Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1917-06-28
BIG TASK TO
REBUILD OLD TOWNS
Americans Are Aiding French to Re-
build Towns i'm France That
Have Been Completely Dew
astated by War

American, French and British CT
villains are working in closest co-op-
GRAFTON with the French military and
civil authorities in restoring the lands
devastated by the Germans when
they hurriediy quit the lines they
had held for two years from Noyon to
Somme. The Associated Press cor
respondent after visiting Noyon, the
adopted daughter of Washington,
went through the entire district and
observed what was being done.
Others have followed the example
| of the federal capital and have de-
voted their energies to the succor of
particular localities. For instance,
the American fund for the French
wounded has stepped aside from it's
original idea and taken full charge
| the hamlet of Behericourt with it's
125 remaining inhabitants.
The Camtessee de Chabrannes La
Pallice has taken to herself the ham
| let of Maucourt of which only heaps
of brick and stone remain, and will
rebuild it.
DR.. Baron Henri de Rothschild has
opened food and clothing depot
at Noyon and sends everything nee
| essary to any applicant in any part
of the afflicted district.
All this, however, is but a drop in
| the ocean when it is realized that
| there are 243 villages and hamlets
| spread over the country which the
Germans before their retreat tried to
| make into a desert. One hundred of
| these small communities are now
Just heaps OF stones and bricks with
out one habitable room or cellar in
| them, while of the remainder one
| third were partly demolished and the
rest only slightly.
In this region $4,000 old men and
women and young children under Is
years were left without shelter or
| food by the Germans. Some 10000
of these were evacuated Immediately
to the interior of France where a
portion of them joined relatives.
Problem a Vast One
The military authorities have Crap
pied in a mastery way with the vast
problem which confronts them of pro-
viding for large destitute commun-
ity Immediately behind the lines.
They set to work to organize the
| country and its people. The first
step was to provide food and this
| was done through the military COM
| missariat as there were no means of
civilian transport of supplies from
other parts of France.
Then came the question OF putting
| in cultivation again the 1000 acres
Of agricultural land comprised in the
zone. The devastated country was
divided into seven sections and COM
posed of twenty-five communes, each
| in charge of an officer with skilled
aids. Horses were lent by the army.
broken ploughs and harrows were re-
| paired by motor mechanics of the
army, seeds of all kind were procured
and work on the land was begun. For
| this manual labor was necessary and
this was found among the many peas
ants and small farmers in the ranks.
Thirty American tractors were
found lying idle in a depot not far
from the stricken district and these
were transported to the place where
| they could be most useful and put
to work. The labor was dangerous
owing to the presence of unexploded
shells under the surface of the fields
but only one accident has occurred
from this cause.
In this way about 1000 acres have
been ploughed and sown with grain
and grass and another $500 more
ploughed and cleared of weeds. while
with the help of American, English
and French donors, every family has
been provided with seeds and roots
to form a truck garden with the re-
suit that sufficient produce is expect
ed to make the community self-sup-
porting