On Wednesday, September 13th the Commission made a trip to Rouen.
Women in knitting mills there earn four francs daily, working eleven hours; in the webbing mills they earn five francs daily, working eleven hours. There are no unions. A great deal of the product had been marketed in Germany but this market was lost. At Rouen we saw a large British steamer loaded with soldiers enroute to the front. They saluted the American flag. The harbor was full of shipping. The boats draw twenty feet of water.
I met J. M. Belin, a manufacturer of tubes used in flying machines. I had a very interesting talk with Monsieur Belin. He told me there were ten thousand German soldiers being killed daily on all the fronts and that seventy per cent of the iron and coal formerly belonging to France was now in the hands of the Germans.
On Thursday, September 14th, we left Paris for Limoges, arriving there at five P.M. We were given a reception by the mayor of the town and the president of the Chamber of Commerce at the Chamber of Commerce Rooms. We were driven through the town, across the River Vienne. We saw an ancient Roman bridge, said to be more than two thousand years old.
[Illustration: Ancient Bridge at Limoges—Built by the Romans Two Thousand Years Ago and Still in Use.]
Also a very old cathedral. A very interesting sight, which I had seen in oil paintings, was that of women washing on the banks of the river. The river was lined for nearly a mile with women all occupied in this useful way.
Limoges is the center of the porcelain industry in France. Its exports to the United States are very large. The consul at Limoges was instructed to do all possible to aid the Commission, and, per contra, the Consul at Rouen was instructed not to accept any invitations or recognize the Commission in an official way.
We visited the Martin china works and saw a veritable "Bull in a china shop", that is to say, there was a pair of bullocks hitched to a wagon going through the warehouse while we were there.
We visited the celebrated Haviland plant at Limoges, and met Geo. Haviland, who is well known in America. With him we had quite a discussion regarding the manufacturers at Limoges increasing their output of low grade wares.
At noon on this day we had a conference with the Chamber of Commerce of Limoges. At this conference I was permitted to say a few words, which were translated for the audience as follows: