The Washington herald., 1922-04-24
SPIRIT OF PEASANT
UNCOMFORTABLE IN
REBUILDING FRANCE
Unbelievable Progress
Made in Reconstruc-
tion, Says Simonds.
UNENDING BATTLE
Without Aid, Thousands Are
Condemned to Live in
Ruins for Years.
UNENDING BATTLE
By FRANK H. sIMoNDS.

hhoS nourS line IN the midst OF
desoiation which no words could
describe. and now I have returned
from another trip over much tht
same country-through Lens. Ar
ras. Dapaume, Peronne and St.
Quentin. Again. moreover, there is |
the same consciousness of the i'm |
possibility by words to describe |
facts to present in any compre-
endeavor which is working itself
out upon the battlehelds whose
names were only q few years ago
In the mouths of millions Of men
and women all over the world
Before me as I write these words
are many documents which de-
scribe in cold and accurate fashion
what has been done. the tons OF
earth which have been lifted. the
number of houses which have been
rebuilt, the miles of railway which
have been relaid. These are IA
miliar statistics. printed again and ,
again and meaning just nothin;
Fer IL you are to understand tn:
north of France, the devastated
area, statistics are worthless. they
convey nothing of the meaning of
the human spirit. And France OF
the devastated area is today spir-
itual far more than statistical. IL
represents not the triumph that is
yet to come, but the beginning of
the triumph. the supreme revela-
ton of what is unconquerable in
the human being.
Lens Reconstruction Typical
Take. for example. Lens. Before
hR . efN ~ han
$4,000 Inhabitants "a Erimy coal
town; a Scranton Of dull, drab mo-
notony. of narrow streets and busy
mines. Today IT is Cripple Creek
superimposed upon Pompeii.. Three
years ago. when l saw il. there
was left nothing but an unending
mass OF shell-torn brick Here and
there a stray mhabitant had re-
turned to dig amidst the ruins for
the family fortune buried when the
first fight of 1914 was imposed by
the German rush toward Calais, the
drive that did not reach its goal.
Today here Is a Western mining
town-a combination of the struc-
lures of the boom town of a dec
sde or two ago and those Roman
ruins which the Americans know
best in Pompeii and the Frenchmen
in Algeria. In the center of the
town there are only the wooden
structures some supplied by the
government, some collected from
tho material left behind by the
armies which have disappeared. But
on the edges. block on block in
endless procession, rise the new
quarters which have been con-
structed by the coal companies to
house their workmen what we
would call model villages
Government Abandons Hope.
The statistical maps have laid
down a zone. the Red Zone. where
the injuries are so great that recon-
struction is next to impossible and
the government has abandoned
hope. But not the people. Among
all the Red Zone areas none has
been more shelled. more destroyed
than the Chemin des Danes. yet
within a mile OF the territory, which
was the scene of the famous battles
about the Fort Malmaison, the
peasant has dared whe-e the gov
ernment was afraid. 1 saw horses
pIoughing and bringing back to
rillage land where three years ago
] clambe-ed with difficulty from one
VAST shell nOle to dnOJHtT-
IL is a mistake to say, as many do.
that the devastated area is already
rewon for order and for production.
What you feel obviously. poignantly
and at one time. is what has been
done and what remains to be done
TIE roads are finished. the canals,
the railways. the factories are ris-
ing in the midst of the twisted ma
chinery of past wreckase. Above
all the land Is being won back inch
by inch, literally. from chaos. What
remain to be built are the homes
of the people who are doing the
wonderful work which confronts
YOU on every side II cannot be done
unless Germany pays.
Use Primitive Tools.
These French peasants who have
tackled the job have. in the main.
only the most primitive tools. To
he sure. the French government has
done far more than anyone can con-
ceIve. But IL has necessarily con-
fined itself to those things which
meant the restoration OF produce
tion. II Is not by machinery. not
by government aid. but by the SIM
plest and most -udimetary tools
that tn egreatest task of all has.
been done, the task of returning the
iields to a state of production.
Today hundreds of thousands. of
French men. women and children
are living In wooden barracks sup
piled by the government. erected
beside the ruins of cities and towns
whose histories go back 10 Caesa-.
whose shell-torn churches are still
monuments of a noble architecture
They walk miles to arrive at their
fields and there from dawn to dusk
they are working.
Hopes to Awaken UnderstandIag.
should be glad il any word of
mine could even in the smallest
measure help to awaken some m
tic understanding in the United
states of the tragic and endless
battle which is being fought to-
day on all the fields which, when
they were the scene of destruction.
concentrated the attention Of mil
lions. Now. when they are the
centers of a harder, grimmer bat
tie, they have passed from all at
tention and interest.
know that there is an impress
sion in America that France, in
stead Of reconstructing her ruins.
is waiting alike for German repara-
ton and for American largess
There could be no more cruel libel
upon the people of the devastated
regions. Unless there is a German
reparation, unless there is Ameri-
can aid. thousands of them are per-
force condemned to live for years
IN their barracks and their patched