The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-08-06

Coi. John ;. SeWell, who took the l7th Railway Engineer regiment to France. became commander of base section No. 1 with headquarters at St. Nazaire, France, and later established the base for the Third army of occupation at Rotterdam and Antwerp. is in Birmingham for a few days. Colonel Sewen and Mrs. Sewell are at the Tutwiler. He will be discharged at Camp Gordon August 13
 Colonel Sewell, who resigned from the presidency of the Alabama Marble Com pany. the board of the directors of the Sloss-Shefield Steel S Iron company and all of his other connections when he en- tered the army made an unusual record in the service, which is partially attested by the decorations awarded him. He wears the ribbons of the American Dis-
 tinguished service medal, the Belgian Order of Leopold, the French Legion of Honor, the Spanish American war and the Great war.
 The outstanding impression I bring back from France" said Colonel Sewel, lis my renewed confidence and admira- AlOil 1ol lilS fAiIcl lSdli. lliS impression grows out of what he did in France The ability of the individual sol. dier and officer to meet the situation which confronted him, to grasp the situa- tion even without knowing the general plan of organization is a great tribute to his adaptability.
 Before the war I had learned that there is not so much importance in an iron-clad organization and system as there is having men at the vital points who know what to do and do it. Ar
 orga nization is most necessary where the units of the organization are least ef- ficient and must rely on the machine and
 it's system to do for them what more eff ficient units would know how to do intui- lively.
 ATTITUDE OF FRENCH
 There is another thing I should like to stress. Some of the men and officers nave come back saying unkind things about the French. They are not justi- fled. If French merchants charged higher prices than they should, it was scarcely half as bad as was being done here in America even when I went to Europe My work brought me in constant conta ct with French officers. 1 had to make ar engagements for land and equipment in establishing our base and l have yet to find Frenchman who did not meet me more than half way.
 II have also seen some criticism of the suggestion that our depots, wharves hos pitals and other establishments were to be taken by the French at 20 per cent of what they cost us. As a business man | would say that in this the French are most generous because they will lose money by the deal. The finest port in the world is of no particular value unless there is commerce for the port to handle All of our construction work was tenn porary and built with the idea of speed and of meeting our own army require ments. Much the greater part of it will be useless for anything else.
 "The army work taught us many things and if the war had lasted six months longer would have taught us many more. For instance 1t would have taught us exactly how many tons of material can be taken out of a ship in a day. That of course, would have involved the ques- tion of getting the freight away from the port as fast as unoaded. It might have demonstrated that it is better bus- ness to unload freight on lighters and barges to be lowed into protected basins and there unloaded rather than tieing up a great ship for an indefinite length o. time until it's cargo could be placed in it's proper place at the dock. This might change our ideas about the construction