The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1918-07-12
Gigantic Things Being Accom-
pIished by Men From
United States.
SPEED ASTONISHES FRENCH
Immense Structures Spring Like Magic
From Ground-Troops Slated for
Three Months Training Go
Into Service.

With the American Army in France.
Americans in France who are famil-
lar with the gigantic things Uncle
Sam is doing here sometimes wonder
If the people who are subscribing for
Liberty loans and giving their full
moral support to the national govern
ment fully realize what their money
and their support are making possible
over here in France, writes Don Mar
tin in the New York Herald.
The rule Of the army is that Amer
1cans must not boast. In simpler,
backwoods language, Americans must
saw wood and let the other fellow do
the talking. Consequently the folks
back home get only fragmentary pic
lures of what Uncle Sam, three thou
sand miles away, is accomplishing.
Forests in places have been cleared
away to make room for sidings. I'm
mense structures have come almost
like magic out Of the ground. Rail-
way tracks have been laid so swiftly
that one could almost see them extend
themselves. To see thousand hardy,
eager young Americans working in an
isolated part Of France is a sight to
be encountered many times any day.
And the work has just begun!
Building Lines of Communication.
Only a few weeks ago while driving
along a well-known highway of eastern
France I saw young engineers survey
ing along a distance Of perhaps twen-
ty miles. They were young college
men. "A few days later they were thir-
ty miles further along the road, and
where they had been were gangs Of
men digging holes and unloading coils
of wire from trucks. Next day tam
-arack poles were scattered along the
route. What / saw along this 50-mile
strip was merely duplication of what
was going on in every 50-mile sector all
the way from the coast to the front
line. Now there is fully-equipped
American telephone line.
This is just an incident in the enor-
mOus program of organization and
preparation which the United States
is carrying out. If we lack perhaps
in the long military experience of some
of the other nations, no one can ac-
cuse Americans of lacking in quick or
ganization and achievement in con-
structiOn work. France is marveling
Int the speed with which our engineers
and their bands of men, have pro-
She knows now, although she really
never doubted, that the United States
is in the war to a finish and is deter
mined to prosecute 1T with the same
vigor she has every other conflict she
has ever engaged In.
American soldiers, as Secretary Ba-
ker predicted, have been pouring into
France for several weeks. They are
distributed in villages where until now
no American was ever seen. One has
but to see the gigantic barracks being
erected here and there along the line
of communications to realize that stu
pendous things are In the immediate
future. At one point thirty one-story
frame buildings, each 100 feet In
length, were built in two weeks. Now
they are filled with soldiers going
through intensive training for service
lat the front.
So, as the Americans are gradually
coming to realize that somewhere back
homo there has been wonderful speed
and efficiency in getting men across the
Atlantic, the people of France are be-
ginning to understand that Uncle Sam
has a vast army here already. How