Evening star., 1919-01-02
SIGNAL CORPS MET
VAST ARMY NEEDS
Built About 1,75O Miles of
Poles and Strung 4,175
Miles of Wire in France.
PHONE SYSTEM A WONDER

! IILCt i1}-S "a L oit'rJ4, II Is<14NNII
December 10 Correspondence of the
Associated press).-In an army the
| size of this. scattered throughout 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 it 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
airy force Existing French telegraph
and telephone systems were overbur-
| dened. There was little left for US,
and Brig. Gen. E. Russell, chief signal
officer, and his staff of experts tackled
| the job.
! What they have done in construc-
! tion is shown in some statistics fur
nished to the Associated Press. The
/ Signal Corps has built approximately
! 1,750 miles of poles. on which it has
strung 4.175 miles of wire. In addi
| ton, about 1000 miles of American
| wire has been strung on existing sys-
| tens for our use. and 1t has leased
and operates more than 5000 miles of
French wire Exchange lines to the
| extent of 1850 miles have been built.
and to operate these lines it has 244
telephone offices. 1895 telephone sta
tions and l02 telegraph offices.
Wiring New Feature of Landscape.
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 fire.
quentIy one heard newly arrived
American soldiers excIaim, That's
| American" On main line systems
| with many wires the French custom
arily use two poles side by side and
the wires are strung on cross bars
between, and others on single insu-
lators fastened direct to the pole.
The long-distance telegraph and
telephone 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 il.
All this construction has been made
by Signal Corps battalions with i'm
! plements and material from the United
States with the single exception of
poles. most of which were obtained
| in France. In construction, mainte-
nance and operation the standard
practices of the United States have
| been followed and the American eX-
peditionary force has been given serv-
nnn1l n he hest a IN n in l,a
commercial world and admittedly un-
rIValed III any army. It's men have
| followed troops wherever troops went
down front-line trenches, over she'll
swept and machine gun-raked areas
| to lay and keep their wires so that
communications might be maintained
Many Brave Dead and Wounded.
The Signal Corps has long list of
brave dead and brave wounded, more
honored. perhaps, because they could
not fight back.
| The telephone service of the corps
was opened on June "a, 19l7, and since
| then there have been handled near "
| nineteen million local calls and more
than one million long-distance calls.
Since the Signal Corps telegraph
| system began to function on August
| 19 of last year more than five and
! one-half million messages have been
1 handled, aggregating more than one
third of a billion words.
| Manning these wires are many for
| mer members of the traffic depart
, ment of the Associated Press, gradu-
= ates of the key and the fastest wires
| in theworld Among them are Sergt.
| j. L. Belden, formerly of Dallas.
! Tex. who has charge of the base
; signal Office at Bordeaux Among
| the fifty men under his direction are
7 lo1I for nrl
! and w. E. Ryan of Burlington, Iowa.
Associated Press Stars Active.
New York Office of the Associated
| Press is In charge of the base sig
nal office at Tours. and several Asso-
! ciated Press stars also are attached
to that office. Corp. A. B. Phares of
Fort Worth. Tex, is stationed at Bar
! le-duc other former Associated
Press men scattered along the lines
, of communication include II. A.
Goethe of Duluth, w. c. Doody of
Indianapolis, +. r. KaZmarek of
Houston, o. "A. Rosenauer of Detroit,
| E. Z. Truxton of Michigan and Mon
| tana, E. J. Morris and Ben Hall of
Philadelphia. Frank 2. Johnson and
J. F. johnson of Kansas City, il. Il.
Fisher of Champaign. Ill, and C. {.
| Madison of Kansas City.
| When the corps of newspaper cor
| resuoudents was moved up to the
| front lines with the beginning of the
! American action in the Argonne GER
F., tain wires were turned over for their
use. and one day there walked in
! Corn, J. F. Wilson. who was long
stationed at Salt Lake City and other
western division stations of the Asso-
, ciated Press He brought his side
sender, or bug" in operators par
lance, quietly cut it in on table in
the French telegraph office, and be-
gan business. The second night. when
the French operators had watched
COPY melt in Phillips code to a re-
ceiver Of equal training, they ex-
j claimed: .IIe is the ace of operators"