Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1917-12-19
AMERICANS ADEPT
At POLICE WORK
Detailed to Help Out French Con-
stables in Maintaining
Order.
SHOW STUFF THEY'REMlDEOF
University Graduates Speak Little
French, but They Render Valuable
service-Peopie Should Be
Careful What They Say.

Somewhere In France.--One of the
features Of American military life In
France is the municipal police work
performed by several companies in va
rious parts of France.
In one town near to the regional
camps l noticed very excellent ex-
ample of American adaptlveness to
any sort Of work that necessity gives
rise to.
The captain Of a certain company
who graduated from the American
school with high honors and the usual
grade was not long before he got pro-
NOTED to his present rank. He is be-
loved by his men and can "get any
thing out of them" 1t is said.
These men are not used to police
work. But that is no matter. They
do 1t all the same. In this company
alone counted as many as 131 univer-
sity men. They are all men wtc vol
unteered for the army at the start.
This shows the sort of stuff they are
made of.
On Patrol Duty.
In the evenings you see groups Of
these military police stationed at va
rious parts Of the city and patrolling
about. In the day time they do the
same sort Of work. They are detailed
to look after the American troops and
see that they get fair play in any mis-
understandings that may arise.
One difficulty that the local French
police have to contend with Is the lack
of constables, who are mostly at the
front. But this Is no difficulty to the
American captain, who promptly de-
tails as many men to help as may be
needed.
The captain Is treated with great
respect and has an Office for his lieu
tenants In the local police buildings.
What strikes one as strange is that
the local police officials seem to think
that the Americans, after coming over
to France to take part in this we-, pay
ing their way, supplied with every sort
of food for man and horses, clothing
and munitions Of war, ought to speak
French also. The boot is decidedly
on the other leg, think the American
boys. The French authorities ought to
have officials who speak English, or, II
this is not convenient, then they ought
to have men who can act as interpre-
tiers for the boys. This is crying
evil and ought to be remedied at once.
Volunteers are wanted to teach the
Americans the elements Of French as
spoken.
The Language Question.
One Frenchman said to me:
II cannot understand how 1t Is that
your men who come-that Is, so many
of them-from schools and colleges
where they are taught French cannot
speak the language little, anyhow"
Now this nettled me somewhat, and l
replied "How is 1t that with all your
schools and colleges in France SO few
of your people can speak a word of
English? And how is 1t that the most
Of them do not even want to learn Eng
lish? Why is this?"
One Of the many duties of the Ameri-
can military police is to arrest suspi-
cious characters. It would surprise
many to know that this sort Of person
is particularly busy at the present time
and meets with severe experiences
when found out. American civilians
as well as the soldiers cannot be too
careful what they say and where they
say it at present.