Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-05-21

Continued from Page One
army - engineers, medical officers,
staff officers-getting first look at
the stupendous problems which now
confronted them, anxious to learn
from our experience, to avoid our
early mistakes, to start higher up
than the beginning which was ours
in blood and travail.
met some of these advanced
guards and found them enormously
modest, as men face to face, with local
technique to which they were strange,
among other men who had learned it
by painful lessons. | found them also
very keen and alert and businesslike,
quick to see the essential truth of
things. taking it all seriously, making
mental notes at great speed yet with
an easy way that made them good
comrades at the mess table, and with
a sense of humor refreshing in its
incisiveness.
They explained that their army was
coming along, and we believed them.
They asked us not to be in too much of
a hurry and we said: That's all right.
Well wait for you" They wanted us
to understand. and we were not too i'm
patient to understand. that organization
involved in training and equpping and
transporting of a great army, with a
line of communications 5000 miles long,
was not child's play or the work of a
few months.
In the Cambria fighting on November
30 of last year ! met a crowd of Amer
lean engineers who were quick to get
into action when they were in reach of
it. They were not supposed to be fight
ing men, but they made themselves so
when the battle lines suddenly closed
about them and shells fell around their
engines and trucks and the Germans
started sniping at close range. They
borrowed some of our rifles and TOOK
part in counter-attacks with our guards
Others, surrounded by the enemy, fought
their way through and laughed at this
queer adventure afterward, and were
pleased because our men said: "Wel
done, old sports. We could do with a
hundred thousand of you"
The first hundred thousand of a new
army-by Jove! That would make lo'
of difference. There were some who
believed that the tramp of American
battalions would never be heard alont
the roads of France. and those were
German officers and men. l remember
when Vimy Ridge was taken by cana
dams and Scottish, in April of last year
a German officer was talking with q
group of Canadians.
What do you think about the Amerl
cans coming into the war;" they asked
The officer shrugged his shoulders ane
smiled.
''It is a moral blow to U.S." he sale
frankly, but they will never get across
here. our submarines will see to that
I'VE got across all right said TN
Canadians. and this answer seemed u
make their prisoners thoughtful.
Big u. 5. Army In France
Yet for a long time the enemy buoyet
himself up with the hope that the Amerl
cans would never get across.
Now a big army of them Is acros
here with the French and with US, AM
the enemy is anxious and alarmed. FL
has cause to be. l have seen American
troops about the roads and in the vi
Iages behind the lines, training WIT
some OF our units, learning the lates
mathods from some of our ofhcert
working out their own ideas and ADOPT
ing anything that Is good In our sys
tenn or the French. and l am certain
the United States armies VIII be mos
rs5rnidabie factor in the struggle ahead
Their material Of manhood is spien
t;id. end they remind me good des
+, cf Z canadisns because MANI OF then
lils the Canadisns. are taen who hay
"a Suldoor lives. who have been thel