BATTI.ESHIPS REQUIRI I.UMBER

'It has been indiccted lhcrt even our monster, steel-hulled bcttleships require vcrst conounts ol wood-over 300,000 boqrd leet eqch lor decking alone. Nor ccn construction work be conducted without wooden shipways qnd sccrffoldingt.

"For qn crircrqft carrier like the new Lexington' over 250J100 leet oI edge-grrcin Douglas Fir must be provided lor the flight deck"

(E*ra* lrom a recent arricle by Reor.

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Seas; landing barges and ponton lumber; ships and more ships; and last came the lumber to box, to crate, and to pack the ammunition, the bombs, the torpedoes, the guns, the planes, the tanks, the automotive equiprnent, the food, the clothing, and the other impedimenta of war necessary to move to the fighting fronts to properly equip our forces in order that they may destroy the enemies of mankind. You are producing the material of victory, complete and overwhelming. Your industry is thq prime war industry in the arsend of Democracy. Upon you and each of you in the lumber industry depends the duration of the war." Thus spoke a man well qualified to speak. So, when anyone asks you the part lumber is playing in the war effort, you may safely quote Col. Sherrill.

"The infantry, the infantry, with dirt behind their ears," they used to sing a lot in the first World War. That was an infantry and artillery war. This one is more varied, and air fighters seem mostly in the limelight. But those infantry boys are in there pitching like they always did, and before "this cruel war is oveC' it will be proven that the foot soldier is still the dominating factor, and that the musical opinion that "you couldn't lick the infantry in a couple of million years" is stiU true as it ever was.

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This is an engineers war, too. In fact, the whole thing is so unbelievably big that it's easy to overlook many of the foremost factors. But ttrose engineers have a varied role to play in this great drama of violence and sudden death. In the first World War the engineers were often quoted as saying in France: "\tr/e got the easiest job in this man's army. All we gotta do is make the roads, build the bridges, and take the infantry by the hand and show them where to go." Those blessed engineers still have to take all the other departments-including air-by thc hands and show them where to go. Ar-y engineering in this war compares with army engineering in past wars like a P-38 compares with the fnng machine that Darius Green made in the old poem. They've got to.know more, know it all better, and be able to do it surer and faster ttran engineers ever dreamed of doing before. And they both can and do.

Napoleon could tell, if he were here, what marvelous things the army engineers could do, even in his days. His "Grande Armee" began its invasion of Russia with about 450,fiX) men. By the time it got back as far as the Dnieper River, it hatl become largely a disorganized mass of strag- glers. They crossed the Dnieper sweeping wildly westward, and came to a lesser river, the Berezina. Napoleon sent his engineers to build bridges across that river which was running htgh with foods. Those heroic men, working in ice-filled water, completed the bridges on time, and made it possible to save some rcmnants of the army of Napoleon. Three Marshals of F'rance-Ney, Victor and Oudinotfought on the eastern side of the Berezina to hold back the Russian hordes, while the great rout of French stragglers passed over the new bridges. Those three fighting generals had about zS,W men, it is believed, when they reached that river. Three days later when the mob had gotten across, there remained 8,80O men fit for duty. And that was what was left of the "Grande Armee" that started out to take Russia. And the engineering corps had made that l,ast great stand possible. A small spot on the Russian map called Borisov is where the engineers built the bridges for that last stand.

Keeps a fellow busy trying to learn even a smattering of the history of many of the places where fighting has been taking place of late along thc Mediterranean. Bloody fighting between British and Germans took place on the island of Cos. I had to look hard to find the spot, just off thc west coast of Turkey. Yet Cos has made world history for centuries. It is called the birthplace of the art of healing, and was the site of the first medical school in Europe. Aesculapius was, as you know, the more or less legendary father of the medical profession, and a caste reported to be of his deecendants built a great temple at Cos. One of the graduates of this school was Hippocrates, an historical character, and the father of modern medicine. From his writings come the celebrated oath of the world's doctors. The site of that medical temple has been unearthed and verified. Many other interesting people of history left their marks on Cos. But when you read of that little Mediterranean island, it is interesting to think that here the scienee of medicine had its birth.

Wonder what orvilt" iottt# thinks these days, as he looks upon the wonders being wrought in war by this flying thing that he and his brother created? The airplane comes out of this war, of course, a million times bigger and more important than when it went in. fn fact, all intelligent plans for a trcstwar world are built largely around the prospcct of a world on wings. Many an American will recall with deep regret the fact that that first plane which the Wright Brothers few nearly forty years ago at Kittyhawk, N. C.-that strange-looking, history-making contrivanceis not to be found in the land of its birth; in the land where flying was born. It has been in the South Kensington Museum in London for twenty years, and is at present buried deep under ground for protection against bombs. It is still the property of Mr. Orville Wright, the surviving brother. It will be remembered that the Wright Brothers did not think their invention had been properly appreciated in this country, so they loaned it to England. Perhaps, after this war is over, the Wright plane will be brought back to America, where it belongs.

lumber isa Critical Tfar Material

crrd Uncle S."'' comes first. It must continue to have the right-of-wcry ior wcr,needs.

We cre supplying mcrteriols lor mcny wcr projects but wcrnt to serve the retcdl tqde too. If moteriols cre crvailcrble, we will get them.

For 60 yecrs we hcrve been serving the Southern Cclifornic lumber bode.