs one kind of
map the bureau of Indian affairs an
other. But. except for highly special
1zed work, the United States geological
survey would seem to be the logical
Dody to prepare the standard topo-
graphic maps. 1t has its own photo
photographic and engraving plants, and
the maps 1t has already produced have
peeD declared by experts to be the
equal of any.
II Is safe to assume that it was the
excellence of detail of the mans fur
nished us by the allies that led the
conference to feel that to do the work
Tor the whole country as France or
Germany had done 1t would take too
much time. Better a map with few
"DETAILS now than one with all in the
distant future. One-third of the area
OF continental United States, exclusive
OF Alaska. has already been mapped in
this fashion. The establishment of
Dasic horizontal and vertical controls
Is about half completed. And a plan
mas been worked out by which the vari-
Gus boards will cooperate. Making the |
personnel permanent will do much to |
standardize the work.
Aerial Surveying.
Revisions are to be made as fast as |
changes due to development occur.
There is to be central information Of
flee, not simply for the benefit of the
bureaus concerned, but for the general
public as well. The general scale rec
commended is l .62 500; where larger or
scales are desirable a special
corps will be appointed. Aerial survey
ing Is to play an important part.
Graphic scales in English and metric
units will be printed on all maps pre-
pared for general use, as we'll as n dis
gram OF the control on which the man
Is based, together with date of survey
and location of all permanent marks
That each map will explain the sym
bols used hardly needs to be pointed
out.
In modern warfare the map is more
powerful than the sword. Germany
knew this. Prisoners captured from
the Germans could locate any object,