NEW YORK'S WAR-WORK CLEARING HOUSE A great variety of real service being rendered by the mayor's com- BY GAYNE T. K. NORTON N ONE of the upper floors of the Hall of Records building, on Chambers street, New York city, a municipal organization is housed which is spelling "service" in 48-point, upper case, bold face type, direct service to the nation and service to war workers in the city that is doing much to help New York accomplish the large "bit" cut out for it. I venture to speak briefly on the mayor's committee on national defense, organized when we entered the war by former mayor John Purroy Mitchel and continued by the present administration, because the assistance I have received hints of its scope and the usefulness such organizations may attain, and because I have failed to meet another municipal body which approximated it in point of service rendered. During the campaign for the second liberty loan the task of reproducing a battlefield and trench system in a three dimension plaster model was turned over to me. After locating an artist and some British officers, returned men who volunteered to supply "local color" and atmosphere to the artist's imagination, I began to run up taxi bills. The artist was at one end of town and the officers, both lame, were stationed at the other, making a machine necessary for the frequent trips to the studio. When I learned the mayor's committee had machines, loaned by patriotic owners for just such service, my taxi bills stopped, and the official card on the radiators of the committee's cars saved time. The mayor's committee has made possible the execution of many publicity "stunts," upon which the success of all war-work campaigns largely hinge, by securing all sorts of permits from various city departments, saving time and trouble for those desiring such permits and the disturbance of officials who have no jurisdiction over the particular matter, through greater understanding of city departments and employees. I lay a large measure of the success which attended a local recruiting campaign of which I was publicity director to the features made possible by permits "railroaded" by the mayor's committee, which I doubt I alone could have gotten even if I had the time. During the second Red Cross war fund we had urgent need for volunteer workerstypists and voweletical index workers. I vainly appealed for workers through agencies and the news columns before I learned that the mayor's committee had several thousand such workers listed. While associated with the national war savings committee of New York the everpresent need for speakers became acute. I called the mayor's committee for advice only to find that they had hundreds listed, with specific information regarding the capabilities of each. When directing the publicity for the thrift promotion work done last February by the international committee, Y. M. C. A., there were a number of good stories, basic elements of the campaign propaganda, which it was unwise for the association to release as propaganda yet which we needed to have published. I explained the matter to the publicity department of the mayor's committee and the publicity was gained. To a degree this committee is doing for the city what the public service reserve of the department of labor is doing for the nation. Beside keeping files of the names and qualifications of individuals who desire to "do their bit" but who do not know where to apply, it lends co-operation to all campaigns, be it liberty loan of milk for French orphans, by releasing news stories, printing special publications, incorporating mention in general publications, designing and lithographing posters, arranging features and establishing booths about the city for the distribution of literature or col Plaster reproduction of the liberty bell near the city hall, New York city, used by women in patriotic movements lection of funds. Publicity, distribution, financial, printing and feature experts are always ready to confer with campaign workers and seek with them solutions for the problems faced. Such service has this committee extended to the organizations with which it has been my privilege to be connected that now, in emergency, I call upon it for anything I may need from a band to the name of a man who will give me a thousand dollars for for advertising. When trying to release news matter to 48 daily New York papers I learned the scarcest individuals in the city were those persons who had formerly functioned as office boys; after boy scouts, junior naval reserves and messenger services had failed, the mayor's committee supplied messengers. On one occasion they supplied a worldfamous tenor on forty minutes notice. They secured the loan from a municipal department of certain things I had been unable to borrow with all the influence of the organization I represented. This committee fills a very necessary niche in New York war work. Experience in many of the larger cities of the country, when I needed such co-operation as this committee extended, has failed to bring to my attention another such body. During the rare intervals when a campaign is not in progress, this committee devotes its activities to straight American propaganda work and discovering ways in which it can extend its services. The most recent extension is the establishment of a recruiting station for all branches of service. Here recruits are examined and enrolled by officers from the army, navy, naval reserves, marine corps, quartermaster's corps, shipping board and British and Canadian recruiting mission. During the new system 8,881 men were enrolled last April as against less than one hundred and fifty in March; in May the number was considerably in excess of ten thousand men. No matter the branch of the service the recruit is interested in, or particularly fitted for, complete information is available, he is saved time and trouble. The doctor on the ground means that recruits do not get "lost" between signing up at one place and examination at another, so preventing "slackers" from arming themselves with "first papers." Another feature of this work is the correspondence. Hundreds of letters from every State are answered If newspaper