Ever at your service for all that could be service to you, I beg you to accept, dear Mr. Butler, the expression of my sympathy and of my most devoted friendship. JACQUES REGNIER, Sub-prefect, Reims. * * * Paris, Dec. 23rd, 1916. Mr. J. G. Butler, Jr., Youngstown, O. Dear Sir:-- I duly received your letter of November 9th, in which you were so kind as to enclose a copy of the report on the French Steel Industry which you made out following the trip which the American Commission has made recently in France. After reading carefully this report which interested me very keenly, I can tell you that it represents precisely the actual situation of our Steel Industry. With my best thanks, I remain, Yours very truly, J. MAURICE. XX. WHERE WAR HAS RAGED In spite of the tremendous nature of the present war and its duration for more than two years at the time of our visit, comparatively little of France had been visited with the indescribable destruction marking the struggle. No war in history has been so intense, and few wars have been so long confined to such small areas as that on the western front. It was about the first of October that we reached Belfort, and here we saw the first signs of havoc wrought by gunfire. At Paris we had been within twenty miles of the battlefield where the German hosts were first turned back, but there was not much ruin wrought to buildings at the Marne. Men, unprotected by trenches or any of the later found defensive methods, bore the brunt of the cannon there. At Belfort we saw signs of bombardment, but they were not so shocking. The shell fire had been at long range and was apparently brief and inaccurate. This seemed to be the case at all of the towns between Belfort and St. Die. Apparently the Germans had not used so many heavy guns in this region, or perhaps they had not yet become so desperate and ruthless as later on. At any rate, it was at St. Die where we first saw a whole town ruined. The ruined portion of France extends in a narrow strip around the frontier from the Alps to the North Sea. Very little of this section, about three hundred and twenty-five miles in length and varying from ten to fifty miles in breadth, escaped the fearful blast of war. Few towns located in it can ever be restored to their original condition.