Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1918-01-31

WIN boub0 OF gratitude ana hone.
fulness that had never been in them
before.
'of course they welcomed the Brit.
ish, but their need was not 30 great
when the British went. OF course they
welcomed the British. but there were
ties between them and W which had
not been between them and the Brit.
ism ana 80 when our troops went there
was an instant and spontaneous rise
In the morals Of tho French. but an
equally instant and spontaneous in
sistance that these soldiers who came
from America should continue to come
In an unbrokcn stream.
FIGHTING ARMY THERE NOW
And so we made the election, we
decided not to send the regular army
as whole. but to send regular divis.
ions and national guard diisions, se.
lected according to the state Of their
preparation and keep back here some
part of our trained force In order that
IL might inoculate with its spirit and
Its training these raw levies which we
were training, and one after another
these diisions have gone over until in
Franco there 10 a fighting army. an
army trained in the essentials and in
the beginnings Of military discipline
and practice. and trained, seasoned
fighters in this kind Of war on the
actual battlehelds where II 10 taking
place.
EARLY in this war when Joffre was here
and when Balfour was here. thoy said to
us IT may take you some time to get
over to us fighting army, but you are a
great industrial country. our man power
is fully engaged in our industries and in
our military enterprisese, send over artis-
ans. special engineering regiments, and
troops Of q technical character and al
though 1t was not known here at the out
set, and only q phrase in the emergency
military legislation shows the thing was
thought Of as possibility, vet in very
short time we had organized engineering
regiments Of railroad men and sent them
over there and were rebuilding behind the
lines of the British and French the rail-
roads which were being carried forward
with their advance, reconstructing their
broken engines and cars. building new
railroads, both back of the French and
British lines. and those regiments were
Of such quality that at the Cambria as
sault. carried on by General Byng, when
the Germans made their counter attack.
our engineer regiments threw down their
into the battle and distinguished them
selves by gallant action in the war itself.
QUICK RESPONSE BY RED CROSS.
;; Every early in this war Great Britain.
through Balfour and his assistants, and
France through Joffre. said to us. send
US nurses and doctors Why. before we
were scarcely in the war American units
organized in advance and anticipation by
A. "a SOt, "a xAv n n
the service of the United States through
the surgeon-general's office, were on the
battle field, and there are tens OF thou
sands Of men in England and in France
now who bless the mission Of mercy upon
which the first American appeared IN
France.
HOSPITALS BUILT QUICKLY.
"Our surgeons have set up hospitals
Immediately behind the lines. They have
| been made military in every sense of the
| word. They have not been especially for
tunate in escaping attack from the air.
and our early losses in this war were
the losses Of Red Cross nurses and doc
tors and orderlies and attendants In hos
pitfalls and ambulance drivers who were
sent over to assist our allies In these
necessary services, thus not only render
ing assistance, but acquiring Skill and
knowledge Of the circumstances and sur
| roundings. so that when our own troops
came in large numbers they could render
like services to our own forces. But
that was not enough. It was suggested
that further groups Of mechanics might
be needed. Nay, we began to see that
we were going to be over there in large
force, and the question that then had to
be answered was. how will We maintain
an army in France? Special studies had
to be made Of that problem and this IL
what they showed. They showed that
the railroads and the facilities Of France
had during this war been kept In an
excellent condition; far better than any
other supposed possible under war con.
ditions. And yet, that those railroads
were used to the maximum to take cart
Of the needs Of the French and British
themselves. and that when our army be-
came q great army, 1t would be necessary
for VS. to build back of our own linz
an independent line Of communication.
FRANCE HANDS OVER PORTS.
"In other words. France was a white
sheet Of paper so far as we were con-
cerned. and on that we had not only e
write an army. but we had to write thu
means Of maintaining that army. and
from the first time when a careful and
scientific study Of the opportunities Of
France to help US we're made. from tina
hour until this. we have been building
In France. facilities. instruments. agen
cies. just as many as we are here IL
the United States and moro. many Of then
Of the same character. For instance, tn,
French had naturally reserved the bes
ports in France for their own supply
| The channel ports have heAn reserve6 "a,
the British. When we came in II va,
necessary for US to have Independent
ports Of entry in order that there nigh
not be confusion and admixture Of oul
supplies. going through these ports o.
Decentralization with these Of other ma.
lions. We were given several ports. Al
you perhaps recall. tho ports Of France
are tidal ports. ports with deep watel
and tidal basins At high tides with In.
sufficient water for landing at tho dockl
when the tide IL out
HAVE HAD TO BUILD DOCKS.
"As a consequence, the constructio.
OF docks and wharves in ports Of tina
kind IL very much moro difiicult tina,
whore you have q deep sea harbor, an,
all you need to do 10 to erect q Dill,
wharf. We have had to build docks
we havo had to fabricate in this coun
try and send over dock handling ma
chinery. we have had to send from thi
country even the piles to build the docks
cranes. manufacturer In this country an,
sent over to be erected on those docks
| we have had to erect over there ware
houses at the ports Of Decentralization
in order that these vast accumulation
| of stores and suDuliaa yvhich 81 QUA