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My Experiences in the World War By General John J. Pershing < Copyright. 1931, in all countries by the North American WN U Newspaper Alliance. World rights reserved, including the IP Service* Scandinavian. Reproduction In whole ot pan prohibited, jf CHAPTER XIV In response to my request to Wash ington for an experienced man to take charge of rail transportation, AV. W. Atterbury, general manager of the Pennsylvania railroad, arrived , in France and reported to me Septem ber 1, 1917. At Atterbury’s suggestion a cable was sent requesting certain men to fill Important positions in the organiza tion. The list included J. A. Mcßae, general manager of the Long Island railroad, for general manager, with M. Bunting as business manager, H. C. I mHIt WF w nV ■ . . SEEKS * - Zb-’- ' WW -•■ sV-aM ■ v Pershing and Joffre. Booz as engineer for construction, and J. G. Rogers as deputy. The rail way problem was far from easy, and many wete the obstacles to be over come, botn in our own and In the French services. Successful manage ment would have been very doubtful under a leader without Atterbury’s pa tience, ability and force of character. Visits to our training areas by the Frertth, official and otherwise, had be come rather frequent. One of the vis itors, M. Georges Clemenceau, who al ways remained a power even when not in any oflicial position (Clemenceau was not then prime minister), called at the headquarters of the First divi sion, accompanied by General de Cas telnau, the commander of the group of armies with which it was serving. Clemenceau Urges Action. In tiie course of the conversation with General Sibert, the division com mander, M. Clemenceau, with consid erable emphasis, urged that our troops be put into the line without delay. It was explained to him by General de .Castlenau that as soon as they were sufficiently advanced the troops of the division were to be placed by brigades . with the French in a quiet sector near Luneville. M. Clemenceau went on to say that America had now been in the war ( several months and the French people • were wondering when they expected to take an active part. He said that the French army was exhausted by the war and that its morale was poor. He insisted then, as he did with even greater vehemence later on in an offi cial capacity, that it was not so much a question of troops being ready as it was of giving relief to the allies. Although the division was only par tially trained it could have been used in an emergency, but there was noth ing threatening in the situation at that time and no suggestion had been made that it should go into the line for serious work. ' The failure of our aviation bureau to keep abreast of airplane develop ment in the contending armies cost us serious delay. With a lack of data in the begin ning, little progress had been made at home on our aviation program at the end of five months. Fruitless efforts to describe mechanical construction and give definite information concern ing production and otherwise reach de cisions by cable prompted Washing ton to send a special mission to France, of which Maj. R. C. Bolling was the head. Through his ability and expert knowledge he rendered exceptional service in co-operating with those in control of allied aviation and in fur nishing the necessary technical infor mation upon which to base action at home. The investigation made by his mission confirmed the view that our manufacturers could not begin to fur nish planes before the summer of 1918. Pershing Orders Planes. After inquiry as to French capacity | to turn out planes, I made a contract ' with the air ministry late in August ! committing us to an expenditure of ! $60,000,000 for 5,000 planes and 8.500 ; engines, to be delivered as rapidly as I possible at intervals before the first j of June, 1918, on condition that we i should provide certain tools and raw | materials. To make a contract to pay ; such an amount appeared somewhat bold, but under the circumstances I some one had to take the initiative in | providing planes needed at once for the development of our air force. As aviation was in no sense a logi cal branch of the signal corps the two were separated in the A. E. F. as soon as practicable and aviation was or ganized and maintained as a distinct force. To /co-ordinate our training witli that at home Brig. Gen. William L. Kenly was sent over the latter part of August and was appointed chief of aviation in the A. E. F. Colonel Mitchell, who had succeeded Major Dodd, the first chief of aviation, was given jurisdiction over aviation in the zone of advance. Major Bolling was placed in charge of aviation in the zone of the interior, and soon succeed ed in securing a better co-operation through an interallied aircraft board. The next essential step was the training of airplane pilots, and accord ingly arrangements were made for our men to enter flying schools in England, France and Italy after they had passed their preliminary tests at home. Va cancies were held for us in the schools, but we were unable to take full advan tage of this opportunity for training because of the delay in sending over flyers. However, we proceeded with the establishment of our own training centers, the first of which, located at Issoudun, was planned for a capacity of 900 pilots by spring. Use of Gas New Problem. The use of poisonous gases in war fare had been discussed at The Hague conference in 1899, with the result that several nations pledged them selves against the employment of pro jectiles the only object of which was to give forth suffocating or poisonous gases. This action had created a feel ing of security