The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1917-09-12

ENGINEER
in FRANCE
Wonderful Work He is Do
ing to Pave the Way to
the Battle Front
SHOWSSCIENCE AND SKILL
Masters in Their Chosen Lines VIII
Render Effective the Work of
This Nation

NGTON-Romance, mystery
and peril blend in the tremendous task
of 1.-THE army ahead of the army
which today is blazing trail to the
French front for Americas million
men.
It's the job of the engineers; and it
means that every step of the barren
way from French port to French front
must be modernized into an elong
ated American city.
| First off, they must macadamize the
highway, every foot of it. And over
an area of several miles nj the vicin-
| ity of the port and behind the front an
intricate system of perfectly paved
streets and avenues must be built.
Winding in and around both these
terminals the engineers are fashioning
a complicated systems of railroads,
both narrow and standard gauge, for
switching, transferring and caring for
troops and supplies.
All Supplied by America
Connecting these two webs is a rib
bon of track paralelling the miles of
paved roads, with branches and spurs
shooting off here and there on both
sides.
Every tie, very rail, every spike,
every engine and every car for this
system of railroads, is being taken
from this country. Not one bit of ma
terial, not single man, is being sup
piled by France.
Great wooden camp cities are rising
at both ends of this line Power
houses, permanent repair gang camps,
houses for maintenance of way offic-
ials, water reservoirs will be strung
out along the line and at the term
inals.
The lumber for these structures is
being hewn from the forests of
France by regiments of American for
esters. Other regiments are rebuild
ing and charging docks and wharves
at the port of arrival, and dredging
and opening new approaches in the
bay for the big gray transports.
SaWmills in the Forests
Sawmills carried from America are
springing up in the French forests.
American-made well digging machines
lot the line of communication. Electric
light plants are poisoning forth to
supply the trenches, dugous, store
houses and cantonments with illumin-
,tion.
Miles and miles and miles of wa
er pipe are being laid.
Special regiments of American mi
lers picked from the star diggers of
very state in the union are in charge
# the American system of trenches,
APPS, transverses and approaches.
Expert companies of electricians are
'utting in an intricate system of bat
letield illumination, including search
lights, trench lights, glare-light ap-
aratus and great piles of star bombs
nd rifle grenades.
Kept Under Cover
But none of this complicated system
f communication and approach must
e visible to the enemy. 1t must all
e dug in, buried or concealed by Z
The highways must be 4
eutralized in color to blend with the
lndscape. The railroad tracks must
OF glisten.
All buildings must be half buried in
lie ground and the above ground por-
on disguised with bushes and shrubs
I'D neutral colorings until they are
visible.
This is where the American artist
)es his bit. A number of well-known
merican masters of color-comb
ons are employed to precede the en-.
neers and study out the problems of
securing our operations, our troops
ID artillery and our lines of commun-
alton from the enemy The actual
ork will be done by American sign
inters and soldiers trained in the