R AN AUTHORITATIVE STATEMENT, PREPARED WITH THE CO-OPERATION ECENT developments in all the warring countries abroad have shown clearly that the fundamental problem which all must meet is that of the proper use of man power. It has become almost a hackneyed statement to say that this is a war of industries even more than of armies. None the less, the statement holds true, and the real question which we have to face if we are to perfect a really adequate war organization is how to place each man where he can do the most effective work for the winning of the war. To use an individual in any niche other than the one for which he is best fitted is a waste of valuable human energy, and to that extent is a weakening of the Nation's war machine. This is the general principle underlying the new plan for a war labor administration. The plan is not theoretical, but is developed by the war experience of the last ten months, influenced, in addition, by the example of the European nations whose conditions are most nearly like our own. It is the plan that is supported by facts as they exist in this country to-day. The tendency toward unifying and centralizing the administration of the American labor programme has been an irresistible development. The President's determination early in January to place the responsibility for the administration of the Nation's labor policies on the Secretary of Labor was reached as a result of experience with a situation in which each production department of the Government had been engaged in handling its own individual labor problems without a central policy and with no single agency to determine proper methods of distribution or proper means of giving preference to the most vital forms of war work in supplying them with the necessary labor. The outbreak of war found the country without an effective National distributing or employment agency system, and with no complete system to deal with labor controversies which might arise in an industrial population of thirty-five million. As the munitions programme developed, without any central agency to look to for handling problems of distribution and adjustment, each production department of the Government-that is, the Ordnance Department, Quartermaster Department, the Ship ping Board, and the Navy Department-naturally set up within its own jurisdiction an agency or agencies for handling its manpower problems. This development was inevitable, and, in a large measure, beneficial. Many of these agencies have done most effective work in securing needed labor and in dealing with industrial disputes. Yet the weakness arising from a lack of unified policy showed itself comparatively early. The National industrial system, complex as it is, is yet a single organism. One member cannot be touched without affecting the whole. In adjustment and distribution alike these several labor agencies were found to be interfering with each other. Government departments began to bid against each other for labor with the only possible inducement in sight one of wage increases. Strikes and disputes were handled by the several departments, often with good judgment in individual cases; but, without common understandings as to policies, agents of the various departments frequently added confusion to complicated situations. Some arrangement was necessary to deal promptly and uniformly on a Nation-wide basis with labor disputes affecting war work. With out such a plan it seemed inevitable that existing labor unrest would be stimulated. It was this situation which led the President to authorize the Secretary of Labor to establish a war labor administration to deal with the man-power problem on an adequate, uniform, National scale. The decision had of course been preceded by the most careful study of conditions in indus try and of their causes. The President's decision was announced early in January. Shortly after that the Secretary of Labor appointed an Advisory Council of seven members, consisting of two representatives of the public, two of employers, two of wage-earners, and one of women in industry. The Secretary asked this Council to assist him in formulating a programme and organizing plans for the new administration; and the plan now adopted is largely the result of the deliberations of this body. It consists in establishing in the Department of Labor seven new divisions, or services, to handle the emergency war work placed on the Department by the President's order. These seven new divisions will be directly responsible to the Secretary of Labor through a Policies Board consisting of the heads of the divisions with the Secretary as chairman. This Policies Board will serve as a general staff for the Department, to talk over at frequent intervals the plans of the Department and to unify policy. The labor administration, it is expected, will have complete charge and direction of the war labor policy of the Government, and will establish machinery adequate for carrying them out. Congress is now being asked for an appropriation to provide for the administrative expense. The seven new divisions include an adjustment service, a housing and transportation of workers service, a conditions of labor service, an information and education service, a women in industry service, a training and dilution service, and a distribution or