The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1918-03-12
Colonel Graves, Formerly on
Pershing's Staff, Talks
to Large Crowd.
PRAISE FOR SAMMEES
Ingenuity Of Yankees Under
Adverse Conditions Win
Hearts of French.

rear of the armies and the necessities
Of preparation behind the lines. were
points emphasized by Lieutenant Colo
mel Henry S. Graves, chief forester oil
the United States, and formerly Il mem.
Der Of General Persning's staff, in a
lecture delivered at the Missoula the
alter last evening before a large and
enthusiastic audience.
He spoke of the great work the en-
gineers are doing in building wharves
extending railroads, erecting barracks
hospitals and warehouses. He dwelt
mt length on the lumber industry, not
because it was any more important
hut as he said, because Of his greater
familiarity with it. France, he said
formerly imported much of her lumber
but the supply has been cut off and
now she has consented to open up her
forests that the shipping might be
used for other purposes.
Yankee ingenuity Tells.
II wish could conduct you to one
Of these camps and mills and show you
the efficiency Of our boys" he said.
Their spirit of service, their ingenu-
ity In making things out Of nothing.
in a country three and onehalf years
At war. Take one camp for example;
when the troops first arrived, there was
some delay in getting their equipment
from the ships, the horses We're de-
layed a few days en- route, and the
men had for time only their logging
tools and supply transport.
WAS there any delay because they
had no horses to skid out the logs
They knew we needed pile for the
wharves, SO they hand-logged the piles
to the roads. picking them up witt
canthooks; improvised logging wheels
from an old dump cart and got the logs
out by man-power. Did they growl o,
talk of hours of labor or objects o.
war, or whether their work was lead
ing to militarism? No! Our engineer
needed wood and lumber and the jot
Of the forestry troops was to get i
out.
Il never saw such happy, joyous
shouting, singing crowd Of lumber
Jacks. What do they care II the,
work over time; what do they care II
they get tired or get hurt or killed
even. They are fighting, fighting tho
Germans and helping to win the war
That is the kind of work being done
by men like Greeley, Mason ,Skeels
Millar. Stuart, Bruce and scores o.
others of our former Montana boys.
Fine Bodies of Men.
"You have seen our boys starting out
to their camps in small squads, indi-
vidually. perhaps in companies, OF
larger units. / have seen them il
France. As fine a body Of men as
were ever modified to fight / was IL
Paris when the first troops paraded OF
July 4. 1t was a wonderful reception
they. received. They were II splendid
looking body of men. Young, fresh
eager strong. And how the French
people cheered them. Now they ar,
beginning to show their metal. The,
are fighting splendidly. The army is
shaping itself very rapidly. Under the
stress of war the men are put to the
instant test. A splendid general
whom all are eager to follow, is round
ing his organization rapidly into fight
ing shape.
Found Fight Detractins.
certainly tne SOiulSTS are ADAPT
ing themselves readily to conditions ir
France. At the battle of Cambria you
will recall that the Germans bent bacl,
the British line at one point, penetrat-
Ing to where the American railroad en-
gineers were working. Without AIDE
quate arms, only for guard duty, they
put up a great fight. Afterwards on,
asked how he liked the excitement OF
bombs, shells. shrapnel and all the rest
he said: 1T was not so bad, but rather
1t takes a fellows mind off of his
work"
He told of the joy of the French
people at the entrance of the United
States in the war and Of the great lik-
ing the people there have for tho
American soldiers, how they cheeret
whenever they saw khaki uniform
and how the children would stare al
the Sammees.
Tells Of Work in Rear.
Colonel Graves work was with III,
foresters and it was chiefly his eype.
riences with the engineers that he re.
lated His talk was of the work in The
rear and Of the gigantic labors that are
being performed to back up the frs,
line against the Hun.
THE rear" he said, "exterds here
into this country, the mines, the fields
the forests, the homes. 1t is not {
question of helping alone, it is a cues.
ton OF fighting, just as much as tn,
rear work directly behind the lines"
He told of some of the internal dis
sensions in France in the early par
OF the war and how Caillaux had tried
to make peace with the Germans b,
submitting to them. "Clemeanceau,
said Mr., Graves, has defeated the doc
trtre of Caillaux. which was the great
est ally of the kaiser in France"
Hun Policy Denounced.
He closed with bitter denunciatio,