The daily monitor. (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1940-1942, 1942-01-28
American Techniciens Laid
Groundwork Months Ago
Americans Work Shoulder TO Shoulder
With britons and Ivishmen

The groundwork for the trans
formation, however, was laid by
q corps Of $500 American tech
nicians who have been laboring
here for months to build the can
comments into which the troops
moved on their debarkation
Monday.
The technicians did more than
build the environments, for they
paved the way for the dough-
boys by establishing friendly re-
lations with the Irish despite diff
ferences in speech and tempera-
ment.
Recruited from the lumber
camps of the American north
west, from construction jobs and
factories, they have amazed and
pleased the people of this Emer-
aid Isle by the vigor with which
they have tackled . tough war
time task.
MINIMUM FRICTION
Shoulder to shoulder the
have worked with Britons and
Irishmen and there has been a
minimum friction on the job
and off.
The first of the A m c q n
arrived last July on a Canadian
transport. They Immediately
set up a self-sufficient commun-
ity, asking nothing from h e
British larder and bringing their
own equipment to execute the
task arranged for them under
the lease-lend act by which the
United States promised about
aid to her future ally.
Today they can point W h
pride to assignments completed
ahead Of schedule and to other
projects under way to meet the
growing demands of increased
United States participation in
the war.
DRESS REHEARSAL
Supplying Of this group of
Americans with tools, equip
ment, material, food and tobac-
co has been a dress rehearsal for
the greater Job Of supplying the
U. S. armed forces in Britain.
The workers live in construc-
ton camps that are a far cry
from the rural antiquity of the
countryside in which they are
set down. They wear the gaudy
checked shirts and the h 6 h.
la c e d boots of the American
lumberjacks and they eat raven
ously of typical American food
prepared by American cooks.
Their lives are monotonous,
for they live far from the large
cities and their work leaves
them little time or energy for
play. Their chief recreation is
poker, but even indulgence in
this is limited, for most of the
men are mature and are care
fully saving their money.
PAY IS GOOD
Their pay is good, running
with overtime up to $3.50 or
more a week as compared with
the $40 or so they made at home,
and all their living expenses are
paid. Because of regulations
enforced to meet British tax re-
quirements, however, the men
can draw no more than $28 a
week here.
The rest is paid to relatives
in the United States or banked
for them there.
I asked several what t Ii e y
planned to do with the money
they have earned when they re-
turned home-something most
are looking forward to.
Some are hoping to use their
stakes to start "a little bus
mess" of their own, while others
had no more definite plans than
a member of the kitchen staff
who declared:
We'll, amt going to cook no
more"
The technicians have brought
with them q variety Of dialects
and accents perplexing to the
Irish-ranging all the way from
the drawing speech Of Texas to
the typical twang Of the New
Highlander.
II the Irish have found the
accents sof the Americans per-
picking, however, the latter
have been no less astonished by
the speech Of the Ulstermen.
Dose Irish," said one tech
nician from Brooklyn, "Soitainly
use some cherse expressions"