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Show THE FRENCH IU SELUHGB0ND5 American Commander Is- sues Proclamation to His Forces Urging Soldiers to Invest in Loan. Wrm T fi AMERICAN" A R M V T N I VRAM'E, Doc. 1 :",.( Hy tho Asoc:i:ttel F'ros.s.) Further evidence of tho euu-tiniifd euu-tiniifd warm friendship hotwefn thn Arnnric-iMi and tho French forces is furnished fur-nished Iiy tlio ail frOiural Pershing is K'vin to make the third French war Ina ii a success. The bondn aro bein told to yield 5. S3 per cent and may be paid for in installments. In a proclamation procla-mation lo the American expeditionary fnreo General Pershing says: "As allies of tho French, their interest in-terest in the success of this loan is our own. A liberal response to theii; plea will mean much to our glorious allies. There were many French subscriptions to our Liberty, loan. The careful consideration con-sideration of tho French loan as an investment is urged on all members of the American expeditionary force. The commander-in-chief will be much gratified grati-fied to have liberal subscriptions made by the members of his command." In appreciation of this proclamation General Kaneau, chief of the French military mission, sent General Pershing tho following letter: ' ' The cordial spirit of your plea, ' which reasserts tho close union between our countries and conveys a pleasing compliment to the work already done by France, will be highly appreciated by the French government and the general commander-in-chief. ' ' How the Army Helps. The army itself is helping to beat the submarines. Figures just made available show that the American expedi t ionary force, by paying close attention to the business end of its activities, has released the ships of the allies ,of the task of carrying many thousands of tons of army material, the ships thus released being utilized for other service equally important. This lias been done through tho activities ac-tivities of General Pershing's board, which has bought all the material possible pos-sible on this side of the Atlantic rather than order it shipped from the United States. The magnitude of the task is shown by the figures for tho first half of November, during which one of the numerous branches of the board bought in .France L'O.OdO tons of tools aud equipment, 4U00 tons of railway ties and ICO tons of cars. These purchases involved an expenditure of 18,000,000 francs, a sum which goes to help the industries of the French, while at the same time saving the cargo space .of some, twenty vessels of 1000 tons each. ! This saving for a .single fortnight j in a single army branch is illustrative of what has been done in every bram h 1 by the. new purchasing service for 1 which General Pershing is utilizing bankers and commercial experts who are anxious to do their part in France and who, under the direction of regular army experts, are now engaged in work similar to that which occupied them in civil life. Tho price fixing policy which the United States has adopted at home in certain articles is being carried on by the army in France, aided by shrewd use of business information and special aid from the British and French governments. gov-ernments. In fact, requisitions are sent to Washington only when the desired goods, supplies and materials are not obtainable in Europe. Here is what was done about boilers, the need of which developed recently: American factories were ready to supply sup-ply them and the order was about to be placed when the board determined tho boilers could be made here if raw material mate-rial were available. The raw material, moreover, would take up one-tenth of the cargo space of the finished product, so plates were requisitioned and the ship bringing them carried a large quantity of other materials. The boilers now are being built. When the need of coal developed, England had plenty but bottoms for currving it were not available. The board promptly commandeered American Ameri-can vessels and now coal for the army, the Bed Cross and the French civilian population is coming across the channel at an increasingly rapid rate. Whatever material is need-ed, whether food, 6teel, wool, cotton or zinc, the board confers with its volunteer advisers ad-visers selected from foreign branches of American commercial nouses and these organizations give all their obtainable ob-tainable information. This ,aid also is shared with the allies, who respond with co-ordinating efforts. |