The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-04-12
"YOU" AND "THoU.Y
The Curious order of the New
French Minister of War.


French Minister of War.
From the New York Tribune
A decree has just been issued at Paris
by the new minister of war forbidding Of
ficers to address the soldiers under their
orders by the familiar pronoun of thou. 8"
Henceforth the more formal you is alone
to be employed. 1t is needless to explain
that the minister Of war is a civilian, for
a soldier would never have made the mis-
take of imagining for one moment that the
feelings of self-respect of a private or nom
commissioned officer would be affected by
the use of the familiar pronoun "tu.''
''Tu and "du' and thou" are terms not
of contempt, but of familiarity and inti-
macy, ana their use implies no lack of
consideration for the person to whom
they are applied but, on the contrary a
feeling of affectionate regard. In monarch
ical countries the sovereigns have always
made point of addressing their troops
with the pronoun thou" in the same
way that they apply the word children
to even grizzled and battle-scarred veter-
ans twice their age. The men like to be
addressed thus, and feel a sort of sympa-
thy Tor those whom they regard as display
ing In this way affection and interest in
their welfare.
By forbidding the use of the word ''tu Z"
the new French minister of war has done
far more harm than good, since he has
rendered the relation between French of
ficers and men more distant and formal
and has in fact, raised a new barrier be-
tween those who hold commissions in the
army and those who do not. OF course
this new departure has been prompted by
the spirit of republicanism, the minis
ter's idea being that a soldier is Just as
much French citizen and entitled to as
much respect as an officer.
In the German, Austrian, Italian and
Russian armies the officers not only use
the words thou" to their men, but among
themselves as well, and the youngest lieu
tenant may use it to his colonel or even
to his general when off duty, the idea be-
ing they are brothers and comrades in
arms. officers meeting for the first time
and the other the son of a petty shop
keeper; one the colonel of some crack
cavalry regiment, and other a subaltern
a mere line regiment. In the aris-
tocracy, that is to say, among the old
nobility, whence the parVenu and the nou-
ed, every one calls the other thou" even
young girls styling old dowagers thus
MonarchS and royal perSonages in their
intimate intercourse with one another, in
Tvariably use the pronoun thou" The
Prince of Wales addresses the Emperor
of Austria as "du," and the Emperor OF
Germany makes use of the same pro
noun when writing or speaking to King
Oscar or any other monarch. "Tu'' ana
"du" and thou" imply social equality
among the persons who use them to one
another, and If the French minister of war
had been less hasty, and had taken the
trouble of studying the history of his coun-
try, he would have found that during
the early days of the great revolutio1
at the end of the last century, when the
doctrines of equality were really enforc-
ed, everybody made use of the word "cfto-
yen" and of thou" in addressing one
another, no matter what might be the
difference OF age or official rank