Evening star from Washington, District of Columbia • 46

Hauling the Tools of Victory Over American Highways Large, specially "built trucks and trailers hauling complete airplanes across an American highway to a port of embarkation for a foreign fighting front. By Robert C. Harper. No pennant flies from a Washington truck for war service excellence. No romance is attached to a truck, yet these carriers have hauled cargoes whose nature was unknown to the drivers themselves.

A partial lifting of this veil of secrecy reveals a story of colorful achievements. Explosives, torpedo shells, priceless minerals, automobile and aviation are among war items hauled by Washington truck owners. Food, drugs, clothing and other civilian account for many trucking activities on the home front. Here is a record of accomplishment, without fanfare, that has been achieved despite loss of manpower, rubber shortage and difficulty in securing parts for trucks. Producers of planes, tanks and ships have won Army-Navy flags.

Service groups, however, to date have not received similar recognition. For security reasons, specific destinations of war cargoes hauled by Washington trucks will be omitted. A glimpse behind the scenes, however, lets the public know the trucking great conrtibution to victory. Let's go back to the very first day of the war, December 7, 1941, and pick up the thread of the Washington trucking story to date. Refueling a Convoy.

On that Sabbath morning, when the Japanese struck with aerial fury at Pearl Harbor, a convoy of 17,000 Army trucks was moving northward through Virginia. Maneuvers had Just been completed at Fort Bragg, N. C. Like private motorists on other occasions, before and since, the moving Army found itself running out of gas. Here was no Job that could be done by filling stations along the road.

This called for big-scale, systematic refueling by firms equipped to do the Job. In the emergency a Washington firm, headed by Richard O'Boyle, was asked to lend a helping hand. Mr. was instructed to bring gas in truck tanka to three designated points in Northern Virginia. In two days and two nights he had fulfilled the contract.

His fleet of rubber-tired helped the convoy proceed to Its destination. "It was a remarkable he recalls. far as the eye could see, trucks were lined up 30 feet apart, awaiting precious fluid. I remember, too, it was a cold A Christmas Order. Last Christmas Eve a Navy barge was getting ready to sail on an important mission, where speed was of the essence.

It needed additional fuel oil, and quickly. A high Government official asked Mr. to throw all his equipment into the breach. Since it was the day before Christmas, laborers were hard to round up, but Mr. firm succeeded in performing the task assigned it.

On the civilian front, there was the case of the oil shortage in Bethesda last winter. Tank cars in nearby yards needed to be shifted to proper connecting lines. Due to the congestion other war demands produced, rail lines found a certain delay would be unavoidable. Mr. Boyle put his fleet of 22 oil tankers to work.

In one day they delivered 85.000 gallons of the fluid sorely needed in the suburb adjoining Washington. "The railroads, too, are doing a grand Mr. O'Boyle said. On long and short hauls, Mr. moves about 320,000 gallons of oil or alcohol daily under war contracts, the alcohol being destined for manufacturing.

With the same equipment ana less manpower available, Lester B. Powell, president of Powell Transportation says his volume of business Is 246 per cent greater this year than last year. How was it accomplished? working longer hours, by cutting out all special runs, by discontinuing Sunday-holiday delivery of luxury goods and by systematizing deliveries so that trucks do not travel empty in any Mr. Powell explained. Mr.

Powell has been in business nearly 30 years, and he is proud to eay the first man he hired still works for him. Hauling Food Products. haul all food products going to Government he stated. means millions of pounds of foodstuffs, much of it perishable unless promptly delivered. When you consider that the Pentagon Building alone has a cafeteria accommodating 6,000 persons at a time you get a picture of the loads we must haul within the Before the war, Washington was known as a town, with about 10 pounds of goods coming in for every pound shipped out.

This was due, and still holds true today, to the fact that Washington is not a manufacturing nor war-production center. The 10-to-l ratio, however, has been curtailed, Mr. Powell believes. por example, drugs hauled by truck from New York and intermediate points are offered on the shelves of Washington stores the day after they are ordered, due to the speed and flexibility of trucking service. Mr.

business is not confined to hauling foodstuffs and drugs. He'has a contract under which millions of pounds of oils and greases are hauled to the District area military establishments. Trucks move a variety of things. Por example, Mr. Powell remembers he hauled here a carcass of a whale sent from Alaska to the Smithsonian Institution.

