uniform cheerfulness and splendid morale of the men. During quite an extended conference, or audience, with the Colonel in command, he stated that he would not exchange his men, if it were a matter of option, for any command in the Army; that he was proud of his men, and that they not only responded to discipline readily, but most cheerfully. He further stated that he would like to lead his men into action, but that the work they were performing was urgently necessary to facilitate action at the front, and that his men accepted their duties, as I learned from the men themselves, knowing that their work, although non-combatant, was absolutely necessary to the prosecution of the war.

"The erroneous opinion existing among many of the colored race, that only colored men are commandeered for the laborious, or manual work, would quickly be dispelled, among those who hold to such opinion, were they over here at the front and could observe the many thousands of white men in the Army performing the same class of work performed by colored men. In the assignment of duty over here, I find that men's racial identity is not considered; that duty is paramount. Between the commanding officer, at the point visited, and the colored stevedores there appears to be a bond of sympathy akin to that existing between a most considerate employer and satisfied and coöperating employees. Not only are our men, at this point, treated with marked consideration, without offending strict military discipline, but they are wholesomely and abundantly fed, and comfortably and sanitarily quartered. There need not be, back in the States, any concern whatever felt as to the treatment accorded, or the provisions made for the maintenance of the colored service battalions in France, so far as I have seen. Most of the men are faring as well as they did back in the States, and many of them are faring infinitely better than they did when at home, and the amusements and recreations provided for them are excellent.

"The relations existing here between these colored soldiers and the French people is fine. Absolutely nothing has transpired here among these more than 25,000 colored men gathered from every walk of life, and many of them from the ghettos, to arouse even the suspicion of fear in the most timid of white women. It was a long, tedious ride to reach this point, but what I have learned at this camp abundantly compensates me for the trip.

"Another pleasing thing, to me, about this stevedore camp, was that the guardhouse was, in size, but a small affair, and that its inmates constituted an astonishingly low number, and such as were confined in it were there for trivial offenses-mere infractions of strict military rules rather than crimes.

The Colored Motorcycle Riders

"There is a glamour about the combatant units of an army in war that very frequently causes the non-combatants who are most essential in war, to be overlooked," continued Mr. Tyler. "Among the non-combatants over here who have been overlooked in all reports are the colored motorcycle riders, who act as couriers and transporters, carrying messages, night and day, from front to front; from headquarters to the front line trenches and battle front, and back, or who rush officers, almost with the velocity of the wind, to distant points. It is really marvelous how these colored motorcyclists ride pell-mell, in the darkest nights, without headlights, along these strange, devious, forking, and merging roads of France, leaving towns, through which they pass, behind in an instant. It is marvelous how these riders so quickly learned these French country roads. They race along, at times, when the darkness is so thick one cannot see his hand before his face, with only their judgment, which never fails them, to tell them the right road to take, or how near a precipice they are riding. They race along these lonely roads at night, whose darkness is only pierced now and then by a bursting German shell just ahead or behind them, or at their side, at the rate of from 65 to 75 miles per hour. Frequently, as they race along, bearing an important message to the front, German shells fall and hit the road so continuously as to be incessant, but these daring colored motorcyclists, never daunted, ride on, indifferent to the shells, as if they were but covering a peaceful road with which they are perfectly familiar back in the states.

"I rode several miles with one last night, from one front to another, at a 65-mile-per-hour clip. He was indifferent to the bursting of American anti-aircraft shells, aimed at the Boche airplane in the sky above us; he was oblivious to the thunder of the German cannon, and their shrieking shells to our right; he merely had his mind, as he kept his eyes to the front, on getting me back to the point

which we had left a few hours before, a distance of five miles, in ten minutes. And he made it without slip or hit. When the history of this war is written some space, by right, must be given to telling of the bravery, daring and speed of the colored motorcycle riders, seventy-odd of whom are with the colored division which I am with at present."

