Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-01-19
CrippleS From the Trenches
Ely HERBERT COREY

= tumble Lord Northcline export statistics ana
the Reforme No. 9 They offer a prelude to the
tremendous drama which delegates from the Amer
lean Export association may see in their tour Oh
France. They may it, understand An EFFORT IS
being o rebuild France industrally ana cohl-
mercially in the midst of But the delegates may
have their too close the market Srhostohe'
They may be blinded by the glory of the fighting that
France is doing They may only her shpshod anu
inefficient old methods and not see how nara sne Is
trying to reform.
What's the good of winning the if We are
going death after the war;" is the way
that Edouard Herriot poses the problem.
Herrot is one of Frances great men. May of
Lyons, he had hardly been heard of by France-cer-
tainly not outside of France-untn the war came
Then he developed unexpected bigness he was
perhaps the first in France to realize that the ufnes
have moved and that French business men nave not
moved with them. They have stuck to rule OF tnuHO
and hand work and small turnovers and big prices,
while Germany erecting enormous FACTORIES anu
England less forcefuy following suit
must get rid doddering, penny toollsh'
antiquated compIacency" is translation of what
Herriot says The day after peace is declared the
nations of the world will be in tooth and nail compe
tion The nation that starts later than Germany ana
England is ruined"
This may seem some distance from Lord North
clife the Reforme No. 2, but wait 1t is fairly
evident that nation succeed in desperate race
unless she has men. France was snort OF men oeloe
the war Then she made up for the lack by hiring
strangers. After the Italy and Greece and Bel
GUM will have their reconstruction problems to
face, and Germans will be barred out. France will be
further handicapped by the losses of the war
Victor Cambon has estimated that one cost OF the war
nvalided months Northcliffe talked 10 Cen
eral Petain at Verdun.
France has done her fighting" said Petain'
according to Northches statement to the American
Luncheon club in London "She cannot do again what
done-no for lack of spirit, but for lack OF
From the British army must do It's
part"
Some men in have known these things
Others have dimly felt AS a consequence a move
greater efficiency began some months
ago. began in the newspapers-most things in
Franc he in
began spread into practice. French business men
began study the methods of Germany France has
certain natural advantages that Germany lacks She
has, for example, a practical monopoly of certain
branches and the perfume trade, and
in articles good But she has not been syste-
matte and thoughtful and far-sighted There are 200
chemists Germany and 800 in Switzerland against
France Germany has done things in as large
a way possible France has done them in as small
a way as possible. has been the conflict between
collectivism indivdualism. The German has been
to be small cog in a large machine The
Frenchman has preferred to run the machlne-eVen IL
it must be small.
Enter the Reforme No. ,.
French publicists have hammering these
things the French people Eighteen months ago
only here and there daring writer spoke of French
fraties and German methods Today every news
paper Paris, without exception has had something
of this sort to say. result been that change
is being produced-as it to the stranger-in the
mental habits of the people. n the death
France is being it is possible she is
shaping herself highly skilled and specialized
competition n equal footing. Where that is not
selves for the change to come. There is demand in
responsible quarters schools technical education
Business preparing to establish trade colleges
and schools for apprentices Manufacturers are look
ing into American labor Saving machinery
Every work after the war;" Herriot
saws So that he has established a school at Lyons
which mutilaed soldiers will eventually be taught how
to run hgh-speed modern machines. soldier may
only have hand. But that hand and American
machine can do far work than half dozen hands
employed the old-fshioned AS result of this
change this wholly incredible the
foreign commerce of France which had been hattened
out is just beginning to lift its head again
Workshops been opened, and the steel shutters
have been lifted down from store windows and fac
tories are advertising men, The process of re-
beginning life been a slow one, of
81 have had customer in two days." said a shop
keeper on the Rue de Rivol land she did buy
All this progress has been accomplished by what
chemist soldering would call the byproducts of the
nation. been done by the old and the boys
and the cripples and the Reformes No 2. A who
hopelessly unfit for war is Reforme No. 1. If
there chance that he be tnkered into strength
as a trader old horse he is Reforme No
2 Only a perfectly sound man live in a
trench all winter, tote eghtypound through
the hot days of summer. man with a crack in him
is just a lightweight the Something is always
going wrong. He spends too much time in hospitals.
This fact recognized by law a few months ago.
The Reformes believed they might consider
selves free of the obligation of service
81 bought this shop" said my friend the shoemaker
land began work up business. l would employ
hand if l could find who had fought and
been wounded But if l must go to again"
A week ago the government issued a tentative an
nouncement the Reformes No. might be called
back into service. 1t not suggestion 1t was
just hint But all France took alarm I believe it is
safe prophesy that the will the Re-
formes No 2 alone Almost every newspaper came to
their rescue. Politics in France being what politics is
almost everywhere is probable that the Reformes No
might exert sufficient influence to shake govern
ment, if a government were to persist in effort to
put back in the blue.
This opposition because Frenchmen are
niggardly of their many of her men
of fortyhve in line although not another allied power
has vet called them. 1t because France sud
denly realized that IL the Reformes No put back
in the blue harness the slowly budding foreign COM
merce will be nipped. 1t has been sufficiently difficult
to create what foreign commerce there The fac
tories being operated by women and old men and
cripples. The who sell goods in the gun
pits hard to get material. If only for the
the freight capacity of railroads
has been by wars demands The Reformes
No 2-the who not ht to fght-are the main
stay of French commerce today If they are taken
away French editors almost unanimous in declar-