Figure 1.-- Here we see a peasant family getting a calf from the American Committee. Obtaining livestock was vital in breathing life back into the Picardy. |
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Picardy was essentially a wasteland. The area was leveled and not just buildings. The trees were bliterated. The land had unexploded ordinance and the chermical weapons had damaghed the soil. There was no runing water. An no shops open to buy anything. There were no bakeries operating--very important in France. The task of bringing life back to Pikardy was enormous. Morgans and her volunteers dived into the task with a passion. Amd as part of this effort there were many diiferent projects. One of the most important was obtaining livestock for the peasants trying to start up thrir farms. Few had the money to buy livestock. The Committee brought some livestock from America. Mist came from other parts of Franced. This was a very costly undertaking as the price of livestock increased fuuing the War. There was food to be delivered. And to make sure that there was milk for the nediest families with young children, the Committee set up a dairy farm. They organized seed planting and also planted 6,000 fruit trees. They began importing American tractors, at first to clear debris. They began repalcing livestock. They also set up a workshop to help the returning refugees repair damaged homes. About 800 families were rehoused. The Comittee set up a store where the population could obtain needed items and clothing. In the destruction there were no oerating shops. At first the situation was so desperate that the items were given away and then gradually sold at partial prices. Government payments to war victims helped. The Committee began destributing farm implements beginning with hand tools like hoes and sythes. fter 4 years of war the population that remained and the returning refugees had nothing. The population had virtually nothing. Clinics, kindergardens and orphanages were set opened. The French Government opened the schools. CARD worked to establish Kindergardens for the younger children. They work with the Farmer's Union to organize cooperatives that set up workshops to repair machinery and acquire livestock. One popular project was was mobile libraries in an area in which libraries were not readily available to the population. (Americans of course can thank Andrew Carnegie for the Library Movement.) France before the war did not have a free public library system. Morgan arranged for a U.S. Department of Agriculture to send a group of women to teach home canning.
The Committee volnteers were assigned a village to work with. They were to meet the villagers and and aaseess the situatiom of the village as well as the special needs of the families. Important here was wether or not the family wa intact. And if the father was present and capable of supporting the family. Many of the large numbrs of wounded soldiers were not capable of supporting thair families, especially at first untl they recovered. May never recovered. This involved getting to know the villagers and conduct home visits. Here there was a special concern with the children. The volunteers all spoke French and many developed very close relations with the villigers.
There was food to be delivered. The refugees were in desperate need. And when they first returned there were serious dood shirtages, Very few farms were ooperating and priducung food. The Cimmittee received food shipments from their American operations. We think that they received food from the large American relief effort. They also received money cointributuions to purchase food in France.
And to make sure that there was milk for the nediest families with young children, the Committee set up a dairy farm. This was very important in the early stages to provide milk to the younger refugee children with familiies returning to Pikardy. We suspect that few of the Volunteers knew much about dairy farming. Most were city young city women from families in confortable family situations. We are not sure whio ran the dairy.
There was debris eberywhere. Many town and villages were reduced to rubble. They began importing American tractors, at first to clear debris.
Brining Picardy back to life was a huge undertakinhg. The damage in the towns and villsges ws massive. But the damage in the coyntry side was also huge, including the farms. And a major part of that was getting the farms up an running again. From the outset, Morgan and her teamn worked with the French people and French institutions to get the refugees back to being productive people. Picardy was essentially a wasteland. The area was leveled and not just buildings. The trees were oliterated. The land had unexploded ordinance and the chermical weapons had damnaged the soil. There was no runing water. They organized seed plnting and also planted 6,000 fruit trees. Landscape architect Mary Rutherfurd Jay joined Morgan's Committee. She managed an agricultural unit of women who trained wounded soldiers to raise crops by seed. About 800 families were rehoused. The Committee began destributing farm implements beginning with hand tools like hows and sythes. After 4 years of war,the population that remained and the returning refugees had nothing. The population had virtually nothing. Clinics, kindergardens and orphanages were set opened. They work with the Farmer's Union to set up cooperatives that set up workshops to repair machinery and acquire livestock.
