New-York tribune. [volume], May 26, 1918, Page 2, Image 26

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First to La??th? Truth: N?iw--??"WltertaW
?Advertisements
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SATURDAY. MAY 25, 1518
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are also re*crvwl.
The Lynched Aircrafters
Scarce three weeks ago the air of the
Senate was fetid with wild charges of a
gigantic "scandal" in airplane produc?
tion; Mr. Borglum's accusations were
filling the papers; and to all this our
own "Times" was adding fuel in a sen?
sational and inflammatory editorial,
shrieking "conspiracy"?a pro-German
"conspiracy"?and demanding that the
whole case be put before a Federal
grand jury.
From Detroit our correspondent, Mr.
Theodore M. Knappen, wired to yester?
day's Tribune that the Ford plant had
that day entered upon quantity produc?
tion of'the Liberty motor, and added this
word from Henry Ford himself:
"It is a wonderful creation. It is un?
deniably the finest mechanism of tho
kind the world has ever seen. It repre?
sents about the maximum of power pos?
sibilities in aeroplane motors, inasmuch
as it develops about two-horsepower for
each pound of weight. The men who
have worked out this extraordinary motor
deserve the thanks and heartfelt appre?
ciation of the nation. Instead of that
they are being crucified. I feel especially
sorry for Colonel E. A. Deeds, and espe?
cially indignant at his detractors. I have
been wondering what I could do to set
him right. There is nothing I would not
do to help him."
On the same day "The Evening Post"
printed the results of an investigation
by its correspondent, Mr. David Law?
rence. His article is in almost the iden?
tical vein of that of Mr. Knappen.
Writing also from Detroit, he said:
"I saw them test out a Liberty motor
at the Lincoln plant to-day, and with only
nine-tenths power it developed more than
?400-horsepower, which means better than
435 with a full throttle. Nothing that the
Germans have can beat that?and even
if they copy our Liberty motor they can?
not touch us in quantity production. In
fact, if Detroit has any suggestions to
offer pn how to win the war in the air
it would be to concentrate on a single
type of aeroplane and build five times as
many of that kind as Germany can
make."
As to present prospects for produc?
tion, Mr. Lawrence writes:
"Detroit is an inspiration. From its
dozens of factories and thousands of
workmen went automobiles to the four
corners of the earth. Just so are going
and will go aeroplanes. Liberty motors
and submarine ?lestroyers in quantities
unparalleled in the world. For here they
understand multiple production* here
they have dono "the impossible" already,
and, barring labor difficulties, will give
A__ica and her allies more than 22,000
Liberty motors by the end of October."
Every one who knows anything knows
that quantity production cannot be at?
tained in a day, nor in months, under
ordinary conditions. Yet this has been
attained in what Mr. Henry Ford de?
clares to be "the finest mechanism the
' world has ever seen." Nor can "the
finest mechanism" be perfected, ordi?
narily, in a day, or in months, and yet
this miracle has been achieved.
By whom?
Not by the appointment of Mr. John
D. Ryan three weeks ago. Not by the
accusations of Mr. Borglum and "The
New York Times." Not by members of
the United States Senate, calling to
heaven for vengeance on the men who
had "wrecked" the airplane programme.
For all this flood of abuse, of lies, of
shameless innuendo and accusation, who
will ever repay Mr. Howard Coffin,
Colonel Deeds, Colonel Montgomery and
all the engineers and experts who
worked with them, month after month
ma tireless effort to attain "the impos?
sible, as Mr. Lawrence rightly calls it,
and achieve, in a few months, quantity
production of "the finest mechanism the
world has ever seen"?22,000 by Octo?
ber!
We now know about the airplane
scandal," as we do about the "scandal"
at Hog Island, that it will rank as one
of the great pages in American achieve?
ment. Will the nation follow Henry
Ford in endeavoring to repair an almost
measureless wrong?
A School Board Manager
The proposal of the Board of educa?
tion to hire a manager to relieve the
board of details of executive work is not
new. The old board debated the policy
long, adopted resolutions for the creation
of the office and finally appointed Mr.
Leo Arnstein, a member of the board, to*
fill it. Mr. Arthur Somers, another
member, who is president of the present
board, had the case taken into court,
where it was decided that the law made
do provision for the place. Mr, Arnstein
thereupon "resigned."
