Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1918-02-26
AMERICAN BASE in
FRANCE Is GROWING

IA little more than six months have
wrought mighty change in the base
at which. last June, the first division
of American troops landed to go into
training for their fight with the Ger
mans.
The docks have been and are being
enlarged, storage warehouses have
been and are being built, the harbor
has been dredged out to accommodate
more and larger ships, and the rail-
road facilities have been nearly dou-
bIed and are being increased day by
day.
The enlargement of the port has
created a somewhat anomalous stu
alton. For whereas up to about the
end of last year troops landed more
regularly and quickly than supplies,
SO that il was sometimes feared 1t
would be necessary to draw temporari-
" on the French for their support,
the base is now in the position of be-
ing able to handle more tonnage than
is at present coming to it, either in
the form of supply or troop ships.
The capacity of the port would how
ever, be almost reached with the com
pletion of the docks and store houses
now under construction if it were not
for farreaching engineering plans that
are under way.
The American authorities early fore
saw that even comprehensive dock en-
largements would inevitably result in
congestion and confusion if some out
let were not arranged for the increas-
ing supplies expected to arrive when
they are needed, and which even in
creased storage space could not be
expected to accommodate. The problem
resolved itself into one of transporta-
ton
Therefore, while the railroad tracks
at the port itself are vastly more
numerous than they were six months
ago, the American engineers have con-
ceived a plan whereby vast tract
of land three or four miles back OF
the port has been taken over, and is
being developed coincidently with the
pert itself.
The American plan which envisages
caring for vastly more volume than
the port would normally accommodate,
even with the enlargement of docks
and store houses, is not original with
them but Is more or less copy of
what the English have done at an
other port, where they have increased
the daily output of merchandise from
about 200 cars or less to more than
700. This they have been able to do
by laying out huge yards to the rear
CT the actual port to avoid congestion
and to facilitate making up trains
To keep pace with the increasing
volume of supplies that arrive, huge
force of workmen has been found
necessary. Two regiments of colored
soldiers, numbering three thousand
men and most of them husky steve
fCres and longshoresmen from New
York and Southern ports in times of
peace, now do the bulk of the unload
ing from the ships and the reloading
Of the trains.
A not inconsiderable force of Ger
man prisoners of war, with whom the
negroes especially seem to enjoy fra
ternizing, are at work about the docks
from early morning until evening.
Every able-bodied male citizen of
the port and many not so able-bodied,
III addition to all the women who care
to work, have found employment nd
Of course at wages that were hitherto
unknown. The city may be said to
be in the heyday of its prosperity.
TIL somewhat chaotic conditins that
naturally prevailed when thousands
rpon thousands of newcomers flooded
into the city from the boats in late
June have subsidized. Those stationed
ermanently in the port have gradual
~ settled down, in the few hotels and
iu many private families. The officers
have established messes for them
selves at which they can avail them
selves of American food, and the men
who are not quartered in the town,
itself, live at the original camp where
General Sibert and his first division
stayed until it was time to go to the
training camp behind the front.