In August, 1914, we were making twelve thousand shells for the .75's per day, now we are making two hundred and fifty thousand shells for the .75's and one hundred thousand shells for the heavy guns per day. If you wish to consider the weight of the shells which fell on the German trenches during our last offensives, you will find the following figures for each linear meter: Field artillery 407 kilos Trench artillery 203 kilos Heavy artillery 704 kilos High Power artillery 12 kilos ---- Total 1442 kilos And these are the figures for the monthly expenditure in munitions for the .75's alone: July, 1916 6,400,000 shells September, 1916 7,000,000 shells October, 1916 5,500,000 shells During the last offensive the total expenditure amounted to twelve million projectiles of all calibers. This incomparable war industry has permitted us not only to fight, to defend ourselves and to attack the enemy, but also to supply our friends, our Allies, with the munitions necessary to fight. Up to January, 1918, these are the amounts of munitions France was able to hand over to the nations fighting at her side in Europe: 1,350,000 rifles 800,000,000 cartridges 16,000,000 automatic rifles 10,000 mitrailleuses 2,500 heavy guns 4,750 airplanes And to France has come the honor of making the light artillery for the American Army--amounting to several hundred guns per month. * * * * * A nation that is worn out and bled white has an empty treasury and is no longer able to obtain taxes from its ruined citizens. Let us consider what France had done in a financial way in this war. From the first of August, 1914, to the first of January, 1918, the French Parliament voted war credits amounting to twenty billions of dollars. Of this enormous fund only two billions have been borrowed from outside sources; all the remainder has been subscribed or paid for by taxation or by loans in France herself. More than a billion dollars has been loaned to her Allies by France. In 1917 France had the heaviest budget in all her history. The single item of taxes was raised to six billion francs ($1,200,000), and these taxes were paid to the penny, although ten million Frenchmen were mobilized in the Army, in the factories, and on the farms, or were untaxable in the occupied regions. In 1915, 1916 and 1917 France raised three great national loans. That of 1915 amounted to exactly 13,307,811,579 francs, 40 centimes, of which 6,017 millions were paid in hard cash. That of October, 1916, amounted in round numbers to ten billions francs, of which more than five billions were paid in hard cash. That of December, 1917, amounted to 10,629,000,000 francs, of which 5,254 millions were paid in cash.