regarding such a pos sibility. Germany had subscribed to the agreement, and when her armies disre garded this pledge and became the first to use gas shells, the impression was that they had now thrown every consideration of humanity to the winds. This action by the enemy forced the allies to adopt this weapon themselves as a matter of self-protection. From that time on the employment of gas became common to all combatants. The use of gas in warfare presented an entirely new problem to us, and the organization of a service to handle it demanded immediate attention. The first plan of the War department pro vided that the engineers should devise and handle the mechanical features and the medical department the chem ical, but this soon proved to be Imprac tical and it became evident that, as we had maintained at the beginning, a separate service would be necessary. Meanwhile application was made for a complete chemical laboratory to be shipped to France for use mainly in investigation as supplementary to sim ilar work in the states. Gas Service Established. Considerable information concerning gases and the organization of gas troops had been gathered by my staff, and on August 18 Lieut. Col. Amos A. Fries was designated as chief of the gas service. He made some further Investigation of the subject in the Brit ish and French armies, and as a re sult an order issued September 3 established a department known at that time as the gas service. Experiments were at once begun to discover new gases and devise im provements in gas masks. To save tonnage and avoid the dangers of ex plosion in transit, it was decided, after consultation with the allied serv ices, to request the shipment from the States of tlie basic elements and man ufacture the chemical products in t : : W - r Wartime Picture of Col. E. M. House. France. After thorough tests of dif ferent types of gas masks we adopted the box respirator used by the British, and a preliminary purchase of 100.000 was made to meet immediate demands for training. With the development of trench weapons and special tactical methods of defense, never had the offensive been more costly in human life than EARLY COUNTY NEWS. BLAKELY, GEORGIA ■fj - i Si General Pershing With Gen. James G. Harbord, His Chief of Staff. in this war. The ingenuity of the allies was put to the test to devise new en gines of war that would make the at tack possible without excessive losses. While the tank, which was simply an armored caterpillar traction motor car. was favored by many officers as an aid to advancing infantry, this opinion was by no means unanimous. Our investi gations, however, led to the conclu sions that we should accept allied ex perience and also adopt the tank as a weapon. CHAPTER XV I received many reminders Septem ber 13 that another birthday had come, including a surprise party by my staff that evening. As this was exactly three months after I had reached Paris, the time seemed to be passing very rapid ly, with little apparent progress against the day when an American army should be on the front line. The importance of shipping for America was beginning to be consid ered in allied circles. I received a letter from General Robertson, British chief of staff, who spoke of their in creasing losses and of his anxiety re garding the voyage of our troops across the Atlantic. As to tonnage for us, he said, it was entirely between Great Britain and ourselves, as none of the other allies could furnish any to speak of. On top of this, in conference a few days later with Lord Derby, the Brit ish minister of war. I was told that his government could not be counted on to furnish us with ships as trans ports. The substance of General Robert son’s letter was cabled to Washington, suggesting the importance of taking advantage of the opportunity offered to obtain additional shipping. A few days later we were told that needful arrangements for transatlantic trans ports were being made by the ship ping board. Gloomy Time for Allies. There was little in the general situ ation to give comfort to the allies. Losses by the British through continu ing operations were still growing. There no longer remained any doubt as to Russia’s fate, and it was conse quently certain that German troops on that front would be released for serv ice in the west. Under the circum stances the tired allied people were easily influenced by rumors. The pope’s proposal, issued in Au gust, started some talk of peace, but as it failed to condemn Germany’s vio lation of treaties and her inhuman sub marine warfare, the note did not make a favorable impression on the allies. In fact, it was criticized in terms that were not at all moderate. The vari ous replies from the different govern ments did. however, arouse some hope, which was altogether unwarranted by the real attitude of the belligerent powers on either side. The discussion was unfortunate, be cause the French people, not realizing that peace was improbable, lost some of their courage, and the depression from this and other factors caused un- , easiness among both civil and military leaders. From our sources of information, which included the intelligence bu reaus of the allied armies, we got the impression that Austria, Bulgaria and Turkey would make peace on any reas onable terms if they could do so. Visits Artillery School. The military post of Le Valdahon. near the Swiss border, used by us as a school for our field artillery, was one of several which had been kindly set apart for Americans in different parts of France. The others were at Cost quidan and Meucon. near St. Nazaire. J '' ■■ . ■ ■ ■ ' 1 m-. u ' ■t" .. Graves oi corporal j. B. Gresham and Privates