Truckers elsewhere have moved shark livers to laboratories for transformation into vitamins for the armed services. Oranges from Florida, as well as 800-pound tires for United States Army bombers, likewise have moved by truck as an essential part of the Nation's transportation system. Long and Short Hauls. Normally the short haul is the backbone of the trucking business. But on at least one occasion Mr.

Powell remembers sending trucks to Louisiana, a journey of some 1,400 miles. Hauling explosives, mines and airplane parts is part of the wartime job being done by another large District operator, the Davidson Transfer Co. Otto Ruppert, Davidson manager here, outlined safety precautions for trucks hauling explosives. Mr. Ruppert said, labeled explosives.

Safety precautions include static chains on the rear of the truck, the removal of oil and flare pots and the substitution of electrically operated flaree, in case of stoppages on the road. In many States a police escort also is furnished, but not in the State of Virginia. They have told authorities that if they furnished State police escort for all the war goods being moved through Virginia, they would have no force left for their own Hauling of machinery for the making of airplane parts; quartz crystals from Brazil used In radio manufacturing; mines to naval stations and military constitute a part of trucking loads. A Priceless Cargo. Preceding the North African Invasion, a Washington truck operator hauled maps of that war zone to an Eastern seaport.

Seven sets of maps were shipped, one set on each of seven ships. If any ship was sunk by the enemy, other ships would survive to deliver the priceless cargo. Due to shipping restrictions, a large Washington publishing house has been forced to reduce Its shipments abroad. Trucks used to haul the entire load to Eastern seaports. The Davidson firm Is not surprised, Mr.

Ruppert explained, when asked to do unusual moving chores. Even In peace, truckers were called on to do a lot of things far removed from the cartage and heavy movement specialties of the trade. hauled two giraffes to the Zoo Mr. Ruppert chuckled. "I foregt that trip, because it meant hauling the animals in an open truck and forcing them to lower their long necks every time we went under a What Is happening In the Capital is being done on a larger scale throughout the country, especially In war-production raw materials Into plants and delivering the finished product to ports of embarkations.

At the same time the Industry is helping to meet the needs of our civilian population. Highways Are Assembly Lines. Briefly, motor carriers are transforming our highways Into assembly lines hundreds of miles long. Playing a vital role In the war-production program, trucks today are moving 67 per cent of the freight into and 60 per cent of the freight out of 781 war plants, according to the American Trucking Associations. The war challenged the ingenuity of truck manufacturers.

When asked to build truck trailers capable ot transporting subassemblies of bombers, they produced trailers more than 64 feet long, nearly 8 feet dfcep inside and 10 feet wide. Two can carry an entire bomber, including everything except the propellers. The Army ordered hundreds of thousands of trucks for use in far-flung war zones. Bulldozers and trucks were used in repairing the roads In North Africa. Trucks were employed in cleaning up and repairing bombed-out port facilities.

More than 100 airfields were built, repaired or expended with United States engineers hauling mountains of gravel and rock from the achievement requiring thousands of trucks. Under lend-lease the United States supplied Russia with 80.000 trucks, a vital factor in the push against the Germans. Trucks built in America moved thousands of tons of war materials through Iran into Russia. More than 5,000 trucks were used in building the Alaska highway, that important military road constructed in 10 months, which is expected to prove a short cut to Tokio. Over the limitless reaches of Russia and China, in the Mediterranean area, and on the islands of the vast Pacific, American trucks are moving troops, guns, ammunition and other supplies where prompt delivery is so vital.

Washington on the Move. When the Government decided to decentralize its Washington offices for the duration, the truck was summoned to do a quick job. The Kane Transfer associated with Fidelity Storage and Allied Van Lines, hauled approximately 40,000,000 pounds of office furniture, files, records and other property to Northern and Southern points. Francis Kane adds that more than 8,000 employes had their furniture moved from the Capital by truck. A high light of Uncle Sam's moving day was the hauling of the Wage-Hour Division of the Labor Department to New York, 223 miles from the Capital.

Loading began on a Saturday at 1 p.m., when employes closed their desks for the week end; and was completed by 11 pjn. Sunday. At 7 a.m. Monday each desk and cabinet was in proper place in the new quarters in another city and no employe lost a minute's working time. The Job involved a half million pounds of freight, and 43 truck loads.

