Richmond daily register. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1917-1978, 1920-01-28
TELLS OF ENGINEERS
WORK in GERMANY
Brother Officer Writes From Cob
lenz To Richmond's City
Engineer, Col. Crecelius

OOl. I. +. Crecel1uS, city eng1n-
eer for Richmond, has just re-
ceived an interesting letter from
brother Office with whom he saw
sevice during the war, that tells
of the work that the American
army of occupation in Germany
is doing. The writer is stationed
at Coblenz, Germany, and writes
Interestingly of conditions to Col
Crecelius. He says:
Audernach am Rhein.
My Dear Colonel
1t took your letter just month to
get here; and in order to keep in
better touch with you, / am going to
drop you few lines now. 1t was a
you few lines right now. 1t was a
real pleasure to hear from you; and
Pm particularly glad that you agree
with my choice. AT the time, l had
no misgivings at all, and now that
I've been in the expedition for two
months, am forced to congratulate
myself. My only regret is that the en-
gineer company has gotten to be
about the most useful, best known
and absolutely indispensable unit in
the brigade. We do everything from
drill to painting signs and making
clubs for the M. P's. Now have
tflourishing company of 200 men: who
have been picked from $50 that we
had two weeks ago; and the only.
danger is we are getting TOO high
class an outfit. Have one buck
private who was battalion command
er of Field Artillery in France Croix
dc Guerre, wound stripes and all
Such us these we have farmed out on
S. D., construction work-which l am
handling for Colonel Fox.
! We find German labor so plentiful,
efficient and cheap that we seldom
ever use the men of the company on
fatigue work. Keep them drilling
to make good soldiers; and | have
two excellent Master Engineers, two
1st Sergts., a couple of corporals--who
supervise gang of twelve German
carpenters, painters and craftsmen
and in this way keep the company in
tact besides doing more work than a
hundred soldiers could. We get
eight hours each day out of these
fellows, and pay them from 20 to q
marks per day. About 40c to 4Sc
inasmuch as the American dollar nov
buys AZ marks! Think of that foI-
labor Do you blame US; for lot OF
people l know are not on the trip
with us. You would love this detail!
and would enjoy the work immensely
The best way l can describe thing
IS to just admit that we are sitting
right on top of the world. It's really
quite dizzy height too, in contrast
with the trying conditions you ali
are facing back i'll the states. Our
life is filled with interest, peace and
enthusiasm, with worlds of joy and
pleasure, and a large amount of
satisfaction in accomplishing the
tasks assigned to US. I've already
told you of the organization OF the
brigade in previous letters | believe
Making soldiers of our men?
know this spotlight on the labor
| item, in view of your present OK
perience will seem preposterous. But
over here we find everything 1idicul-
ously cheap, a good meal for 8 marks
16c, and drinking man can get
quart of champagne for Csc. In fact
the purchasing value of American
money is our main handicap-for a
buck private has money all the
month through, so that we have
pretty strict rules again hard liquor
pretty strick rules againt hard liquor,
other than wine or beer.
The Engineer organization OF the
brigade consists of the brigade en-
gineer, the Engineer Dump, and COM
pany of 290 men. The dump carries