Enright and Hay. > ■ and at Souge and La Corneau, near Bordeaux, and also at Montmorillon, . Saumur and Angers, with a school for heavy artillery at Mailly, southeast of , Rheims. The school at Valdahon was then under tlie direction of Brigadier Gen eral March, an energetic and alert commander. At the time of my visit the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh regi ments, comprising the field artillery brigade of the First division, were there for training. As to the signal corps, and its prog ress, Colonel Russell, before leaving Washington, had ordered a large con signment of material for both tele graph and telephone services, but so far none had been received except what was sent with us on the Baltic. Finding it necessary to establish our own service in Paris, where the city system was almost useless, we were fortunately able at once to obtain enough material for the purpose in England and France. Telephone Girls on the Job. The signal corps had, of course, to anticipate the communications neces sary in battle. Therefore definite de cisions wen required some time in ad vance as to spheres of operations. Tons of material, most of which, ex cept wire, was obtained in France, and any amount of labor was used in the actual installation. The main tele phone and telegraph lines in proximity to the actual battle area were, when practicable, laid underground to pre vent destruction. One of the crying needs when we once began to use our own lines was for experienced operators. Instead of trying to train men of the signal corps I requested that a number of experi enced telephone girls who could speak French be sent over, and eventually we had about 200 girls on this duty. No civil telephone service that ever came under my observation excelled the perfection of our system after it was well established. The telephone girls in the A. E. F. took great pains and pride in their work and did it with satisfaction to all. The Hospital Problem. The medical department’s plans con stantly received my careful attention through frequent conferences with the chief surgeon, Colonel Bradley, and his assistant, Colonel Ireland. Our prob lem of handling the sick and wounded was more difficult than that of any of the allies, as we had no civil hospitals of our own available. Full provision, therefore, had to be made for hospital accommodations in France, as only convalescents manifestly unfit for fur ther service could be sent home. The early estimates submitted in August, based upon a small force of 300,000 men, called for 73,000 beds in perma nent, semipermanent or temporary hos pitals, and plans for expansion were in hand to keep pace with the expect ed requirements of our armies once they should become engaged. While this beginning appeared quite liberal, yet it was calculated to meet further demands of the immediate future. All the facilities through France ; were available for the French, yet I they had so many sick and wounded that their hospital resources were pretty well exhausted. As there I seemed to be only a few suitable build- j ings that could be assigned to us we I had to plan considerable new construe- | tibn. This required additional labor and material, both of which were ; scarce, and although there was some | delay we managed by persistent effort to keep pace with requirements. Danger of Coal Shortage. The destruction by the German army of the mines of northern France had forced the importation from Eng- land of a large proportion of the coal needed for various purposes in both France and Italy. Lack of cross-chan nel tonnage had produced a serious situation, and the danger of coal short age during the approaching winter gave us much concern. Italy was even worse off. due to the greater distance from the source of supply. The outcome of our efforts, with the I very effective assistance of Admiral Mayo, was that some colliers, one of which was already at Brest, were or dered into service for immediate use. and these were supplemented later by vessels from the shipping board. An organized cross-channel service was completed under the control of our quartermaster department and later transferred to the transportation de partment. Although the coal question became more or less critical at vari ous times, in the main we were fairly well supplied. (To Be Confirmed.) LAND SALE. Under and by virtue of the au thority contained in a security deed executed by Bessie C. Sheffield to Herman Hachmeister, dated Decem ber Ist, 1923, and recorded in the office of the Clerk of the Superior Court in Early County, Georgia, on March 3rd, 1924, in Book 37, page 119, there will be sold before the Court House Door of Early County, Georgia, on Tuesday, July 14th, 1931, between the hours of ten o’clock A. M. and four o’clock P. M., to the highest and best bidder for cash the property conveyed by said deed and described as follows: Three Hundred Twenty-five (325) acres, more or less, in the Twenty sixth (26th) District of Early coun ty, Georgia, described as follows: The North one-third (1-3) of Lot Four Hundred Six (406) and that part of Lot Four Hundred Nine (409) which lies North of a line beginning at a point on the Chatta hoochee River Five Hundred Forty one (541) yards South of the North line of said lot and running East to the foot of the hill dividing the low land from the high land; thence North one hundred seventy-five (175) yards; thence East to the East boundary line of said Lot of Land Four Hundred Nine (409) and con taining One Hundred Twenty-five (125) acres, more or less; also that part of the West half of Lot Three Hundred Seventy-nine (379) and of Lots Three Hundred Eighty-eight (388), Four Hundred