Show ITU LW 41 A T arv nr I 1 0 industrial panorama in the prepared by the th national 0 gi society washington 1 D C Q service Sc HOUGH barely T MS square iare miles in area and with fewer than people the has been one of 0 Eu ropes most publicized regions since the NN world orld war powder keg of 0 europe witches caldron political sore spot for years such graphic labels have been tacked onto this small but highly industrialized region lying north ot of alsace lor raine between france rance and germany from the days of attila and tile the caesars caesara down to foch and von alln denburg its valleys and wooded hills bills have rocked and echoed to the tramp and shouts of marching armies geographically the Is an irregular patch of hilly land crossed by small vallens val leis it lies alongside luxembourg em bourg forms a buffer state at ate between france and germany and was cut from the two german states ot of prussia and bavaria with a population about equal to that of boston proper it shelters more than 1000 people per square mile one ot of the most densely settled areas in all europe only such miniature european states as andora liechtenstein san marino and monaco are smaller than this tiny yet dynamic country america knows no a state a e so dwarfish war a i delaware P aware Is about three times the size y vet t has less than a third its population metropolis of the has only people yet in one year trains haul passengers I 1 sit in any stuffy cafe at bruck en watch the guests eat red cabbage and boiled pork or sip fat steins of beer as the hand band plays heavy wagner music and the place seems just another german industrial center but look into its eventful e annals or make a careful trip about its historic roads and ruins and you find a land with a past peculiar to itself problem in caesars caesara Cae sars time there was in fact a problem even in roman koman times when blond mer men from east of the rhine already had invaded this basin in caesars caesara Cae sars com ment aries you read of these early german settlers one roman noman report or of the time says that barbarians ba rians enamored of gaut gaul had bad settled here caesar feared these germans might menace tome rome itself so he helped the bauls drive them back across the rhine his battles on tile the ainne aisne and elsewhere were precursors tit of centuries of fighting along the rhine It liine some roman korean military itry roads hereabouts tire are shown on the deutinger Peu pe map of about A D one ran north from Argento ratum now strasbourg to the b basin asin about this same time the romans komans built a castle at a point on the river where it was bridged hy by their military road from froin paris to S was so named meaning bridge that early roman koman castle was the first house bouse in the now modern city of brincken bri br icken dense forests choked all the basin then forests frequented by heathen drulis by wild celtic tribes who hunted deer and wars with spears scattered ruins of men hirs dol dollens dolmens and symbols of the dould cult have been found in the S aar forests slowly through centuries of paganism tribal wars and feudalism the was settled civilized and and its its wooded areas dotted with castles vil til lages ingest and towns many M old did castles as at and ottwiller Ott tt weller were set afire by invading n french in 1793 and some of their occupants perished on the guillotine yet in gernia german n aspea speaking king today with its street cars new city hall baths paved streets playgrounds talkies tallies tal kies airport museum and brightly lit it stores with glass fronts newspapers and crowded schools there Is little to remind one of the roman boman stronghold stron hold of long ago no old latin edifices remain as in rome itself roman koman ruins tiler there are it you dig ruins of villas of baths anti and bridges some almost in the shadow of early christian churches at tholy tholey v Is a church that dates from the thirteenth century in sharp contrast near brucken Is a mosque bult by the french during the world war vat wherein their moroccan soldiers might pray I 1 strategically the F foar lies iles on a natural route between france and germany and for centuries they have dis buted as to where their boundary lines should be fixed soon after the break up of Charle magnes empire and th the tresty treaty of verdun in the saw h came german sol soil briefly for more than a thousand years sears prior to the versailles treaty germany held the except for or two iwo short periods the second being the years from 1703 to 1815 when napoleon pushed the french frontier to the rhine when blocher and his prussians advanced into F france rance in 1813 he followed the very route taken by the german hordes bordes when the roman empire fell it was so in the franco prussian war von moltke in 1870 followed niu Bl chers route of 1813 and about came one of the first clashes of that war which helped bismarck to found his german empire again ot of course in the world war the armies armies passed this way and many an allied soldier washed his shirt la in tile the the moselle and the rhine or traded cigarettes and white bread to willing frau leins for a jug of wine fly over louls where marshal ney was born and in its very heart hear t you see tile the outline of the old forts built by louis XIV of france dating as a town from its 10 people llred lived for more than years almost wholly by trading with the garrisons first F reach french then german then french again today old walls and monts moats that encircled the fort have been torn down and filled to make broad smooth streets as tile the americans did with parts of manila german infantry artillery cavalry army wagons all the money spending machinery of war made saarlouis louis louls s a busy town until after the world war when they evacuated the french came in for a while but now few occupants are found for nil all the vast barracks it Is quiet much too quiet for those thosa residents who remember the band concerts the glittering reviews and tat fat army pay rolls of other days french are scarce there german in race speech cn culture Iture and tra traditions t ons t the e aar a showed bowe hy by a prewar census only billy about one person la in with french ns as his native tongue it was simply a legal accident at versailles which nande made these people citi catl zens temporarily of a phantom state the under tinder that treaty gained no nationality no president or other ruler of its own instead a commission of five europeans Luro was nami d by tile the league of 0 nations to administer the hie terri torys affairs until the plebiscite bis cite ry by treaty the went under a cusa toras toms union with france fac customs guards were set to patrol tha line between germany and the sam and french money was put into us as to pay france for her own coal mines damaged by germans to in the war she was given the coal mines la the the treaty provided also that after the plebiscite germany might buy these mines back again it if she wished and such an it agreement was con concluded chided late in 1934 only around louls Is any french influence noticeable and that Is not due to the presence there of many alv ing frenchmen such influence belongs to the past Va old forts built when louis XIV made this a french garrison town french names and aid epitaphs in the cemetery and an ethl od local dialect current among older residents a curious blend of german and french to see how thoroughly german the region region Is in spee chand sentiment you nave have only to mingle with any holiday crowd and listen to the songs the speeches and the music or read the papers or see bee what crowds follow broad broadcasts from the radio stations at frankfurt and stuttgart industry Is intensive As in the ruhr industry here Is compact intensive and theatrical izi in its setting like volcanoes its giant mills as at Vol klingen belch forth clouds of thick illicit gray smoke the red glare late of blast furnaces for tarns n s bin black j k night into brilliant under every hill Is coal over every mine Is a big wheel on a tower tolver again and again you see the big bg wheel spin ns it winds up a cable that lifts its load from drep deep in the earth tills this Is the only place on earth where you see mines and steel mills closely crowded by forests as if bits of industrial pittsburgh were set la one of our forest reserves I 1 the wooded slopes of the winding river all covered with snow lucli res able algonquin park to lo ont ontario ario to lu winter it bedenis the woods mutt be as dense denie and mysterious as when druies druids built their altars there and hungry pagan celts belts seir searched ched for wild tile |