Arizona republican., 1918-01-29

iment threw down their picks and spades and carried their rifles into the battle and distinguished themselves by gallant action in the war itself
 Very early in this war Great Britain through Balfour and his assistants, and France, through Joffr-, said to us send us nurses and doctors Why, before We were scarcely in the war American units organized in advance and antici- patton by the Red Cross, which was taken over into the service of the Unit ed States through the surgeon generals office, were on the battlefield and there are tens of thousands of men in Eng land and in France now who bless the mission of mercy upon which the first Amerians appeared in France
 Hospitals Are Completed
 "Our surgeons have set up hospitals immediately behind the lines They have been made military in every sense Of the word. They have not been es- pecially fortunate in escaping attack from the air, and our early losses in this war, the losses of Red Cross nurses and doctors and orderlies and atten- dants in hospitals and ambulance driv- CTS who were sent over to assist our i allies in these necessary services, not only rendering assistance. but acquir- inS skill and knowledge of the circum- stances and surroundings, so that when our own troops came ill large numbers | they could render like services to our l own forces But that was not enough lt Was suggested that further groups of mechanics might be needed. Nav. We began to see that we were going to | be over there in large force and the l question that then had to be answered was, how will we maintain an army in tranN? Special studies had to be made of that problem, and this is what they | showed. They showed that the rail- | roads and the facilities of France had l during this war been kept in an ex- 1 cellent condition; far better than any i supposed possible under war condi- | tons; and yet that those railroads were l used to the maximum to take care of | the needs of the French and the Brit l lsh themselves. and that when our | army became a great army, it would l be necessary for us to build back of l our own line an independent line of | communication.
 | In other words, France was a white | sheet of paper so far as we were con- ! cefned, and on that We had not only | 10 write an army, but we had to write the means of maintaining that army. ana rom the first time when a careful ana scientific study of the opportuni- l tles of France to help us were made. 1 rom that hour until this, we have l been building in France, facilities. in- struments, agencies, just as many as We have here in the United States. and more-many of them of the same character. For instance, the French had naturally reserved the best ports Ill France for their own supply. The channel ports have been reserved for the British When we came in it was necessary for us to have independent ports of entry in order that there might not be confusion and admixturf Of our supplies, going though these ports of disembarkation with those ot other nations. We were given severa- ports. As you perhaps recall, the ports of France are tidal ports, ports with deep water and tidal basins al high tides with insufficient water fol landing at the docks when the tide i. out.
 Build Docks and Wharves
 As a consequence, the construction of docks and wharves in ports of thai kind is very much more difficult thar where you have a deep sea harbor and all you need to do is to erect 6
 pile wharf. We have had to builC
 docks; we have had to fabricate in thi.
 country and send off dock handling
 machinery; we have had to send iron
 this country even the piles to build the docks; we have had to have gauntry cranes manufactured in this country and sent over to be erected on those docks we have had to erect over there warehouses at the ports of disembar- 1 kation in order that these vast accumu- lations of stores and supplies which 1 go over can be properly housed an( cared for. until they can be distributed
 into the interior.
 We have had to take over, and arc