Five (405) and of fractional lots of land Four Hundred Ten (410) and Four Hun dred Twenty-five (425) South of a line running parallel with the South line of said lots Twelve and three tenths (12.3) chains North of the same. Default has been made in the payment of the debt to secure which said security deed was executed, and the said Herman Hachmeister, the legal holder of said security deed and note, has elected to declare the entire indebtedness due and payable, in accordance with the terms of said security deed, and said property will be sold as the property of Bessie C. Sheffield for the purpose of paying said indebted ness, which will amount to $4355.45, plus any unpaid taxes and plus the cost of this foreclosure pro ceeding. Herman Hachmeister will execute .to the purchaser at said sale fee simple title to the above described property. J. R. Burgess, of Turner County, Georgia, has been appointed agent and will conduct said sale. This 12th day of June, 1931. (Signed) Herman Hachmeister. Try the News for Job Printing. BULL FOR SERVlCE—Register ed Jersey bull, formerly owned by J. B. Tarver, now at Duncan Hall’s dairy, $3.00. See Duncan Hall, Dr. W. A. Fuqua or OSCAR WHITCH ARD. General Typewriter Repairing Sales—Service 306 Georgia Home Building COLUMBUS TYPEWRITER COMPANY COLUMBUS, GEORGIA Special Excursion To Texas June 30, 1931 A Fine Opportunity To Visit Texas Only one fare plus 25c Round Trip Tickets good in coaches also in sleeping and parlor cars upon pay ment of Pullman charges. Final RETURN LIMIT July 12, 1931. Ask Ticket Agent or any repre sentative for exact fare, schedules, sleeping car reservations, etc. Central of Georgia Railway INSURANCE FIRE-LIFE-AUTO Farm Insurance a Specialty V.L. COLLINS THE CANCER PROBLEM. By J. L. Campbell, M. D., F. A. C. S., Chairman of the Cancer Commis sion Medical Association of Ga. (This is the third in a series of seven articles on the Cancer Prob lem in its relation to Public Health written by Dr. Campbell at the re quest of the Georgia State Board of Health. Succeeding articles will be published in The News until the se ries has been completed.) Dr. Robert Battey Greenough of Boston, Massachusetts, Chairman of the American College of Surgeons’ Committee for the Study of Malig nat Diseases, in an editorial in the October issue of ‘Surgery, Gyneco logy and Obstetrics’ said: “The plan for the organization of cancer service and cancer clinics in general hospitals throughout the country marks a definite step for ward in providing more adequate service for cancer patients. This project has the support of the di rectors of the American Society for the Control of Cancer, as well as the Regents of the American College of Surgeons, and already special clinics of this nature are proving their value in the communities in which they have b«en put in operation. A wider development of these clinics cannot fail to contribute greatly to the early diagnosis and the adequate treatment of cancer, with the re sources now at hand, and thus aid in diminishing the unnecessarily high mortality of this disease.” Georgia is already well provided with men and means for treating cancer with the latest approved methods, and we are glad to note that this step is in keeping with the views of such eminent students of the subject as Dr. Greenough and his Committee. An erroneous belief has been de veloped that cancer is incurable. Many factors have contributed to this delusion. It seems that people cannot be convinced that a lump or sore (and cancer begins as a pain less lump, or an ulcer, or a scaly spot in the skin) is dangerous unless it causes pain or is tender to the touch. When a cancer begins to give pain, it is generally too late. Pro crastination has gone too far. Patients who have a suspicious con dition must consult a doctor early, cooperate with him and follow his advice; a conscientious, well-trained doctor will not give advice unless he can substantiate it. Only when this plan is followed will the death rate from cancer be materially reduced. Who among the people of Geor gia, having fever, would wait for a hemorrage to occur before send ing for a doctor? In such a case a cure” would not be expected. The majority of early cancers can be cured. Unfortunately, a patient who has been cured of cancer seldom tells the neighbors or friends. On the other hand, a death from can cer becomes public gossip. Our Boards of Health have no such means of preventing cancer, as they have for contagious infections or epidemic diseases, for cancer is neither contagious, infectious nor hereditary. Bad blood has no in fluence on its development. Cancer is an independent growth of body tissue. It may occur in any part of the body; but these are some parts much more susceptible than others. Certain varieties of cancer occur at almost stated periods of life; for instance, cancer of the bones and lymph glands are more frequent in children and young adults. Fortunately, these are rare. Other structures are attacked later in life. Statistical research has taught us that cancer of some parts of the body can be prevented, while in others it cannot. But, when we know the early symptoms and are able to recognize a dangerous lesion while it is still local, the majority of them can be cured. LOWREY STONE Attorney at Law Alexander Bldg. BLAKELY, : GEORGIA C. T. ALEXANDER Dentist BLAKELY, : : GEORGIA Office upstairs in Southern Stat# Life Building, rooms 5 and 6. Office hours: 8:30 to 12:00 a. m ; 2:00 to 6:00 p. m. FELIX P. DAVIS Dentist BLAKELY : : GEORGIA Prices reasonable and all work guar anteed. Specialist on Crown and Bridge work. Office in Gay building, first two rooms at head of stairs. Phone 157.