One of the most important was obtaining livestock for the peasants trying to start up thrir farms. Few had the money needed to buy livestock. The Committee brought some livestock from America. Most came from other parts of Franced. This was a very costly undertaking as the price of livestock increased fuuing the War. They began repalcing livestock. Here vwe see a new calf arriving (figure 1). That was a big ticket item. There were many smaller farm animals including chickens, geese, rabbits, pids, and goats. We think at first these amimals were given away, but gradully the peasant farmers were able to come up with some of the monery. Some of the smaller animals like chickens and rabbits provided a very short-term payoff, both producuing food and something to sell. The rabbits look like pets in the pohoyogrphs, but they sere in fact a badly neededd food item nd something which could be sold un the market. Wih calves there was a much longer time horizon. Draft animals like horses anf ixen were skso important. We sre not sure to what extent the Americn Committee gotbinvolved with them, but they did get involved with tractors. We do not know just what the financial arrangements were.
They also set up a workshop to help the returning refugees repair damaged homes. This was not run by the vounteers. Morgan hired men with carpentry skills to take on z rane of needed projects such as building library furniture, including child sized iterms. They helped build shelves anf coybnters at the store. They built facilities at Blérancourt and other centers where the Committee operated. And they helped repair badly damsaged homes.
As the refugees began to return, no shops wereopen to buy anything. There were no bakeries operating--very important in France. The returning refgees needed just about everything. This included the very basics sych as needlesm,thread, and thimbles. Clothing was an important item. The Committee asigned one of the volnteers to run the shop, but she also had a village asigned. The Comittee set up a store where the population could obtain needed items and clothing. The emphasis was on children's clothes, including shoes. This is onr reason whu many of the children in the available photogrphic record seem so well dressed. In the destruction there were few no operating shops. Many of the refugees had to walk considerable distabnces to get to the shops, but they also made deliveries. At first the situation was so desperate that items were given away and then gradually sold at partial prices. Government payments to war victims helped.
Morgan arranged for a U.S. Department of Agriculture to send a group of women to teach home canning.
France had to open many orphnages during World War I and oprste then in the 1920s and early-30s. We notice mention of an orphanage, but have been unable to find details. We suspect that the Committee did not have an orphanage itself, at keast a long term facility. This was Government responsibility. The Committee may have aided orphanages the Government opned inthe Pikardy. World War I was very different than Workd War II when most of the casualtuies were civilians. The great bulk of the people injured or killed during WirkD War I were the soldiers. That meant that many children lost therir farters or had fathers would eere injured abd inable to support their family. Very few children lost their mothers. The problen was that it was the father who was ther bread winner. Thus many mothers were left unable to support the family. Many has familt support, but not all. We have found Committee feeding, but this may be feeding being conducted the the Committee clinics.
We do not yet have have details on the clinics that the Committee opened. Medical issues were dealt with by the American Women's Hispitals. The Committeed developed a close relationship with them. The Committee did open clinics. Morgan brought in French nurses to get the clinic porogram started. They helped train the Pikardy women. The clinics started keeping records on the younger children to monitoir their weights and growth trends and identify children that needed special care. We see the nurses leading exercises and testing out the children's physical development. The nures also gave lessons on hygene and nutrition to mothers.
The Committee worked to establish Kindergardens for the younger children. We don't believe Lingergardens were vety common in France. The conceot originated in Germany and had begun to appear in America. The Committee called them Kindergardens. They were more like pre-schools child care ptograms where mothers could leave younger children, both on a short and long term basis. This gave the mothers the ability to work outside the home or just to be able to run errands or take care of a range of other needs on a short term basis. At the time there were no government provided pre-schools and just getting the primary schools running again was a major challenge in war-raveged Picardy.