Movement of the Patent Office from this city to Richmond consumed two time, in which 2,000,000 pounds were hauled, constituting 123 separate vanloads. It was regarded as the biggest office moving Job in history. Associated Transport, large Eastern common carrier, says about 80 per cent of its traffic consists of vital war freight. It points out that more than 76,000,000 tons of freight moved domestically on War Department bills of lading during the fiscal year 1943, with trucks carrying 7.25 per cent of that freight. Much of this was controlled at Washington.

In addition, there is much freight for the Navy, iease-lend and other Government agencies. War Shipments. "We are continually being called upon to handle rush to ports of embarkation. Navy Yards and the explained S. C.

Massey, local manager of Associated Transport. The Jacobs Transfer with a fleet of 62 trucks, does the bulk of its business handling pickup and delivery freight from the Baltimore Ohio denots here. This includes foodstuffs, clothing and other merchandising material, and essential civilian supplies. The company also performs emergency work for the telephone company here when damage occurs in nearby Virginia and Maryland points. It will be seen that leading Washington trucking firms go in for specialty lines.

Added together, they form a that is imposing. What the postwar period may bring is a matter of speculation; truck operators believe, however, they have a helpful role to play in the economy. Facts on Trucking. To get an over-all picture of the trucking industry, here are a few facts an ATA spokesman asserts; The United States truck fleet com War materials being loaded on trucks of the Associated Transport Co. prises 4,607,000 vehicles, more than in all other countries of the world, combined.

Trucks are hauling 18 per cent of all freight, including that traveling by rail, water and air. Trucks pay more than $1,000,000 per day in special highway taxes alone. Approximately 70 per cent of all hogs, calves and delivered to the principal stockyards every year by truck. Twenty-four of our largest cities re celved at least 96 per cent of every milk by truck. American newspaper publishers operate a fleet of 4,000 trucks.

If the Nation's trucks were to stop running for 24 hours, the congestion of freight would retard war production. In this picture Washington truck operators are playing a vital, if undramatic, role. Donald M. Nelson, War Production Board chairman, returning from an In spectlon tour of England, North Africa, Russia and the Near East, said: "American trucks have been lifesavers to our Allies. They have been especially valuable because this is a war of movement.

The tempo is vastly different from the First World War. And when the chapter on transportation in World War II is written, I believe that the American will receive all the honor and glory it has earned and rightly Christmas in a Japanese Prison Camp (After eight rears as Associated Praia correspondent In the Pacific war zone, the last 21 months of which was spent in a Japanese internment camp. Raymond Cronin came home for Christmas. Last year, in spite of everything, it was Christmas, too Now who came out of the East In time for Christmas in the homeland this year, were praying that Santa would do hla level best for those we left behind ') By Raymond P. Cronin, Staff Writer.

NEW war cannot stop Santa Claus. My wife and I spent last Christmas a year ago in a Japanese prison camp. As Japanese war planes roared over our heads southward bound, St. Nick came in on the beam and gave our hundreds of internee children one of the finest Christmas celebrations they ever enjoyed even In normal times. As Christmas approached this year I could picture the holiday celebration in the Manila Santo Thomas camp where I was held almost 21 months.

It may not have been so cheerful this year. The food situation was none too good when I left September 26. There was a lack of materials such as Santa's helpers within the camp were lucky enough to get last year. Yet I knew that the internees, their hopes and morale high, would give the Aircraft Warning Service on Alert By Ruth Dean. Contrary to popular belief the Aircraft Warning Service has not been discontinued.

It has instead been placed on an alert basis, and it continues to function, carrying out its vital role of vigilance, for protection and defense against an air-borne enemy. Observers now report planes during routine intervals one day each week, but they stand ready for immediate action at any and all times. The Aircraft Warning Service was put into operation in the early summer of 1941. It was the successful result of an extensive experiment, first tested out by the Army, in 1938, to ascertain the effectiveness of civilian co-operation in reporting aircraft. The Eyes and Ears.

Civilian defense councils in various States were called upon to set up observation posts throughout their areas. Because of their widespread national distribution and interest in the Nation's defense, the American Legion elected to administer initial details of this organisation and were largely instrumental in lnaugerating the first observation posts. Later other organizations joined in. The Aircraft Warning Service, itself, comes under the 1st Fighter Command, and in scope, covers the entire Atlantic coast from Maine to Florida, extending many miles inland. It is literally the eyes and ears of the Army Air Forces, in its defense against air-borne invasion, for it consists of certain military installations, for seaward detection, reinforced by thousands of civilianmanned observation posts.

