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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



icans reached France the camp buckets 

 and kettles and pots and pans were identi- 

 fied by some observer as space-wasters in 

 shipholds. Pots that will "stack" were 

 bearable, but too many kettles will not 

 stack. So the tin and galvanized iron and 

 what-not needed were brought over in 

 the raw and contracts given to any small 

 workshop factories in France to manu- 

 facture these minor and clangorous items. 

 The idea proved sound. France is short 

 of labor, but there are still women and 

 youngsters and exempts to be had. The 

 Purchasing Board began to ask itself : 

 "Why not make more things ?" 

 Canned goods are a staple of the Amer- 

 ican soldier's dietary. He likes to buy a 

 can of peaches and a can of condensed 

 cream and pour the milk onto the peaches 

 and fragrantly eat the combination. All 

 his life he has been used to canned goods. 

 Every company canteen has handled "air- 

 tights." But they take up a frightful lot 

 of space on shipboard, and besides there 

 is plenty of fruit to be had in France. To 

 bring American canned goods to a coun- 

 try where each peasant makes a pet of a 

 pear tree is like carrying coals to New- 

 castle. 



FRENCH WOMEN TO CAN FOR AMERICAN 

 SOLDIERS 



So the tin is to be brought over in 

 sheets and made into cans in French 

 shops. Next summer the farm women 

 of France will be supplied with tin cans 

 and sugar and contracts, and will furnish 

 what part of the canned goods for the 

 American army's consumption that may 

 be possible. The French woman is par- 

 ticularly expert at jam-making, and next 

 winter the American boys will have jam 

 on their white bread. There is an annex 

 to this story, too. For some reason 

 France has never taken kindly- to canning 

 fruit, although, oddly enough, quantities 

 of American canned fruits have been sold 

 in France. It is believed this practical 

 demonstration on a large scale may mean 

 the creation of a new industry. 



If I tell the story of another of the 

 Board's infinite number of manufactur- 

 ing activities, it is only because it even 

 better illustrates the care that is being 

 taken to cut down tonnage. Chocolate is 



a standard item with every soldier. When 

 possible, chocolate candy is put on sale in 

 the canteens, and when that is not practi- 

 cable chocolate bars are offered him. 

 Cocoa beans, however, do not originate 

 in the United States, and there is a dem- 

 onstrable waste of time and space in ship- 

 ping them first to America and then com- 

 bining their essential oils with sugar and 

 sending the resultant goody to France ; 

 so that now the cocoa beans are shipped 

 straight to France from the place of ori- 

 gin and the sugar sent over from the 

 United States. French manufacturers do 

 the rest. Likewise the sweet, crisp bis- 

 cuits the boys like are no longer being 

 imported. The sugar and flour are 

 brought in and turned over to French 

 bakers. 



American splints are being made in 

 France on the same plan. In pursuance 

 of the army policy of getting ready for 

 the worst, an enormous supply of splints 

 was considered necessary. Splints are 

 awkward things to pack. They come in 

 queer, unusual forms, and must be care- 

 fully boxed, because they are very frag- 

 ile. After the standard forms had been 

 decided on by the Army Splint Board, 

 which is in charge of this item, the order 

 was turned over to the Red Cross, which 

 had promised to supply them. Acting in 

 perfect harmony with the Purchasing 

 Board, ioo tons of the needed metal were 

 brought to France and the splints were 

 made. They would have taken up not 

 less than 1,000 tons of shipboard space 

 if shipped in the completed form. 



MEN WHOSE HEARTS ARE IN THEIR WORK 



When an army requisition has passed 

 through the Purchasing Board's hands, 

 the terms of the equation are about as 

 follows : 



"We need so many tons ; 



"We can buy so many tons in France ; 



"We can import so many tons." 



Then general headquarters passes on 

 the order. General headquarters is the 

 final arbiter on all things. Somewhere in 

 that mysterious region is a sheet show- 

 ing the number of ships which are to sail 

 from the United States and the tonnage 

 space available. There is always a need 

 for a great deal more space than can pos- 



