The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-03-09

one, Colonel Rhea sent orderlies dash
ing through barracks and squadrons
with orders to turn all men out, and
telephoned the news to the nearby
marine barracks, where the command
ing officer, Major Clayton B. Vogel.
took similar action, with the result
that within a quarter of an hour, more
than 200 marines with trucks contain
ing jacks, acetylene torches and other
devices were bucking their way
through the heavy snow to the scene
of the accident two miles away.
"Thank God for the Marines"
Their work on arrival is too well
known all over the country to need re-
telling. The ejaculation of one of the
survivors: Thank God for the mar
ines!" sums up public sentiment in a
sentence. After working for five hours,
cutting steel beams, lifting concrete
blocks. and carrying out crushed and
mangled victims, the marines were re-
lieved at two O'Clock Sunday morning
by an army detachment from Fort
Meyer, Va, which had been summoned
through the usual military channels.
Work of a less sensational character
in the public behalf was done during
the blizzard which visited Washington
during the last week in January
Owing to snow and cold, railroad traf
fic was at a standstill, tracks were
blocked, switches in the Washington
railroad yards were frozen and no
trains had moved for three days.
Washington's food supply was running
low and the city was threatened with
a shortage as railroad officials feared
W. hn H0f tro ia
could be resumed. Calls for labor
were sent from Boston to Richmond
but it was impossible to secure enough
men to make Roadway
In the emergency the railroad Off
Gals applied to the federal govern
ment which turned to the Marine
Corps. AS a result the engineering
force at Quantico, 80 miles south of
Washington, was sent to the Washing
, ton railroad yards together with near
ly thousand marines. Blow torches,
portable furnaces, and heating devices
were set up and the marines turned
| TO with will thawing switches and
! clearing the right-of-way under expert
supervision, with the result that with
IN "A hours the task which had baffled
| the railroad authorities was accom-
pl1Shed and traffic was resumed
Marines Halted Mail Thefts
] Another sensational incident of the
peace-time service of the marine
corps is the work done by marines
guarding mails. During the week be-
1 fore the marines took over the task
more than a million dollars had been
I lost by the government in two mail
| robberies, occurring within few days
J, Of each other, in New York and Chi
cago. During a little more than a
| year prior nine million dollars worth
OF cash and securities had been stolen
| by mail robbers and large quantities of
valuable documents lost and destroyed.
/ The post Office authorities were con-
templating organizing force of
guards, but were staggered by the diff
culties of organization and the pro-
| digious cost. In the emergency the
late assistant postmaster general, Col.
! Shaughnessy, suggested that the ma
| rines be called on, which plan appealed
to all as the solution of the difficulty.
So quickly and efficiently did the
corps respond to orders from the presi-
dent to supply postal guards that in
less than IL hours after orders were
received mail trains leaving New York,
New Orleans, San Francisco and other
cities, carried marine guards armed
with sawed-off shotguns and pistors.
1t is an astonishing fact that when
marines took over this task attempts
at robberies stopped as if by magic.
Over the whole time since the marines
have been guarding mails not one cent
has been lost by the post Office depart
ment through a holdup.
! Not the least interesting feature of
I! the new policy of the peace time serv-
| ice is the manner in which it has work
| ed out inside the corps. Marines now
/ build houses for themselves, survey
and direct their own camps, build ath-
| letic stadiums for their own amuse-
ments and do all manner of work in
their own behalf. Engineers, archi-
tects, mechanics and specialists of all
kinds have been developed among both
officers and men so that almost any
| task no matter of how technical a ma