On the assumption that the new law
"permits such an appointment, it is said
that candidates have already been can?
vassed. Theoretically the Superintend?
ent of Schools is the executive head of
the school system. But there are two
sides to the work of the system?the edu?
cational and the business. The Superin?
tendent has about all one man can handle
if he takes good care of educational mat
| ters. There remains the business side of
' this great educational concern, which
' spends more than $40,000.000 of the tax?
payers' money annually. To hnndle the
I board's business affairs is t? good sized
! job for a good man.
If the appointee selected is the right
I man h-p will be worth the $8,000 a year
; which it is proposed to pay him, and
: more. He should be, a man familiar with
\ executive work, of good "business cxperi
1 ence and distinctly not a politician or a
1 hanger-on of the various educational fac
! tions with which the city has been af
| fiicted. The place is too big to become
| mere patronage.
? Unfair to the President
In Colonel Roosevelt's full reply to
Postmaster General Burleson, which we
1 print this morning on another page, and
which will be simultaneously published
in hundreds of other newspapers, there
is the following statement:
" . . . Mr. Burleson is, of course,
only secondarily responsible in the mat?
ter. Mr. Hearst's papers are so impor?
tant and Mr. Hearst's position among the
Administration's political friends, sup?
porters and advisors is so prominent, anc
the action in connection with reinstating
him in his cable privileges Was so purelj
dependent upon the President himself
that no subordinate of the President car
accept or be credited with the chief re?
sponsibility for any action or inaction ol
th.e Administration in relation *o Mr
Hearst. The Administration is respon?
sible for the toleration of Mr. Hearst'i
anti-Ally, anti-war, and, therefore, anti
American, activities, and for the rewai'(
nevertheless given him, and the service
rendered on the other sido by Mr. Hears
was service to the Administration, ani
not to the country."
We extremely regret that Colorie
Roosevelt has seen fit to imply tha
P-resident Wilson is himself responsibl
for the manner in which the govern
ment has tolerated Mr. Hearst's disloya
activities, and that this tolerance is ;
price paid for Hearst's political service
to a Democratic Administration. W
are obliged to say that, in our opinior
Colonel Roosevelt is unfair to the Pr?s
ident. He offers no evidence; his con
elusion is deductive. From the know:
state of facts we should deduce a ver
different conclusion, namely, that th
President, not himself a reader of th
Hearst newspapers, trusted certai
members of his Administration to te
him the kind of man Hearst was, an
that for reasons of their own they rep
resented him in a saving light.
To accuse the President of toleratin
or condoning disloyalty passes th
bounds of fair and proper criticism.
Enemy Aliens Should Work
Since the theory of conscription hi
been made to include economic as we
as military man power, so that none (
draft age shall remain idle or contint
in occupations which contribute nothin
to war, it is more pertinent than ever 1
insist that a rational economic policy 1
applied to enemy aliens. Great numbei
of them are either out of work or impe
fectly employed. Although they are a
lowed to be at large, their general avai
ability is diminishing, for obvious re.
sons. One reason is that they are lookc
upon with increasing distrust, not b
cause their behavior has changed ar
for the worse, but because, as the wi
develops, human feelings run deeper.
We suppose they help take care
each other, and that many of them a
living more or less on their savings ai
capital, but that does not alter the ca
in the economic sense. One who lives 1
his income alone or on his savings is o
who has stopped producing and mere
consumes.. Under normal conditions ti
is permissible. In war time it is m
Every one should be productive. O
not engaged in useful work consumes t
surplus goods produced by others, a
that he may be able to pay money f
what he eats and wears is an irreleva
consideration. The surplus of goods i
export to our army and our allies is
duced by just so much as he consum
no matter how much he pays in mom
This is clearly recognized in the n
draft order touching men in unuse
occupations; and also in the compulse
work laws recently passed in New Y(
and,other states. Yet the economic pri
lern presented in the case of ene
aliens, idle or unprofitabiy employed
thousands, is wholly neglected. St<
should be taken to provide suitable w(
for them, preferably under governm
supervision, in order that they may
safe, comfortable and economically s<
sustaining. As it is, many of them
indirectly a charge upon the count
consuming more than they produce.
Excursions and Alarums
Almost every one must have wonde
how, month after month, for now nea
four years, the people of the warr
countries in Europe could endure
emotional burdens of the struggle. W
one reflects upon what it must mear
the millions of fathers, mothers, wi
and sweethearts, one might almost th
that the burden of the physical angi
would be past endurance.
Yet it is not. So far from that, th
is a grim determination to fight
through to the bitter end.
