Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-06-06
AMERICAN AID HAS
RESULTS in FRANCE
Tractors, Syndicated Among
Peasants, Help to Re-
store Farming.
| BY Cable to The Star and Chicago
Daily News Copyright, 1870.
BY ARTHUR r. Adds.

By Cable to The Star and Chicago
Daily News Copyright, 1920.
BY ARTHUR r. Adds.
| PARIS. France. June 81 have
made two fairly thorough excursions
| through the department Of the Aisne,
that much mau1ed region where the
American committee for the rehabili-
| tation Of devastated France is doing
so much and such varied work. My
| first trip was early in February and
my second at the end of April. I
was glad to see decided improvement
| in the Intervening time: some Of the
| fields, criss-crossed with trenches and
pockmarked with shell holes. were al
ready filled and leveled and plowed.
| The destruction is still appalling and
vast surfaces of the earth for miles
along the roads still look like sur
/ faces Of the moon grown up to weeds.
But the peasants were out from day
light until dark and the American
l tractors which our committee had
| supplied to syndicates Of farmers had
plowed up probably ten acres to every
| one which could have been done in
] the old way. This Is the committees
| biggest and most expensive work. It
has imported q large number Of
tractors and formed the farmers in
each neighborhood into what they call
1
| tractors. sold the gasoline and sup
piled experts to show them how to
operate.
Does Work ON Other Lines.
In addition to this big Job the
American committee is doing a lot
of other work which changes its char
acter from month to month with the
necessities of the time. It has half
a dozen or more headquarters scat
tered throughout the district. At each
of these headquarters, generally
collection of rough wooden barracks.
\ or sometimes rented house. live
groups of about fifteen American
women. always enthusiastic and gem
orally very Intelligent. Their life is
simple. bordering on what we might
call hardships. but they all seem to
be Astounding In health and enthu-
siasm. Their duties are varied and
varying.
Each Of the innumerable little ruin
ed villages has a "marraine"-a god
mother-who visits 1t several times
in the week. knows avery inhabitant
and does what she can to make their
lives comfortable.
| The business Of supplying food,
clothing. furniture. seeds and agricul-
tural implement continues. but more
are sold and fewer given away. A
thoroughly Americanized and sys-
tematized card index Of every family
| in every village. its history, member
ship, work. record. ETC.. is kept. AS
the little shopkeepers return to the
villages a delicate situation. of course,
arises. Our society does not want to
compete in business. but It does not
propose to have any ono profiteering
on the villagers. This is often settled
lby our committees selling certain
merchandise at very moderate prices
| to the shopkeepers, ana also using it's
camions and chauffeur girls In the
l 4 nf q tiap
railway to village shops; then 1t keeps
watch Of the prices which the mer-
chants charge.
Caring for the Children.
But there is much other work being
done and to be done to improve the
dreary and desperate lives Of these peas
ants and to help their children. AS you
pass through the streets the children,
playing or working in the open. look red
checked and healthy, but our experts
have found them generally, upon being
stripped and tested. far below normal
and with an alarming amount Of tuber-
culosis and ricketts,. Therefore, the So
ciety has gone to a large extent into the
work of children's hygiene; they have
employed medical experts and trained
nurses and established dispensaries, with
clinics in various convenient places The
people are responding and bring their
children in great numbers.
Other interesting features are the
workshops established for the young
women. French girls were always
thoroughly taught In sewing until the
war upset everything. So many of
them have now grown up with little
knowledge of sewing or domestic econ
omy. Workshops are established to
help in this matter.
Trained district nursing is almost
unknown In France. The experience Of