New Britain herald., 1922-12-30
A Description of a Tour of the Devastated Regions Conditions of People Who Lived There.
Especial to The Herald).

'sPee'hl 10 The Herald).
 Paris, Dec. so,-what happens in
 war-swept land when the invadin,
 hosts have been rolled back and tn
 native children of the soil return [,
 their wrecked homes?
 Modern warfare creates a new typ,
 Of wilderness. To the bleakness O
 the Dakota bad lands, 1t adds thu
 desolation of desert the whol,
 scene made tragic by the fact tha
 gaunt memorials here and there tes
 tify to the previous existence of hap
 py, prosperous communities.
 In the United States, the memor,
 of reconstruction days still fingers
 And even after 60 years there are still reminders in the reborn south oi the ruin that visited the Cumberland and Shenandoah valleys and the de- vastation that stalked in the way Of Sherman's march to the sea.
 North and Soutl,
 The war between the states entail ed an economic handicap upon the south, the extent of which has only recently become generally realized. How the south bravely faced the problems of a ruined land is story that has been told---a story that is the more appalling because the difficult ties of the struggle were not appre- ciated until the opportunity to extend a helping hand had vanished.
 The work of economic reconstruc- ton that always follows closely upon the chariots of Mars is, so far. as the American. people are concerned, a story told in terms of conditions that have ceased to exist. Fortunately, the American people have been spar , ed the necessity of learning anew, by personal experience. the extent to which the devastation wrought by modern warfare transcends the possi- bilities of war as 1t was waged 60 years ago. But, no nation can grasp the significance of the economic tides now running their course unless there is some realization of just what hap pens when a modern nation sets out to repair the damages wrought byi modern war.
 Review Difficulties
 It is the purpose, therefore, in this l series of articles, briefly to review l some of the difficulties that must be conquered, when the vanguards of peace move into the trenches and the rear guards of war have deserted. No region so epitomizes these problems as France, because no other region has been so completely devastated.
 Familiar with the duties of rural France in the pre-war days, I revisit ed that country in 1918. From Bel for to Dunkirk and Calais, from Meaux to Lille, I searched and search ed in vain for the countryside I had loved in other days.
 + Although the violets and anemones springing from empty trenches, she'll holes and dugouts, from fields and and dead mems strange abodes, gave promise of life and res urrection, the trees still lay wounded :. and dead, and tree stumps stood gaunt and lifeless in the grey light of {, dawn and purple mist of evening in that vast expanse of empty ruin. Three years passed by {! In our own country the president of one of our great universities was still com I oating bolshevism in the student body a with the odds against him; the { nurderers in a great coal mine dis l. rict were still unpunished; enemy 0 better organized than h yer before. was gnawing at the heart 0 if our American institutions. What h hen could be expected of dreary, o esolate, war-devastated land? Then, like a bolt from the blue, d anne the call Come back to France il nd view again the struggle being s raged to repair the wastes of war e
 Joan Of Arc II Fittingly, the first persons to greet u le on my return was J oan of Arc in ,, CT Eagles Perch, high above the city fss f Rouen. A few. hours later l stood .' eside her, where she eternally rides ' CT charges in the street of the :. ,, yrenees in Paris, pointing her white '' amer towards the stars Somehow lat made easier the necessary excur-. q. ons into the unknown conditions of U. ,e east and north of France. la Better Taxis p' The taxicab which took me to the ,' T, ation of the Northern railway was oe 0 ke its fellows, better groomed than m m.'l 1919; fares were still about one o' V, larters those of New York or San 4, ~,