FIRST AID AMBULANCES FOR BREAKDOWNS
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Experts from American Factories to Take Charge of
Efficiency Problems
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Uncle Samuel has gone into the garage business here in France. He has
gone into it feet first. He knows the importance of the automobile game
in modern warfare; he realizes that if Napoleon the Great had only had
one "Henry" at the battle of Waterloo, Marshal Blucher's famous advance
through the mud would have been in vain. So he is determined, by aid of
all the up-to-date motors, all the up-to-date mechanics and chauffeurs
and technical experts he can muster, to prevent any of Marshal Blucher's
Prussian successors from stealing a march on him.

Fifty thousand motor vehicles, roughly speaking, represent Uncle
Samuel's immediate needs for his charges in France. Of these, some
38,000 will be trucks, some 2,500 ambulances, some 3,000 "plain darn
autos," and some 6,500 motorcycles. To take care of this vast motor
fleet, to run it, keep it in repair, and so forth, our Uncle will need
about 150,000 men--a young army in itself.

When one stops to consider the factories, repair shops, rebuilding
stations and what not that will be required, one can see that Uncle
Sam's garage is going to be no five-and-ten affair. It is going to be a
real infant industry all by its lonesome; and already it is a pretty
husky infant, with a loud honk-honk instead of a teething cry. In fact,
in the few months since our collective arrival in France Uncle Sam has
built up such an organization to keep his cars on the roads as to
stagger the imagination of the men of big business, both of our own
country and of our allies who have come to look it over.

These Are Real Experts

The A. E. F.--and this is news to many of its members--has, right here
in France, a fully equipped automobile factory which is able not only to
rebuild from the ground up any of a dozen or more makes of motors, but
to turn out parts, tools, anything required from the vast stores of raw
materials which has been shipped overseas for the purpose, with the
special machinery which has been torn up in the States and replanted
here. The factory is going to employ thousands of expert mechanics, and
is going to have a capacity for general repair work unequalled by any
similar plant back home.

People who dwell within the desolate region boun