The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1923-01-28


Leiden and HARLEM. on our left as
we flew. The air trip from London
to Amsterdam takes three and one
half hours and that from Paris takes
four. We can fly from here on to
Denmark. in eighty minutes and, as
we have chartered the plane, shall
keep on our way through the skies,
moving this way and that to get
bi1d's-eye view of the country.
Holland From the Skies
1t is a big job, this examining
kingdom in the eye of your mind in
time that might, be numbered by
minutes But one can fly across Hol-
land from the North sea to Germany
in a little more than an hour and
from Denmark to Belgium in less
than two. The longest distance
across Holland from east to west is
only little farther than from Phila-
delpha to Washington, and from
northeast to southwest the distance
is not much greater than from Balti-
more to New York.
All Holland, including the fresh
water Inside its borders, is only
about as large as Massachusetts, and
New Jersey combined. 1t is equal to
one third of Pennsylvania or one-half
of South Carolina and If you could
cut California into ten equal parts,
each would be only a little larger
than the great flat land below US.
Nevertheless, this country supports
as many people as we have in New
England and next to Belgium it is
the most thickly populated part of
the world. 1t his 542 persons per
square mile. so many that if the
United States had this same for every
irch of it's territory between the two
oceans we should have more than
1900 millions or almost as many as
all the people on earth.
AS we have come north we have
flown over all the big cities. Rot
terdam on the wide river Mas,
which forms one Of the mouths of
the Rhine, is about as big as Buffalo,
San Francisco or Washington. The
Hague is in the same class as Gin
cinnati, Kansas City or New Or
leans, and Amsterdam is nearly equal
to Pittsbnrg or Los Angeles. We shall
see many small cities as we fly over
the country. Two out of every five
Dutchmen live in big towns, and the
homes of the others are in villages,
in farm houses, or in house boats
and barges on the canals. Holland is
like Bangkok, Siam, in that it has
tens of thousands who spend their
lives on the water. The boats are
frozen tight during the winter, but
in summer they move about through
the canals, carrying freight far up
the Rhine and other rivers. The
cargo Is loaded in the front of the
boat, while the owner and his family
live near the stern, and dry their
laundry on the roof.
A Kingdom Afloat
We now take our field glasses and
look far and wide over the country.
We can see the waves of the North
sea rolling in against the sand dunes
and dykes at the. west, and on the
east pick out villages which we know
belong to the Germans. Almost every
where between there is water. Those
three great rivers at the south filled
with shipping are the Rhine, the
Mas and the Scheldt We spy lakes
here and there and look down upon
great sheets of silver such as the
Zuider-Zee. where the ocean runs in
at the north.
AS we look we are reminded of the
expression that Holland is a king
dom afloat, yet at anchor. In the
time of julius Caesar it was swamp
and today third of the whole is
so low that, if it were not for the
entertainments and dykes, it would
again btlou6 " Tic oScai. hc ISM
with the sea continues day and night
and every day throughout the year.
The annual cost Of patching the
dykes is six or seven million dollars.
sThe government has department
Known as the waterstaat devoted to
the care of the dykes and corps of
engineers is kept busy superintend-
ing them. The Dutch say. God made
the sea. We made the Shore"
Fighting Old Neptune
This statement is physically true.
More than one-half of Holland has
been reclaimed from the rivers and
ocean by embankments and work of
one kind or another. The Dutch be-
gan to build dykes more than 10 CEN
turtles ago and they are still building
them today All alon gthe North sea
the sand hills have been connected
by walls of earth that keep old Nep-
tune out, and the government is now
planning a great wall with gates
across the Zuinder-Zee. The Dutch
were short of food in the World war
and this new work will make 10000
acres of arabic land. The bills for
the reclamation came before the Sem
ate and Chamber of Deputies in 1916
and were passed in 1918.
1t is proposed to divide that sea
into two parts by a heavy dyke, and
then make four great ponds ranging
in size from $4,000 to 269,000 acres.
These will be pumped out and turned
into farms. The job will take 20
years and will cost over $4,000. geo.
This seems a long time but a decade