employment agency service. These agencies, it will be seen, can be made to include all the main functions necessary for the promotion of a sound industrial system and for the proper distribution, housing, and education of the working population. Throughout, of course, the central idea will be the expediting of necessary munitions of war, and the proper, just, and equitable employment of workmen in the most effective manner for the production of the supplies which our Army at the front and the armies of our allies so urgently need. Labor is merely an abstract noun; it is not a commodity which can be seen or handled or bought or sold. Capital is also used to include persons within its meaning. In this sense there is no such thing as capital. Yet capital is represented by things which are tangible, which can be bought or soid, seized or condemned; and labor, except in its products, is not. The labor problem is, from beginning to end, a human problem on both sides. The persons who are included within the meaning of the word capital are merely human beings engaged in industry with a certain background of tradition, experience, and motives; and labor is like capital in this respect. Each group must be considered in any war labor programme as a collection of individual members of the Nation, and not as its mere instrumentalities or possessions. The most obvious recognition of this principle lies in the plans for the adjustment service. No mere machinery for imposing adjustment, arbitration, or whatever it may be called, on the two groups can be successful without the promotion of a spirit to support it in the groups involved. This spirit must be the main reliance in any accommodation of differences between the human elements involved. A most gratifying start toward a better spirit of co-operation between employer and employee has already been inaugurated in the agreement reached by the joint conference of employers and employees held in Washington during the past month with Mr. William H. Taft and Mr. Frank P. Walsh representing the public. This group has worked out an understanding on many of the basic principles involved in the relations between capital and labor. The understanding thus reached on controversial points will unquestionably be of the greatest value in accommodating future specific differences. The recommendations of the conference will undoubtedly be embodied in the policy to be pursued by the adjustment service of the new labor administration when its organization is finally completed. It is only through employers and wage-earners meeting together and discussing on equal terms their common problems that real cooperation in a democratic country can be secured. Agreements of this sort have already been utilized on certain specific forms of war work, and the inauguration of the same method for dealing with the general labor situation augurs well for the future. The plans for the Department of Labor, however, recognize the necessity for following up and administering the terms of any agreement reached. The wage-earners cannot be successfully distributed among the war industries without the maintenance of proper housing facilities, proper working conditions for both men and women, and adequate training facilities. Nor can disputes be avoided without a sufficient degree of Governmental investigation aimed to adjust all matters of complaint for either side against the other from their very beginning. A recognition of these facts underlies the establishment of the housing and transportation, conditions of labor, training and dilution, and women in industry services. A war housing bill has passed the House of Representatives and is now pending in the Senate carrying an appropriation of $50,000,000 for the purpose of establishing an adequate housing programme, and the Secretary of Labor has requested Mr. Otto M. Eidlitz to act as housing director as soon as this service is authorized. Vastly important for the promotion of sound sentiment in all classes of the industrial population and for securing an informed public opinion on industrial problems, there is also included in the plan of administration a service on information and education which will endeavor to clarify the war labor policy of the Government through a wide diffusion of correct information. The material distributed will include both general news of the plans and purposes of the Government and of the results of foreign experience on similar problems and technical information about the most modern methods of plant management and handling of employment problems. Necessarily, the traditions of misunderstanding between employers and wage earners are a serious handicap to the maintenance of any cooperative agreements for the period of the war, and, though difficulties which may arise might theoretically be anticipated and avoided through Government investigation, mediation, and the operation of adjustment boards, the results desired can never practically be accomplished unless the general public, as well as the parties themselves, is correctly informed on these subjects and can lend its support to adjustments and accommodations which may be urged. One of the most vital parts of the new programme is the employment agency service, which will attempt to set up, for the first time, a central distributing