The Elbert County tribune., 1920-04-23
Lessons Learned t"Over There"
to Be Used in Making
of Maps.
WORK NOW WELL UNDER WAY
PIsn Worked Out by Which Various
Government Boards VIII Coop.
crate in Making Large Scale
Map of Country.

New York.-While drawing up a
summary of Intelligence for a corps of
inaneuver In France lust winter the
oiiicer In ciiarge found himself In need
Of little outside information. Turn
ing to his/sergeant. lie laid Sergeant.
where is the island OF ST. Helena 2"
Sir said the sergeant, 81 do not
know; but If the colonel will furnish
me with "A car and II hachured map
I'll find it,"
our three armies went to the front
with a 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 cu-or,lina-
non In the map-mnking agencies of
ahis country. The matter was not
pigeon-holed various bureaus were re-
quested' to confer and decide upon
general plan by which the work could
be carried on most expeditlously aud
WITHOUT overlapping or duplication.
To Map 100000 Square Miles.
To make large-scule maps of oye.-
three million square miles OF territory
is gigantic task. But IL is hoped and
believed that II Will be achieved One
danger Hes in REORGANIZATION. There
are at present no fewer than eleven
map-making and three map-using
boards operating under government
control. II 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
ized work. the United Stntes geological
survey would seem to he the logical
body to prepare the standard topo-
graphic maps. II has Its own photo
photographic and engraving plants. and
the maps II has already produced have
been declared by experts to be the
equal of any.
1t Is safe TO assume that 1t was the
excellence of detuil of the maps fur
nished us by the allies that led the
conference to feel that to do the work
for the whole country MS France or
Germany had done il would take too
much time. Better map with few
Getnils NOW than one with ali 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
basic horizontal and vertical controls
Is about half completed. And plan
has been worked out by which the varl-
ous boards will cooperate. Making the
personnel permanent will do much to
stnndhrdize 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
smaller scales are desirable 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 well as dia-
gram of the control on which the map
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,