The evening Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1918-1920, 1918-11-01
AMERICAN
WAREHOUSES;
OVER in FRANCE
Each One a Hive of Industry
and Part of a Perfect
System
1900 GERMAN PRISON
ERS PILING WOOD
Salvage Accumulated and
Forwarded to Another
and Bigger Station

American Regulating Base, Ad-
vance Zone, France, Oct. 10, CORES
pondence Ct The Associated Press)-
Warehouses stretching over several
square miles, baled hay by the acre
piled thirty feet in height and other
vast quantities of supplies needed to
maintain the American army mark
this distributing center as one of the
points whore one obtains an adequate
idea of the tremendous push America
is putting into the war.
This vast accumulation of supplies
is necessary to keep train loads of
food, clothing, ammunition trucks,
wagons, wheelbarrows, medical stores
and the whole range of the army
wants, moving forward in a large
daily trafii: with unvarying precision
so that no division, no matter what
its losses in material, need suffer.
Each warehouse is hive of indus
try, with the supplies moving out
from one side to the front, and NOV
ing in from the other side as the
steady streams of supplies flow in
from the American base ports so that
the full quota always be maintained
here.
At one point machine guns were
being testcd before going forward to
the front. This was in the machine
gun section of the ordance park, with
vast array of these deadly mechani-
cal devices. Squads of soldiers were
making me final tests, and the rattle
of guns olmded like an early morning
skirmish or the firing line.
Almost as noisy as the machine
guns, were the machines for balin2
hay whicn stretched in long batteries
like threshing machines, devouring
the stacks of loose hay and turning
it out in compact bundles for the
artillery and cavalry horses.
Farther on the balloon sheds were
turning out the big gasbags for use
on observation along the front. These
are assembled and packed, and some
of the parts are made here. Like
everything else the supply of bal
looms mu::J be finally regulated here
depending CT the number lost or des
troyed alcrw the front, and the vary
ing activities of the different sectors.
Near by 1900 German prisoner:
were ut work piling fuel wood. 1
was a ho; autumn day and the al
was heavy and gray with the dust o
the immense traffic going on. Blu
the prisoners did not seem to mine
the creature discomforts, but bent t.
their work with a will, while Ameri
can guards with rifles ready stood a
the summit of the huge piles of WOO,
to see theie was no Stacking.
Another 700 German prisoners ha
arrived the night before, so 500
there will be $500 of these worker
handling picks and shovels instead 0
rifles.
This is the headquarters also fo
the salvage carried on at the from
and for TIE extensive system of stel
ilizing ard delousing. AS the vast dc
bris of the battlefelds is gathered u
broken cannon and guns, ammun
ton, harness, tentage, etc.-it come
back here i huge masses to be a:
sembled and forwarded to the big sa
wage station at Tours.
The sIeriliZing system also radiat'
from here, and while the actual wol
is done at the front, yet the regula
ing is all carried on here, with stacl
of clothing, underclothing, shoes, ett
moving forward constantly to me-
the require ments of this systemat
cleansing.
Gas attacks have developed Il
greatest reeG for thorough cleansin
for often after one of these attacl
every stitch of clothing of the g
patients las to be destroyed, and {
the blankets and equipment whi
have the feintest trace of the dead
fumes, ard this in turn calls for
complete re-outft of clothing al
equipment of all those exposed to t
gas.