agency for labor which can place the needed man quickly and effectively in the place where he is most needed. One of the greatest difficulties which the Government has met up to the present time in its attempt to solve the labor problem has been the tendency of employers and Government departments alike to bid against each other for labor which they all need, with the inevitable result that labor has migrated to the place where wages were the highest without regard to the importance of the work involved. The new dis tributing agency, it is hoped, will furnish a means for deciding the relative importance of different forms of war work and for securing and placing workmen at the points where they can be of the most value. Necessarily, the success of this task will depend in large measure on the terms agreed upon between the I THE representatives of employers and workmen in conference on questions such as the adjustment of wages, the limitation of profits, and similar issues. The war labor administration will be dealing with the prob lem of labor in production, and, necessarily, it will have to be in the closest possible contact with the departments of the Gover ment which are handling production problems. Since the vari ous production agencies have already established divisions for dealing with their labor problems, and since these divisions are in touch with their needs, it would, naturally, be unwise to do away with them. The plan involves leaving in each production department the agencies already established, and even, in some cases, adding to these agencies, while taking over in the new labor administration all control of general policy. These separate labor agencies, that is, will continue to handle their individual problems, but will look to the Department of Labor for leadership on basic principles. In this way the weak nesses which have manifested themselves before, such as inter ference on adjustment questions and uncontrolled competition for labor, will be avoided, while their services, with the benefit of ten months' experience, will be retained. The Department of Labor, in the new administration, will have an agency capable of dealing with the labor side of the industrial situation as a whole through its extensive machinery, while it will have the aid and assistance of each of the separate bureaus already estab lished on their particular problems. No prediction, of course, can safely be made as yet as to the outcome of the new labor programme. It is a step of the first importance for which no precedent existed in this country. In certain respects it resembles the British plan, which centralized control in the labor supply department of the Ministry of Muni tions. At the same time the difference between conditions in the two countries made many features of the British programme impracticable here. The general aim has been to adopt as far as possible the features of the British plan which seemed to apply to this country, while making such changes and innova tions as American experience already acquired made apparently advisable. The plan is not a theoretical one; and one of its chief claims for support lies in the fact that it has grown out of actual experience, and has not been simply framed along new and arbitrary or blindly imitative lines. Necessarily, no programme will be successful without the best possible men in charge of it, and every effort is being made to secure for the new divisions the men best fitted by training and experience to handle the work. The Government realizes that the problem of man power is one of prime magnitude, and it is laying its plans accordingly. PERIL OF THINKING IN BILLIONS A LETTER WHICH EXPLAINS ITSELF N an article headed "20,000,000 Subscribers to the Third Liberty Loan," published in The Outlook of April 10, I made some errors which I hasten to admit, although no one has as yet called attention to them. Writing of the amount that would be obtained if a $50 bond were bought by each one of the 55,000,000 persons in the United States who had passed their twenty-first year, I said that the resulting subscription would be $27,500,000,000. It is, of course, perfectly obvious that I used an extra cipher which should have been omitted, and that the correct figure would be $2,750,000,000. Later on in the article I repeated the mistake in writing that if 12,500,000 persons invested $2 a week, and an additional 12,500,000 persons invested $1 a week for fifty weeks, the sum secured would be $18,750,000,000. The correct amount would be $1,875,000,000. All of which shows how important it is that we should be careful in dealing with the nothings or ciphers of life, and how difficult it is for us to comprehend things we cannot visualize. If the sums involved had been thousands instead of billions, these mistakes would have been self-evident to me as I wrote, but because I have not and can never have a conception of what a billion dollars really means the error did not reveal itself to me or the proof-readers, and apparently has not been noticed by any one else. Reflecting thus on a miscalculation that I am chagrined to admit, I find myself wondering whether the necessity for think ing in billions, which is one consequence of the war, is not making us all careless of the smaller sums that we earn and disburse. We read that the