Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1919-01-04
AN READILY RECOGNIZE
AMERICAN CONSTRUCTION

All through France. from the base
ports to the front lines occupied By the
: American forces, throughout our train
+, ing areas: in fact, nearly everywhere.
! 1he shining copper wires on American
f; cross bar poles. so different from the
European system. are new feature of
!. the landscape and frequently one heard
newly-srrivcd American soldiers cx-
claim, That's American" On main
line systems, with man wires. the
French customarily use two poles side
by side. and the wires arc strung on
cross-bars between. and others on
single insulators fastened direct TO the
pole.
The long distance telegraph and tclc-
>pDone system constructed by the signal
iorps Is entirely. maintained by It's own
afersonncl and. in addition, some 5000
stmiles OF leased wires are maintained
by il.
All this constitution has hecn made
by signal corps battalions with nipple
Tents and material from the United
States, with the single exception of
poles. most Of which were obtained in
france In construction: maintenance
T, Of the United states have been followed
: and the American expeditionary force
(: mas been given service equal to the
(, oest ootainabie IN the commercial
world and admittedly unrirallcd In any
f; army. It's men have followed troops
: wherever troops went down front line
{, trenches. over shell-swcpt and machine
: gun rakcd areas to lay and keep their
wires so that communications might be
maintained. The signal corps has a
long list of brave dead and brave
wounded. more honorcd. perhaps be-
cause they could not fight back
The telephone service of the corps
Was opened on June -. 1917, and since
then there have been handled nearly
nineteen million local calls and more
IMAM one million long distance calls
= Since the Signal corps telegraph
system began 10 function August 10
half million messages have been
handled. aSgrcsatinG more than one
third OF million words.
Many Former "a. T."
Wen Manning Wires.
Iner members OF the traffic department.
OF The Associated Press, graduates or
the Key and the fasest wires in the
EorI Rc,ac 1m@ tos,, Them are sG5geant J.,
under his direction are Percy Hall.
VINO has charge of the base signal Of
nee at Bordeaux: Among the nifty men
of Burlington. la.
Sergeant Ben Yon formerly in the
iNSew York Office OF The Associated
office at Tours and several Associated
Drcss stars also are attached to that
office. Corporal a. -. phares. Of Fort
Worth, Ten. is stationed at Barrie
Cue. Other former Associated Press
men scattered along the lines OF com
- Inunica ton include II. \. Goethe. Of
iIuiulH' '" g. Doody, Of 1rdianapols
Roseneuer, OF. betros': T. L. Trux,on.
ri Michigan and Montana; T. !. Morris
- and Ben Hall OF Philadelphia: Frank
T.. Johnson. and j. l.. Johnson, OF
Kansas City: VI. T.. Fisher Of Cham
{ @laisn. III: and Z. Z. Madison. Of kansa.
When the corps OF newspaper cor
sIespondents was moved up u the front
Zines with the beginning OF the Amcri-
4 can action in the Argonne, certain
wires. were turned over for their use
ana one day there walked IN Corpora
u t. Wilson. who was long stationed
At SAT- Lake City and other Western
DIVISION stations OF The Associate cd
Press: lie brought his side sender or
!, bug III operators parlance. quietly
= cut II in on table in the French
telegraph Office. and began business
The second night. when the French
operators had watched copy melt in
4-!'hiiiips code TO a receiver OF equal
training. they exclaimed
lie is the ace of operators"