Mr. J. G. Butler, Jr., Youngstown, O.

Dear Sir:--

I have had the honor to receive your letter of November 9th and was very much pleased to note your very interesting report on the French Steel Industry.

I thank you for sending this doc.u.ment which I immediately communicated to our several metallurgical departments concerned.

I thank you, too, for the kind mention you make of our relations during your stay in France and beg you to believe dear sir, in the a.s.surance of my best regards.

Yours very truly, SCHNEIDER & COMPANY.

MAURICE DEVIES.

Arles-sur-Rhone, Dec. 10th, 1916.

Mr. J. G. Butler, Jr., Youngstown, Ohio.

Dear Sir:--

I have received with your favor of the 19th of last November, the copy of the report which you drew up following your trip to France about the steel business in France during the war.

I have had it translated, for, as I very much regret to be obliged to tell you, I do not know the English language, which deprived me of the extreme pleasure of conversing directly with you and obliged me to remain your silent neighbor, when I had the privilege of being near you.

The reading of your report has interested me very keenly and informed us in France of many things about France.

You have been so kind as to add a very elegant piece of poetry about our two flags comprising the same colors that the sun blends in its radiant light, but which none the less preserve their symbolical import. May they continue to float thus together as formerly for the glory of our two nations, which are actuated by a common impulse, though differing in expression.

I trust your visit to France at this unfortunate time through which we are living, will have a happy effect upon the continuance of the good relations between our two countries.

Thanking you deeply for your considerate attention, I beg to extend to you and the other members of your Commission the expression of my sincere regards, believe me, sir,

Yours very truly, A. VERAN, Architecte des Monuments Historiques.

French Emba.s.sy.

Washington, D. C., Feb. 21, 1917.

I offer you, my dear Colonel, my best thanks for the most interesting account you kindly sent me of your experience in France and of the sentiments inspired to you by your stay among my compatriots.

Sincerely yours, JUSSERAND.

Louis Nicolle 17, Avenue Bosquet Paris

December, 1916.

My dear Sir:--

I am much obliged to you for the reprint of your report you kindly sent me.

I have read through it with the greatest interest, and although I am a textile manufacturer, I found some very interesting suggestions in it, and at the same time compliments to my country of which I am very proud.

I hope some further opportunity may bring us into contact again and in the meantime, I remain,

Yours very sincerely, LOUIS NICOLLE.

Reims, December 15th, 1916.

Dear Mr. Butler:--

I thank you for your very interesting communication on the Steel Industry in France and on its future. I am quite of the same opinion with you and I congratulate you for what you have brought to us.

I cherish the best remembrance of the visit to Reims of the American Commission and I hope to have the pleasure of meeting you again.

I forwarded your kind regards to Mr. Representative Damour, who begged me to send you his regards.

Ever at your service for all that could be service to you, I beg you to accept, dear Mr. Butler, the expression of my sympathy and of my most devoted friendship.

JACQUES REGNIER, Sub-prefect, Reims.

Paris, Dec. 23rd, 1916.

Mr. J. G. Butler, Jr., Youngstown, O.

Dear Sir:--

I duly received your letter of November 9th, in which you were so kind as to enclose a copy of the report on the French Steel Industry which you made out following the trip which the American Commission has made recently in France.

After reading carefully this report which interested me very keenly, I can tell you that it represents precisely the actual situation of our Steel Industry.

With my best thanks, I remain, Yours very truly, J. MAURICE.

XX.

WHERE WAR HAS RAGED

In spite of the tremendous nature of the present war and its duration for more than two years at the time of our visit, comparatively little of France had been visited with the indescribable destruction marking the struggle. No war in history has been so intense, and few wars have been so long confined to such small areas as that on the western front.