Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-12-13

growing about them, and each marked by a
wooden board or cross. Those graces which
are left undisturbed in France will be marked
by the United States government with stones
Following the issuance of the secretary's
order last summer, the Grave Registration
Service of the quartermaster's corps was or
ganized unit of this service includes
about fifty men, three of whom are skilled
undertakes and embalmers, and seven Oh
whom are undertakers' apprentices. Tnere
are fifteen such units with the Expeditionary
Force.
AS is shown by the above account OF its,
work. this service has been most successful
in identifying the American dead, and in on
tanning proper interment. Each man in the
Expeditionary Force wears upon his person
Identification tags, giving his name, RANK
company and regiment. If the individual
desires, this tag is further stamped H, c or
P, the letters standing respectively for He
brew, Catholic and Protestant. Hebrew
if he has thus declared himself one, is never
buried under a cross.
1t was pretty plainly the original Intention
of the war department that this Grave Reg
istration Service should embalm the bodies
of the dead, and bury them in caskets> The
inclusion of the undertakers in the personnel
indicates this. 1t is also known that seVeral
thousand caskets were shipped to France for
this purpose. 1t was evidently intended that
each fallen soldier should be embalmed and
buried in a casket so that his disinterment
and removal would be an easy matter.
1t was soon found that both embalming
and the use of caskets were impracticable.
Baskets and collins could not be shipped to
France because there was not enough ship
ping to bear the soldiers and the food which
were needed to win the war. Neither was
embalming practicable. Not only did llmita-
tions of time often make this impossible, but
the condition of the bodies, some of which
were badly mangled and some of which were
| Il loot
to the difficulty. All attempt either to en-
balm the American dead or to bury them in
caskets was presently abandoned, except in
the case of few who died in hospitals where
ample facilities for interment happened to
be at hand.
Most of the American dead were buried as
soldiers have long been buried-wrapped in
their blankets and tents.
1t is estimated that the total number of
Americans who were killed or died of wounds
in France is in the neighborhood of $4,000.
The task which the government would
face then, if it brought all of the dead back
to American soil, would be the disinterment
of this number of bodies, buried without
embalming or caskets; their placement in
Theoretically sealed caskets; transportation
across the ocean, and distribution to all parts
of the United States. The cost OF the metal
lined. hermetically-sealed caskets, which are
required by our Interstate Commerce laws,
alone would be enormous item. with
all precautions, the task would be an IN
sanitary and gruesCme one. Ii would cause
an unnecessary recrudescence of all of the
most bitter feelings connected with the war
Its total cost has been estimated at not less
than S5O,0OO,0OO.
All of these facts have been advanced as
reasons why the relatives of American sol
diers who fell in France should be content TO
allow their remains to stay in the soil OF
the country for which, as we'll as for their
own, they died.