Out To Win: The Story of America in France — John Shaqi
Out To Win: The Story of America in FranceDawson, Coningsby
History
Out To Win: The Story of America in France
Dawson, Coningsby
World War, 1914-1918 -- United States
years to do this job." From behind the Rhine he has caught their
singing; it grows ever nearer, stronger. It will take time for that
avalanche to pyramid on the Western Front; but when it has piled up,
it will rush forward, fall on him and crush him. He knows something
else, which fills him with a still more dire sense of calamity--that
because America's honour has been jeopardised, of all the nations
now fighting she will be the last to lay down her arms. She has given
herself four years to do her job; when her job is ended, it will be
with Prussianism as it was with Jezebel, "They that went to bury her
found no more of her than the skull and the feet and the palms of her
hands. And her carcase was as dung upon the face of the field, so that
men should not say, 'This is Jezebel.'"
As an example of what America is accomplishing, I will take a sample
port in France. It was of tenth-rate importance, little more than
a harbour for coastwise vessels and ocean-going tramps when the
Americans took it over; by the time they have finished, it will be
among the first ports of Europe. It is only one of several that they
are at present enlarging and constructing. The work already completed
has been done in the main under the direction of the engineers who
marched through London in the July of last year. I visited the port in
January, so some idea can be gained of how much has been achieved in a
handful of months.
The original French town still has the aspect of a prosperous
fishing-village. There are two main streets with shops on them; there
is one out-of-date hotel; there are a few modern dwellings facing
the sea. For the rest, the town consists of cottages, alleys and
open spaces where the nets were once spread to dry. To-day in a vast
circle, as far as eye can reach, a city of huts has grown up. In those
huts live men of many nations, Americans, French, German prisoners,
negroes. They are all engaged in the stupendous task of construction.
The capacity of the harbour basin is being multiplied fifty times, the
berthing capacity trebled, the unloading facilities multiplied by ten.
A railroad yard is being laid which will contain 225 miles of track
and 870 switches. An immense locomotive-works is being erected for
the repairing and assembling of rolling-stock from America. It was
originally planned to bring over 960 standard locomotives and 30,000
freight-cars from the States, all equipped with French couplers
and brakes so that they could become a permanent part of the French
railroad system. These figures have since been somewhat reduced by
the purchase of rolling-stock in Europe. Reservoirs are being built at
some distance from the town which will be able to supply six millions
gallons of purified water a day. In order to obtain the necessary
quantity of pipe, piping will be torn up from various of the
water-systems in America and brought across the Atlantic. As the
officer, who was my informant remarked, "Rather than see France go
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