belligerents are spending one hun dred or one hundred and twenty-five million dollars a day. The statement means absolutely nothing to us, for it is beyond our comprehension; but I am nevertheless inclined to think that makes us less careful in the expenditure of one dollar and is largely responsible for the advance in prices that is causing much hardship and is mistakenly attributed to inflation. Perhaps we can counteract the tendency toward extravagance that is thus induced by reckoning the cost of the war in term that we can understand. For the fiscal year ending June 30 1918, the total expenses of our Government will have been about $130 apiece for every man, woman, and child in the Nation. This means an average of $260 each for every adult in the country. This money must be saved and paid in taxes or invested in bonds. The question is, Are we all doing our share THEODORE H. PRICE. it GLIMPSES OF OUR SOLDIERS IN FRANCE SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE OF THE OUTLOOK The two following letters throw an interesting light upon the conditions and circumstances in which, outside of his fighting duties, the American soldier is living in France. Francis Rogers, the author of the first letter, is a graduate of Harvard and an accomplished musical authority and singer of New York. He and his wife have volunteered their services in the important work of entertaining the soldiers which is carried on systematically by the Y. M. C. A. and other organizations at the front. Mrs. Lee, a daughter of the late E. P. Roe, the popular American novelist, has for two winters been officially engaged in hospital relief work in France.-THE EDITORS. T I-THE AMERICAN PRIVATE AND THE FRENCH POILU THE Rogers Concert Party" completed its third month in France with a record of some sixty concerts, given to as many different audiences. Nearly all of these concerts were given for the American soldiers; but a few of them took place in French Foyers du Soldat and hospitals. Occasionally our audiences have been made up of soldiers from both armies. In a previous letter (The Outlook, December 12, 1917) I described our camp concerts as they were during the first weeks of our tour. Since then we have not altered their general character, though no two programmes are exactly alike, and experience has suggested changes in minor details. Formerly the boys were eager to sing in chorus, but now that they are hard at work in their daily military routine they prefer to sit back and listen to the voice of somebody else. Consequently, nowadays I do all the singing, except in "America," with which we always conclude our entertainment. (As for "The Star-Spangled Banner," it is beyond the capacity of anything except a trained chorus or a brass band.) The American soldier is, and is likely to remain, homesick. Home news filters to him all too slowly through the American papers printed in France and through the Army Post Office. My wife and I have ourselves been away from home too long to have any fresh news to offer him, but we talk with him about his home, sing him the home songs, and tell him home jokes and stories as industriously as ever. The evil temptations that surround a camp can best be met by the soldier who feels himself in close touch with the standards of his bringing up, and correspondents in America will do well to keep the tone of their letters on a plane that will invigorate the morale of their boys in France. The fatigues and difficulties of military service in a far country must be resisted by a healthy inner life. Boys who do not hear often from home or who get depressing or commonplace letters are much more likely to slip or fall than those whose families supply them with constant mental and moral refreshment. This advice applies not only to parents and wives, but also to girl friends, who should remember that as our soldiers come closer to the stern realities of life they mature quickly and judge things more and more by their intrinsic value. When they finally come home, they will not be satisfied with the trivialities that may have contented them before the war; they will be disappointed if they do not find a serious mental attitude to correspond with their own increased maturity of thought. Our opportunities to meet French audiences have been infrequent, but our few experiences have been such as to make us regret that they could not be numerous. The entry of America into the war was a great encouragement to the French soldier, and he likes to hear from American lips how glad we are to be in France and how anxious we are to do everything we can to reinforce the gallant French army in its struggle for the right. Knowing this, we have made a point of expressing from the platform our admiration for their mighty achievements and our high hopes for the future. These words of ours, as well as our French songs and recitations, the poilus have received with many marks of approval. The contrast between the French private soldier and the American is striking. The American, who has not yet been under fire, takes his military duties more or less in a spirit of adventure. He is, I am sure, potentially a good soldier, but he has not yet won his spurs; he has not received his baptism of fire. The French soldier, on the contrary, is a finished product. Three years and a half of