stories can announce that several of the most prominent women in the community are to sell programmes at an entertainment given for some war work, the success of the entertainment is practically assured. daily, embodying requested information. which special appeals for co-operation can The mayor's committee has become the most be made. powerful force for recruiting in the country. Another branch of this committee which is covering in practically the same ways ground not yet covered is the mayor's committee of women on national defense. Wealthy society women of the city have responded with a will, which means the placing at the disposal of the committee of not only money, automobiles, prestige and so forth, but numbers of volunteer workers and avenues through In this way alone, as well as in making speeches and receiving contributions, the women's committee has done valuable work in New York city. Scene from Buffalo's principal thoroughfare, Main street and Shelton square. Left to right, St. Paul's church, one of the oldest in New York State; Prudential and Telephone buildings and Erie county savings bank building. The picture is in the city's business center HOW STATE TROOPERS PARK AUTOMOBILES S Render valuable service at State and county fairs - The plan CIENTIFIC handling of automobiles How to assemble or park these cars so that they may occupy a minimum of space and at the same time enable automobiles to come and go without waiting for others to be moved, has been the big problem. Major George F. Chandler, superintendent of State troopers, believes that the plan which his department has adopted is most effective. It combines economy of space and ease of movement without which there would be constant confusion and delay. maintain order in the parking of machines and to facilitate the orderly progress of the meetings. That this service is appreciated by the farmers is shown by the many cordial letters of commendation from the fair officials and from owners of automobiles within the State. The method of handling the traffic is simple. The troopers always arrange it in a one-way system. That is, cars are required to go in at one gateway and de part at another. In order that there may be a space for each owner, it is customary to turn with a plow a shallow furrow about two inches deep in one or more lines over the ground where the automobiles are to be parked. Each machine is run to this furrow, slanting outwards, so that any one of them is free to leave without interference from the other. When parked the picture looks like the backbone of a fish, the furrow representing the backbone and the automobiles the ribs. Under the old method of parking machines they were all placed in a packed row, which made it difficult for their owners to get them out. Major George F. Chandler The automobile has made possible innumerable small and large assemblages of people for various purposes. Farmers gather at their little fairs, little horse shows and numerous other meetings. As the number of automobiles increase among the rural people the greater the need for some system of parking them. Major Chandler says it is amazing how these meetings have increased all over the State within the last year or two. Fortunately for the farmers and all concerned, the State police department has been found a valuable instrumentality to The simplicity of the system adopted by the troopers makes it efficient to be applied to automobiles wherever they are gathered. This new method was attempted for the first time last year at the State fair, and it is one which will be used by the troopers all over the State where their services are sought. Automobiles are prohibited from running through fair grounds and thus make themselves a danger and a nuisance to pedestrians. When they are carefully parked they can be easily gotten out from a number in a group. ADDING TO THE STATE FOREST PRESERVE Enormous tract in Adirondacks and Catskills being acquired BY GEORGE D. PRATT New York State conservation commissioner Commissioner Pratt describes in this article one of the most enterprising moves ever undertaken by the State acquirement of great areas of land to be added to the 500,000 for lands in the Adirondack and Catskill regions. It is only over the Adiron Adirondack and Catskill forest preserve. Acquisition of dack and Catskill purchases that the juris this immense forest tract has not yet been completed in all details but is under way. As the purchase involves seven and one-half million dollars, the people of the State will be interested in the progress of the transaction.EDITOR. WR 66 WHEN the voters of the State of New York in 1916 by a large majority voted "yes" on a proposition making provision for issuing bonds to the amount of not to exceed ten million dollars for the acquisition of lands for State park purposes," they were emphatic in demanding that the forested areas of this State should be set aside for the benefit and use of the people as a whole, instead of for exploitation by a few; and they had sufficient confidence in the State government to know that this large sum would be wisely expended. On no other basis would they have voted this large sum so overwhelmingly. That their confidence was justified is proved by a review of what has been accomplished in the acquisition of State lands since the bond issue was authorized. The fund for the purchase of additional land for park purposes was divided $2,500,000 being designated for land purchases in the Palisades interstate park, and $7, diction of the conservation commission extends. Of the sum applicable to those regions, the first $2,500,000 was made available through an act of the legislature in April, 1917, and in the brief space of a year and a half since that time 411,650 acres of forest land have been examined and reported upon by the conservation commission's foresters and appraisers. This is an area almost one-quarter the size of the entire forest preserve previously owned by the State, which has been gradually accumulated since the year 1883. In addition to those tracts upon which definite reports have been received, a The value of the timber depends upon the amount, kind and quality of trees |