The Alaska daily empire., 1920-02-03
E rance To America 4 Tribute of War- Torn Land To Gallant Tanks

planted in grain and 10000 in pas ture lands, have been hopelessly torn ! to pieces. The industries, in this same locality, which have been wrecked, represent one third of the total HIP. and one half of the electric power in France. The coal mines
 which furnished half of the coal and
 more than half the coke used in |, France have been wilfully flooded or blown up so that their production i will not be normal again for several i years.
 l The destruction of the iron mines
 reduces the French output by 80 per
 cent, the steel by g. per cent The textile industries have suffered in proportion: 94 per cent of the linen l spindles and 30 per cent of the cot ] ton spindles are gone, not to speak of 500000 flax spindles and almost 100000 looms. The breweries of the north-1,700 in number,--the sugar
 refineries-220 in number-have been
 half ruined. When to this holocaust is added the destruction of homes, of furniture, works of art and personal property, the total loss for these in- vaded regions, amounts to almost twenty thousand million dollars. Such enumeration does not actually lay hold of your heart until you have seen, in devastated village, some
 poor man, creeping back to what used to he his heRse, carrying sriith him a shovel or pick-axe, in the
 hope of digging out something that resembles his former hearthstone The immensity of the desolation sweeps over you when you catch
 tlack. standing in the waste of ruins, destitute, broken-hearted, yet deter
 mined to begin life again.
 Speaking of these brave and af. flicted people President Wilson, in
 his address to Congress, on Decem-
 Der 2, 1918, said.
 Their machinery has been de stroyed or taken away. Their people
 are scattered and many of their best workers are dead. Their markets will be taken by others, if they are not in some special way assisted to
 rebuild their factories and replace their lost instruments of manufac-
 ture. They should not be left to the vicissitudes of the sharp competition for material and industrial facilities which is now to set in. l hope that
 Congress will not be unwilling, if iti should be necessary. to grant some
 such agency as the War Trade Board the right to establish priorities of export and supply for the benefit of these people whom we have been SO
 happy to assist in saving from the German terror" ttaifsgs S .4 Murder. t,-,-zhumiliati tiell, ,s-a weres
 part of the plan which the Hun was
 to execute. Tn opposition to this will of evil inspiration it is uplifting to consider the spirit of the French people. The fragment of a letter written in 1917 by French woman, from northern town in possession of the enemy, gives some idea of the
 situation. She says. g7 " But the material part is nothing to the agony we have had to endure owing to the military deportation of women by night. You can realize the state of mind of parents seeing young girls of 16 to 20 going off amongst men of all conditions, no one knows where We are in an atmosphere of misery. But, in spite of it, we keep up our courage and our confidence"
 There are over half million homes to be rebuilt in France. Bear this in mind. Think of the children who, on the day you arrived. placed their hands in yours, conf dent that you were their friends, that ; they might count on you in the fu- ture. In helping them to begin life again you can offer them more than mate.
 rial aid, if you teach them some of
 the lessons you have learned your
 selves in free America, if you bring
 them, in their way of looking at
 things. broader, because a more
 hopeful vision.
 ] Conclusions \ And you yourselves?
 l You have taken part in the great
 est adventure upon which humanity has so far ever been launched. You
 have seen your friends fall by your side, you have, yourselves, perhaps,
 been face to face with death. Your contact with men of many
 nations. your journey in foreign lands, | the discipline you have accepted. the
 close association with Amer,cans
 from every state in the country, will