discipline, danger, and suffering have developed him into a first-class fighting man. An English major said to me the other day that he considered the present French army to be the best army ever assembled anywhere, and I believe he is right. I am too ignorant of military affairs to hazard a judgment on matters of organization or equipment, but I have seen thousands of poilus, both at work and at play, and my respect for them increases every day. A typical poilu is five feet seven inches in height and weighs one hundred and fifty pounds. His hair is dark, as are his sparkling eyes. His mustache turns up cheerfully at the ends, his fresh-shaven cheeks glow with health. His shoulders are not broad, but his back is flat and muscular. His large, bony hands require no covering even in the coldest weather. His hips are rather large; his legs, slightly bowed, are noticeably sturdy. His uniform may be faded, but it is not ragged, and his shoes are in good repair. To my eye he looks the perfectly fit fighting man. In conversation one finds him full of courage and purpose, fatalistic in his personal philosophy, frankly tired of the war, but grimly resolved to free his country forever from the German invader. To achieve this end he counts largely upon the help of us Americans. Just what he thinks of us as individuals now that his country is swarming with us I cannot make out. Our methods and manners bear little resemblance to his, and there is much in our bearing that must be objectionable to him, but if, when the war is won, we shall have performed a fair share in winning it, we shall have done all that he really requires of us. I have never met a Frenchman who spoke well of his own Government, and yet this same Government has been remarkably successful in keeping the machinery of life running smoothly. When I came to France three months ago, I was prepared to find disorganization and discomfort, but in the course of my constant travels over a large section of the country I have found very little of either. Trains are few and slow both on the main lines and across country, but they are quite as faithful to the time-table as American trains in time of peace. Though they are few, they usually are adequate to the traffic requirements. Their dining-car service remains far superior to ours. Whatever the problems of the private householder may have been in supplying his family with food, for the traveler who, like us, has lived in hotels, the problem has been simple enough. For a price less than those prevalent in America six months ago he has had no difficulty in obtaining a sufficient and well-proportioned meal. We have frequented pretentious hostelries in the large cities, as well as tiny inns in remote villages where before the war no American was ever seen, and nowhere have we found a shortage of any essentials of diet. White bread and cream disappeared long ago, but war bread is palatable, and there is always milk enough (albeit somewhat watery) for one's morning coffee. Sugar is always at hand. Meat is abundant. I saw recently in a little village some farmers who were sustaining life on three consecutive courses of meat at one sitting! Clothing (especially shoes) is more expensive than before the war, but is still below the prices prevalent in New York. Indeed, I doubt if the cost of living is higher in France to-day than it was in America a year ago. Gasoline is scarce and hard to get at any price. In Paris private automobiles have all but disappeared, but taxis are numerous between dawn and sunset, and still much cheaper than taxis in New York. But transportation by taxi is fraught with trials, seldom without a humorous aspect. The drivers are allowed so much gasoline per diem, and they consume it in such fashion as seems good to them. Most of the through trains leave Paris before eight o'clock in the morning, but, as few taxis emerge from their nightly repose as early as that, walking to the station, bags and rugs in hand, is often the weary lot of the traveler. From noon till two o'clock Mr. Taxi Driver is apt to be at luncheon, and even the great thoroughfares are as empty as Coney Island in January. As the day wears on the supply of gasoline sinks to the point where the driver has only enough to get him home for the night. If you are going his way, he will consent to drop you en route; otherwise, if the subway does not serve your needs, you will have to supply your own locomotion. Those who go to the theater, and they are legion, have to go in the subway or on foot, for after nightfall a taxi is usually unobtainable. The theaters, which seem always to be full, have lost all their gayety of appearance, for no one wears evening dress, which in the theaters aided by government subsidy is officially forbidden. A prominent men's tailor told me the other day that he had not made a dress suit since the war began. Automobiling over the French roads is, as it always was, a delight. In one respect it is more delightful than ever; nowadays you usually have the roads all to yourself! In some mysterious way the French, despite the shortage of labor, have kept their roads in excellent repair. Hour after hour one may roll at high speed, just as of yore, without a jar, almost without a turn of the steering-wheel, between two endless lines of trees, punctuated every few yards by