The Cordova daily times., 1920-09-14
.WAR'SHAYOC IS
 BEING ERASED
 FROM FRANCE,

NEW YORK, Sept 14 (by Associ- ~ated Press).-France's 'victory of the lie that her people are not work ing" Herbert s. Houston, New York publisher declares after a period of research at Paris whence he recent ly returned.
 Offering statistics showing reli- able rehabilitation in former devas- tated regions, where German divi- sions wrought havoc in industrial, farming and mining sections. MT. Houston characterizes the recovery of the French people as another mir acle of the Marne." In an article in the current issue of the World Work he says:
 With government support, including Dans totalling 9,6O9 1916 francs for agricultural and industrial recon struction in devastated departments, y the French people have reopened 5,345 out of 6,445 schools existant be- fore the war; built or rebuilt 28,200 temporary wooden and 16,S00 perma- nent stone dwellings, and erected 2S,- 500 wooden barracks to replace the houses destroyed; cleared 3,339 ,0000 hectares Ca hectare is about 21a acres) out of 3,95O,0OO of barbed wire and trenches.
 They have employed 1,500 men in pumping out and cleaning up flooded mines; rebuilt 475 out of 600 rail- road bridges, with 80 more in course of construction; reopened virtually all I of HOO kilometers of canals de- stroyed and rebuilt 136 wharves and built 2S new ones.
 To-day, less than two years from the armisitce, the population of the invaded regions has grown from less than 2,000,000 to more than 100000 approximately three-quarters of the pre-war population" Mr. Houston says, adding that the return was mot that of the prodigal son."
 American committees have done much to help France rebuild MT. Houston declares, adding that intro duction of farming machinery to the French peasant probably was Amer ica's best contribution
 "As a result to a considerable de- agree of this mechanical assistance, greatly increasing the producing pow CT of the fewer workers, the devas- tated regions in 1920 will raise crops for food" he predicts
 On the industrial reconstruction of Branch, MT. Houston asserts that 3O0,- 900 workers now are employed in the French mills and 2,627 of the 3,50S factories destroyed in the war have resumed production. During the war the destruction in mill centers was very great, 80 per cent of the textile mills in Lille having been destroyed ;; all 40 mills in Armentieres wiped out i; in Fourmies only 50,000 bobbins re- mained out of 100000 and Robaix and Turcoing had the same degree of de- struction."
 ''So it was throughout the whole in- dustrial region of the north, the great workshop of France" Mr. Houston says. "The tale of rebuilding, now to be added to Frenchmen's annals, will always be a chapter of achievement, almost as important and vital as the defense against the German invasion ,
 By 1922, MT. Houston asserts, France hopes to have her mines pro- ducing again, with about 5000 miners working where 17,OOO labored before the war Within five or six years after that she expects to be working up to three quarters of before-the-war production.
 ''The lie that France is not at work should be scared on the lips of every one that utters it." writes Mr. Hous- ton. "If she is not at work how can she be retaining her roads and her houses and factories and towns, and re-establishing the shattered life over one-fifth of her territory? That she is doing that, any one can see who visits France or who takes the small trouble | to look up the facts. An she is doing it before she has received the in- demnity pledge to her by the peace treaty and repledged again and again by every one of her allies"
 Miss Gertrude Kendall, a Seward