The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1918-09-11
AMERICAN BASE.
STORAGE DEPOT.
Az FRENCH PORT.
OF GREAT SIZE.
Thirty Millions Are Ex-
pended in Buildings for
Every Purpose
NV Aseociated PresaN


American Port, Western France
Sept. 1.-THE colony of warehouses
docks and shops forming the base
storage depot Of the American armies
here Is bewilderiug in its magnitude
Approaching the base is like com.
ing Into some great industrial city
such as Manchester or Chicago. Oft
to the right rise Is giant chimneyt
putting black smoke from a group OF
factories. A mammoth refrigerating
plant, said to be one of the largest in
the world, looms against the sky. TIC
the left is the glare of furnaces and
FORCES, where cannon and locomotives
are being made, assembled and
mounted. All about Is the movement
OF vast and intricate railway traffic
and the hum Of colossal industry
This base of American, army supplies
Is the growth Of the last five months
erected out of almost nothing by the
impelling necessity of war. The
colonel at headquarters summed up
some Of the essentials Of what had
p been accomplished
This army storage base represents
an investment Of $30,000,00 for
buildings and plant alone and not
for the vast stock Of army supplies.
II covers an area four miles long
with a great docking system and
zdeep-water piers.
1t Is laid out for the storage Of a
million tons Of army supplies. but
capacity is elastic and may be in
X creased TO two million tons. A mil
lion tons is the capacity of 1000
ocean liners, or a ton for every man
= Of en- army OF million men.
~ There are $50 miles of railway
tracks interlocking the vast network
OF. warehouses and yards.
- There are 100000 square feet of
covered storage. that is buildings
with floor space and roof, and a.
100000 square feet of open storage,
!. in all 16,500.000 square feet of army
supplies, stored and stacked from ten
- to fifty feet high like a range of
low mountains.
The ocean pier under construction
will accommodate six to twelve
ocean steamers drawing 30 feet of
water. With the dock facilities Of
the nearby city there will be an
unloading capacity Of $1,000 to 20, 900
tons of American army supplies a
day. That is, two or three ships can
: be turned around every day.
At one point a pier $500 feet long
and half a mile wide is being built
for general merchandise and high
explosives. and just, back of 1t is
rising a, huge storage depot of am
nunttion and high explosives.
In all there will be 1874 warehouses.
of which 81 are entirely of steel
manufactured in the United States
and sent here ready to be put to-
gether. II. has taken on an average
four days to put up one of these
mammoth buildings. These. build
ings grow as If magic, in 8 day. and
by miles and miles. Most of these
buildings. about 100 Of them. are
400 feet long and 80 feet wide. Prac-
ticalIy all of the work has been
done in the last five months.
At one point II was necessary to
build q concrete dam IS feet high
O work comparing with the great
Roebuk DAMN order to brInr wat al
er to one Of the great base hospitals
adjacent to the plant, with 10000
beds.
Always Stream Of Supplies,
From these warehouses there is
always a stream of supplies going
forward to an army Of more than a.
million men. There is always a re-
serve Of fifteen days supplies inside
-, the advance zone where the army Is
fighting. thirty additional DAVIS of
reserve supplies in the intermediate
zone half way up to the fighting line.
and forty-ftve more days of reserve
supplies here at the base ports ready
to be moved up as fast as emergency
requires. This makes in all 80 days
three months, OF army supplies al
ways In reserve. so that the army
could get along for three months il
not another pound arrived. whereas
IN fact the steady stream keeps COM
ing uninterruptedly. supplying the
day to day needs and ALWAYS main
tanning the safe margin of reserve.
inside one, OF the big army ware
houses was like being inside some
huge wholesale department store.
Many were for food stores. with boy
es stacked up to: the so foot roof,
or corn beef hash, breakfast foods
canned salmon and canned bacon
oIeomargarine, jam. boiled roast
beef, cotton towels, toilet paper. pork
and beans, smoking tobacco mac
aroni, hominy soap. and every con-
ceiVable article needed for an armada
or men. The sacks of flour filled
warehouse after warehouse for al
most. a mile, indicating the reserve
-dous reserve OF this standard reserve
of this standard Of life. Beans
seemed to be another standard in
exceptionally strong reserve. and the
ONSSEA rFf1o S1iSU very n6aVY.
with sugar, strip. coffee. rice, ba,-
condensed milk showing full Quotas.
con. potatoes evaporated fruit ana
1t was the same in the other ware
houses devoted to army clothing.
shoes, medical supplies. signal corps
and aviation supplies, eyerywhere
rose the mountain piles OF service
coats, trousers, underclotheg, socks
ppttees, field shoes and an infinite
variety of articles for all needs and
branches of this vast war machine,
In the yards the open storage Gov
cred acre after acre of baied hav
covered with canvas, with barrels.
wagons, trucks and an endless array
OF military material.
American railway cars drawn hv
American locomotives over Ameri
can tracks lined the warehouses and
crowded the yards. The American
standard railway car now used FOR
This army service has zrav wood
body with six steel windows which
open downward when the car is used
for soldiers or horses. or close tight
when used as q box car. There were
fully 1000 Of these cars or the
tfjacks, and hundredg of American
locomotives, with steady streams ST
affic moving forwayd to the war
aone.