New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-06-20
BY FRED B. PITNEY.

in practical work in the midst Of war and give
US your respect as a serious people
VI. Painleve grew enthusiastic.
AT the very outset of the war" he said,
$50 per cent of the coal and iron production
Of France was seized by Germany in the in
vaded provinces. Four millions OF our men
went into the army. Masters and men, engi-
neers and foremen and workmen, all went 10
the trenches. To-day Frances production Of
cannon and shells, munitions of war Of all
kinds is greater than the combined produc-
tons Of England, Russia, Japan and America.
could frivolous people do that?
when the war began we made not a pound
Of melinite, our principal explosive, in
France. We were at once cut off from our
source Of supply. Before our stocks in hand
ran out we had built factories and invented
and installed the methods Of making melinte
and were turning out the product. France is
to-day the greatest producer of high eXplo-
sives in the world.
as not that the work of strong and resi-
lent people, of a people of capable engineers
and engineers of imaginative power? It Is
such things as that that America must learn
about France and then America will know that
there is much she can receive from France
and that a closer union will be Of benefit 70
America as well as to France.
Educational Exchanges.
America has developed system of special
ization in training. Her engineers, for ex-
ample, are specialists France not only trains
her engineers to be specialists, but, as I may
say, trains them to be specialists in magma
ton. There are great engineering schools
outside of Pars-at Grenoble, for example.
where special attention is given to training
the Imagination of our young engineers, and
you can see how valuable this has been to US
in this war.
1--WE would like to have your students come
to our schools. We would like to send our
young men TO your schools. We want to ar
range a plan for an exchange Of professors
with America and an exchange of students.
We want your colleges and universities 10
become better known here and ours 20 be-
come better known with you.
with this end in view there has already
been started by W. Emile Hovelaque a plan
for an American House in Paris. The plan
is for it to be a headquarters for American
students in France, a place where they can
receive all information on both special and
general subjects, and where they can make
their homes, if they wish. We plan 10 have
the city of Paris and the State combine to
give the ground for spacious building and
gardens while American contributions would
put up the building. In this way the two
countries would combine for this headquar-
ters for Americans in France. We want this
American House to represent no particular
college or section of America, but the whole
country, and for this reason we are trying
now to form a committee which will represent
all America, East, Middle West and West,
North and South.
Rebuilding the Reconquered Provinces.
France after the war will have as her first
duty the rebuilding Of the commercial and
economic life of the nation and the recon
struction of the invaded districts. This will
offer the great opportunity for American en-
terprise, intelligence and keen business train
ing.
zone of the first problems that will arise
in France will be the problem Of capital The
cost Of this war 70 France surpasses every
forty-fve days the total cost of the war Of
1901, and this war mas already endured
twenty-five months After the war. France,
which has been tho great international bank
ing country OF the world will have TO seek
capital instead of supplying it. America,
which has been amassing wealth while the
other nations have been impoverishng them
selves by warfare, will be the country 70
which the world will have 20 turn, and France,
like all the others, will have 70 seek capital
in America. Until the present America has
known little Of international finance, and the
part she has taken has been as a borrower
for the development of her own industries.
Now conditions will be reversed and she will
have the opportunity of becoming great in
ternational banking country, with France as