But let us look to our own exp
ence. The tremendous campaign' for
Liberty Loan, resulting in seventeen n
ion individual subscriptions, aggregat
over four billion dollars, is succeeded
another intensive drive for the Red Cr
And in between this, and going on ev
day, is the effective and highly insist
campaign for the purchase of war s
ings stamps.
Even the gentle souls who make up
Salvation Array heve turned aside f:
thoughts of the poverty in this world and
: everlasting riches in the next to Btand
' upon the street corners and gather the
pennies to help the wounded in, France.
Literally hundreds of thousands of
j men and women have turned aside from
; their usual activities and occupations to
take up some kind of war work. A iriill
! ion and a half more have been taken into
! the army and navy. Other millions are
' driving rivets on ships or making muni
! tions or doing something for the business
of war. Yet the main currents of life
for ninety-odd millions of people go on as
before. There is no lessening of expen?
diture. On the contrary, it is more ex
j tra v?ga rit than ever.
All of which suggests either that there
is a very considerable slack in a normal
j humdrum existence that war takes up. or
| that war itself is a tremendous stimulant
and breeds a superactive population.
Thjs tension and drive leaves little time
i for grief. But it does more. It opens up
an enormous number of new channels for
? achievement. It brings opportunities for
I recognition, for authority, for command,
! to millions who never had it before. .We
| wonder if this may not explain much
| of why civilized people so remarkably
i bear the strain of war.
What Is Your Tempo?
This is an age of speed, the critics are
fond of telling us. But has it really
speeded up the actions and thoughts of
| all of us as individuals? An interesting
! argument that it has comes from Mr.
? Ernest Newman in "The New Witness."
1 He is discussing musical tempo and sug
i gesting that our standard of musical
speed is likely to alter by reason of our
pace in life?especially by reason of "the
j greater rapidity of our daily means of
j locomotion";
We know that our standard varies ac?
cording to the state of our nerves; that
a watched kettle never boils may not be
true objectively, but it is very near being
? true subjectively. May not the nerves of
j humanity vary as greatly in the course of
a hundred years as the nerves of the in?
dividual do in the course of a day? Is it
credible that the standard of time should
be the same in people who get from Bir?
mingham to London in two hours by train
as it was in people who took two or three
days to do it by coach? Strange as it
may seem, there were people, only a few
years ago, who used to get run over by
horse-drawn venicles. How they managed
to do it is a mystery, but they did. Ren?
dered more agile, quicker in our calcula?
tions, by the necessity of avoiding motor
cars, a horse cab, as it bears down on us,
is not a thing to be taken seriously now.
Surely this change in our notions of
/ ordinary speed must'be'affecting our no?
tions of speod in music. May it not be
that we unconsciously want all old music
faster than our fathers wanted it? The
metronome tempo I listen to to-day in
Elizabeth's Prayer may be precisely the
one that Wagner adopted at the first per?
formance of the opera, yet the music may
seem much slower to me than it did to
Wagner then. One is reminded of the
cynic's reply to the anxious statistician
who asked why married men live longer
than single men?they don't; it only
seems longer. The ordinary tempi in
Wagner's older music may not be actu?
ally slower than the markings in the
score; it is sufficient explanation of our
weariness if they seem slower.
Of course, the subjective sense of time
elapsed does vary vastly, as Mr. New?
man points out. Not only marriage af?
fects it! Most of us have experienced the
queer illusion of dozing off and dreaming
through a long and elaborate episode?an
hour's job, roughly speaking?only to
waken and find that but a minute or s 5
has actually elapsed. The actual temp:>
of life, the speed of our motions, of our
thoughts, is1 a somewhat different matter.
Rhythm enters into it, and rhythm is
largely a matter of certain fundamental
operations such as breathing and heart?
beat, walking and running, which cannot
greatly vary from one generation to an?
other because of inescapable physical
limitations.
We suspect that nerves are a more
controlling factor than the mere speed of
locomotion which Mr. Newman stresses. ?
Automobiles are universal in America,
yet any city person who visits the coun- I
try, or any Northerner who visits the !
