South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1919-02-02
"A Tribute to The Construction Division
of the United States Army in World War

farther. because his men would not
understand And they do stand.
they break the hitherto invincible
military machine, and Chateau
Thierry takes its place with Their
mopylae as one OF the most soul
stirring events OF all history. But
Chateau hierry is only a begin
ming. Blow follows GLOW. and there
is no let up till Sedan and Nov. II.
But what has all that 10 do with
the matter in hand tonight? Every
thing, gentlemen. for Chateau
Thierry and those other battles of
last summer and fall had 10 come
camps and environments. munitions
plants and arsenals, docks and port
terminals-the work. in a word. Of
the construction division. which we
honor here tonight Every inch Of
the way from Chateau-Thierry 70
Sedan the construction division was
in that fight no less than the men
who were In the front line of bat
tie. The cantonments, the en-
barkation ports, the powder and
gas plants were there just as much
as the guns which fred the effective
shells.
Some OF the plants and ports, It is
true. had barely come into use. yet
tell you that they fought no less
effectively than those whose prod
ucts got into the fight We know
now that Germany was not yet
pushed 20 her last resources. De-
feated, she would have been the
last 10 fall on the fields Of France
and Belgium, but once back on heI
own frontiers the fight could still
have been bitter. But she had seen
what we were doing here. She
may not have known details. but
she did know that the effort was
stupendous and would eventually
overwhelm her. OF the things she
saw weighing against her not the
least were the terminals at Boston
and South Brooklyn and Norfolk,
the warehouses and powder plants
and arsenals that were made pos
sible by our good friends. the guests
OF the evening. Therefore, I say
to you that these men fought all
the way from Chateau-T hierry to
DcOdI anu NAldA AIt4I tdA NOiA-
struction works fought with them.
Work of Construction Division.
In a general way we know what
the construction division has done,
but a few figures will serve to i'm
press on us the magnitude OF the
task. II built in 80 days sixteen
soldier cities, each for q popula-
ton Of 10000 (now increased to
about 100000, with all the utilities.
such as water, sewerage, electric
power and fire protection, that
modern city requires. This feat re-
mains still the greatest single
achieV ement of our war prepara-
tons. We had to have the can
tonments quickly We unloaded
this unprecedented job on the con-
struction division and they came
back in go days with the job done
Through their efforts Uncle Sam
was able at the close Of hostilities
10 train 100000 men at one time.
The work done by the division
will total about $500. 900, 900 in cost
and OF that huge sum 100000, 900
was spent I'm a period Of Is months.
record for construction under a
single organization that has never
been approximated in the history
Of the world. At Panama the great
est annual expenditure, though in
a time OF lower material prices and
lower wages, was under $4,000
600, while the whole cost OF the
canal was less than fifteen months
expenditure already referred to-.
Moreover. the plans in hand would
have raised the total expenditure