ENGINEER DECLARES
NEED $15,000,000
TO REPAIR FLEET
WASHINGTON. Oct. 29, (AP)—Announcement at
tbe Navy Department that the battleship Florida
would be placed “In reserve” and that the proposed
winter cruise to Australia might he abandoned, has
again brought to the front in-service circles the
serious consequences of curtailed funds for upkeep
of the ships.
Already working under general orders which limit
repairs to 70 per cent of recommended programs,
bureau chiefs in Washington recently have held con
tinued conferences in the effort to work out some
plan by which vital work on the principal units of
the fleet can be accomplished despite the shortage
of funds. "Accumulating deterioration” is the
nightmare which haunts grey old sea dogs who love
their ships. In the intimacies of clubs and offices
they are making mathematical computations to show
that a ship would be only 49 per cent efficient after
a second visit to her home yard, and 35 per cent on
her third departure.
Curtailed repairs are declared by members of the
engineering staff already to be apparant in the oper
ation of the fleet, one estimate being that $15,000,000
would be required to bring the force to its proper
A radio dispatch bearing on the subject was re
cently sent to all ships and stations. Calling atten
tion to the “inadequacy of funds." the department
announced that "no alterations will he undertaken
upon any ship until further instructions.” unless a
bureau had made provisions for them from a special
appropriation.
“Alterations under way will he discontinued,” t lie
orders added, "unless too far advanced to make
stoppage uneconomical.”
While a limit of 70 per cent apparantly has heen
laid upon the work, instances are cited where ships
have been withdrawn from their ways with only
30 or 40 per cent of the scheduled work completed.
Further additions to the reserve list arc declared to
be in prospect as the fiscal year grows older.
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WILBUR URGES
DIRIGIBLE ZR-3 FOR
FLIGHT TO THE
NORTH POLE
WASHINGTON, Oct. 14, —The dazzling dr.eam of
being the first to fly over the Arctic wastes to the
North Pole will be realized by the United States
Navy with the Los Angeles, (ZR-3) if President Oool
idge approves, said Secretary of the Navy Wilbur.
The flight will be started next spring n case the
President consents and Congress appropriates the
money. Wilbur says.
No longer restrained by the argument that the
Navy cannot afford to waste its only airship—with
the Los Angeles and the Shenandoah, it has two—
the Navy has taken out its pigeon-holed plans of the
cancelled Shenandoah flight and dusted them off.
Secretary Wilbur will lay the whole question
before the President for his aproval—its up to
Coolidge.
Some such sort of an expedition seems to the
Secretary the only way to put the airship to practical
use. Under the Vorsailes Treaty the big airship
cannot lie used for military purposes, and this re
stricts it to experimentation or training
Wilbur is keen to use it for advancement of
commercial knowledge of transportation. lie sees
u the dirigible ultimate use in the light freight and
passenger service devoted to transoceanic, rather
j than transcontinental work.
“The loss of expensive helium gas incident to the
passage over the Rocky Mountains in the West will
mitigate against commercial use of such ships in the
j coast 10 coast, service,” Wilbur said.
Residents of the Hawaiian Island have made the
request that the Los Angeles bo put into service
between Honolulu and some Pacific Coast port.
—San Francisco Bulletin
HOLLAND HU VS MILITARY PLANUS
AMSTERDAM. Holland. Nov. 15, (AP)— The I
government of the Netherlands has ordered 12 high i
speed planes and 1C two-seater planes for artillery !
observation. The military equipment is to be j
delivered in
r Tlave t
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MUSCLE SHOALS IS
BUSINESS DEAL-CAN NOT
BOTHER WITH POLITICS
NEW YORK. Nov. 14, (AP)—Henry Ford having
withdrawn hie bid for .Muscle Shoals according to an
interview with him in a late Collier’s Weekly, has
assumed a waiting attitude by putting It up to the
government to make the next move if he is to take
any future action in the matter.
The transaction, characterized by Mr. Ford as a
"simple affair of business which should have been
decided by anyone within a week.'' he declared, "has
become a complicated political affair” and tho bid
was withdrawn because productive business cannot
wait* on politics.
"Muscle Shoals?" Mr. Ford is quoted. "That is
not a live issue with us any longer. More than two
years ago we made the best bid we know how to
mako. No definite action has been taken on it.
A simple affair of business which should have been
decided by anyone within a week has become a com
plicated political affair. We are not in politics and
we are in business. We do not intend to be drawn
"We have been and still are deeply :nt< - -ted in
Muscle Shoals as a national asset. There Is small
promise now that it ever will be a national asset—
more than likely it will be only an expense. That
concerns every one of us as citizens. In the Ford
business, once we make up our minds to do anything,
wc go right ahead and do it with the least possible
waste in time energy or money. If wo cannot do
what we want in one way. then we go ahead and
‘‘We are moving so fast and the settlement of
Muscle Shoals’ future seemed so far away that we
had to find other means to do the things we could
have accomplished at Muscle Shoals. In fact, we
have passed Muscle Shoals. Productive business can
not wait on politics -therefore we are withdrawing
Asked if that meant withdrawing absolutely from '
Muscle Shoals and everything that pertains to it. Mr. 1
Ford replied.
"Yes. we have made our hid. now let them make'
us a bid. And they will not have to wait three .
years for their answer. We can
tell them in five
minutes.”
