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

when We summoned the lumber in
dustry Of this country to produce the
lumber to build our own environments, Il
came In o great and steady stream from
all over the country, but when we talk
about building barracks In France, It
means this: II means to organise. as we
have organised. regiments of foresters
and sending them over into the forests
of France which they have assigned to
US for our use, cutting down the trees,
setting up saw mills, making the lumber
Of various sises, transporting 1t to places
where II IL to be used and then finally
using Il.
PLANT CORN IN FRANCE.
I'VE have had to 90 back to the plant
Ing Of the corn in France. in order that
we might sometime make a harvest. Our
operations began in the forests Of France.
not in the lumber yards as they did in
this country"
'That great staff under General Per-
shing's direction, containing so many men
from the American army. enriched by
captains of industry and masters Of tech
meal performances in this country. all Of
these large Industrial operations under
general direction such as the railroad and
dock buildings, under a former vice-presi-
dent and now a vice-president perhaps of
the Pennsylvania railroad. Atterbury and
! men Of that quality and experience. sum-
moned In to aid him-those are the men
who are carrying forward these opera
| lions, which are quite as expensive az
| those which are carried on over here, and
Of far greater difficulty. because it means
getting material by cable as to sizes and
| specifications. having It fabricated here.
and sent across through those infested
three thousands miles Of ocean and then
set up on that side.
I'm addition to that, on the other side
It has been necessary for US to build
hospitals and that is, where the major
need for hospitals may be. It has been
necessary for the surgeon-generars stan
to be divided in this fashion and to select
supplies and procure materials and to
send over stats of trained persons to
| supervise the construction Of these hos
| pitfalls and to man them and equip them
| All OF that has gone on contemporane.
ously with the work which has been done
In this country, and then in order that
another act may be added to this kaleid-
oscopic character which this war neces.
sarily has call your attention to a thing
which you already know. This war had
more or less set character until the
Russian situation changed, and 1t has
changed. In the last few months. When
| we had gotten more or less used to the
| situation created by the uncertainty az
| to Russia. there came the great italian
defeat which called for even greater
| changes In our plans, in many ways.
THEN RUSSIA BLOCKED PLANS.
$50 that what might have been a per.
| fectly acceptable plan as to major opera
lions prior to the change in the Russian
| situation, or prior to the change in the
italian situation, had to be re-studied
instantly, and for that reason, among
| others, there Is now organized as you
know In France, pursuant to the sugges-
ton Of Mr.. Lloyd George, the Rapello
conference of the supreme war council
and the United States is represented on
! that by the chief of staff of the Ameri-
can army and the major international
arrangements in regard to the military
! worked out there. while General PERISH
Ing and his staff Of experts are working
out these other questions.
That Is picture of what has been
going on over there, gentlemen. On this
side much Of that has had to be done
ana In addition to 1t all the things we
have done, and I ask you to remember
among the achievements on this side, 1,
the building Of this army. not Of 1o,0
or 100000 or 100000, but Of substantially {
million and one-half men.
| FEAT UNDUPLICATED.
| And now let me be frank with you an,
let your judgment be frank with me abou
this. Has any army In history. ever. sine
the beginning of time. been so raised an,
cared for as this army has? Can the pic
ture be duplicated? We have raised thi
army. taken the regular army and the M
tional guard. raising 1t to war strength
and supplementing 1t by the operation o
draft and there are senator's in this room
who said to me with grief when we pro
posed that form Of raising the soldier
should be had. they shook their heads an,
said: Mr.. Secretary. 1t can't DO done.
is too sudden to address to the America,
people that mode Of selecting soldiers
And yet, has any great enterprise within
the knowledge of any man in this room
ever been carried out with more unfailinI
Justice. with more intelligent Legislation
and commentator to the good sense O
patriotism Of the army people. and ha
any great and revolutionary change II
our mode Of practice ever been accepted 81
splendidly as the operation Of the selec
tive service system.
MEN CAREFULLY LOOKED AFTER,
I'VE have got those young men in CAM
and they are surrounded from the day the.
left home until the day they come bacl
to It. II in Gods providence they can COM
back. with more agencies for their pro
lection and comfort and health and hap
piness. physical and spiritual and mental
than any army that ever went out on
neld.
"And then. with your aid. the army ha
been able to practically stamp out in
temperance and vice among the soldiers.
Here at the request Of the chairman
Mr.. Baker put into the record statemen
showing the number of army hospitals tn
Red Cross established In France with tn
number Of personnel OF each.
The secretary then resumed his testi
mony.
"When Lord Northcliffe returned +
England he was cited as I recall 1t b,
Lloyd George to accept a position Il
his cabinet. He wrote a letter whicl
was printed in the papers. and in tina
he made this casual reference to tn
United States: He spoke Of his visi
here, and spoke of our war preparation
in this fashion:
"'War preparations proceeding in tn
virile atmosphere Of the United State
and Canada with a fervor and enthus
iasm little Understood on this side Of tn
Atlantic
HE was then in England. happen t
have q copy Of a confidential instruction
issued by the German government /
Juno. 1917. to the German press to wha
course they should take in dealing wit
American matters and they say:
| GERMANY HEARD FROM
awhile the news about America