Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1918-06-09

q what has happened to the French
railroad system since April 6, 1871
Il the date OF our entrance into the
n war. OF course we do not want them
to know. but | don't mind telling
8 them that what has happened de-
q serves the adjectives lavished on us
n by the English and French newspa-
pers. have been over thousands OF
"a miles of that part Of the French ran
u road system which moves our men
e and their supplies from ocean ports
10 the fighting front, and | agree
with Secretary Baker when he said,
on his departure from France. that
what had been accomplished was in
spiring 10 behold.
shall never forRt sunday that
Spent at a railroad sttion in town
In central France. The town, when
cannot be named. is n small and not
n very important manufacturing city,
but 1T Is now one Of the important
q functions in the chain of railroads
leading from the southwestern and
b northwestern seaports to the battle
8 front OF the northeast.
The day was Sunday, just three
a days after the great push of March
j Fl began. / was returning to Paris
4 after a visit to certain large aviation
fields in the neighborhood, and got
off at this junction for luncheon and
a change OF cars. Few French trains
now carry restaurant wagons and
travellers. except on few express
trains, have to carry luncheon baS-
kets or depend on station buffets.
Battlefront Expresses.
I arrived at the junction at II
o'clock but / had not tEGy6ETAO Q
o'clock. but l did not take the ,
O'Clock Paris express. as had
planned. I stayed In the station all
day and all evening watching the
taking procession of trains
Nearing northward to tho fight, and
the equally amazing procession OF
trains rolling southwark and bearing
the flotsam and ietsam of battle
wounded and dying men, despairing
refugees DANCED guns. broken air
planes. French trains. including our
own over there, move methodically
in blocks called marches. They never
have any traffic tie-ups. because all
the trains move at exactly the same
speed, and every train has its pre-
scribed place in the marche. Just so
, far ahead or behind the next train.
1t is an excellent system. But it
seemed to me that day that the
trains would certainly telescope one
another, they came on and on so I'M
ceaslngly and so close together
The trains moving northward were
laden with soldiers, horses, guns. air
planes, ammunition, wagons, 1000
supplies of every conceivable de-
1 scription. Trainload after trainload
or horses, eight to a car, with four
men, generally asleep on the hay in
the middle space of the car. The
horses beautiful, tragic creatures,
going to almost certain destruction,
Il wrung the heart to see. They eazed
out at the flying landscape and the
cheering station crowds with big,
F9tt, uncomprehending eyes. How
wish we did not have to use horses
in war. OF course the lives Of men
are far more valuable, but the men
at least know why they fight and die.
Tratnioads of Fighting Men.
Trainloads Of men, so many that
within an hour had ceased to count
them, rolled through that junction.
Men from England, Frenchmen hur-
riedly recalled from leave in their
southern homes. All ages saw
French boys who must have been 49,,
h"t who looked younger by two
years, and I saw men who might
l.tVe Deen granufathers. SThese older
men do not often fight. They serve
meals in the trenches and perform
other noncombatant services, All
France-all--is mobilized for some
kind of service.
us. A. On These Cars.
.o But right in the middle of that ex-
citing procession of trains came
something that brought my heart to
my throat 1t was an immensely
long train of all new cars painted
battle gray, with U. S. a. in white
letters on the side. And the cars,
dozens and dozens Of them. We're
loaded with railroad building ma
teriaL Portable tracks, switches,
signals, exactly like the expensive
and fascinating toy railroads which
children delight in. Steel rails.
wooden ties, machinery for laying
them, fiat cars, wheels, tools and
nails. and last of all. tiny little loco
motives, two of them to a flat car,
all American, going up to the front
with the French and the English
soldiers.
~ Right behind that train OF cars
carpe another, a shorter one, and this
was full OF brown asad American en-
gineers. going up TO the front with
the allied soldiers, to lay those tracks
and operate th9 little narrow-guaSe
railroad under &unfire. our own
sons
That was not all In the middle OF
the afternoon another train went
northward, battle gray. with L. $ A.
IN white letters, This was a hos
pltal train of entirely new cars, the
finest and most complete | had ever
seen 1t was q palace on wheels,
with every conceivable appliance for
the comfort Of wounded soldiers.
There were Kitchen cars operating
cars, &-ray compartments, cars with
beds, cars with couches for the sit
ting cases. Cars for doctors and
nurses as well as patients. Nothing
had seen. not even men going into
the trenches brought home to me SO
SHARPLY the fact that we were in the
war and were determined TO hold our
end up.
Great Railroad builders.
We could not have done It so well
mad we not, in the last fifty years.
developed such extraordinary rail
road builders and operators. The
rench had a railroad system ade-
Quate for peace time uses, but when
war came, and especially after the
Lde OF Americans began TO pour into
the country. the system had TO be
enormously enlarged. 1t had TO be
Planned and organized also, In order
not to disturb t,ulu1v tho life of the