Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-11-12
FRANCE NEAR GOAL
IN WAR REBUILDING
Almost 100000 Homes in
Devastated Area Replace
Ruins at Huge Cost.
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
PARIS, November 12.-Ten years
after the close of the World Wal
France is approaching the end of its
labor of reconstruction in the de-
vastated regions.
That labor has changed the whole
aspect of Northern France. Model vii
lagos, many of them built through the
generosity of American and Dutch
philanthropists and societies, have
sprung from the ruins of picturesque
and rambling Old World towns. Neat
rows of cement and brick houses stretch
along the streets that show little traces
of wars devastation.
Altogether nearly seven hundred
thousand destroyed and damaged
homes and farm buildings have been
rebuilt. Thousands of factories and in
dustrial establishments have been
equipped with machinery and are pro
ducing at better than the pre-war rate.
Mines Are Doing We'll.
Flooded coal mines in the Nord and
Pas de Calais departments have peen
restored and are actually producing a
half million tons more each month than
they did before war was declared.
This huge work has cost in the
neighborhood of three end half bill
lion dollars. Another half billion re-
mains to be spent and the task of re-
construction, it is expected, will be
accomplished in another two years.
The human aspect of reconstruction
has also been a costly one. More than
two billion dollars have gone, in the
last 10 years, to the payment OF pen
sions. the care of war-mutilated soldiers
and war orphans and in indemnities to
civil victims.
Traces of War Left.
Rebuilding and the expenditure of
huge sums of money however, have not
vet removed from France the last traces
of conflict. Blind and manned men are
to be found everywhere. Here and
there in otherwise peaceful fields an
old trench remains, grim relic OF the
famed Hindenburg line, plowmen al
most daily dig up buried shells and
other mementos of the war. Every so
often a "dud" explodes and work.
man Is killed.
Even the restored cities and villages
bear traces of war that only years Will
efface. In Rheims, although most OF
the ravages have disappeared, heaps OF
ruins still testify to the might of the
German guns. Rheims Cathedral has
been rebuilt. but Cardinal Lucon has
never been able to return to the arch
iepiscopal residence, destroyed by the
invaders.
In some respects the devastation en-
forced a benefit. Many of the rebuilt
factories and workshops have replaced
hand power with electricity, and mod
ern machinery is in use where once
production methods were primitive
Thousands of the rebuilt habitations
are as modern as architecture can make
them and far more sanitary than the
homes they replaced. At first there
was some opposition to the improve
ments; the peasant changes his IDEAS
slowly, and even factory and WORKSHOP
owners opposed too heavy "machinza-
ton" AS a whole, however, conditions
have been greatly improved.
Types Of New Homes.
Thousands Of the rebuilt houses are
known as Temporary habitations, but,
built largely of brick and cement, they
give an impression of permanency.
Some of those built by the DuJcn are
of wood, like homes In America, ana
many are painted the familiar blues
and browns of Holland. Other more
ephemeral structures are of plaster and
corrugated iron, or are reconstructed
from the wooden huts used by the SOL
diers of all armies.
At the time of the armistice it was
found that 340,799 homes had been
DESTROYED. Another $4,000 were so
damaged that they had to be rebuilt:
More than 600 whole communes had
been RACED and $500 had to be rebuilt.
Ten thousand industrial establishments
were battered down.
Ten wears after the armistice ap-
proximately 100000 Reconstruction"
houses had been erected and $500 fac
tories and workshops. Much remains
to be done before the governments
program is realized, but the end Is In
sight.