New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-12-22
''Made i'm France
L a b el Delights
American Women
Beautiful Articles for Christ
mas Gifts Made by Work
ers Ruined by War Are
Brought Here

"Somc day we may see He'll turned
/ upside down and find the label, Made
in Germany underneath; but nothing
that is good shall ever bear that
stigma"
SO spoke wounded French painter
lying convalcscent in q hospital of
France. And he sat up in bed and or
dered n board to be put across his
knees. Then with the hand that had
not been amputatcd le painted face
on ridiculous rag doll made by an
old repatri6. He drew in bit of brown
hair and with flip Of his brush made
it curl. Two round eyes-child eyes,
inquisitive and merry-he painted in;
spot that was nose, and then a
mouth that smiled. The cheeks were a
bit too red; but they would wash and
the color still remain.
made in Franco"
And the doll that thus took life was
French-insoucant, daring-and with a
three words, "Made in France"
In this way the movement started
Sculptors, manned but ingenious, fash
toned wooden cradles that rocked and
we're painted yellow with blue flowers
gray with pink ones-or other happy
combinations. Widows who had lived
before the war like the lilies of the
field neither toiling nor spinning, took
up the slogan. Some did fine embroi-
deries, working eight nine and ten
hours out of the days twenty-four.
Others, moving among the growing
blossoms in their walled French gar
dens-those Incompatible spots OF cu
tivated loveliness-took bits of silk and
wire and immortalized their garden
roses in satin flowers for milad's cor
sage.
"Give us a corner where we may SIT"
begged the repatries, "and let US work
for France" Even the little fatherless
children left their play in the Bots and
gathered in groups to do their part.
Made Especially for America
beautiful laces and lingerie, embroid-
cred linens and smocks, baby layettes
and toys grew and swelled-all made
in France" The workers were paid for
their labor that they might live; but
a market had to be found for the goods,
and this was where Mrs. Lucille Cram,
French woman married to an Ameri-
can, came in. Soon after the outbreak
Of the war she went to France. She
found the situation appalling-and she
remembered that thing in which the
women of America excel: organization.
SO she set to work. and soon France
had a society which undertook to see
that the wounded craftsmen Of France,
the women and men who needed work,
got it, 1t undertook to support the
work of manufacture, to study Ameri-
can requirements, to see that the work
ers were supplied with raw materials
and factory facilities, and to secure
orders in America. In fact, it under
took to damn forever the "Made in
Germany slogan, and to substitute for
it "Made in France"
You Can Buy Them Right Here
That done, Mrs. Cram came home and
formed the corporation, "Arts ct Me-
tiers Franc is"-an organization over
here at 22 East Forty second Street,
which does the same thing that the
Travail Franco-American does in
France. 1t markets the toys and fife
lingerie, the dolls and embroidered lin
ems, the delicately fashioned flowers
and the sculptured figures and ctchings
made by the war sufferers.
The "petits ind6structibles"-
made of indestructible fabric, painted
by skilled artists and dressed in the
various uniforms of the Alles-these
are the handiwork of those who work
for the Arts ct Meters. Manufacturers
have been feeling out and testing public
sentiment, weighing the market for
these French products-and they found
that the public fairly swallowed them
whole. The demand has been greater
than the supply, and Mrs. Cram is in
France at this moment, joyously dis
tributing more work--assured Of a mar
ket here.
And the painter who gave a hand to
the war who painted the first rag doll,
scorns q rubber stamp and goes on care
fully drawing in by hand the letters
that assure the young patriots of the
Allied lands that these dolls were
"Made in France"