Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1918-06-30
Uncle Sans Mechanical School
 Making Skilled Men of NeqrOes 5
One Hundred and Twenty five Youths at Branch Normal Make Rapid Progress in Mastering Trades to Back Up the American Soldiers
 in France

Somewhere in France a few months from now some and perhaps all of the 123 negroes now conducting a quiet offensive against the technical mys- teries of auto mechanics, blacksmith ing and carpentry, in an army train ing school at the Branch Normal col lege. will be repairing and rebuilding the equipment necessary to aid Uncle Sam's soldiers in putting the kaiser and his men where they belong, back in Berlin.
 year or so from now, after Uncle Sam's soldiers and the men behind them, have finished putting the kai- ser, these same 125 men will either be back in the United States working at the trades Uncle Sam has taught them or maybe they'll be over in France or Belgium helping to recon struct the towns and cities devastated by the prince of pusilanimity and his horde of Huns.
 Wherever they are year or so from now they'll be better off and so will the nation for having such skilled men as it's citizens. Nine Pine Bluff negroes are in the school.
 Are they making good soldiers? Sure they are, says Captain A. V. Ednie, commanding officer. They pick up drilling rieht off and they go at it with the vim characteristic of the American. They have three hours of drill each day, 90 minutes in the morning and 90 in the afternoon.
 All right then, but what progress are they making in the study of ap- say. But remember this, their knowl- say. but remember this, their knoWl- edge of mechanics, what few of them had this knowledge, was superficial to begin with. The average of education was not high, altho some of them had been to college.
 Learn Auto Mechanics by Heart.
 "They're making fine progress says C. H. Evans, one of the instruc- tors in auto mechanics. Evans, who is negro, Gall the mechanical instruc- tors are negroes), is Washington university, St. Louis, man, and he knows automobiles backwards. else Uncle wouldn't have sent him here as an instructor When the school ends, August 15, virtually all of the 80 men in the auto class will know the name and place of every part of an auto. They will know how to take them down and put them up. Some, of course, will know more about cer- tain functions of the auto than oth- CTS We are trying to make spe- calists of them. The most apt men vii be ignition men. next gas engine men, then chassis men and those who are slower to learn we will make drivers of them. We instruct them in groups of five and nearly every group can now take a car all to pieces and then put it together, altho the school has been in progress just 15 days"
 There are 15 or 20 autos at the school-all kinds and in every im- aginable condition. They belong to civilians in Pne Bluff, whites and ne groes. The repair work is done with out charge for the men must have practical experience. but the owner of the car must pay for the necessary material to make the repairs.
 In the blacksmith shop are perhaps 20 forges and there is man at each forge. Yesterday they were making chains and each link had to be true to the hundredth of an inch. When they entered the school they didn't know how to make and keep the fire going in the furnaces. Soon they'll be weld ing and doing all sorts of the more difficult work. They also will learn to shoe horses. If you've got horse that needs shoeing they'll shoe him without cost except for the cost of the shoes.
 w. C. Douglas has 23 men in the blacksmithing class. Douglas is graduate Of Hampton institute in Vir- ginia and he specialized a year at Cornell. Then he taught at Hamp- ton, which is one of the biggest and best negro colleges in the Unted States. Blacksmith is science to