Evening star., 1922-11-12

height. They are of concrete and
look like huge mushrooms on gigantic
stalks. A single one will hold about
$4,000 gallons.
1t is wonderful how much concrete
is employed In the new construction.
This is so of all sorts of buildings,
and even of the telegraph and tele-
phone poles, hundreds of which may
be seen lining the roads of north
France. These poles are thirty or
forty feet high, about foot thick
one way and eight inches the other.
They are usually made with great
diamond- shaped holes running from
the bottom to the top. to decrease
their weight. l suppose. They seemed
very substantial.
Tho new mine buildings are OF
brick. stone and concrete. The ma
chinery is essentially modern and
beautifully finished. Most Of it comes
from England and France. At pres
ent they are using temporary shaft
houses Of wood. but brick and stone
structures are now going up. I
climbed to the top of one OF these
buildings and watched the coal as it
rose out of the mines. 1t Is hoisted
in elevators by steel cables wound
over great drums. The cars come up
two at time and at the same time
dropped into bins. from where the
coal falls by gravity into the cars on
the railroad tracks below.
- + -
AS stood in the shafthouse I
"A talked with the director OF this
great mining company, which. as I
have said, formerly furnished one
tenth Of all the French coal. He is
making France. He Is pushing the
work, and 1t is only by questions that
one learns from him what was done
by the Germans and what the French
are doing now. Before the war her
output equaled only about one-f1f-
teenth Of our coal production. 1t was
one-sixth Of tho output Of Germany,
or one-seventh that Of Great Britain.
It did not supply all Of the needs Of
the French, and something like a.
o00, 900 tons were annually imported.
Most Of tho mi,es were owned by
private companies operating on a
large scale. Those invaded by the
Germans employed 100000 workers,
which was as many as those of all the
other French mines put together.
The destruction began in 1914 and
it continued up to and after the
armistice. AS soon as the Germans
came in they forbade any measures
being taken to drain the mines or pro-
tect the workings. In 1917 they
started systematic devastation. which
continued until the end OF the war.
All the pics were dynamited and
flooded to such an extent that about
one-ffth Of the coal production of
France was destroyed The soldiers
went from shaft to shaft, blowing up
tho works and leaving behind not a
single engine. boiler. or train. The
electric machinery was taken out. and
by 1917 the destruction of the Lens
mines was practically complete. Be-
fore the Germans left they set off
more explosives and practically de-
stroyed all the coal mining machinery
Of the invaded territory.
The work Of reconstruction began
AZ soon as the French were able to
get hold Of the region. The govern
ment organized a commission OF in
vaded mines. and through purchas-
ing. syndicate placed orders for pumps
and electrical machinery to get out
the water. This was as far back as
1917. Tho work went steadily on as
more territory came into the hands Of
the French, and a vast deal of pump
ing and building Is being done now.
BY 1920 nineteen Of the worst dam
aged shafts had been inclosed In ce-
ment and a year later more than 50.-
O0o, 900 cubic yards OF water had been
taken out By the end Of this year
it is believed that all except the deep
est shafts will have been pumped out.
Ono Of the, great troubles is the
restoration Of the underground work.
ings. There are about 1900 miles of
tunnels enough to reach from San
Francisco to Omaha, that have to be
reopened, and in doing this there is
great danger from earth slips and
asphyxiating gases.
The surface work Is enormous.
Much OF this has already been
done. Most of the railways have
been repaired, the. stations re-
built and thousands of houses
are now going up all over this
region. In the Nord mines something
like 10000 dwellings are entirely re-
paired, and out of $4,000 houses in the
Pas de Calais $4,000 had been rebuilt
by the first of last year. This work
Of reinstating the mines is to be seen
everywhere throughout the depart
ments of the Nord and the Pas de