South, is impressed by the leisure of the
atmosphere. Cars or no cars, folk amble
along much as before. Uncrowded
spaces seem to make for calm whatever '
the speed limit. Nor do all modern i
speeding-up inventions increase the
speed of individual motions. The tele?
phone has probably transformed modern
life more essentially than has the auto?
mobile; yet the telephone makes rather
for a saving of hustle than not. There
was a time when automobiles undoubt?
edly jarred nerves and accelerated dis- i
positions and tempers. Now that they
have become silent and dust-proof and !
easy-swinging we doubt whether their ;
mere rate-per-hour affects individual
tempo very greatly. We can recall ?
crowded moments behind a hard-jawed
trotter that were far more nerve-rack?
ing and hair-raising than any forty
miles an hour in a touring car.
It is a ticklish business .guessing the
speed of a people or of an a<;e. There :
are always all sorts of people and all \
sorts of communities. There are even l
marriages that always seem short, we i
dare wager against the cynic.
A few months ago how moved we were
by stories from Russia of the women's
"Battalion of Death"! We clamored for
pictures. Every little scrap of news
was featured on the front pages of the
newspapers. But when the Russian Joan
of Arc arrives in New York and is regis?
tered at a hotel the incident is men?
tioned briefly. The realities are unro
mantic. The lady will not be inter?
viewed for nothing. "How much will
you give for the syndicate rights?" her
manager asks. The reporter comes back
empty-handed and the city editor won?
ders if it is really she.
Mr. Hearst's new patriotism is now
put on with a red ink press attachment.
But the most advanced camoufleurs hav?
abandoned the color red in producing
either illusion or invisibility,
-f.
Gnashing of Teeth
To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: On Monday, May 13, I read an ar?
ticle on your editorial psge entitled "The
Brotherhood Disarmed." In my opinion,
the above title gives a clear insight into
the workings of an editorial brain controlled
by capital. "The Brotherhood Disarmed"
sounds like an echo from the weeping and
wailing and gnashing of teeth which fol?
lowed the enactment of the so-called eight
hour law.
For my own information I recently con?
ducted a straw vote campaign among rail?
road men for the purpose of ascertaining
to what extent The New York Tribun? and
other papers were read by railroad men
in general. After a poll of 250 men, the
straw vote stood as follows: "New York
Globe" 87, "New York Call" 50, "New York
American" 3, "New York World" 48, "New
Ycrk Times" 12, miscellaneous 24, New
Yerk Tribune 7. You will note from the
i above straw vote that The Tribune docs not
po'l very strong among railroad men. The
; Tribune's policy of antagonizing every move
| of the brotherhoods' workings to better
working conditions, etc., is the only reason
for The Tribune making such a small show?
ing in this straw vote.
When the editor of The "Tribune writes on
| a question which involves the welfare of
something like 1,000,000 men engaged in
? railroad work ho should at least consult
j some one who has some knowledge of rail
; road conditions and brotherhood activities.
j For the advice of Tho Tribune, I shall en?
deavor to give a brief statement of the
! average wages paid to those in the train.'
service.
To wit: Regardless of the prevailing
i opinion of tho public at large, and you,
my unenlightened editor, I would say that
! a railroad brakeman's average wage is $2.80
for an eight-hour day. When a demand for
: an increase conies, tho Railroad Managers'
? Association never speaks of the average pay,
' but lays great stress on the fact that some
of the brakemen receive from $4 to $5 a
day. An investigation on any of our trunk
line roads will show that for every run
paying the maximum wage you will find
four runs that pay only the flat rate of
$2.65 a day.
What, is your opinion, Mr. Editor, regard?
ing such extravagance on the part of the
railroads? What could you do, Mr. Editor,
on $2.55 a day> with the present high cost
of living staring us in the face? Probably
if we railroad men could be satisfied with
an editor's lunch of milk and crackers we
would probably be able to save something
out of the $2.55; but on account of the nat
i ure of our labor, which draws heavily on
I our energy and endurance, we have got to
| fatten the profiteering butchers by buying
their beef.
I tako exception to the paragraph in your
] editorial which says that the railroads while
I in private hands had to yield to threats
; and .had to raise the pay of the brother
| hoods who had the power to bring about
a national disaster; that the roads were
? moved to raise the pay of the brother
i hoods in order to avoid an "unpatriotic out?
burst." In answer, I would say that the
| railroads have never been known to volun
; tarily raise wages or improve working con?
ditions. It needed compulsion to free our?
selves from England in the Revolution; it
required compulsion on the part of the
masses to dethrone the Czar of Russia;
and you will admit that the above method
' of compelling and forcing through tho hope3
! and desires of the masses has yielded us
, untold and fertile fields for advancement.
