Evening star., 1939-09-03
Capital SideIights
Bu Will P. Kennedy

Representative John w. Mccormack Of
Massachusetts is giving posthumous
honor to Capt Bernard j. Hoppe,
Boston policeman, for devising the traf-
fic-control system now generally in use.
In Boston, noted for it's narrow winding
streets that developed along an old COW
trail. Capt. Hoppe was made the first
head of the downtown traffic division.
This is considered the most congested
area in the entire country. He took
charge away back in the pioneer days
of the "horseless carriage" The system
of having a fixed time for traffic to
move in each direction and fixed time
for pedestrians to cross the street is
credited to this officer. He devised his
own signals, using an upright arm with
halt He worked out other hand and
arm signals. He was also the first of1icer
to use a whistle in directing traffic. He
invented plan for keeping the flow of
trafic steady by placing officers so that
they could see or hear one another's sig
used today in traffic light systems.
4 *
The man who knows most about flood
control" Brig. Gen Harley Bascom Fer
gusoi1. after 46 years of distinguished
military service in all parts of the world,
was retired on August a. Members of
Congress from the Mississippi Valley
States regret that under the law his re-
tirement was automatic. For more than
seven years he was president of the Mis-
sissippi River Commission and engineer
of the Lower Mississippi Valley Division.
Representative William M. Wilmington
of Mississippi. chairman of the Commit
tee on Flood Control, and Representa-
tive John j. Cochran of Missouri chair
man of the Committee on Expenditures
both emphasize that the Mississippi
River has been a mighty problem for
United States engineers ever since the
Louisiana Purchase. not only from the
standpoint of providing navigation, but
for control of the flood waters of this
Father of Waters and Of Floods
Gen. Ferguson is responsible for the
military preparedness" plan which has
been in operation for IS years, and as a
result of which the War Department Is
currently informed as to what every out
standing industrial establishment in the
United States can do in time of emer-
gency The most significant develop
ment in flood control during the past
decade has been the construction of l3
cut-offs. Gen. Ferguson didn't invent
the cutoff, but he dared to do where
others faltered. He was the first man
with the power and the authority to
have the courage to use them in the
Mississippi Basin. At the age of 81, he
staked his professional reputation, with
no precedent to guide him and no an
swer in the back Of any textbook on his
ability to cope with the Mississippi prob
lem. 1t was Gen. Ferguson, backed by
the then chief of engineers, Lytle Brown,
who convinced Congress that the hy-
draulic laboratory would solve the prob
lem of navigation and flood control, and
the laboratory was constructed under
his personal supervision.
The name America had its origin CEN
turies prior to the Christian era in the
powerful nations Of the Nordic Goths (or
Getae), according to Senator Robert r..
Reynolds of North Carolina, who has put
into the Congressional Record concise
article on the subject prepared by 1t Col.
c. l. Kephart. The leaders of the vic
torious Goths in their forays against the
Roman empire were deified by the people
and their descendants became the ruling
family among the Goths. Then came
Anal, from whom this Western Hemi-
sphere derived its name. Just as Ameri-
can children are named after great
Americans - Washington, Jefferson and
Lincoln, the form became Amalric, liter
ally, "The Mighty Anal and fguratively
"all-conquering leadership (or service" :"
When the Goths overran Italy, it be-
came Amalrico and softened in the
Italian patois to Amerigo. Then upon
the proposal of Waldesemuller, a Ger
man geographer who relied on Vespucci's
assertion Of his discovery Of the Western
Hemisphere, the forename of the latter,
Amerigo Cor Americus in Latin) gradu-
ally came to be used on maps of the New
World in the feminine form America, as
dramatically applied to land.