Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-09-05
RHEIMS, 'THEBLESSED',
PLANS FOR NEW CITY
Heilig Tells of George Ford's
Splendid Idea. But Says Money Is
Needed for the Work.

dustrial city of 10000 population,
simply wiped out.
4 X +
Rheims was rich.
rheims fostered every progress.
On her plain of Betheny, in 1909,
Stadium and College of Athletes (the
Grafton, in a meet which drew the
world and filled the newspapers with
photographs.
In 1913. the opening Of the Rheims
stadium and college Of athletics (the
first in France) filled the worlds
press again with praises of this mu-
innocence toward the encouragement
OF the olympic games. Only yesterday,
in the stadium. saw the most beau
tiful sight in the world-a stadium
III! or war orphans under frst-class
physical instruction, sweet, pathetic
hopes OF France. from nine to fif-
and bare-legged, in sky-b blue slips,
beneath the morning sun!
(The College Of Athletes received
1000 German shells; and there were
$50 crump-holes in the stadium.)
Rheims was the rich city of wool
ems.
Among the prettiest of chic novel
ties. especially for women, each year.
hannels. serges. cheviots. tennis. CAB
ardines. damages and "tissus nou-
veautes pour DANES" the most elegant
were made at Rheims.
In 1914 there were two great comb
ing works, with 215 combers: 81
spinning factories possessing $4,000
carding spindles and 10000 comb
spindles: % weaving factories. con-
tanning 1000 looms And their annual
output OF elegant wooden tissues ex-
decided. regularly, 100000 Of francs
lat pre-war values!
4 Today their output would BE- worth
500 million francs per year! Alas !!
they are destroyed! wandered
through the greatest factory OF them
all-thirty acres Of twisted iron, bro
ken cement, rusted rails, grassgrown
yards!
visited the one as far as I can
today-the Benoist factory. 1t does
both spinning and weaving. on machines.
for the most part, miraculausly SAL
/ vaged (others tried it, and were blown
into the airD The actual production
is 1000 yards Of the most beautiful
saw, all swallowed UP by the high-class
Paris trade. They sit on. the steps,
waiting for it!
Also, 1 have visited the Jonathan
Holden Wool Combing Concern. an an
cient house Of originally English founda-
/
increasing daily.
Also. I have visited the foundries of
Rheims. working night and day, alas !.
to produce-from scrap iron!
All, the scrap iron of Rheims!
They are not able to rebuild Rheims.
It is too vast
They lie there, the vast ruins.
I'VE are not arriving" confesses the
Marquis de Polignac. who is almost an
e.
Of well known Washington and New Or
leans families, who is himself rich, in
his prime. and alertly practical in the
best American sense.
Rheims is not arriving" confesses
the Societe Generate Cooperative de
Reconstruction de Rheims. Every one
has Joined it, including the municipality
for all its buildings Leon Bourgeois,
senator Of the Marine; Rault, project of
the Marine; Roche, mayor Of Rheims.
and the Marquis de Polignac, most
prominent citizen Of Rheims in Paris
are all officers Of this great cooperative
| Yet
THE Cooperative is not arriving"
admits the Marquis, although it has
1.450 claims in perfect order. has signed
ings, controls $50 open construction
yards. and pays contractors regularly
in proportion as work advances. The
mere establishment of claims has been
a vast work. The Cooperative is pre-
pairing the great effort of reconstruction /:
For one thing. the materials and labor,
at prices not too ruinous- For another
the money!
France herself is not arriving-to re-
build Rheims! :" says Mayor Roche.
Without any efhcacious help. thus far.
10000 citizens Of Rheims have recre-
ated some kinds Of homes for them
selves, by patching up their ruins in a
more or less summary. manner, in order
that economic life ma continue to pro-
duce; and Rheims is always confident
But
1.-TWO years have passed :" continues
the mayor. you will say much might
have been already done toward repair
ing an unprecedented disaster. even such
as this. Unhappny, and I cannot too
often repeat it, city like Rheims can
not rebuild itself entire from such ruins
as these with tho confidence, energy and
resources Of its own inhabitants alone
| Rheims needs more aid than solemn
declarations. At this hour we lack, not
good words, but money"
. use money!
They would laugh if should try to
mention a 1.-THE of them: the joining up
Of Alsace and Lorraine by railroads,
tunnels, and big barge canals; the equip
ment, all new. Of the vast waterfall
electric power system Of Alps, Pyrennes
and Rhone; the devastation Of north
! France in general (for Germany, break
ing her word. is not paying) the re-
building and equipment Of war-worn
| railroads; the torpedoed shipping, the
| deliberately ruined coal and iron mines
German work, all: the war orphans
and the widows and the crippled; the
, restocking Of cattle and horses, and
. the military burden OF watching the
Rhine. Here are a beginning Of French
uses for money, all legitimate, crying,
|. having big profits!
"Nor is France, either. arriving to
rebuild Rheims"
VOLTA!
America does not want It.
/, Vast stocks remain in the deep
"cayes"-the Germans. in their short
i. occupation, simply could not take
them: but 40 per cent of the Vine
Yards are war-damaged and unpro-
ductive.
!; supplied the entire region were an
other staple of Rheims. They are, of
course, at work. some in corrugated
iron barracks.
One hundred and eighty-two wood
en- houses and 179 semi-permanent in
hard material have been erected for
Individual families.
Two hundred and eleven collective
barracks lodge $500 workmen who
Ia boriously clean out cellars, etc.
They have been at it two years. and
you wonder If they have begun-the
IN Dentistry Is Vastly
Than in Former