The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1917-08-17
They Will Be Greatly Needed
For Work in France
DEEP IN EARTH BOWELS
One Vein Of Black Diamonds
Extends Distance of Sixty
Five Miles
s7wlLiAM PHILIP slMMs.

With the British Armies in the
! Field. July 25.--IBy Mail Sooner
or later Lens, capital of frances
BLACK Country or coal belt, will fall
before the ever-tightening pressure
put upon it by Sir Douglas Haig.
When this day comes America can
render France and her allies no
greater service than to send immedi-
ately to this region the experts neces-
sary to put the coal mines in order
in the shortest possible time.
For three years France has been
deprived of the richest coal deposits
she possesses. In the. Loire, Burgundy,
Niyernais, Gard. .BlanZy, ,d'Aubin, De-
cazeville and Carmaux, it is true there
are coal mines but these are not to
be compared with those in the nor
thern part of the country, around
Lens. This deposit runs from east to
west, from Belgium to Flechinelle,
in France and since the German oc-
cupation it is only the extreme west
ern end of it which the French have
been able to work. And this is the
hardest to work, being deep below
the surface. Whereas in Belgium the
coal is practically on top of the
ground, at Amin it is 100 feet down
and deeper the further west it runs.
At Douai it is 4S0 feet deep; at Flech-
inelle about 1900 feet,
Vein of Coal on Frontier.
The vein of coal from the Belgium
frontier to Flechinelle is about six
ty-fiye miles long by ten miles wide.
Prior to the war of the thirty mine
millions of tons extracted from French
soil, three fifths came from here or
about 25,000,000 tons. Even with this,
France has always been compelled to
buy coal from the outside almost as
much coal again as she produced,
half of which came from Belgium
from the country around Mons, Char
leroi and Liege, seized by Germany
as her first act of war. /
1t is this country, around Lens
and behind Lens to the east, which
the Prussian warlords are defending
regardless of the cost in German lives.
And here it is that British pressure
is growing ever stronger. Every blow
struck this summer has yielded net
gain in the direction of these coal
fields and retirement anywhere
from Arras to the sea would be more
injurious to Germany from an econom-
teal oirit Of view than at any other
part of the western front.
Fighting is Difficult.
Fighting in this country is ex-
tremely difficult. On the sea where
British Tommies have recently made
their appearance, there !. are sand
dunes which make trenches almost
Impossible. Fighting there is like
fighting in the heart of the Sahara
desert. Further south along the line
is water, water everywhere, spread
! out over the fiat country Everybody
knows what the country about Ypres
is like, and around Messines Ridge
while below that comes La Bassee
and Lens, with their mountains Of
Stag and cinders, called "Crassiers'
rising nearly 200 feet over the leve
country around about; and the "fosses'
or mines, with. mining buildings clut.
tered about them, all affording the
best possible obstacles from the de.
tenders viewpoint, hiding feldguns
howitzers and especially machine
guns
Such is the country over which tn,
British are now fighting. If the Ger
mans are beaten back out of the Goa
country they will do as they hav,
done already at Lens: Destroy tn,
mines by blowing them up or flood
ing them, or both. But American
miners are said to be the best to b.
had and certainly the United State
can do no better than to send hun
dreds of them over here to reclaim
the ruins for even if the Prussian
do their work so completely as t,
render the mines useless for the re
mainder Of the war, reconstruction
of France and Belgium will Deepen,
largely on fuel supply.