neat piles of small stones left there for the repairs that always seem just to have been completed. Along these roads one meets occasional groups of marching soldiers, sometimes artillery, sometimes a train of great cannons. More frequently one encounters one of the high two-wheeled horse vehicles in which the peasants go to market. But of pleasure vehicles one sees none. The little roadside villages which are so familiar to all tourists are still there, but they are deserted except by the very old, the very young, and the middle-aged women. Sometimes one may whirl through one of them without seeing even a cat or a hen. One day we motored through a score of little villages in the devastated district where there remained not a house with a roof and all its walls in place. Nor was there a sign of life of any sort in them. The atmosphere of desolation and loneliness in these once living communities is indescribable to those who have never breathed it. That same day we spent an hour in and about the Cathedral at Rheims. As it stood there in the noonday glow it was at once the saddest and the loveliest of all great edifices. From the esthetic point of view, the façade, the towers, and the north side of the nave have not suffered greatly. The sculpture on the north tower was injured by the burning of the scaffoldings which incased it at the beginning of the war, but the heat im G parted to the stone a singularly lovely muddy tinge. As we were passing the eastern end we heard a series of crashes within. Later we learned that a long-expected collapse of a considerable section of the stone roof over the choir had just taken place. Everything inside the Cathedral has been removed; the grandiose interior is now a mere shell. In the south aisle of the nave stands a huge unexploded German, obus which some months ago passed through the roof of the south transept and buried itself in the pavement beneath. The sacristan told us he was within ten feet of where it struck, but suffered no injury. very I said the other day to a Frenchman that if the Cathedral were allowed to stand as it now is, without restoration, it would be the most touching monument in all Christendom. He replied: "No Frenchman could have said that. The Cathedral at Rheims, where Clovis was crowned, and still fragrant from the presence of Jeanne d'Arc, is the heart of France, the symbol of its life. We shall never permit it to remain a ruin, a mere relic of the past.' In front of the Cathedral the small equestrian statue of Jeanne d'Arc, which was placed there a dozen years ago, stands unscathed. Twenty feet away is a large shell hole, but the gallant little figure rides on, gay and undaunted, her sword high in air, her face turned skyward, the perfect symbol of the France of 1918. II—“THE YANKS OOD luck found us in this old Savoy town, Chambéry, when it was decided that it was to be the headquarters of the first recreation center of United States troops in France. The three neighboring towns of Chambéry, Aix-lesBains, and Challes have been selected as the general territory of the first recreation center in France for United States soldiers on leave. The United States Provost Marshal has his headquarters at Aix-les-Bains, and military authority is administered from there. But Chambéry is the old capital of Savoy and the official seat of local government, so, by courtesy at least, it is the focus of this recreation center. The Y. M. C. A. has had the responsibility of making arrangements for the actual care of our troops, such as finding sleepingrooms, installing clubs, and preparing entertainments, sports, etc., but great preparations have also been made by the people of Chambéry themselves. The Sindicat Initiative, an organization of long standing in Savoy, has formed committees of every kind to make the visit of the Americans both pleasant and profitable. People who speak English have volunteered to act as interpreters. Hostesses have offered the hospitality of their homes for afternoon tea. Walking parties have been organized by the boys of the high school. There is a committee for greet ing the soldiers at the railway station; a committee to mend their clothes; a committee to steer them away from any lurking evil at Chambéry. And if the kind intentions of the inhabitants can be realized, no possible harm and every conceivable joy has been arranged for by the affectionate forethought of our allies in Savoy. For some time past we have been working in Chambéry as France goes about the business of war soberly, courageously; the abnormal has become the normal, Superficially, the signs of suffering are few; beneath the surface every fiber is tingling with unspeakable pain and grief. A few weeks ago a man went to call on some Parisian friends whom he had not seen for sev eral years. Formerly they lived in the splendor that befitted their great wealth. This time the door was opened, not by a flunky, but by a simply dressed maid, who said, "Please, monsieur, to keep your coat on; the house is not heated." His hostess gave him his usual cordial welcome, and told him how her husband and she felt that they themselves now had no right to the use of their wealth. "France," she said, "needs it more than we do. We buy just food enough for our needs. We do not heat our house, for our hearts beat strong and warm for