"The territories which have been under German occupation for four years were the wealthiest part of France. Their area did not exceed six per cent. of the whole country. They paid, however, 25 per cent. of the sum total of our taxes. These territories are now in a state of ruin even worse than we had anticipated. Of cities and villages nothing remains but ruins; 350,000 homes have been destroyed. To build them up again--I am referring to the building proper, without the furnishings--600 million days of work will be necessary, involving, together with building material, an outlay of 10,000,000,000 francs. As regards personal property of every description either destroyed by battle or stolen by the Germans, there stands an additional loss of at least 4,000,000,000 francs. This valuation of lost personal property does not include--as definite figures are lacking as yet--the countless war contributions and fines by the enemy, amounting also to billions. I need hardly say that, in those wealthy lands, no agricultural resources are left. The losses in horses and in cattle, bovine and ovine species, hogs, goats, amount to 1,510,000 head--in agricultural equipment to 454,000 machines or carts--the two items worth together 6,000,000,000 francs. "As regards industries, the disaster is even more complete. Those districts occupied by the Germans, and whose machinery has been methodically destroyed or taken away by the enemy, were, industrially speaking, the very heart of France, the very backbone of our production, as shown in the following startling figures: In 1913 the wool output of our invaded regions amounted to 94 per cent. of the total. French production and corresponding figures were: For flax from the spinning mills, 90 per cent.; iron ore, 90 per cent.; pig iron, 83 per cent.; steel, 70 per cent.; sugar, 70 per cent.; cotton, 60 per cent.; coal, 55 per cent.; electric power, 45 per cent. Of all that--plants, machinery, mines--nothing is left. Everything has been carried away or destroyed by the enemy. So complete is the destruction that, in the case of our great coal mines in the north, two years of work will be needed before a single ton of coal can be extracted and ten years before the output is brought back to the figures of 1913. [Illustration: Samuel P. Gompers President of the American Federation of Labor. Copyright Underwood & Underwood] THE WORK OF REBUILDING