RECONSTRUCTION UNIT NEEDS CONTRIBUTIONS

Providing that sufficient funds can be raised six more members of the University in addition to the eight already named will accompany the American Students Reconstruction Unit to France this summer. These men are: E. M. Best Unc., G. W. Crist Jr. Unc., E. C. Jones aS.L.A., G. N. Gates Unc., F. H. Lindley '22, and F. J. Roelle 1 E.S. Although at first limiting the size of the Unit to fifty students, the Executive Committee, on account of the remarkable number of applications, has consented to allow about 25 extra men to make the trip. The six University students named above are among those who have been accepted among these 25.

At a meeting yesterday afternoon in Robinson Hall of the members of the University who will accompany the Unit, plans for raising the necessary funds were discussed. It was decided to appeal for funds from certain of the University alumni and also to accept contributions from undergraduates. S. R. McCandless 1S.A. will receive all subscriptions at Robinson Hall.

At present the University with 14 men accepted leads the other American colleges as to representation in the Unit. Princeton is second with nine students accepted, the Institute of Technology third with eight, and Columbia fourth with six. Yale will send five men, the University of Michigan three, Georgia Tech two, and Cornell and the Universities of California and Texas each one. Henry Corse Jr., a New York architect, has been officially appointed leader of the Unit.

Will Work Near Rheims

The Reconstruction Unit will probably leave this country about June 28, and on arriving in France will start a three-months' program of work in that part of the devastated regions lying between Rheims and Verdun. The members of the Unit will assist in the reconstruction of towns and villages in the areas ruined by the German invasion. Pinon, a town which is being rebuilt this summer by the French Government, will serve as a model for other reconstruction work.

At Pinon, a town between Soissons and Laon, will be combined all the artistic features that make French villages beautiful and all the sanitary improvements which make American cities healthful. The town will have a community house and a playground attached to the school where the French children can play the Rugby they have learned from the English soldiers. Pinon will also have an adequate system of waterworks, a public bath house and laundry, and a dispensary and emergency hospital. These features will practically all be entirely new to French towns.

The formation of the Reconstruction Unit would not be necessary if the French Government had enough money and skilled workers to carry on itself all the rebuilding. But the authorities have already spent many billions of francs in getting the population back to the villages that were destroyed, in repairing the railroads, rebuilding the canals, establishing food centers, and clearing the land of the 99,000 tons of projectiles left as a result of the war. Hence the financial resources of the government as to reconstruction work at present are not in good shape.