Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1918-07-11
The Clipping. Uncle Sam Goes
Into Warehouse Business.
From a French newspaper, sen
by Lloyd Bond:

warehouse ana storage business.
He has gone in heavy. Without
using superlatiyes too promis-
|cuously, it may be said that he
lis building the biggest system of
warehouses in the world and one
| OF the largest railroad yards in
the world to serve it. 1t is an
adjunct of one of the biggest con-
slruction jobs in the S. O. S.
The warehouse system. when
completed, viii consist of 1i6
lstorehouses, each so feet wide and
200 or 500 feet long, and five
huge warehouses each $40 by 500
feet. 1t will contain army sup
plies sufficient to sustain one
million men for rs days.
The warehouses are springing
up at the rate of several a day
land---what is important---they
are filled with flour and bacon
and ordnance and Q. M. supplies
almost as soon as they are COM
pleted 1t is calculated that there
IS already enough food in certain
group of these buildings to cause
the ringing of every bell in Germ
any for four days---if Germany
had it.
A total of $500 men are work.
ing ON the warehouse system and
nc railroad trackagc which will
DC used for the transport Of sup
Plies in and out. There are
Americans, white and black, and
Workmen---civilian and otherwise
---rcprcsenting nearly 20 other
nations. There are steam SHOW
els, cranes, pile drivers, switch
engines, concrete mixers and all
the other machines used on a
big construction job, even to a
saw and planning mill to cut and
dress the lumber which comes
fresh from the hands of regi-
ment of American woodsmen
working I'M the forests of France.
Hundred Miles of Track.
Nearly 100 miles of RAILROAD
Track have been laid and there
IS moro to go down. These men
are laying American steel and
driving real American spikes, and
they are making twice the pro
sress they would if they were
using French rails under the
French method.
The troops and workmen on the
Job are CHARTERED i'm a camp at
one end OF The yard, with the ex-
cepllon OF some units of American
coiored troops who are enioying
the early summer in tents, and
The German prisoners. The main
camp is laid out with streets and
blocks Of barracks.
The German prisoners live in
tents also. When not at work
lhey are confined to quarters, the
eonilnemcnts being made secure
" barbcd wire fence which en-
ercles their quarters and a squad
or so oil English soldiers on guard
duty. The English troops are
I'm charge of the prisoners. They
also act as foremen. The Ger
mans We're captured by the British
and that is enc reason why the
fommles are guarding them now.
The speed with which the
Americans have progressed with
line construction of the yard is a
constant marvel to the French
.populalion Peasants come for
miles to see track laying gangs
put down rails that are fastened
with nails.
Revelation to Hun Prisoners.
But the big revelation has been
10 The 1000 German prisoners
working on the job. When first
They arrived, they were inclined to
be a little insclent and not ayerse
lD making predictions as to what
was going TO happen to America
IN thus war. In the few weeks
since their arrival, however, they
have undergone a decided phych-
o,loSlcal change.
From their camps they can see
The American docks of the base
port and the main American rail-
ways leading to the interior and
lle front, and the main United
> laces line of rail transport pass
esl within a few hundred feet of
tf@m. They see ships dock and
discltarge varied cargoes not
slugly but by the dozen and the
score. They see train loads of
cheering, singing American sold
leEs so by by day and hear them
by night, riding in American cars
pulled by American locomotives.
They are dumbfounded by the
American effort and seeing. from
tier vantage point, the fruits of
American activity, they have sadly
admitted that Germany has been
grossly deceived about the part
the United States is playing in the
war.
II there is any favoritism in the
Il 4