BIND THE WOUNDS OF FRANCE 



441 



habilitate them into a position again of 

 self-support. 



That is probably the greatest problem 

 of all the war. There is an untold de- 

 struction of property, a total displace- 

 ment of population, an enormous loss of 

 human life, a loss of animals, a loss of 

 implements — a population of probably 

 three millions of people totally and abso- 

 lutely unable to get back onto their feet 

 without help. 



WHERE ONLY THE VULTURE COULD LIVE 



About the end of March the retreat of 

 the German army over a small area 

 opened up to the world a vision of what 

 had really happened to the three millions. 

 It was but a little parcel in France that 

 was recovered, with a population of only 

 30,000 people. 



I had visited that area from behind the 

 lines and again visited it from the Allies' 

 side. I found that every village, with the 

 exception of two small areas, had been 

 totally destroyed. 



The Germans had erected battering 

 rams, had destroyed and burned villages, 

 had leveled everything to the ground, had 

 gathered up all the agricultural imple- 

 ments in open squares and burned them, 

 had taken all the animals, and had re- 

 moved all the male portion of the popula- 

 tion between the ages of 18 and 65 years. 



Even the fruit trees have been de- 

 stroyed, and that entire section, of prob- 

 ably 60 miles in length and over 20 or 25 

 miles in depth, has been devastated to 

 such an extent that those people cannot 

 get back onto their feet without an en- 

 tire replacement of all of the engines by 

 which production is carried on. 



This is but a sample of what we have 

 to expect from practically the entire area. 

 The cost of rehabilitation runs into fig- 

 ures which should startle all except 

 Americans, and perhaps Americans even 

 in the larger figures in which we have 

 begun to think. 



THE DAMAGE RUNS INTO BILLIONS 



I made a rough estimate of the imme- 

 diate amount of money required to re- 

 habilitate that little parcel of population 

 and to support them for one year ; to pro- 

 vide them with their implements, to give 



them the roughest kind of housing, to 

 get them back to the point where they 

 may get the land into cultivation and get 

 into self-support, would run somewhere 

 from seven to ten millions of dollars. 



Altogether the north of France is prob- 

 ably faced with a total expenditure for 

 rehabilitation which will reach a billion 

 and a half dollars. 



There are other problems in France 

 also demanding immediate help. Tuber- 

 culosis from exposure in the trenches, 

 from a population in many sections par- 

 tially undernourished, has spread to the 

 most alarming degree. The French, busy 

 and intent upon the war, with limited re- 

 sources, have not neglected the prob- 

 lem ; but they need help, they need sani- 

 tary support, and they need care and di- 

 rection. I am informed that there has 

 been an increase above normal in tuber- 

 cular cases in France, in the men alone, 

 of over 600,000. 



There is still a further field in France, 

 and that is the children. The orphans of 

 France increase day by day. That serv- 

 ice is one which probably touches more 

 nearly to the heart of every American 

 than any other we can do. 



BLEEDING FRANCE ON LIBERTv's PYRE 



On the children of France rests abso- 

 lutely the hope of France, because today 

 France is sacrificing her manhood on a 

 pyre devoted to liberty and a pyre de- 

 voted to our protection. 



In these three problems the American 

 people have an outlet for all of their 

 generosity, for all their capacity of or- 

 ganization, and that has never before 

 been presented to them. 



The problem of Belgium is a problem 

 much the same as France, but a problem 

 of much less dimensions, so far as we see 

 it today. 



If the Red Cross could now consoli- 

 date the whole of effort directed toward 

 civilian charity to civilian support in 

 France, it would have laid the foundation 

 for probably the greatest work which the 

 American people must undertake as one 

 of the aftermath results of the whole war. 



I have long had the feeling that all 

 civilian charities in Europe should be 

 better organized and better consolidated 