These civilian vigilantes comprise the Ground Corps, which is a branch of the Aircraft Warning Service. All unpaid volunteers, they report directly to the Army; they are the field intelligence agents upon whom the Air Force depends for information that will be a vital factor in knocking down enemy raiders when and if they come. The Path of Flight. Just how this information is transferred to Army intelligence is an interesting story in itself. Unbelievably, the time occupied between the reporting of a plane and its interception by fighter craft is only three minutes.

Assume the observer has already seen an unidentified plane; he Immediately telephones this Information in a certain prescribed form direct to the plotter at the Army Filter Center. Hauling explosives is part of the wartime job being done by a Washington transfer company. There, the plotter takes the information and displays it on a filter board. After checking against similar information from other posts, a track of flight is established on the board. Army, Navy and Civil Aeronautics authorities are asked to identify the fight as one belonging to one of their respective organizations by checking against previously scheduled and approved flight plans.

If identification can not be made, the plane is assumed to be of enemy origin, and is indicated accordingly on the filter board. This information on the filter board then to plotters at the Information Center who displays it on an operations board. This enables the Controller of Air Defense Wing commander, seated in an overhead balcony, to estimate the relative strength of the enemy, when he sees an enemy track appear on the board. This means he can actually calculate the number of planes in the raid, their type, altitude, rate of speed, direction headed in, location and possible objectives. He can use this information to direct the interceptor force as to the number of planes they will use, from what base they are to be dispatched, what communities to warn of impending raid, and what commands to issue to antiaircraft artillery.

Most important of all, this information on the board gives the Interception officer the knowledge which he transcribes to radio-telephone pilots as the theoretical point in the air space to which that must fly to intercept the enemy. Thus, indirectly, the Ground Corps fly the fighter aircraft to within sight of the enemy. In their alert readiness to be on the Job, the observers have expanded their activities to meet local emergencies, from discovering enemy submarines on our shores, to sighting forest fires in Isolated territory, thus saving much damage in life and property. The corps, as a whole, is characterized by its cheerfullness and willingness to help and in the old days of 24-hour duty were always faithful to their task in the roughest of weather and at the loneliest of posts. In recognition of this devotion to duty, the Air Corps presents attractive rewards for service rendered from a minimum of three months to a maximum of 500 hours or over.

In spite of Gen. order, the members of the Aircraft Warning Service still continue to perform their shortened duties with the same keen alertness as they did on the former schedule. They also still enjoy the historically significant privilege of being the first civilians from whom the United States Army has asked and acepted such vital information. Furthermore, they are the only part of Civilian Defense charged with a part both inactive and paeelve defense. kids as fine a Christmas as possible under the circumstances.

Their efforts would be supplemented by the arrival of tons of American Red Cross food, clothing and other supplies which were taken to the East by the repatriation ship Gripsholm and reshipped aboard the Japanese liner Teia Maru. The 3,500 internees will never forget Christmas of 1942. In spite of the fact we were in what the Japanese called a possible combat zone, a crew went to work late in September with saws and hammers and paint brushes. They produced hundreds of brightly colored scooters, auto trucks of both wood and metal, and even mechanical toys which would have been a credit to any professional plant. Harold N.

Wilson, an American electrical estimator, had charge of production. Dead tired after months of work which Included emergency production of about 100 extra gifts for the children from the Iloilo camp who arrived just before Christmas, he told me "it sure was worth while. No sacrifice was too great so long as we gave the kids a good I was on Santa crew, repairing old toys sent in by our Filipino friends. I had the aid of Larry Moran, representative of a Pacific Coast pump company. One toy we repaired was a hook and ladder about 3 feet long.

We straightened cut the dents and got the bell to ringing, but we were stymied for several 1-foot ladders. A mining engineer named W'eigel, who made thousands of bamboo knitting needles for the women of the camp, solved the problem. He turned out special bamboo rods in which we set strips of wood to form the rungs. When the toy was repainted In bright red, Wilson decided it was to magnificent to give to a single boy, so he had Santa present it to a dormitory full of kids. While the men hammered and sawed, scores of women were busy on rag dolls, animals, sheets, pillowcases and pillows for doll beds; complete doll wardrobes.

