Omaha daily bee., 1918-09-16
What We Are Doing
In France.
Robert M, Mcbride in Leslie's.

1t is little wonder that we amazed TIL
French. They do only one thing quickly-fgh
the Huns. Their battle of the taxicabs at TIT
Marine proved their speed in this,
But in France mechanical construction is To-
the most part slow hand work. They do no
understand our methods Of Standardization, o
plants established.
But we have not the men-you canno
manufacture the labor" the French authorities
told our leaders in the work. With true Yankee
briefness the reply came:
I'VE can try"
And so from 10 nationalities we drew met
for the labor
Brains and Drawn must be about equally di
vded to create and maintain lines of commune
cation sufficient for the needs of an army O
100000 that is rapidly growing into an army
of FIVE times that strength.
And the brains are there all rght-brain:
that back home commanded salaries akin tc
those of railroad or insurance company presi
dents. chatted with one famous expert who
was dressed in muddy khaki. He was sloughine
around the mud at the edge of railroad yart
watching gang OF huskies converting his plans
into reality.
And that man pays an income tax of $375,00(
year.
Among the officers of construction work a,
one yard found New York bank president
two great industrial corporation heads the
builder of one Of the biggest engineering projects
in the United States, the chief engineer of one
of Our largest railroads, former heads of great
engineering corporations, and an endless assort-
ment of skilled men who, at home, were dis
tinguished for their wealth and genius.
The first need was docks, to unload our men
and our supplies At this particular port there
were only sufficient docks to take care for the
needs of France. Our men went ahead and are
constructing docks sufficient for the unloading
Of twenty great deeppodraught steamers at once
They are building 800 miles of railroad track
to connect up those docks and the warehouses
in that store yard. Before doing that 100000
cubic yards of filling had to be put in.
In the meantime the warehouses were going
up like magic.
Result--that one place will maintain an army
of 100000 men with everything from motor
trucks to canned tomatoes.
There will be 200 such great warehouses,
each with 10000 square feet Of space, and eight
others six times as large as that!
The steel for these warehouses comes from
the United States. Like the famous "Agawam, "
the 5,000-ton ship launched from the port of
Newark shipyard on Memorial Day these ware
houses are fabricated" Various parts are made
all over the country, shipped and fitted over
there. These are the first fabricated warehouses
III history lHe parts ARE Interchangeable anu
these mammoth steel buildings are now going
up at the rate of eight week!
This means that one immense steel warehouse
containing twenty thousand square feet of space
is erected in less than day.
In the locomotive assembling plant an en-
tire locomotive is set up and ready to go under
its own steam in Sc hours. The men who are
doing this work receive from the government
$33 month. At home their wages were from
$500 to $500 month. So we find that the eng-
neers and other experts are making no greater
sacrifices in proportion to their worldly goods,
than these mechanics.