The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1919-01-02
U. S. SIGNAL CORPS DID
REMARKABLE WORK
In Building Up System of Communica-
ton for the American Expedition
airy Forces Throughout
France.

France
Headquarters, American Expedition
airy Forces, France, Jan. ] Correspond
ence Of the Associated Press In an
army the size of this, scattered through
out the length and breadth Of France
from the seacoast to the Swiss border,
the problem of communication is second
only if not Of equal Importance to that
Of supplies.
When the American forces came to
France IL was one OF the first efforts to
which American ingenuity aud invention
was directed and the signal corps under
which communication falls, met it as
have the other organizations of the
American eXpeditionary force, Existing
French telegraph and telephone systems
were overburdened There was little left
for us and Brigadier General r, Russell,
chief signal officer and his staff Of ex.
perts tackled the job.
What they have done in construction is
shown in some statistics furnished to the
Associated Press. The signal corps has
built approximately 1850 miles Of poles
on which il has strung 4,l75 miles of
wire In addition about 1000 miles OF
American wire has been strung on exist
ing systems for our use and it has leased
and operates more than 1900 miles of
French wire Exchange lines to the eX-
tent of 1850 miles have been built and
to operate these lines it has 24t telephone
Offices, 1895 telephone stations and l02
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 everywhere, the
shining copper wires on American cross
bar poles - different from the European
system, are a new feature of the land
scape and frequently one heard newly
arrived American soldiers exclaim THAT g
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, and others
on single insuators fastened direct TO
the pole,
The long distance telegraph and tele-
phone system constructed by the signal
corps is entirely maintained by its own
personnel and in addition some 5000
miles Of leased wires are maintained by
it.
All this construction has been made by
the signal corps battalions with nipple
ments and material from the United
States with the single exception Of poles,
most of which were obtained in France.
In construction, maintenance and opera
ton the standard practices of the United
States have been followed and the Amer
lean expeditionary force has been given
service equal to the best obtainable in
the commercial world and admittedly I'M
rivalled in any army, It's men have fol-
lowed troops wherever troops went, down
front line trenches, over shell swept and
machine gun raked areas to lay and keep
their wires SO that communication might
be maintained. The signal corps has a
long list Of brave dead and brave wound
ed, more honored perhaps, because they
could not fight back.
The telephone service of the corps was
opened on June a. 1917, and since then
there have been handled nearly l900O000
calls and more than 100000 long dis
tance calls.
Since the signal corps telegraph system
began TO function on Aug. 10 of last year
more than 100000 messages have been
handled aggregating more than one.third
of billion words
Manning these wires are many former
members of the traffic department of the
Associated Press, graduates of the key
and the fastest wires in the world
Among them are Sergt j. l.. BeIden, for
merly OF Dallas, Tex, who has charge of
the base signal office at Bordeaux. Amonr
the 50 men under his direction are Percy
Hall, formerly at St. Louis, and w. j..
Ryan of Burlington, la.
Sergt. Ben Non, formerly in the New
York Office Of the Associated Press. is in
charge of the base signal office at Tours
and several Associated Press stars" also
are attached to that Office. Corp, A, B.
phares of Fort Worth, Tex, is stationed
at Barbecue. Other former Associated
Press men scattered along the lines of
communication include II. A. Goethe of
Duluth, W. c. Doody of indianapolis, F.
II. kazmarek Of Houston, Q. A. Roseuau.
or of Detroit. =. y. Truxton of Michigan
and Montana, T.. J. Morris and Ben Hall
of Philadelphia Frank p. johnson and
j. i. johnson Of Kansas City, II. Il. Fish
er of Champaign, ILL.,, and {. c. Madison
of Kansas City.
When the corps Of newspaper CORE
spondents was moved up, TO the front
lines with the beginning of the Amer,
lean action in the Argonne, certain wires
were turned over for their use and one
day there walked in Corp. }. p. Wilson,
who was long stationed at Salt Lake
City aud other western division stations
of the Associated Press lie brought his
side sender, or bug" in operators par
lance, quietly cut it in on table in the
French telegraph Office, and began bust
ness. The secondanight, when the French
operators had watched copy melt in Phil
lips code to a receiver of equal training
they exclaimed:
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