FIRST COLLECTION
OF BOOKS IN
CAMPAIGN FRIDAY
Victory Book
Campaign Goes
On In County
The first county-wide collection
of contributions to the recently
launched Victory Book Campaign
in Halifax county will be carried
out Friday of this week when a
truck will visit all high schools in
the county to receive books that
have been brought there during
the first week of the campaign,
Miss Evelyn Mullen, of the Ameri
can Library Association and offi
cial in the drive in Halifax county,
said today.
The books will be brought to
Roanoke Rapids Armory where
they will be sorted and crated for
shipment to the nearest army post
which needs them. Other collec
tions will be made on each Friday
for the next two weeks, Miss Mul
len said.
In the meantime the Victory
campaign for gathering books for
our boys in the armed forces goes
on in Halifax county under the
joint sponsorship of the United
Service Organization, the American
Red Cross and the American Li
brary Association.
Books of all nature and vintage
are wanted. Books on recreation,
fiction, non-fiction, biographies,
technical, mathematics, in fact,
anything the boys will enjoy read
ing is acceptable. Text books re
lating to almost any subject are
wanted, as many of the soldiers are
carrying on studies of various
subjects during what spare time
. they have in the Army.
Miss Mullen said that millions
of books were needed in order to
assure each soldier accessibility to
a library unit. It is known that in
some of the larger military cen
ters some of the soldiers are as
much as two miles from the near
est post library. Books collected
in the Victory Book Campaign
throughout the United States will
be placed in the company recrea
tion centers and the post libraries
so that all men in the service—Air
Corps, Army, Navy, Marine Corps,
Merchant Marines, and USO cen
ters—will have an opportunity to
read as much as he wants during
his spare time.
Tnere is hardly a home in Hal
ifax county that does not have a
book lying around the house that
some soldier will enjoy reading,”
Miss Mullen said. "It is hoped
that all homes in the county will
contribute as many books as pos
sible to the campaign, but every
home is urged to contribute at
least one book.”
All citizens are asked to bring
their books to the nearest library,
or give them to school children so
that they may be brought to the
various schools of the county
where they will be picked up by
truck and delivered to the shipping
point.
MASS MEETING
(Continued from Page One)
kers; Chief of Emergency Medical
Service, T. J. Alford; Chief of E
mergency Public Works Service,
Virgil McDowell, and Chief of E
mergency Utilities, Don P. Tillar.
Under Sherrod Crumpler will be
specialists of all sorts whose duty
it will be to train the many civili
an volunteers in the special groups.
The other section chiefs will call
upon Crumpler for the service of
his special group and Crumpler
will plan the training so that no
over-lapping might occur. Consid
ering the number of volunteers
and the many hours of special
training that they will all need, it
can be readily seen that Crump
ler’s work will be most important
As Chief Personnel Officer C.
W. Davis with a staff of ass is
, tants will have charge of the en
tire volunteer system, and he will
also keep records of all property
E--—
purchased or rented by the Civilian
Defense Organization. He will
also have charge of transport fa
cilities, and drivers, available for
any of the other section chiefs or
commander, in case of evacuations
or the movement of supplies from
one place to another in the city.
Under Davis' direction, a Billeting
Officer will survey all emergency
housing available in case of local
enemy action, and arrange for e
mergency feeding.
Under W. P. Taylor’s direction
as Chief of Fire Service will come
the group of auxiliary firemen
who will assist the local volunteer
firemen when an emergency oc
curs. Also under his group will
be aspecial rescue squad who will
be a special rescue squad who will
collapsed buildings not burning.
They will be particularly versed
in gas masks and handling of in
jured persons.
Under Chief Of police «. a*. uoo
fcins will come the group of aux
iliary police. These civilians will
be sworn in as deputy officers and
their duty will be to see that, dur
ing blackouts or enemy action, no
looting occurs. It can be readily
seen that under blackout condi
tions lawlessness might get out of
hand without a supplemented po
lice force. Another group com
ing under Chief Dobbins’ direct
ion will be the Bomb Squad. This
will be a very small squad of se
lect men. Their chief requisite
will be intestinal fortitude. To
them will fall the duty of excavat
ing unexploded bombs and time
bombs, and transporting them to
positions where their exploding
will not cause loss of life or pro
perty. They will all be heroes "in
the making.”
Under Chief Air Raid Warden
A. E. Akers will fall the heaviest
burden of blackouts, either for
Lest purposes or for sustained per
iods. He will have a larger staff
of workers than any other group.
