The New York herald., 1920-01-25

began at once stimulated by the boundary
disputes revival of the fierce national
hatreds which had smoudered through gen.
erations Vienna which had been the
OF government. transportation and finance. as
we'll as Of the arts. to which all lines Of com :
muncaton and transportation turned was
cut apart from the properties owned by the
various companies and associations which nat
ura.ly concentrate i'm large financial centre.
Thus proper direction of affairs was per-
mitted possible As border rows with con-
seauent military operations We're goins on
betN cen the various countries commu. a q
tons cut off to the extent of practical
inhibition of business.
with suffering. with wild-eyed reformers
each earnestly eXpoundns opposite opinions as
the proper panacea with which to cure the
sickness of the body polite with cunning ennis
saries Of Bolshevism supplied with huge suiiia
of money and diligently propa andizns the
press ard privately 'swayng the leaders the
social fabric stretched the breaking
point on many occasions he said and had
it not been for the firm hand that laid
upon from above by the American control
superimposed the whole structure, there is
no question but that there would have been a
social. economic and political dfbacc of tre-
mendous proportions Central Europe.
firm hand was never more needed than
here. AS Captain Gregory descr bed the poti-
cal tangle that confronted him-"The old par
ties were broken, and the old leaders gone. New
and untried men. selected in many cases be-
cause of their expert theoretical knowledge or
of their internal party strength, gave to the
ministries. which were always large in number,
the means of neutralizing any affirmative ac-
ton which any one sought to take.
There was agreement about anything
he said with a rueful smile of memory, except
ing the unanimous willingness of each mins-
try in each State to proptiate the people by
taking whatever was possible from their neigh
bors. With their newly realized theories and
machineres of government the politicians
played with their toy republics like children on
Christmas morning. No happy, but
all were solemnly and dyeadfully in earnest"
With the Food Bag
So carrying Uncle Sans food bag through
old Austria Hungary more than ques-
ton of dumping its contents into the cities and
along the countryside. To get ii moving at
all whole scheme of reconstruction work of
breaking down barriers and building up com
munica tions had to be launched
The first step in this reconstruction was the
establishment of line of communications
Mr.. Hoover through the American Peace
Mission, had established courier service of
American officers throughout Europe, but
even that was too slow for the work in hand
So Captain Gregory decided upon nothing less
than opening his own telegraph and telephone
system through Central Europe When
questioned him about this system, which has
been pointed to of the marvels of the
American genius for organization it was
displayed during the armistice period, he said
We'll when | found that letters too
slow | got the idea of graspng control of the
special military lines which used in the
former empire radiating from Vienna. and,
with the consent of the various governments. i
established central office at Vienna and
started communication system. first by tele-
phone, following 1t with telegraphic circuits.
and finally wound up with splendid system
connecting office in Vienna with Trieste,
Zagreb. Belgrade. Budapest. Bucharest. War
saw Prague, Hamburg. Berlin. and. through
the American army headquarters at Cobl NJ.
with Hoover in Paris. This made it possible
to coordinate and carry out our future work
About forty American naval and signal corps
operators placed at the various points.
Four TO five hundred messages day flowed
detail of this work was very ably and ageres-
sively handled by Captain Paul B. Clapp, whom
pulled out of other work because of his Sig
nal Corps expcren
Meanwhile Lieutenant Colonel w f. Causey.
of virginia was attacking the gigantic trans
portation problem; Herbert l.. Gutterson. of
New York was handling the situation at rri-
este where Americas food shipments were
landed: Lincoln Hutchinson now commercial
attache at the Ant.rican Embassy in London.
was taking charge in Prague, and Dorsey Ste
phens i'm Belgrade Later Emory Pottlc. ot
New York took over the work "a Trieste '"p.
tain Gregory had $50 officers an his start 'n"
a heavy contingent Of doughboys
What Captain Gregory found " j he go. t.
Vienna was lack OF coal " tn which 10 run
trains lack of engines ana cars in repair. lack
of coal ia run the repair shops lack of material
with which repair locomotives and lack oi
the proper esprit among the employees. due to
scarcity of food and tic small food purchasing
power Of their wages.
''There was another very great handicap.
said captain Gregory. Each little state was
unwilling to let its trans cross the border for
fear that they would never come back To
tell tho truth. their fear was pretty well founl-
ed with each country grabbing and operating
a portion of the old system which had been
centra,.aed in Vienna there was pure chaos.
What travel still existed vthin the various
countries was sma,i ororordon. and there
vas s., .a,ers,-.r traffic "a al addition.
the Ital.ar military controlled the situation At
Trieste and occDpicd a 81 ,e part Of tn, rollirp
stock in military movements"
The Lrcr Hand.