THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



217 



© Committee on Public Information 

 STEAM CRANES USED IN UNLOADING AMERICAN SUPPEY SHIPS AT A FRENCH PORT 



The American army's Purchasing Board in France makes purchases, negotiates with 

 European labor, adjusts American machines and ways of doing things to continental men and 

 women — all to relieve allied shipping and French docks of as much of the transportation 

 burdens as possible. 



sibly be secured, so that general head- 

 quarters goes over the list of needs with 

 a pruning knife. It is interesting — and 

 tragic — to listen to the men whose de- 

 partments have been pruned. They act 

 as if their entire future lives had been 

 spoiled. They are the sort of men Gen- 

 eral Pershing has on this sort of a job. 

 Their hearts are in their work. 



Once the wants are compressed to the 

 dimensions of the can-gets, the orders 

 are sent to the United States for the ma- 

 terial that is to be shipped. On the 

 French side the General Purchasing 

 Board, through its members, is hurrying 

 about, getting what can be got. The 

 Board, as a Board, makes no purchases. 

 It is only a directing mechanism — a sort 

 of a congress of prices and supplies. The 

 competition between the different depart- 

 ments of the United States Army has 

 been disposed of in the session of the 



Board in which each man has placed his 

 cards upon the table; but there is still 

 the competition with the French and Brit- 

 ish governments to be guarded against. 



This guard is absolute, where goods are 

 to be bought in Great Britain. There the 

 British Government does the buying and 

 the United States Army settles for the 

 goods bought; otherwise no goods could 

 get out of England. Not even a Christ- 

 mas card could be sent to France last 

 winter without a special license for the 

 sending. In the neutral countries of 

 Europe a Franco-American Purchasing 

 Board handles all such purchases, except 

 in cases where the Inter-Allied Purchas- 

 ing Board assumes the right. 



It is too early as yet to say what will 

 be the full scope of the Board's manu- 

 facturing activities in France. However, 

 apart from the question of raw material, 

 it must be limited bv the labor and facili- 