As regards the action of the railroads in
j preventing an "unpatriotic outburst," this
! statement bears a close resemblance to the
utterances and attitude of the Tories in
i 1776. As to your belief that the brotherhoods
, would have been wrecked from within had
j they carried out their threats of a nation
! wide strike, I would say that if you will
only be honest with yourself you will ad?
mit that tho brotherhoods were not bluf?
fing.
Relative to those receiving from $14 to
$16 a week and for whom you show such
sympathetic concern, I have this to say:
The brotherhoods have always been willing
to aid our more unfortunate brothers in
their light for higher wages, but when these
same unfortunate brothers refuse to help
to organize and to light for themselves
how can you expect the brotherhoods
to light their battle for them? These
same $14 and $16 a week wage earn?
ers have never attempted to organize, and
have absolutely refused to extend financial
support to any movement in their behalf.
When the brotherhood .chiefs held their
conference with President Wilson two days
before the nation-wide strike was to be
?died our President showed a clear un?
derstanding and a sympathetic attitude in
justification of our claims. In pushing the
right-hour law he threw a bomb into the
ranks of the Managers' Association, which
sent them back to their homes with a sour
stomach and a desire to rip things apart,
and the editorial of The New York Tribune
is but an echo of the retreat of the "dollar
patriots," the so-called Railroad Managers'
Association, so that we railroad men can
accept the vaporing of The Tribune with
a smile, knowing that the day is drawing
near when The Tribune to save its own face
will have to flop to the support of labor or
discontinue publication.
I do not for one minute suppose that you
will publish this letter, for we railroad men
have never looked for a fair deal from
The Tribune, but there are other papers
in New York who will publish this letter.
We rely on "The New York Globe" and
"The New York Call," knowing that we car,
be assured of a square deal on any ques?
tion pertaining to labor. H. C. KEYES.
New York, May 22. 1918.
[In the editorial referred to by Mr.
Keyes The Tribune warmly indorsed the
report of the Railroad Wage Commission,
recommending the largest increase of pay
to railroad employes that has ever been
considered, amounting to ?300,000,000 a
year; and we particularly supported the
recommendation that the largest percent?
age of increase be made to those already
drawing the least pay. What is pro?
posed is a graduated scale of increase,
beginning at the bottom and tapering off
at the top. On the subject of the broth?
erhoods' threat of an "ynpatriotjc out?
burst," it is notorious that before the
government took over the railway system
they threatened to tie it up in war time
and plunge the country into what the
President called an unimaginable calam?
ity, and that the railroads, to avert this,
gave them an increase of pay. The phrase
itself was quoted from the report of the
Railroad Wage Commission, which said:
"The government now enjoys this posi?
tion of distinction?it is not yielding to
threats; it is not compelled to a course
by fear of any unpatriotic outburst." We
did the brotherhoods the compliment to
say that we did not beiieve they would
have brought on the calamity they threat?
ened. Our correspondent disagrees with
us even there, and says that if we were
honest we would admit that the brother?
hoods Were uoi "Muffin?."]
THE BLUE COATS
? ? i w
"Once more, the world is saved."
Hermann Paul in La Victoire.
Our "Invasion" of France
With What Amazement and Doubt the Sensi?
tive Ally Watched Our Gigantic Preparations
Special Tribune Correspondence.
PARIS, May 10. America won a great
victory when she determined to
brigade her untried regiments with
French and British veterans and' gave her
hearty indorsement to the appointment of
Foch to the supreme command. Another
and greater victory will come later, when
Germany begins to feel the increased weight
of Allied man power brought about by this
decision.
But the immediate result did not so much
affect the forces of the Kaiser as the people
of France. By this generous and self-sacri?
ficing action, the new and rather dubious
opinion of American arms that had been
growing, mushroom-like, among the civilian
population of France was withered and
blighted. France?the people of France?
who had greeted the first units of the Amer?
ican expeditionary force with unbounded
' enthusiasm, who had lost that first tremen?
dous approval in a rather humorous maze of
doubt and bewilderment, once more hailed
the men in olive drab as the rescuer3 and
deliverers of their land.
Misgivings
Only a month or so ago they were in?
clined to wonder among themselves whether
after all the American army in France was
not merely the entering wedge of a great
plan for national exploitation.
Ridiculous as this may sound to one who
knows America and does not know hor
splendid sister republic, this feeling never?
theless existed, and for a 'time grew rap
I idly. It is doubtful whether a reversal of
conditions would not inspire the same popu?
lar opinion in the United States.
