Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-12-15
r N the spring of this year the Uni

r y the spring of this year the Uni
versity of Toulouse, in Southern
France, welcomed fifteen hun
dred American students who had
come to spend four months in
study while waiting for return to
the United States. They were for
the most part graduates of Amer
ican colleges and universities. or
men whose collegiate studies had
been interrupted in 1917 by the call
TO arms. They came from all over
the American eXpeditionary force,
from stations with the army of oc-
cupation on the Rhine, from the de-
Nastated regions of the Disc. the
Marne and the Meuse, over which
they had just ceased to fight, and
from the all-important service of
supply, inland or at base ports
Brest st. NaZaire or Bordeaux the
latter not far from Toulouse on the
Garonne.- They were of all ranks
Privates and majors. lieutenants
and lieutenant colonies were to
share the same benches in the lee
ture halls. They Were of all
branches of the service wearing
on their shoulders the insignia OF
more divisions than even one of
themselves COuli edSllN lupDtllN-
insignia hopelessly bewildering to
the French, who were apt to seek
among the stars and Indian heads,
crosses. arrows and bolts of light
ming the ancient totems of the In
dian tribes from which some of us
are reputed to be descended
The placing of men from the A.
Il. f. in universities of Great Brit
ain and France-for Toulouse was
by no means the only university
to have an American school detach-
ment-serVed number of pur-
poses. 1t was one of the ways the
government found to keep our men
occupied during period of waiting
more tiresome than months of
campaigning. 1t was partly a re-
suit of the governments determi-
| nation that the men of the A. e. +.
should return from their foreign
campaign vastly . the better for
their months or years abroad. 1t was
the intention to make them at once
better educated men and better citi-
zens of the United States.
: To that end post schools We're or
Sanized wherever bodies of Amer
! lean troops were stationed. In them
the instruction was partly that given
in our elementary and secondary
schools. and partly business courses
The instructors were usually not well
fare workers. but officers and men
from the ranks detailed as instruc-
tors to the post schools in the areas
| in which their organizations We're
! stationed.
Learning French Ideals.
1t was expected that school de-
tachments such as the one at the
/ FfNi Gff nf
complish som ething further. some
thing different. BY placing so many
soldier students in the closest pos
sible contact with French education
and culture. the system aided them
TO understand French ideas and
ideals as most of them had not un-
derstood them before. The trenches,
the devastated regions, and the
miserable little towns of the Con
drecourt area. where some of our
boys spent the winter of 1S17-1S
were not the places to learn to
know the real France. In Toulouse
the student soldiers had their first
opportunity to become acquainted
with what is best in France not only
from books and lectures, but by
meeting other Frenchmen than the
peasant among whom they had lived
at the front.
Here was the biggest thing ac-
complished by the four months at
Toulouse. 1t served to bring the
American soldier and the French
citizen together in new and more
intimate relation. 1t served to
make them understand each other
better and to them friends. 1t pre-
pared for return to the United State
a body of educated men who would
be scattered throughout the coun-
try, each of whom in his own com