Buckeye Valley News And Buckeye Review

FIRST SHOE REPAIRS . . . Volunteer French shoe cobblers are shown at work in one of the shoe repair projects established in Paris by the Salvation Army to provide repairs denied Parisians since outbreak of war.

ON THEIR FEET AGAIN
Parisians Secure First Shoe Repairs Since War Outbreak

Twenty-five thousand Parisians who have been wearing the same battered and tattered shoes since the war cut off all sources of leather—and new shoes—are having their first half-soles and new heels since 1940, as a result of a shoe repair project launched by the Salvation Army.

Spurred by reports that shoes are the most needed article in France today, the Salvation Army recently dispatched 500 shoe repair kits to that country. Each kit contained enough material for the repair of 50 pairs of shoes. Leather soles, leather and rubber heels, pieces of leather for patching of sides and uppers were included in the kit, along with a hammer, repair knife and other equipment.

Several Parisian shoe cobblers volunteered their services to the French Salvation army and these men have been working in the welfare department of the "Armee du Salut," taking care of long queues of French men, women and children, who were urged to come for free shoe repairs.

Referring to the dire need for shoes in France, returning Salvation Army investigators report that the few new shoes on sale not only are extremely expensive but also are very uncomfortable, the soles being made of wood and the tops of a heavy cotton material. Poorer people have managed to half-sole their old shoes with strips of abandoned tires while many, unable to procure even this material, are wearing shoes that literally are tied on. Many poor people are wearing makeshift sandals made of thin slats of wood.