Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1919-01-03
ENERGY OF OUR YANKEES
AMAZED THE FRENCH
Built 12,750 Miles Of Telephone
Lines and Established
1895 Stations.

Force, France, Dec. 10 Correspondence
of the Associated Press)-ln 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 II 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 invention
was directed and the Signal Corps, under
which communications fall, met 1T as
have the other organizations of the Ameri-
can Expeditionary Force. Existing
French telegraph and telephone systems
were overburdened. There was little left
for Ills and Brigadier General f. Russell,
| chief signal officer, and his staff of ex-
perts tackled the job
What they have done IN construction rs
shown In some statistics furnished to the
Associated Press The Signal Corps has
built approximately | $50 miles OF poles on
which it has strung 4,l7i miles OF WIRE.
In addition about 2. 900 miles of American
wire has been strung on existing systems
for our use and IL has leased and operates
more than 1000 miles of French wire.
Exchange lines to the extent OF 1880
miles have been built and to operate
these lines it has pa telephone offices
1895 telephone stations and 1O2 telc-
graph 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 w1rsss on American cross
bar poles. so different from the European
system, are new feature of the land
scapc and frequently one heard newly
arrived American soldiers exclaIm That s
American On main hne 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 insulators 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 1900
miles Of leased wires are maintained by II
All this construction has been made by
Signal Corps battalions with implements
and material from the United States
with the single exception Of poles, most OF
which were obtained in France. In con
Struction, maintenance and operation the
standard practices of the United States
have been followed and the American
Expeditionary Force has been gwen serv-
ice equal TO the best obtainahle 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 communications might
pe maintained The Signal Corss has a
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. 1917, and since then
there have been handled nearly nineteen
million local calls and more than one
million long distance calls.
Since the Signal Corps telegraph svs-
tenn began TO function on August 10 Of
last year more than Eve and one half
million messages have been handled
aGgregating more than one third of a
billion words.
Naming 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 Sergeant J. l.. Belden, formerly
Of Dallas, Tex. who has charge Of the
base signal Office at Bordeaux, Among
the 50 men under his direction are Percy
nan, oIIlGI1F AT 80 1otil, ehlid W ISEAsssl4
Of Burlington, Ia.
Sergeant Ben Yon. formerly In the
New York office Of the Associated Press.
is in charge Of the base signal office al
Tours and several Associated Press
stars also are attached TO that office
Corporal A. B. Phares. Of Fort Worth,
Tex, is stationed al Barbecue Other
former Associated Press men scattered
along the lines Of communication include
II s Goethe. Of Duluth; W c. Doody Of
Indianapolis +. r. kazmarek, Of Hous-
ton; O. 4 RoSenauer, of Detroit; +. +
Tr,lxton. Of Michigan and Montana; r J
Morris and Ben Hall of Phiiadelphia
Frank p. Johnson and J r. Johnson Of
Kansas City. II. T. Fisher Of Champaign
ILL.,, and c. G Madison Of Kansas City
When the corps Of newspaper cor
was moved up TO the iron;
lines with the beginning Of the American
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 1T Sal Lake City and
other western division stations of the
Associated Press. He brought his side
sender. or bug in operators parlance
quietly cut it in on table in the French
telegraph office, and began business The
second night, when the French operators
had watched copy melt in Phillips code
to receiver of equal training they ex-
claimed:
tHeis the ace Of operators"