Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1920-03-04
Shall chaos or Reconstruction
in Eui7De Follow the Great
MarId War?
IMPERATIVE NEED FOR ACTION
Twelve Months Since the Signing of
the Armistice Practically Wasted
Call for Aic from America
Must Be reeded.
Article T.
BY FRANK coMERFoRD.

BY FRANK ComkRFoRD.
The signing of the a =nistice ended
the fighting. The signing of the peace
| treaty brought peace, bU* neither of
! these acts restored devastated Europe.
The great job ahead is the work of re-
construction, and when I write the
word reconstruction" l hAYe not in
mind the mere rebuilding Of the war
| stricken areas of france, Belgium,
| Italy, Poland and Russia. Gigantic
and important as this task In neceS-
Sary as it is, it is only small part Of
the work of real reconstructed. Hun
dreds of thousands of square miles
make up the actual war zone, the
ground marched over, the territory I'M
der shell fire. Millions of acres Of land
that once yielded food in response to
! the t0.lch of the pillow have for the
past four years been titled by high ex-
| plosiveS.
Belgium was literally looted, pii-
LACED and ravished. Almost the gu
tire state was violated Nearly OIL ->
eighth Of France her industrial seS''
| ton, VII S crushed. Buildings were dc
strOyed, factories dismantled. Sixty
thousan square miles in Poland were
laid waste. Italy suffered terribly.
The ground is filled with high eXplO-
sives Sndscharged mines and shells.
Every day since the work of recovery
and restoration began men working
IN this zone have been blown to pieces.
Billions Of feet of barbed wire and
millions Of tons of metal make a dan
gerous wilderness out Of what was
once a highly productive area.
Cities and villages are jungleS Of
! twisted, broken, torn wood, iron, brick
and store. | have walked through
these villages and have stood stunned
by the completeness of the destruc-
ton. The streets are uneven and
4 lumpy with brick and stone and plas-
ter and glass. aisleS of wreckage. Roof
less houses with walls Quilted and torn,
heaps and piles of broken building ma
terial; jagged. ragged pinnacles, masses
Of debris nleEt the eye. Had l not known
of the war Ahd come upon one of these
unsightly, s:IapelesS masses of materi-
al, | should have thought nature had
entered into q mad conspiracy, com
bining and concentrating all of the
powers of a cyclone. a tornado md
an earthquake, and spilled their fury
en- these mangied, dead villages.
Sights to Wiring the Heart.
Picture the refugees returning to
these villages-coming back home.
Whist the sight must have meant to
Them. l have seen them, their faces
gray as the gray ruins, standing in the
midst Of their destroyed homes. l
have seen them picking their way over
piles of stone and brick through great
I.Openings made in the broken walls.
saw in their eyes inconsistencies, a hurt
of heart never shall forget. Old men
and old women and little bare-legged
children; now and again q boy with
worn, soiled uniform, some limping
on crutches, others wearing an empty
sleeve. One thought surged through
my mind until it almost sickened me
War. The land of the war zone
must be reclaimed. These acres are
needed now more than they were be-
fore the war. The worlds food sup
d ply is low. Hundreds of miles of
trenches must be filled up. Trees
must be planted, the ground must be
cleaned Of shells, cleared of barbed
wire; villages, cities, must be rebuilt ;
sewer systems must be installed. The
mess must be moved. 1t is a big job. ,
One great misfortune is that al
though y months have come and gone
since the signing of the armistice, no
general comprehensive plan of recon
struction has been started. Here and
there small sections of the devastated
regions are being partly reconstructed.
Temporary provision is being made
for the homeless This is all well and
good, but intelligent, economical eff
cient and speedy reconstruction de-
mands a general plan and an organiza-
ton big enough to put it over. The
doing of this work requires vision and
capacity for doing big things WELL If
the physical reconstruction is left to
Europe it will not be finished in so
years. Here Is chance for America.
We have a faculty Of doing things on
big scale and in short period of
time. Europe needs our help. If we
are to give it eventually, why not now?
But the clearing up Of the wreckage
and the rebuilding Is a minor problem
compared with the other greater and
more important question of recOnstruc-
tion, the reconstruction of industry,
the establishment of normal life.
The reclamation Of the devastated
area Is, after all, only matter of
plan, time and money, and notwith-
standing the fact that Europe is bank
rupt today, the money must and will
come. The barbed wire will be rolled
up. the mines and shells will be dug
from the fields, the villages will be re-
built; everything that has been de-
strOyed will be replaced. Physical re-