New-York tribune., 1918-01-10

(C0pyrlght, 1918, Dy
WITH THE AMERICAN ARMY, Dec.
"a When the first unit of the Ameri-
can army landed it was obliged to
borrow motor trucks from the French.
The American major general ex-
Planned that the War Department had
made mistake and shipped the truck :
on the slowest steamer of the convoy
these trucks came in about five days
later and were put to work after q
little gasolene had been borrowed from
the French, but the bad start has
never been overcome. From that dav
TO THIS our men have always been
ahead Of their material.
Unit after unit arrives and wait,
ABOUT Tor its wagons and motor Trucks
sometimes these come in a week and
sometimes it takes longer. But ALWAYS
there is wait. Not once has div;
sion arrived and found it's trucks and
lts wagons waiting The Rainbow
Division had to look and long some.
"hat more than the average time Ar
r'Ved III Its training area. the divi-
sion had mules but 20 wagons Al
the end of a week there arrived hv
rail number of cases containing
wagon parts. Eagerly the Quarter.
master unpacked these crates Ho
sound wagon bottoms. sideboards and
backboards, but no wheels Thev ,r-
rived a week later.
Lean Hard on the French
1he American army now has a good
many automobiles and motor trucks
There are not enough to be sure vot
there is respectable showing. but
we are still depending almost entirely
OH the French for gasolene. We have
leaned much too hard upon the French
We use their gasolene and their air.
planes and their field guns and their
heavy guns and their bombs and their
automatic rifles. We take nothing
from the British but gas masks and
helmets. All these things are paid for.
to be sure, but there are MANY thinps
more important in this war Just now
than money, and supplies and muni-
tions are two of them.
OF course we will make these things
for ourselves in time, and we buy now
simply because Of an unpreparedness
which is being remedied. These things
cannot be mapufactured at moments
notice. In fact, haste does NOT pay.
For instance, wc rushed out num-
ber of gas masks. The consignment
was a large one and would have been
sufficient 20 supply every soldier in
France, but every mask had to be sent
back to the United States because a
brief examination showed that all
were imperfect. The design for the
mouthpiecc furnished by the American
experts in France had not been fol
lowed closely enough. and the masks
went back. They can be altered and
the mistake corrected, but in the mean
time we are using British masks.
We Arc Using French Labor
But there is one commodity which
is comparatively plentiful in America
and very scarce in France, and that is
labor. Yet we are using French labor
largely for our preparations in France
| French soldiers built many of oul
wooden barracks. French women anc
men are handling our supplies at the
quartermaster's base. Transportation
of labor is difficult, but it would have
been better at first to send laborers
than to send soldiers. The need ha.
been met partly by the many engineer
regiments sent over, but this polio,
has not been followed closely enough
1t was necessary TO send fighting mer
first of all. France needed that dis
play to show her that we were in the
big adventure with her, but after thai
We should have sent carpenters ane
stevedores sufficient for our early
needs before we sent any more infan
try to France.
Housing Not Handled Well
The question of labor is closely al
lied with the question of housing. Thi,
has not been handled we'll The frs