Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1919-01-03
AMERICAN GENIUS OVfRCOMES tVtRY
 SUPPLY OBSTACLE
Communications Established by Erect. lon of Long Distance Telephone Lines by Signal Corps.

lteauq uartefS, American EXDedl- tionary oFrce, France, Nov. 2S Cor respondence of The Associated Press) In an army the size of this, shatter- ed throughout the length and breadth of France from the seacoast to trc Swiss border, the problem of c~Sl- munication is second only if not of equal importance to that of supplies.
 When the American forces came t9 France if was one of the first efforts to which American ingenuity and in- vention was directed and the Signal Corps, under which communications falls, met 1t as have the other organ izations of the American Expedition ary Force. Existing French telegraph and telephone systems were oVerbur- dened. There was little left for us and Brigader General E. Russell, chief signal officer, and his staff of experts tackled the job.
 What they have done in construct ion is shown in some statistics fur nished to The Associated Press. The Signal Corps has built approximately 1 ,75O miles of poles on which 1t has strung 4,175 miles of wire. In addi- tion about 2,000 miles of American wire has been strung on existing sys- tems for our use and 1t has leased and operate more than 5000 miles of French wire. Exchange lines to the extent of 12750 miles have been built and to operate these lines it has 244 telephone offices, 7,995 telephone sta tions and 102 telegraph offices.
 All through France. from the base ports to the front lines occupied by the American forces, throughout our training areas, in fact nearly every where. the shining copper wires on American cross bar poles, so different from the European system, are new feature of the landscape and frequent ly one heard newly arrived American soldiers eXclaim That's American. :" On main line systems with many wires the French customarily use two poles side by side and the wires are strung on cross bars between, anu others on single insulators fastened direct to the pole.
 The long distance telegraph and telephone system constructed by the Signal Corps is entirely maintained by it's own personnel and in addition some 5000 miles of leased wires are maitained by it.
 All this construction has been made by. Signal Corps battalions with fm- plements and material from the Uni ted States with the single exception CT poles, most of which were obtained ir France. In construction. maintenance and operation the standard practices of the United States with the single exception of poles, most of which were obtained in France. In construction, maintenance and operation the stand ard practices of the ",ited States have been followed and the American Expeditionary Force has been given service equal to the best otainabla in the commercial world and admittedly unrivalled in any army. It's men have followed troops wherever troops went, down front line trenches, over shell swept and machine gun raked areas to lay and keep their wires so that communications might be maintained The Signal Corps has a long list of brave |ead and brave wounded, more honored perhaps, because they could not fight back,
 The telephone service of the Corps was opened on June 24 1917, and since the nthere have been handle' nearly nineteen million local calls and more than enc million long distance calls.
 Over Five Million Messages.
 Since the Signal Corps telegraphed system began to function August 19 of last year more than five and one half million messages have been handled, aggregating more than one third of 9 billion words.
 Manning these wires are many form ed members of the Traffic Department of The Associated Press graduates of the key and the fastest wires in the world. Anon gthem are Sergeant !. l. Belden, formerly of Dallas, Tex, who has charge of the base signal office der his direction are Percy Hall. form erly at St Louis and w. E. Ryan, Of Burlington la.
 Sergeant rsr Zen formerly in the NAV York office c' Ths Associated Press, is in charge of the base signal cffice at Tours and several Associated Press stars" also are attached to that office. Corporal A. B. lares. of Fort Worth. Tex. is stationed at Bar-le- duo. Other. former Associated Press men scatttered along he lines of inc.lGc H. A. Goeth !, of Dumth w C Doody. If indiana polls; F. R. Kazmarek, of Houston; O. A. Rosenauer. of Detroit: E. E. Truxton, of Michigan and Montana: E. J. Morris and Ben Hall of Philadel- phia; Frank P. Johnson. and J. E. Johnson of Kansas City; H. K Fisher of Champaign. Ill.,: and c. c. Madi- son of Kansas City.
 When the corps of newspaper cor was moved up to the front lines with the beginning of the Ameri can action in the Argonne, certain wires were turned over for their use and one day there walked in Corporal J. P. Wilson, who was long stationed at Salt Lake City and other Western Division stations of The Associated