Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 128, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 May 1919 — Tells Of Ruin Wrought By Huns [ARTICLE]

Tells Of Ruin Wrought By Huns

United States Mining Expert Investigates Coal and Iron Mines in France. ARE SET BACK MANY YEARS Frank H. Probert Gives First-Hand Story of Unbelievable Atrocities of Huns in Destroying Industrial Life of France and Belgium. Washington. Frank H. Probert, consulting engineer of the bureau of dean of the College of Mining, University of California, member of a special commission to investigate the damage done by the Germans during the war to the coal and iron mines and the steel works of France and Belgium, after a personal investigation, has just returned to Washington with a first-hand story of the almost unbelievable atrocities of the Huns In the destruction and wreckage of the industrial life of France and Belgium. So systematic and diabolical has been this destruction in one great coalmining region, Mr. Probert says, that It will take at least five years to rehabilitate this district and it-will be twelve to fifteen years before it gets back to normal, pre-war output. He predicts that with the indomitable spirit of France, In spite of the fearful destruction to her steel works, with the return of Alsace and Lorraine to the mother land, France will eventually become the dominant factor in the future steel industry of Europe. Exploited by Invaders. Tn a preliminary report to Van H. Manning, director of the bureau of mines, Mr. Probert says in part: “Early in the war the German hordes swept southward through the iron basins of French Alsace and Lorraine, and for nearly four years this renowned mining area was held and explolted by the invaders. Many of the employees were -made captives and compelled to work In the mines under ’Germaft direction. The international boundary between France and Germany was drawn in 1871, to give the victor of the Franco-Prussian war control of the iron fields, but since that time scientific development, guided by a better understanding of the local geology, exposed for France a greater ore reserve at lower horizons than that of the Lorraine annexee. “The actual physical damage to the iron mines is comparatively small when compared to the destruction of

the coal fields of northern France, which is as reprehensible as it is complete. Only in a few cases, where pillars have been robbed in the mines, is there any collapse of underground workings, but the equipment, both surface and underground, has been misused, and where ore has been mined, the lack of development will defer realization on capital until the exploratory work Is sufficiently advanced to admit of daily output approximating pre-war conditions. The mines are not seriously crippled, but what of the steel plants in which the iron ores are smelted? In my opinion no such atrocity was ever perpetrated against the industrial life of any wuntrjrr" Magnificent plants~compa ring favorably with anything, we have in the United States, are now but a tangled, twisted mass of structural steel and broken stone. The willful demolition was scientifically planned and systematically carried out. This after the removal of all such mechanical and electrical power units as could be used by Germany. The maliciousness and efficiency with which this crime against French industry

was carried out is almost unbelievable. “In the coal districts of Pas de Calais and Nord, a sector fought over from the beginning to the end of the war, changing hands frequently, bombarded all the time, all surface structures whether of town, village or mining enterprise have been razed. Ar> ras, Douai, Bethune, Bapaume, Lens, Loos, Courriere, centers of coal-min-ing activity but a few years ago and th£ mainsprings of French Industrial life are’ gone, but the indomitable spirit of France survives and already plans are laid for the future. Bruay, at the western edge of the known coal field, was not in the fighting zone and its output has been steadily maim talned, but going eastward the frightfulness is more and more appalling, for the hate of the Hun left its mark on the mines during his forced retreat. The coal measures are overlain by water-bearing strata, necessitating special methods of. shaft sinking and support to keep the mines dry. The sfeeT lining of” the' shafts was dynamited, letting in the quicksands and flooding the underground workings for miles around. Ln the entire Pas de Calais region it Is estimated that 120.000,000 cubic meters of water must be pumped before mining operations are resumed. Having flooded the mines, the head frames .and surface equipment were systematically dynamited, tire twisted debris in many cases Alling up the demolished shafts.