Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-11-07

Rather he conferred with the country's
industrial leaders as to ways and
means of supplying certain favored
shops with unmobilized, and, for the
most part, unskilled, workers men
just over military age, boys Just under
age, and women. For time this plan
worked indifferently well. But it was
slow of realization and, to use a French
phrase, mot famous when operating
at it's best. Somehow the guns at the
front never got all the shells they We're
waiting for.
Then the scope of the plan for reviv-
ing the factories was enlarged, a little
at a time; but it never attained to
degree of success commensurate with
the appetite of the guns. Moreover, the
commanders of the French army began
to realize. the winter campaign wore
on, that their stock of light field pieces
needed replenishing and extension and
that their artillery. wing was otherwise
hopelessly lacking in the modern types
of heavy-caliber long-range guns that
the Germans were using against them
with such deadly effect. So not only
did they find themselves. in dire need of
shells, but also of guns. and particular
ly big guns and machine guns.
But neither the shells nor the guns
were forthcoming in sufficient quanti-
ties. Evidently a more intensive mobil-
tempted was becoming more and
more absolute necessity. In the mean
time France was powerless to bulge
the invaders of her territory an inch to
the rear. In fact, the invaders con-
stantIy menaced her with new advances.
Probably all that saved France from
becoming the defeated victim of her
industrial unpreparedness was the fact
that her Teuton enemies were forced
to spread ther immense resources over
more than twice the battle front that
she was holding against them.
Finally the press opened more
ammunitions'' campaign Two mem
hers of the French senatorial army
commission. Henri Berenger and
Charles Humbert, commenced through
the medium of the newspapers series
of startling revelations with regard to
the dearth of munitions and the pa
.ralysis of industry. They pointed out
the desperate need for immediate in
dustrisl organization. This is not a
war of men," they preached. This is
a war of guns and Shells
And since it was a war of guns and
shells, they argued, it was, in the
last resolution, a war of factories, OF
machines pitted against machines, of
furnaces against furnaces, of armies
of skilled workmen against other SINH
lar armies. I'VE cannot hope to win
unless we carry the battle to the forge
and the lathe" they cried. 1T is folly
to keep our workmen in the trenches.
Bring them back and set them at the
business of forging the food for the
dogs of war"
They had their way. June 9 the
minister of war issued decree en-
powering every factory in France that
could and would make ammunition to
recall it's old staff of workers from the
army.
The effect was magical Even as
France had modified its fighting
armies, SO it now modified it's army
of industry. Everywhere blast fur
naces, long cold and silent, commenced
again to roar; everywhere rusting, ne
elected lathes were once more oiled
up and set to work anew; everywhere
the waiting drop-forge and the steam
press resumed their labors, and in
every corner of uninvaded France fac
tories by the scores, and the tens of
scores, that never before had forged
a shell or turned fuse were refitted