France, and is not that enough to keep our bodies warm?" So speaks the spirit of France. Its body is maimed, its soul is in pain, but its heart still beats with an unquenchable patriotic fervor. FRANCIS ROGERS. Paris, February 6, 1918. ARE COMING" members of the American Fund for French Wounded. We have made friends among the people and we feel that we have the confidence of the local authorities. We have had the delightful privilege of being behind the scenes, of receiving the unofficial visits of the people and elucidating the problems of United States customs and manners; of seeing the rough drafts of speeches of welcome; of being the willing dogs upon whom all suggestions were tried before they blossomed forth into accepted plans of entertainment. On February 16 the first contingent of United States soldiers arrived at Aix-les-Bains. On the 18th the boys began arriving at Chambéry, and from now on to the end of the war our troops will continue to come to this neighborhood to spend their first leave of seven days from camp and trenches. It had been announced that we would have two days' notice before the advent of the troops. In the hotel where we are staying a hundred soldiers are to be quartered, and we were leisurely making preparations for their reception. Early in the morning of February 18 there was a hurry call from the railway station, a rush down the corridor of the hotel, and a bang on the door. "The Americans will arrive in twenty minutes!" was the notification. In twenty minutes we were at the station to welcome them. The Mayor and all the dignitaries of Chambéry had already assembled. The Y. M. C. A.'s were waiting as United States delegates, to receive the soldiers. All were waving flags and tiptoeing in excitement when the stationmaster announced that the train was two hours late. Wesolemnly withdrew to wait. As if by magic the flags of the Allies, dominated by the Stars and Stripes, naa appeared in the windows of the houses. Up and down the street we could see the inhabitants hurriedly putting the last touches on the decorations they had planned for the reception of our troops. An hour passed, and we began wondering if a certain amount of United States hustle might not get into that special. We returned to the railway station, and there we found the officials TO THE INHABITANTS OF CHAMBÉRY AND CHALLES-LES-EAUX DEAR FELLOW-CITIZENS : You have already learned of the approaching arrival in our community of the first contingent of American soldiers on leave. Before long we shall have with us in our homes, our shops and stores, in our meadows and on our hillsides, these sons of an ardent and generous people. For Savoy it is surely an honor and a privilege to be called upon to receive them. In welcoming them we shall remember the welcome they gave to the representatives of France [the Joffre-Viviani Mission, which visited the United States in the spring of 1917]. When in a day or two we see them wandering through our streets, with their big soft hats, a little homesick, a little shy, perhaps, trying to adjust themselves to their strange and novel surroundings, seeking to orient themselves, so to speak, we shall not stare at them as if they were a kind of curious and interesting novelty. We shall see in them the living representatives of that splendid Nation which has freely offered us the support of its moral power, its wealth, and its fighting men, because it is convinced that the cause of the Allies is the cause of righteousness, justice, and liberty. We shall think of them, moreover, as having come to us from far away in order to share with our own poilus a life of heroic endurance and to stand side by side with them against the enemy, determined to suffer, to die, but also to triumph. Finally, we shall remember one fact to which no Frenchwoman can be indifferent. It is that among these boys, these husbands, these soldiers, there are many who have forever said farewell to their homes and firesides and to the land that gave them birth, for their tombs will be somewhere yonder in the soil of our beloved France which they have come to defend and to deliver. These thoughts need only to be suggested to us in order to excite in our hearts a current of intense sympathy for these our visitors; every selfish consideration will be blotted out; no one will think for a moment of calculating whether their presence will increase our discomforts in food and lodgings; nor will any one dream of " profiteering" from their necessities. Dominated by a single purpose, that of treating them as guests and allies, we shall be their warm-hearted guides and protectors. In these times of national suffering and sorrow for our dead we do not propose to you, fellow-citizens, to celebrate the visit of these American comrades on leave with brilliant festivities or echoing cheers. What we ask of you is simply to make yourselves known to these noble-hearted allies by a word, a gesture, a helpful attention, an unselfish action. A frank, cordial, friendly smile, even, will go far towards expressing the gratitude of Savoy and of France. CITIZENS OF THE GREAT AMERICAN REPUBLIC, SOLDIERS OF LIBERTY! As it has pleased you to come to us for your seven days of leave which you cannot enjoy at home in your own far-distant and beloved country, believe us when we tell you that we receive you