Evening star., 1918-01-29
SECRETARY BAKERS REVELATIONS
CENTER OF INTEREST AT CAPITOL

between them and US which there had
not been between them and the British.
and so when our troops went there was
an instant and spontaneous rise in the
morals of the French, but an equally
instant and spontaneous insistence that
these soldiers who came from America
should continue to come in an unbroken
stream.
Send Divided Divisions.
And SO we made the election. We de-
, cided not to send the Regular Army as I
whole, but to send regular divisions and
National Guard divisions, selected accord
ing to the state of their preparation, and
keep back here some part of our trained
force in order that it might innoculate
with its spirit and it's training these ra"
iev1eS which we were training, ana one
after another these divisions nave gone
over until in France there is nghtlng
Army, an Army trained in the essentials
and in the beginning of military discipline
and practice, and trained. seasoned f1ght,
ers in this kind of war on the actual
battlefields where it is taking place.
early in this war. when Jo1rre was
here and when Balfour was here, they
said to us: 1T may take you some time
to get over to us great fighting army.
but YOU are great industrial country
our man power Is IuilS eHedScu IN ouA
industries and in our military enter
prises: send over artisans, special en-
gneering regiments and troops of
technical character
Organized Engineer Corps.
although it was not contemplated at
the outset. and only phase in the
emergency military legislation shows
that the thing was thought of as pos
sbility, yet in a 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 railroads
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 assault,
carried on by Gen. Byng, when the Ger
mans made their counter attack our en-
gineer regiments threw down their
picks and spades and carried their RI
f1es into the battle and distinguished
themselves by gallant action in the war
itself.
Very early in this war Great Britain.
through Balfour and his assistants, and
France. through Joffre. said to us. Send
us nurses and DOCTORS
How America Helped.
why. before we were scarcely in the
war American units organized in ad-
vance and anticipation by the Red
Cross, which was taken over into the
service of the United States, through
the surgeon generals office, We're on the
battlefield, 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 Americans appear
ed in France.
The French had naturally reserved
the best ports in France for their own
supply. The channel ports nave been
reserved for the British When we came
in it was necessary for US to have IN
dependent ports of entry in order that
there might not be confusion and ad-
mixture of our supplies, going through
these ports of Decentralization with
those of other nations. We were given
special ports. AS you perhaps recall, the
ports of France are tidal ports, ports
with deep water and tidal basins at
high tides, with insufficient water for
landing at the docks when the tide IS
out.
Dock Construction Difficult.
"As consequence, the constructor n
of docks and wharves in ports or thal
kind is yery much more difficult than
where YOU have deep-sea harbor and
all you need to do is to erect PIE
wharf We have had to build docks.
We have bad rahdhs to tahs oyeF and ampifr amp
ing a railroad six hundred miles long,
in order to carry our products from our
ports of Decentralization to our general
bases of operation.
depots and repair shops and great
magazines of supply in the interior All
of that problem has been carrying for
ward step by step. The plans for
single ordnance repair shop, which |
saw some time ago, covered acres and
acres of ground, designed over here.
the iron work fabricated over here.
disassembled, put in ships and carried
abroad to be reassembled over there.
I'VE have had to build barracks over
there for our soldiers, and in the mean
time to billet them around in the
French villages. Building barracks
over there and building them here is a
very different thing, gentlemen.
Operation Began in Forests.
I'VE have had to go back to the
planting of the corn in France in order
that we might some time make harv-
est. Our operations began in the for
ests of France, not in the lumber yards,
as they did in this country.
THAT great staff under Gen. PERISH
ingS direction, containing so many men
from the American Army, enriched by
captains of industry and masters of tech
nical performance in this country. Those
are the men who are carrying forward
these operations, which are quite as
expensive as those which are carried
on over here, and of far greater diff
Guilty, because 1T means getting ma
terial by cable as to sizes and speci-
fications. having it fabricated here, and
IN n