Anne Morgan clearly took a special interest in the children. We have , however, not found much information about the schools. As with much else, many schools had been destroyed. So new fcilities had to be secured or built. We do not know to what extent the American Comittee participated in this effort. The Committe worked with the schools that were being reestablished. This was the job of the Government. The Committee did assist with special activities, esoecially carpentry for the boys and sewing for the girls. Needed help for sewing was minimal, except for the fabric. Getting carpentry tools and wood was more of a a problem and here the Committee helped. Morgan wrote about the first sewing and carpentry classes at a school, in part because of tools the Committee provided. "The whole future is the question of the children in this country – of the very old and the very young." The French Government opened the schools. And as the Committee's work advanced, they began to help with appretieship program. We believe this was mostly for the boys. School at the time, especially for peasant families, was limited to a primary-level program.
American in the eraly-20th century was still a predominately Protestant country, although as a result of immigration (very little from France), there were now substantial Catholic minoroties. Anne Mprgan and most of the Anmerican Committee's volunteers were Protestants. This was not part of the recruoting process. It was just because most of the young women who could afford to volunteer were Protestants. Morgan was wise enough to thred very lightly with the Church knowing that so many Protestants would inevitably arouse some suspicion. As a result of her understanding of Frabce and the huge need, this did not prove to be a problem. The Bishop was allowed to review the books in the library. The books he rejected were interesting. When a villiger asked one of the volunteers to be a godmother, the villge priest was consulted.
One popular project was was mobile libraries in an area in which libraries were not readily available to the population. (Americans of course can thank Andrew Carnegie for the Library Movement.) France before the war did not have a major free public library system. And the librries tht dis exist generally did nit welcome children. Many French children, especially refugee chilren, had very little access to books. Middle and upper-class families had books in home. Working-class children and commonly rural children had virtually no saccess to books. Morgan was determined to change that. She brough in Jessie Carson, a librarian at the New York Public Library. She helped the Committee found a network of public lending libraries in Picardy. Thus was not yet common in France and woulld serve as a national model. The Committee's public libraries included children's sections with recreational activities such as a story hour. All new to France, especially rural sareas. The Committee opened up a library at its headquarters. But only a small number of locals could bebefit from this. The answer was books on wheels. The volunteers load up books on their vans--the first French book mobiles. The children came running when the volunteers show up with books. The Committee in contrast to Frenvh libraries give special attention to the children.
The Committee alsompromoted Scouting programs, including hikes out into the country and summer camps. Surolus ternts were available from the military. And this was for both boys and girls. And as part of the oprogram there was not only healthy exercize, but valuable skills such as hygenere anf First Aid being taught. At the tinme, Scouting was primarily a middle class movement for city youth. Scoutin in France caught on more rapidly for boys than gorls. Most Frenvh parents thought that girls had no business trmong around in the woods. This was the neral raection throuout Europe. It is one reason that girl scoutsing was founded in Britain as guides rather than than scouts./ As part of the American Committee effort, equal emphasis was given to boy scoutingb and girl guiding. The accepyance by the parents is a tribute to Morgan and how she ran the American Committee project.
Morgan salso promoted sport and brought in a young Texas physical edication teacher, Agnes Doran, to teach both sports and contemprary dance--inspired by Isadora Duncan who had made a big impression in America. The French children did not have a strong tradition of sport as in America and Britain. Physical Exercise classes were mostly limited to exercise and drill. This was the standard practice in the 19th century, but in America and Britain there was by the turn-of the 20th century, increased interest in sport. This was still new to France. Doran organized Sport Fetes with competions between schools and badges for the children. The parents seemed to have taken an interes because we notice many attending the fettes. And we both boys and girls competing enthusiastically in the events. The only popular sport we know of in France sat the time was football (soccer). Doran introduced basketball. Doran was very effective at what she did, but managed to alienate many of the other volunteers.
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