French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1916-1919, 1919-05-29
THURSDAY, MAY q. 1919
r TO BE PATIENT

government a d o
FRIEND may have failed to secure hi
discharge from the army. This is T..
tremendous enterprise in which the
United States has been engaged the
past two years and the people ought to
stop long enough to consider the utter
unpreparedness of the country for the
struggle it faced when congress sus.
tanned the call to arms. It takes time
to muster out millions of men in the
regular way and the military autho-
rites r doubtless making the best
OF an unusual situation. Bear In
mind, too, that the Government is ex-
periencing great difficulty in getting
men capable of relieving trained men
at the various hospitals. Many of. the
hospitals are full OF wounded soldiers
from the battiefelds of France, num-
bers of whom are bedridden and help
less, and the best attention possible
is due them. Take comfort from the
good news that your son, or your re-
lative, has escaped injury and will be
restored to you in due course. You
Will receive him with open arms
when he does come home.
If you have contracted the habit Of
villitying the Government upon one
pretext or another It might not be
amiss to remember that no feat of
CONSTRUCTION has ever approached that
of the United States involved in the
completion of sixteen environments
for the National army in ninety DAYS
at the beginning Of Ass+flities in which
this country Participated. The COM
P!ellon of this program, together
with the building of sixteen tent cities
for tie National guard, involved the
erection and equipment Of thirty-tw two
cities capable of accommodating 49,
900 persons each. Every one of these
had to be provided with requisite
water, lights, sewerage, hospital an6
heating utilities, and the preparation
o. military features such as parade
sroHH4s and gun ranges.
The War Department points with
pride to the contrast between the crea-
ture comforts enjoyed by the Amer
lean soldier of 1917 and those afforded
the men of the sixties. Substantial
barracks, heated by steam or stoves,
took the place of tents; chemically
pure water replaced that secured from
the casual spring or stream; scienti-
fc 1aundries cared for the National
army recruits clothing and field
bakeries gave him the modern sue
cessor to the ashy hoe-cake. It i
figured that the lumber alone used il
the construction of the ~cantonmentt
was equivalent to a board wall
twelve inches wide and one inch thick
ito the moon and half way back,
while the nails of one popular siZ
would "girdle the earth three and
hall. times"
Rapid construction of the cantor
ments was necessary and a measu1
of prefteering was unavoidable. How
ever, the records show that the col
tractors profits for this mammoth III
dertaking was only about 2 IL p'
cent of the gross cost of constructio
The cantonments occupied 1871
acres of land, which cost an averal
of So. SO per acre, while the entire q
p%enditures represented only 70 p
cert of the total cost for building
re Panama Canal which require1 Il
Years for cGrll Fs.:on. The war ou:!
ing program also included the con
struction Of great storehouses, fact
ries for various purposes, provil
grounds, army posts, embarkation i
c~ilities, docks, magazines rallroa1
aviation fields and hospitals. q
operations in 442 localities were
nrogress simultaneously touched eve
state except one and called for t
expenditure of a billion dollars
month during the latter part OF
year 1918.
On the whole, the task was aom
ably executed and the outcome OF
all is a grand and glorious Veto
So let us not become impatient
cause some of u boys have not be
given their freedom. There's a r.
SON."