After discussing the government investment is
Muscle Shoals which he said was much larger than
It should he, but which could not he helped because
it was rush work done in war time for war purpose*
"Our bid was intended to develop.* a method
by which the public’s money could be made pro
ductive and eventually returned to the public treas*
ury at a profit, while at h ■ we should
produce nitrates at a sufficient low cost to sell them
to the farmers at a fraction of what they now have
to pay. Also, we Intended to create a plant which
not only would have made us Independent of Chili
for nitrates for explosives hut would give us an
independent supply, probably equal to that of all
the rest of the world put together."
Mr. Ford said his company had completed the
purchase of 1*50.000 acres of coal lands in Ken
tucky and after relating some of the experiments
conducted at he River Rouge plant said.
“We find from our experience at River Rouge
that we can generate electrieal power in these coal
lands to any extent that we need and at a cheapr
rate than we could under our hid at Muscle Shoals.
And also wo can gem rate in our own way entirely
outside of all political influence or political med
dling. That is why we have lost our interest is
Muscle Shoals.”
"Asked what he thought ought to be don** with
Muscle Shoals, Mr. Ford replied:
"In any event, the public must not permit tt
to be broken up. for through its nitrate production
it can he our greatest guarantee for peace on the
one hand and the farmers on the cither. I be
lieve the army engineers could carry it through
if they were allowed to exercise* their own judgment
and work unhampered —for they are a fine lot of
men. But probably the best course is that sug
gested by the president—that is, the appointment of
an impartial commission.”
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ALASKA MAN BUYS
INTEREST KANATAK i
OIL CLAIMS
ANCHORAGE. Nov. 15. (AC)—Special—Oscar An-I
lerson paid thirty thousand dollars for a quarter i
nterest in the William K Lee Royalties a coniine j
>il claim at Kanatak which is being drilled by the i
Standard Oil Company. Anderson is president of the j
Svans Jones Coal Mine and the owner of th<- Ship j
Jreek Meat Market.
\ NOTH Kit DEATH REPORTED FROM
ELKS’ HOME CIDER TRAGEDY
LYNCHBURG. W V.. Nov. 15. (AP)—Another!
Elk veteran, the eleventh, died at the Home for!
iged Elks from the effects of drinking cider from a 1
keg which had formerly been used for arsenate of •
MAN WINS OVER ELEMENTS IN
BATTLE TO REACH STARVING FAMILY
SEATTLE. Nov. 15. (AP)—Fighting blizzards and
suffering untold hardships. Louis Knaflich, president j
of the Kuskokwlm Trading Company succeeded in
delivering food to his starving wife and two chil
dren at Apokak after travelling a hundred and
seventy five miles by dog team from Good News Bay
where he was landed on October 19. from the Schoon
er Apollo which had run idto storms and was forc
ed to give up her trip to Apokak. according to
word received here by J. H. Wagner, chief of
the Alaska Bureau of the Department of Educa
BEAR RACES MOTOR CAR
KETCHIKAN', Alaska. Oct. 29. (AP)—A taxicab,
taking passengers to Penninsula Point, near here,
recently, caught up with a bear running along the
road. The driver speeded up. but the hear, refus
ing to be passed, accelerated bis own gait. For a
mile the car and the bear raced, Bruin leading, then
nnnble to take a curve at high speed he catapulted
down a bank to a beach and disappeared.
SUBSCRIBE FOR THE NOME WEEKLY NUGGET
I
HILL WILL DEMAND
MODIFICATION OF
VOLSTEAD ACT
Baltimore, Nov. 15. iAP)- Special Repre
sentative John Phillip Hill of Baltimore who was
acquitted by tin* Federal Court this week of vio
lation of the Volstead Act declares that he will
go before Congress .and demand a modification of
the Volstead Act and attempt to cot pasasge of his
per cent beer bill on the grounds that the
Volstead Act. in its present form is discriminatory
and unfair. Mr Hill was charged with manu
facturing wine, beer and cider in his home and thus
maintaining a nuisance.
UNKNOWN SOLDIER DEAD ARE
HONORED BY PRESIDENT COO LEDUM
SEATTLE. Nov. 13. (AP)—Armistice day was
celebrated generally throughout the civilized world,
according to advices received here. Cenotaphs
were unveiled in Chicago, New York, San Fran
cisco. Seattle and Montreal, and also in Paris, to
the honored dead of the war. President Coolirtge
placed a wreath on the tomb of the Unknown Sol
dier in Arlington Cemetery Parades and demon
strations were held in all parts of the world
LOS ANGELES CAPABLE OF LIFTING
FORTY TONS OF DEAD WEIGHT
LAKEHURST. N. J.. Nov. 14. CAP)— The Los
Angeles which is under consideration for a polar
flight next spring has a lifting capacity of forty tons
dead weight it is said by aircraft officials here.
On the recent voyage from Germany, the dirigible
had tucked away along the ribs 11,100 gallons of
gasoline which was a thousand gallons more than
was necessary for the trip, the freight of which was
28 tons. r At a cruising speed of 60 to fS miles
an hour the engineers figure that about 100 gallons
an hour will be used by the five engines which
are located in separate gondolas under the big bag.
Placed on a giant set of scales and minus cargo,
gas and gasoline the dirigible Itself, It is estimated
would weigh from 39 to 40 tons, and when Inflated
and ready for travel, has a lifting power of approx
imately 40 tons more. t
/