The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-09-11
OUR MANY RADIO OPERATORS

William c. Shepherd, In Leslie's.
 Nine generals of the American army received orders hom Washington the j other day which sent them scouting for recruits-not on land, not in the air. not under the earth, not on the seas; but in the vast ether which surrounds the earth.
 The navy Is also scouting the ether for recruits.
 The 160.00o young Americans for whose services. both in peace and in war, tho army and the navy arc struggling. are-the amateur radio cp- orators of the United States. They include some of the brightest Bcy scouts in America and some of the finest youths in the Young Mems Christian association: they include farmer boys in out -the-way cor ners of tho land, and city boys who have brains enough to avoid the lure of the pool rooms and tho street corners and to yield themselves to the Vaccinations of science; they include poor boys. who, by saving their perl-- nies and creating their apparatus mostly by hand. have been able to join in the fellowship of the ether, and rich boys whose fathers proudly humor their every need or whim in the purchase of the finest and new est equipment. One and all, rich or poor. farmer boy or city boy, they all have initiative and brains.
 No other country in the world can boast such . body of youth as this It h distinctly an American institu- ton In European countries the ann ateurs of radiography are savants and laboratory men or rich dilettanti. However hard the youth of Europe may have been struck in the imag ination by the marvels of wireless, l. hau lacked the initiative, to enter the new realm But not so the American boy.
 Literally, with the batteries of dis carded automobiles, with silk thread seized from mothers sewing basket. with wood from old boxes, and with such screws and nails and pieces of wire as he could come across in boy hood barter. he put his hands to his ears and listened to the new gods talking through space; and, in time he threw his own dotted-and dashed voice out into the ether-and got an answer, from another American boy who had, done as he had done.
 That was decade ago. The Amer ican boy of that time who de -lAv himself in" on the mystic COT
 of the ther is now at his aaAcA or his desk. doing his part os fhs worlds work. But he is still n.shtly associate of his friends of raafo
 graphy.
 Our first radio amateurs Lad 2 hard time of it. They interfered with the commercial wireless mtssaFeS Their rasping amateur voices intpe rupted the dignified, conf asnti% converse ton of the government nsrA less. ."They ought to be put saan' said the men who talked q fpsxMh ether.
 But the American lad was not " ne denied. In time his group gre
 day his ranges cover the tK@d States.
 For a dozen years the vii ss% amateur continued his devotion At@ hobby before he learned that he M4 wor tn while. Thanks to him and his clubs, ths army during tho World war was not
 short of wireless operators single
 day.
 After the war 1t took the amateurs some months to get the ban removed on the operation of amateur wire less outfits, but they Won out. The reservoir of youth and brains which
 was made up of wireless amateurs was too rich for the navy to over- look it. It began to flirt with the wireless amateurs. Last spring the sighal corps of the l army began it's filtration with ths i wireless amateurs. The uniteo states army desires to form reserve corps l of amateur wireless operators. | And so here is our once e-despiseo | amateur wireless operator-the American boy who couldn't stay out of the ether-prized, at last, by tho
 mighty. He now carries license granted by the department of com merce. He is listed with an official
 call and registration card by the
 United States navy, because the navy
 believes it may need him some day
 And now the United States army has
 become his big brother.