TRANSCRIBED FROM THE DAILY ARKANSAS GAZETTE JUNE 30, 1918 P. 15
Most of the people are unable to understand how it is possible that one man earns from $33 upward every month. Thirty-three dollars is about 200 francs, which sounds awfully big when you land, but awfully small when you have been here a while. The French soldier gets about five cents a day, and his wife and children have to work to make ends meet. The lowest private in the American army get $1.10 a day while he is over here, and if he has dependents the government keeps his family from want. The word “cheap” is unknown in this country. I am told that before the soldiers came over the French franc would buy as much here as a dollar at home. But it did not take long for the people to understand that the Americans would pay any price—so they make them pay it.
A rare sight in this country is a woman without mourning. It seems that every family has lost at least one man in the war, but the spirit these people display is wonderful. They think the war is going to end within a few months with a complete victory for France. If it wasn’t complete victory they would fight until the last person in France had been killed, the women included. Women who before the war never knew work are washing clothes for soldiers, making crops and doing everything that they can in order to keep the homes going. Women of the United States think that a lot of sacrifice is being made over there, but they should see this country first and then be glad they are Americans. They don’t know what suffering and sacrifice is.
I know less about the war now than I did when I was at home. News is very scarce. We get the Paris edition of the New York Herald and the Chicago tribune, but war news is scant. We get many rumors, but the most of them are of the wildest sort. A person is foolish to venture an opinion as to the length of the war, and while we all are hoping to eat Christmas dinner at home, there are very few of us who really expect it.
NOTES: This partial letter was written by Sergeant George Cowart Naylor to his mother Mrs. George C. Naylor. He was born on July 8, 1899 in Little Rock, Arkansas and died on March 31, 1963 in Houston, Harris County, Texas. He is buried in the Brookside Cemetery in Harris County, Texas. He was serving in the Quartermaster Corp. He was described as being of medium height and build with gray eyes and dark hair.
TRANSCRIBED BY CAROLYN YANCEY KENT
Most of the people are unable to understand how it is possible that one man earns from $33 upward every month. Thirty-three dollars is about 200 francs, which sounds awfully big when you land, but awfully small when you have been here a while. The French soldier gets about five cents a day, and his wife and children have to work to make ends meet. The lowest private in the American army get $1.10 a day while he is over here, and if he has dependents the government keeps his family from want. The word “cheap” is unknown in this country. I am told that before the soldiers came over the French franc would buy as much here as a dollar at home. But it did not take long for the people to understand that the Americans would pay any price—so they make them pay it.
A rare sight in this country is a woman without mourning. It seems that every family has lost at least one man in the war, but the spirit these people display is wonderful. They think the war is going to end within a few months with a complete victory for France. If it wasn’t complete victory they would fight until the last person in France had been killed, the women included. Women who before the war never knew work are washing clothes for soldiers, making crops and doing everything that they can in order to keep the homes going. Women of the United States think that a lot of sacrifice is being made over there, but they should see this country first and then be glad they are Americans. They don’t know what suffering and sacrifice is.
I know less about the war now than I did when I was at home. News is very scarce. We get the Paris edition of the New York Herald and the Chicago tribune, but war news is scant. We get many rumors, but the most of them are of the wildest sort. A person is foolish to venture an opinion as to the length of the war, and while we all are hoping to eat Christmas dinner at home, there are very few of us who really expect it.
NOTES: This partial letter was written by Sergeant George Cowart Naylor to his mother Mrs. George C. Naylor. He was born on July 8, 1899 in Little Rock, Arkansas and died on March 31, 1963 in Houston, Harris County, Texas. He is buried in the Brookside Cemetery in Harris County, Texas. He was serving in the Quartermaster Corp. He was described as being of medium height and build with gray eyes and dark hair.
TRANSCRIBED BY CAROLYN YANCEY KENT