Their production was so striking that Betty Lou Gewald of Wisconsin, one of the moving spirits, held a pre-Christmas show for grownups. We had difficulty keeping the kids out of the show and seeing that the grownups didn't wear out the toys before Santa arrived. Betty Lou's father met death on Corregidor a few days before its surrender. Many Americans living outside the camp because of age or Illness did not forget the kids. They sent in brandnew presents.

One package from Cllfl and Kate Billings of Buffalo, N. contained gifts for a dozen children. Later they, too, were interned. That Christmas Day will remain with us always. With Japanese soldiers on guard at the gate, Santa arrived.

Ha needed no pass. He went straight to our giant Christmas tree, brought in from the Baguio Mountains, and distributed the hundreds of gifts with words of cheer for each boy and girL Filipino and other friends outside sent in scores of roasted turkeys and pigs, ice cream, cakes by the hundred and candy. Christmas With a Wrill. In our shanty areas the grownups celebrated Christmas with a will. Most of the gifts were manufactured within the pipes and cigar and cigarette holders, bamboo beer mugs, most of them containing camp scenes, and many other presents.

One of our best beer mug experts was Hal Lynn, an American, who, in prewar days, was advertising manager of the Manila Daily Bulletin. Even ihe Japanese entered into the spirit of things. Our first commandant, a lieutenant, sent in gifts to the internees who had helped him organize the camp in the early days. Many shanties had tiny Christmae trees. We had one in our shack for Barbara Moote, 13-year-old daughter of Lea Moote, a Navy officer who is a prisoner of war at Davao.

The tree was fully decorated with bright balls and tinsel, leftovers from 1940, and under It we had a cardboard set showing the manger and the Christ Child and the other things in that Bethlehem stable more than 1,900 years ago. Our camp religious services were imposing and impressive. And so we celebrated Christmas in ft prison camp. We, who came out of the East in time for Christmas in the homeland this year, were praying that Santa will do level best for those we left behind. Penitentiary Ends Career By Willard Robertson, Associated Press Stall Writer.

JOLIET. 16-foot walls and the narrow, dark cells of the. old Joliet State prison are coming down, after 87 years of dark penal history. The entire warden described it as the "hole of being abandoned and the 770 inmates moved to the more comfortable, mere modern Stateville prison, a few miles away. For many of the convicts, most of them hardened criminals and "repeaters," the brief trip will be their first glimpse of the outside world in many years.

Many take with them from the ancient den the memories of riots, escapes, slayings, a sensational murder and such strange tales as that of the ex-convict who became a prison chaplain. No violence attended the most famous escape, however, in which Henry Fernekes, 5-foot-4 inch bank robber and killer, literally Wearing dark trousers, shirt and dark glasses and posing as a visitor, Fernekes walked into the interviewing room and handed an attendant a slip of paper bearing the name and the number 4408. The attendant said Amenn was confined at Stateville. Fernekes took the slip silently, walked out of the room, past the guards on duty and right out of the gate. Captured in Chicago less than three months later, in October, 1935, he committed suicide by swallowing poison.

In 1920 another convict, William Howard, duplicated the feat of Jean Valjean, who escaped through the sewers of Faria. Howard, working on a Joliet drainage project, crawled through the new conduit to freedom. More violent was the attempt of three convicts to lower themselves to the street from the prison barber shop in 1931. Officials had been tipped and guards killed the three fugitives, one by one, as they slid down the makeshift rope. These slayings and the death of a convict who had been shackled in solitary confinement, with his wrists strung above his head, led to one of several riots.

Two convicts were killed and two wounded in this outbreak, three of them felled by a sharpshooting guard on the wall as they attacked a guard captain at the door of the dining hall. During the subsequent investigation, a prison chaplain resigned and told a legislative investigating committee ha had been in prison for grand larceny prior to his ordination and had been paroled twice. Three companies of State militia were required to subdue an earlier riot, in which one inmate was killed and fire caused about $100,000 damage. One of the best-planned escape plots failed in 1933 when rain washed out the numbers of a coal train and the conivcts were unable to ascertain which car contained the guns to be used in the break. The most sensational crime within the walls was the slaying of Odette Allen, former actress and wife of Warden Edmund Allen, in 1915.

She was slain in her skull fractured and the bed set a Negro convict known as "Chicken Campbell. Saved from the gallows by a commutation of sentence, and rescued from a mob of angry prisoners by the chaplain, Campbell still is in' prison, in the Southern Illinois branch at Menard..