In appreciation of the unselfish service rendered by these colored men at one of these ports, General Pershing visited them and paid them a fine compliment. He said: "When this expedition first started, the question was: 'Do you want any colored men over there?' and I said, 'Yes, of course, I want colored men.' I said: 'Aren't they American citizens? Can't they do as much work in the line of fighting and as much work as any other American citizen?'"' The General referred to the fact that he was raised in a town where three-fourths of the people were colored, and that he was proud to say that during the Spanish-American War he commanded a colored troop which did splendid work then, just as other Negro troops are doing splendid work now. He said on leaving: "I expect to come back here and organize a few volunteer units and give you guns and let you go to the front and try your hand at it."

One of the largest camps in France, numbering nine thousand Stevedores, frequently had distinguished visitors, who brought greetings from America. How happily the boys heard them, and with what enthusiastic applause they were welcomed! Especially, they will remember Mr. Ralph W. Tyler, war correspondent for the colored press, who brought greetings from the Secretary of War, and their families back home; also, Mr. Julius Rosenwald, who brought to the boys greetings from the Governors of their states, whom the boys all applauded vigorously. Mr. Rosenwald liked so well what he saw that he donated one thousand francs to be spent among the boys. One American representative especially received prolonged applause and a hearty welcome from the stevedores, and that was Ella Wheeler Wilcox. And this because her words were so helpful and friendly. Moreover, this eminent poetess was able to see something of the heroic and splendid in the Stevedores, which inspired her to sing this martial song:

The Stevedores

We are the Army Stevedores, lusty and virile and strong;

We are given the hardest work of the war, and the hours are long;

We handle the heavy boxes and shovel the dirty coal;

While the soldiers and sailors work in the light,

We burrow below like a mole.

But somebody has to do this work, or the soldiers could not fight;

And whatever work is given a man, is good if he does it right.

We are the Army Stevedores and we are volunteers;

We did not wait for the draft to come, and put aside our fears.

We flung them away to the winds of Fate, at the very first call of our land,

And each of us offered a willing heart, and the strength of a brawny hand.

We are the Army Stevedores, and work as we must and may,

The Cross of Honor will never be ours to proudly wear away.

But the men at the front could not be there

And the battles could not be won,

If the Stevedores stopped in their dull routine,
And left their work undone.

Somebody has to do this work;

Be glad that it isn't you!

We are the Army Stevedores; give us our due!

CHAPTER XXIII

"WITH THOSE WHO WAIT"

Provision for Technical Training of Draftees-Units That Did Not

Get to France-Vocational and Educational Opportunities
Opened to Them-The Negro in the Students' Army Training
Corps In the Reserve Officers' Training Corps.

The progress of the war and the gathering up of miscellaneous men from civil life to serve as defenders of the nation, developed the fact that the education of the youth of the land had been woefully neglected, even in the primary and secondary grades, but particularly in the matter of technical or vocational training. Thousands upon thousands of those inducted into the Army through the operation of the Selective Draft Law, who were ready and eager to battle for the safety of their country's freedom, were sadly deficient in practical knowledge of the simplest things essential to the wellbeing of a military organization. Their experience had been confined largely to the routine of civil life, and the great majority called to the colors knew nothing of machinery, the handling of tools (as in carpentry, construction and repair), electrical work, woodwork, operation and repair of automobiles, horseshoeing, or the proper care of animals, etc. The number actually illiterate was alarming. It was surprising to those unfamiliar with scholastic conditions among the people of this country, that there should be so many men unable even to sign their names to the Army payrolls.

This deplorable situation led the military officials to cast about for a means of raising the mental tone of the Army, to enhance its efficiency by making provision for technical training, and to carry along with such training a system of scholastic improvement, such as would enable the soldiers to read and understand army orders, to comprehend the meaning and import of signals, to grasp the true spirit of service that had brought them into the great war, and to fit them for the largest measure of usefulness and to be ready for