The trouble lay in the inability of French?
men in general to understand the limitless
resources in men and material of the United
States. When the first few regiments of
i doughboys landed at "A Port in, France"
! directors of the republic's destiny knew well
enough that they were merely the scouts of
a far mightier and utterly invincible force
that would presently come to France if the
war continued long enough.
Vague Expectations
But the Fre-nch people did not know.
They had no definite idea of the resources
of the United States. They had always
! understood that her army was an efficient
? but feeble affair. When their government
called for aid the people did not dream of
the enormous influx of fighting men, equip?
ment and material that would follow.
An ancient tale of 4 horse trade applies
well enough to the spirit of the French
civilian population a month or so ago. On
! being questioned whether his horse would
! shy, the owner replied to the would-be pur?
chaser:
"I'll show you that he doesn't. I'll ride
him down the road and you jump out from
behind a tree and holler 'Boo!' at him."
Fjve minutes later the owner picked him?
self up out of the road and fixed his reprov?
ing gaze upon the boo-er.
"I didn't suppose you'd boo so loud," he
said, aggrievedly.
Friendly Dragon
The people of France had no idea that we
would boo so loud. When Joffre and his
mission appealed for men to aid France, a
little more than a year ago, the French did
not appreciate the power that would respond
to his words. They did not dream of the
dragon's teeth he* was sowing or what a
bumper crop of fighting men would spring
therefrom.
Ever since that time ships have been
dumping men and materials into Franco
with the regularity of an endless chain car?
rier. The people were first in transports of
enthusiasm, then they were amazed, then
bewildered, then dubious, as they saw the
foundations being laid for the largest fight?
ing machine ever transported across seas.
Its size and power would be dependent only
on the length of the war. And the French
people, much as they love our men individu?
ally, looked upon this monster that was
springing up among them and observed his
preparations to smash Germany with mixed
feelings, part satisfaction and part doubt as
to what the final result would be.
During winter and the early spring one
heard the same complaint from the lips of
hundreds of civilians:
"Why ?11 this preparation? Why all this
construction? These people are planning to
stay hat? twautv-uva y?ar? ?t least. It
io
must be the beginning of some great scheme
? for commercial exploitation of France!"
i In Concrete
i
I ' This was not* the opinion of the peasant
? class alone. It was voiced in restaurants, in
| caf?s, in railroad trains. Doubtless German
propagandists in France did their best to
help it along.
As our preparations grew, as our ware?
houses and barracks, hospitals and docks
i were constructed, this feeling increased
I also. It never came to definite belief in the
I theory that the United States was animated
by some ulterior motive. It was only doubt
and bewilderment.
The trouble lay in the fact that France
| did not appreciate that America was operat?
ing three thousand miles from her base of
I
supplies. The British expeditionary force
is scarcely more than twenty-four hours
away from London. The American expe?
ditionary force is two weeks or more from
New York.
Because of this, the foundations that we
are building, the stores that we are laying
aside, must of necessity be more elaborate,
! more permanent, than anything France has
seen before.
Our hospitals might very well, as the
French have said, outlast twenty-five years.
Our great warehouses might still stand
1 when the present generation has passed. In
| the. ports turned over to us by France our
engineers are constructing enormous con
I crete piers to expedite landing. Our work
is typical army work. It is solid and will
I long outlive its need. We are building a
foundation that will support any structure
the needs of the war may call forth. But
tho French did not understand.
Hurt Feelings
The uneasy feeling regarding the motives
; of the United States was increased by the
efficiency of the army men. They have
utilized whatever suited their purpose, aftei
paying a generous price for it. But the?,
have trampled at times upon French senti?
ment.
It has been hard for Frenchmen to forgive
the fact that we have stripped a roatl neai
Bordeaux of its splendid shade trees tc
build warehouses, even if we did pay at
enormous price for the privilege. Ther?
have been other toes that we have trod upon
An officer of the quartermaster's corps ap
proached a French commander with a re
quest for lumber. He was told that it conic
not be obtained in France.
"You've got a great big wood," the Ameri?
can said, "only a few miles from Paris. Lei
U3 buy that."
He meant the Forest of Versailles
Frenchmen would as soon think of using th?
stones of Notre Dame for fortifications.