as comrades-in-arms and as if you were our own sons. To you we open our hearts and offer our hands. We bid you welcome! ÉMILE ULLERN, President of the Committee. This address, the charming sentiment of which is so characteristically French and can be only inadequately expressed in an English translation, was issued broadcast in printed form at Chambéry in February last with the following title: " Appel du Comité de Patronage des Permissionaires Américains." It may be described in English as the Appeal of the Committee on Welcome and Welfare for American Soldiers on Leave again running about distractedly. S. O. S. calls were being sent in every direction that the train was about to enter the station. Again we assembled, and in a few minutes the cars rolled up to the platform and the boys began climbing out. They were tired, mud-stained warriors, each one carrying his pack, but they marched by as fine and cheerful a lot of men as one can well imagine. Uncle Sam can be proud of his sons in France. Chambéry has become galvanized. The quiet old town has been awakened by the laughter of American soldiers. In every direction one sees them, riding bicycles, making friends with the little children, fraternizing with the poilus, invading the candy shops on the days when sweets are sold, making themselves thoroughly at home, but never abusing hospitality. They are winning the affection of France as much by their genuineness as men as by their efficiency as soldiers. In the course of their leave the Mayor of Chambéry tendered them a reception. The old Town Hall had been decorated in their honor. The stone stairway leading to the state apartment was banked with palms and flowers and ablaze with lights and flags. All the dignitaries and celebrities of the neighborhood had been invited to meet our soldiers. Churchmen in their robes, officers in their full-dress uniforms wearing the medals they had won in their years of service, citizens of Chambéry who had earned respect in their various callings in life, officers of the Allies and officers of the United States Army, members of the Young Men's Christian Association and of the American Fund for French Wounded, and the wives and daughters of Chambéry's most honored residents, were assembled at the reception when our soldiers filed by to receive the greeting of the Mayor in the name of Savoy and of France. Then from some hidden corner a band poured forth the strains of "The Star-Spangled Banner," while every American soldier present stood attention to the music of his National anthem. The Mayor's message was repeated in English for the better understanding of our boys, and to the tones of the "Marseillaise" our soldiers saluted the French. An officer of the United States Army made a speech of thanks and appreciation that was interpreted into French by a member of the Y. M. C. A. The old Mayor, with charming dignity and hospitality, then invited us all to drink a toast to the United States and her soldiers, and a member of the American Fund for French Wounded responded, "To France." And so the reception ended. This old Savoy town in particular and France entire have offered the hand of friendship to the children of Uncle Sam. The grip will never be loosened as long as there are a Frenchman and an American to stand together for liberty, equality, and fraternity. After the Mayor's reception the boys settled down to three or four days of solid enjoyment. The fine Army band of American Negro musicians came over from Aix-les-Bains and put Chambéry in a whirl of excitement. A concert was given in the theater under the auspices of the Y. M. C. A., and the house was crowded to the doors and every seat in the orchestra ocenpied by American soldiers. A minstrel show was part of the programme, and the two end men. in traditional minstrel togs. cracked jokes, danced, and sang songs, with a chorus and band to support them. The wild applause of the audience worked the actors into a perfect frenzy of cake walks, hand-springs, and grotesque gestures, and the curtain dropped on a roar of excitement from soldiers and actors alike. ал From the concert we adjourned to the club rooms of the Y. M. C. A., where a reception was given to the people of Chambéry in acknowledgment of their charming hospitality to our American boys. The large club, with its open fires and comfortable chairs, has tried to take the place of a home to the soldiers. and here, with the ladies of the Y. M. C. A., they received their guests, who a few days before had made them welcome to Savoy. The happy week is over. The boys have again strapped their packs on their backs and they are going back to the war. As the train was about to draw out of the station, on impulse that was irresistible, we decided to go with them, so w rode away with the troops. But it was only a postponement, and at the next stopping-place we saw them go on without us. From the platform we touched each boy's hand there as he reached out from his window, and then the long train gradually disappeared. If good-by means God be with you, then good-by it was. An American soldier is very lovable, but it was more than love they took with them to-day when they left us to go to the front. It was reverence and thankfulness that our soldiers are the men they are. PAULINE SANDS LEE. Chambéry, France, February 24, 1918. |