It is proposed to have various sec
tor air raid wardens spaced in and
around Roanoke Rapids who will
always be at their posts during
alerts. In the large sectors there
will be an air raid warden for
each block or group of houses. It
is the air raid warden’s duty to
report any incidents that occur
in his group, and to advise the
people in his area whether lights
are showing in their darkened
houses, and also to keep up civili
an morale in his block. Also under
Akers’ command will be the fire
watchers who, from posts Of van
tage, will be able to spot fires the
moment they occur and report
them to the Control Center.
Under T. J. Alford’s command
as Cheif of Emergency Medical
Service will be placed the medical
facilities of the town as well as
the establishment of several e
mergency First Aid stations. Of
course, the entire medical and
professional nursing staff will be
under this group. Alford will also
have to train a large staff of aux
iliary nurses who will assist the
medical staff in caring for the
wounded at emergency hospitals.
Also coming under Alford’s group
will be a Chief of Sanitation Ser
vice who will have charge of the
health and sanitation of all e
mergency feeding and housing
centers and who will pass upon
the purity of foods and water
diiriner an emersrencv.
Under the Chief of Emergency
Public Work Service, McDowell
will have four sections. One will
deal with the emergency repair
of roads so that during and after
enemy action, traffic can be es
tablished through bombed areas.
Ke also has charge of the repairs
of sewage and water facilities in
case they are damaged. When it
is recalled that the fall of Hong
Kong was precipitated by the
frjlure of its water supply it can
be seen that McDowell’s group has
a very important work. McDowell
will also have charge of demolition
and clearance of bombed buildings
which have become dangerous to
the public’s safety, and finally
through his organization, there
will be a Decontamination Squad
of specialists who will be acquaint
ed with chemical and bacterial
warefare. In cases of enemy action
where gases are used, it will be |
their duty to render the gases
harmless to the public and when
ever water supplies are polluted
their work will be to purify the
supply.
Under Don P. Tillar will come
the work of Emergency Utilities.
His duty is to see to it that ene
my action does not dislocate e
lectric power supply to the com
munity, or the communications
systems. His group, of course, will
be specialists, for the most part
already employed by the Virginia
Electric and Power Company and
the Carolina Telephone and Tele
graph Company. Also under Til
lar’s group will come the main
tenance of all warning systems, in
cluding the communications at the
Control Center and the public air
raid warning. Tillar will also
have under his supervision a
group of engineers who will be a
bie to assist civilians or air raid
wardens in the proper methods
of blacking-out their residences
and stores.
Roanoke Rapids plans to have a
blackout within the near future. It
is a desire of the Defense Council
that this blackout be as near as
possible to actual conditions. Of
course, it is realized that anyone
could effectively black out his resi
dence by pulling the main line
electric service switch, particularly
for test blackouts, lasting only 30
minutes or more. However, the
public should realize that at any
time it might become necessary for
the entire Eastern Seaboard to be
come black-out every night for a
long period. In this case it would
be necessary for the public to pro
vide certain rooms in their houses
where the family could eat, listen
to the radio, and carry on normal
family functions. For this reason
all citizens in the Roanoke Rapids
Area which will include Camps
Store, Belmont, Lincoln Heights,
South Rosemary, and Hornertown,
and any other localities within one
mile of the corporate limits, are
urged to immediately start prepara
tions for blacking-out of at least
one room in their house. If they
are fortunate enough to already
have an interior room without win
dows, this is an immediate solu
tion. The use of blankets over
windows or cardboard securely fas
tened to keep out light is recom
mended together with the use of
dim lights during blackout periods.
Some time within the next two
weeks, Tillar, in charge of the
warning system, plans to have a
test of the air raid warning. This
test will be sufficiently publicized
and its effect will be noted through
the area.
Halifax Man
At Army
Machine Shop
Sergeant Walter F. Marks, son
of Mrs. R. H. Read of Halifax, is
attending the Machine Record Unit
School at Fourth Corps Area head
quarters, Atlanta, and upon grad
uation will return to Camp Davis
to act as instructor in this line of
training there.
WHEN IN NEED OF
RADIO SERVICE
j — Call— |
MIKE'S RADIO SHOP
Dial R-328 -Mike Westbrook
931 KOANOKE AVENUE j
i l!
X PRESIDENT'S
X BALL
I Celebrations over the country
in inviting you to —
I “DANCE
% THAT OTHERS MAY
! WALK”
The only Halifax County
Observance of this Nationally
Famous Dance will be held at
the NEW
! ARMORY - - FRIDAY NIGHT j
Y Be sure and attend the Donee - - - and, X
I “Invite Dr. Pepper to !
I your Intermission Party!” |
X You will find it will add zest to the evening’s fun! ♦
I Dr. Pepper Bottling Co. |
♦ of Roanoke Rapids, Inc. X ’
■ . \ -