New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-12-29

covered with tar paper, cost $4,000; while
Y. M. c. A. hut at Gievres of French
lumber cost $4,000, huts which ordinarily
could be put up for one-third that figure.
At the ports many barracks were built of
salvage lumber, packing for the most
part the engineers headquarters at st.
Nazaire being made entirely of such ma
terial, including the beds, chairs, tables of
the interior; and not only are they most
ingenousy constructed, but exceedingly
good looking. In fact it is difficult to believe
in the humble origin of the material when
you behold their modish comfortableness
Such are the utility and the demand for
these packing cases that at Is-sur-Tille
single is worth $3.50 of anybody's
money.
Romorantin is typical of the American
initiative and hustle which the A. E. F.
crystallized to overcome obstacles-wellnigh
iAsuperable at times-of inadequate ma
terlal and men,
Here, in January, 1918, there was not a
shed or a completed machine. The officers
sent there under Major E. V. Sumner
found few laborers and practically nothing
to work with, but with the constructive
energy of their pioneer forefathers and the
cooperative backing of the A. E. F. staff
which has been one secret of its success in
doing things"-they dug in; and six
months later were turning out twenty-four
assembled planes day, had laid 800 miles
of siding and switches in and around the
plant and put up a 1000 bed hospital
arriving regiment of engineers asked for
the machine shop they had been sent to
operate. Major Sumner showed them the
ground site where it was to be and told
them to get busy; and within six weeks
a shop 500 so feet was up and filled and
running.
found 5000 men building and working
III the shops on July "a; and on the
same day saw the first squadron of eighteen
Liberty planes start for the front.
Romorantin, in fact, furnishes perhaps the
record IN speed. In two weeks three shops
500 so feet each, with six bay buildings
800 100 feet each with iron pillars, Orders
and corrugated roof, were finished and the
mechanics moving in. Another shop 500 x
DO feet, full of buzzing machinery and busy
men when I entered it, had not existed
even on paper month before and where it
stood had been trees and brush
Nor was the aesthetic missing, here and
elsewhere; notably at Chateauroux and st.
Nazaire were flower beds, barrack wards
done in designs with different colored
stones, and office buildings and interior fur
nshings of rustic construction as ornamen-
tai as practical
And so the story runs az through A. E. F.
effort, from the base where the material is
received to the great storehouse stations
such as Gievres, to the regulating stations
like Is-sur-Tille, to the railroads, to motor
trucks, to wagons, to limbers or carts or
pack mules is the condition of the final
stage and the position of the troops; and
so to the boys the line-a story where
vision was the guiding star and native wit
and energy the tireless propeling force
America owes much to these staff men of
the A. E. F., who really saved her reputation
before the world for efficiency and organiza-
ton, which had been all but lost through
the absence of vision and the muddling in
the early days at Washington.
AS I have already said, and it will bear
repetition, it wasn't that their job presented
intricate problems in engineering or other
construction, which as a matter of fact was
quite slmple-the only complex problems,
indeed, being those met in dealing with local
French offcialdom and tradition and habit
but it was the immensely of it and the pace
at which it had to b. carried through under
the handicap of insufficient labor tools, ma
terlal and prompt, Intelligent support at
home, which at the outset was enormous
Under such conditions was it that these
pioneers of the A. E. F. builded an organiza-
ton which for mobility and speed must for
ever stand as one of Americas most praise
worthy achievements in initiative, energy
and practicability.