And when Americans did cut down th?
beloved trees of France, their manner o
going about the work shocked the people
If Frenchmen had been doing the job thei
would have saved every chip, every twig, al
most the leaves themselves. Yankee for
esters ripped through the woods as thougl
they were back in Oregon. They used onl;
the best of the timber. The rest the;
burned up to get it out of the way. Tha
hurt the French people.
The Climax
The necessary inactivity of America
arms while we were training our men i
France also called forth complaint from th
people.
"They do not want to support our army,
was the most frequent accusation. "The
hope to take the place of it."
These slow poisons, working among tl
masses of France, very probably with *1
enthusiastic cooperation of Germany
agents, might have brought about serioi
results 'p time. But the perfect antido*
was found only a little while ago.
Doubts Dispelled
America's acclaim of Foch as genera
issimo effectively quieted the impressi?
that we were in France for something mo
than merely to win the war. It was a pe
feet refutation. The resolution to briga?
our troops with the French and Britii
made our stand even more clear. It hud f
all time the uneasy ghosts of doubt and a
prehension that were haunting the peop
of France.
America is once more supremely popul,
here. If you were to repeat to a Frenehmi
his own accusations of a few months ago I
would wish to assault you.
'From The English I'nctry nevieu:)
"A man's reach must exceed his ??rasp, or tchat'e
a heaven fort"?Browning.
T-T EHE. high above the moorland,
?*??*? The rond ?f battle rime,
Where strong winds over the foreland
Sentier lite du.it of emu,
And where the lurk ho* spoken
To flowers newly woken,
I saw the men eonte broken.
Come broken from the (inns.
And where they passed unending,
Was music on the breeze,
And glow of fires descending.
Strange light upon the trees,
And fire from earth to Heaven,
Upon the a'r-ways riven,
And songs of souls now shriven.
About the feet of these.
Broken, they came rejoicing,
And whole of mind, and free,
Where sympathy has voicing,
And cleansing waters be.
Where eyes shall stay for seeing,
And hands, and feet, and being,
Shail wait on their decreeing,
In Love that takes no fee.
Oh! Hearts of all Adventure!
Oh! Hands of Vain De-sire!
Great beyond praise or censure,
In that ye still aspire:
What matter reputation.
When by a sure salvation,
Ye shall escape stagnation,
Midway 'twixt moon and mire?
But it shall be remembered,
In days beyond all wars,
In all lands where, ?jray-embered,
Dead campfiros face the ?tars,
Your labors and your leavings,
Your searchings and believings,
Your wanderings, and grievings,
By the red light of Mars.
Not to ourselves we labor,
Not to ourselves alone.
But each man to his neighbor,
By stick, and field, and stone,
By city street, ar.d alley,
By mountain, and by valley,
Where carrion vultures rally.
And where the jackals moan.
In one gigantic motion
The tides of Life sweep free,
And whelm towards that ocean,
Their goal and destiny:
The waves may break and scatter
The hopes may drift and shatter.
Currents may draw, rocks batter,
But no man stays the sea!
Here, high above the moorland,
The roml of battle runt,
Where strong winds over the foreland
Scatter the dust of nuns.
And when tin bees are winging,
Homewards, Huir honey bringing.
I saw the men come singing,
Come singing from the nuns!
MARGUERITE FAIR.
C. 1940
(From Tht ? Statesman)
It is a naked country, without trees;
Scourged by winds from the seas;
Bald and bare;
Harsh with sounds that drive like s.tone?
through the air. . . .
(They do say
There were forests here once on a day:
But the great wars stole them away.)
It is a tilled country, without dreams.
And every thing that seems
Really is.
There are no wavering hints of mys
teries. . . .
(They do tell
Of queer elves who used her?; to dwell,
And who fled before the guns oi" bell?)
But when I walk at noon on the bare,
The beaten ridge, where
The grass grows,
Where once, they say, the pines climbed sa
rows,
1 do hear
A singing like to harps in my ear,
And like a ship at sea the wind goes.
ROSE MACAULAT.
From a German Prison Camp ,
? i';u,it The l.und-in Setiom)
Spring comes so quietly you cannot tell
When it is near.
Nor eye nor ear
Could well discern the little buds thatsweH
The things that change the year;
Only a feeling in the air!
Joy comes so Quietly you cannot know
Where sorrows part,
Nor by what art
The weary hours of life can lovely gW*
And long-sought rapture start;
Only a feeling in the heait!
PETER WABREN.
(Second Lieutenant, R. F. C, HolH?ia*?*^
1918.)