The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1920-11-10
BY EDWARD A. RUHEEL

The soldier returning to the battle
fields OF France after two stirring and
eventful years is likely 10 attach far
too great significance to the appar
ent StagnatiOn, the lifeleSSnesS, that
seems part of the very atmosphere to-
day OF those scenes of terrific Strug
gle. Reconstruction in a War-eXhaust
ed country is painfully slow process,
but rosy accounts Of the forward
strides that had been made, coupled
with the naturally optimistic American
frame of mind were responsible for
an absolute "abOut face" from pre-
conceived notions to actually.
Prepared for gardens and miracu-
lousy greening fields, the desolation
that persists is tragic. Men still busy
after two years in searching for and
exploding shells give the impression
of unnecessary delay in vital work,
but after a while the various details
piece together properly. The length
of the struggle, the draining of life
blood, the insecurity Of the financial
structure, the persisting fear, are all
factors in the result, and gradually
one sees that the steps made, while
slow, are forward steps, and the halt
ing progress is real.
N'of'PoS'S odls'C''CioS.
The Champagne battlefields. by rea-
son of their nearness to Paris, their
strategic Importance, and the intenS-
ity of the fighting, may well serve the
visitor as an eptome of the war. Like
wise the extent of reconstruction
there is good index or average fol
the whole country. Up north in the
former British sectors, and in the in
! ~ -t,~io For, n,-iD nr7S
progress is a good deal more rapid. In
parts of the Argonne and other sec
tiOns it is slower Then, too, the
! Champagne front has as its y
Rheims and its cathedral, the focus
of probably more American attention
than any other until American boys
went overseas and fought in their own
| sectors.
Just few miles from Rheims the
churned up battle area begins. In the
distance one sees the low flat hills
occupied by the Germans for more
than three years, then taken by the
French, aba ndoned, reoccupied and so
on until the finale. Far as the eye
can see the white or green-tinted
fields, here and there the skeleton Of
tree, the steel bones Of an abandon
ed tank, jungles Of barbed wire, the
Snaky maZeS OF trenches that IS the
panorama Now and again a few low,
imprOvSed Shacks with garden
patch which looks strangely out OF
place amid the deSOlatiOn-that is all
the relief to that endless stretch OF
ruin which extends practically all the
the way from Fort de la Pompelle 20
SCISSORS and beyond. In this region
are the Chemin des Danes, NOgent
! IAbeSse, the heights Of COrnlllet and
other famed backgrounds, but even
the heights seem to have been hum
bled into the dust by the fury OF high
explosives.
Rehabilitation Starts
That is the broad view-starkly
naked fields Wearying the eye in their
monotony, over which the magination
readily ses the tragedy enacted again,
and seems even to see the spirits of
the thousands that gave their lives
there and whose bodies are buried in
| the little cemeteries along the roads.
/ Gone are the woods that crowned the
hills in the happy days before the war.
and vanished the vineyards that Gov
cred much of the land For just as
nature abhorS vacuum, so nature
seems to lOathe utter desOlaton, and
! along those same roads, usually not
far from the cemeteries, the signs Of
| the rehabilitation may be seen.
In this region there We're no pop
pies to flaunt bit OF color against a