The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-02-21
FRANCE is UNFRIENDLY
CHANGE OF SENTIMENT APPARENT
TOWARD AMERICANS
Dislike of Americans Manifested in
the Newspapers and Among the
PeOpIe-The Change Due Partly
to Commercial and Political
Causes.
From the New York Sun.

conditions beneath the surface will be
the discovery of the sentiments enter
tanned for his nation by a certain class
Of the French. Indeed, if he be an as
siduous newspaper reader, choosing
his journals impartially, a long stay
will not be necessary; the sentiments
spoken of are not kept in the back
ground. They are of such a tenor that
he is at first surprised by them, then
shocked; he has, it may be assumed,
been taught to regard France as the
traditional friend of America, and ten
to one he has mental visions of Frank
lin and Of Lafayette before his eye
when he passes through the French
custom house. The question then arises
within him as to whether the French
press, when it gives voice to the opin-
ions he reads in it, really reflects popu-
lar feeling-the feeling of France for
America.
When, for instance, he sees French
papers Of every class giving open, or
but half-veiled. support to Spain in
the Cuban question, defining possible
American interference as preposterous
and impairment; when he sees them
advise Spain to declare war upon US,
assuring her of the sympathy and sup
port of all Europe, and maintaining
that the task of thrashing us would be
but half a task; when he sees them
seriously counseling a league of Euro
pean powers to combat, now the Mon
roe doctrine, now the Dingley tariff
again just American presumption
when he sees in nearly every issue of
half the French journals, whether they
be of Paris, of Lyons, of Bordeaux, of
Marseilles, OF of a country village,
sneers at American honor, American
honesty, American intelligence, Amer
lean civilization, American society, or
American what-not-then he begins 10
wonder where this traditional friend
ship Of France for America keeps it
self. He may spend weeks or months
searching the columns of the press for
single favorable or appreciatiVe
word of America, and he seeks in vain:
if there is anything at all to be said
by the French editor it is always
something something of ridiculc,
of spite, or of disdain. 1t NAV be but
a sheer or a slur but it is there all the
same.
Americans who have lived long in
France say that this attitude is not
confined to the press, because the press
has taught the people; but that it Is
all the growth of the last ten years,
They hold that the change in France
since the Franco-Prussian war is not
more radical than the change in
French character. The French people
have been soured by adversely and
taxation; once they hated only the
English; then came the Germans to
occupy place on the wrong side Of
them, then the Italians, then the Aus.
TRANS, then the Belgians, and last the
Americans In all these dislikes COM
mercial grievances played no small
part, and politics did the rest The
Dingley- bill, these people say, has only
brought to a elimination all that has
been brewing for the last decade
1t does not seem so long ago, certain
ly, since Edouard Laboulaye used to
make the chamber Of deputies ring
with his panegyrics of America and
American institutions. They called him
the "Americo-maniac'' then, but they
used to listen to him and applaud him.
too. Nowadays a, mention of America
in the same place is received in dead
silence sometimes with sarcastic
smile. 1t is not so long ago, either, that
French politicians dwelt fondly upon
the "confraternity of arms of France
and America in the Revolutionary war.
The politician of today does not go
back so far; he recalls only the incident
of the days of Maximllian, when Napo-
Icon III. received a demand from the
American government, took stock of
our navy, found it to be the most for
midable afloat, and gracefully recalled
the imperial forces from the American
continent. That is not pleasant page
in French history to the modern French
politician.
There is great discomfort in
France, said a Frenchman, a lawyer,
to an American who wanted to know
something about this national change
of feeling. 1.-THE masses, so-called, are
made up largely Of two great classes
those who want monarchy again and
those who want something approach
ing the commune They can't agree
and they are controlled by the Republi-
cans of the great middle class, so we
have republic. This republic is mod
eled upon the United States, and that
country gets the blame from unthink-
ing people led by demagogues, because
the French republic is not a good one.
These malcontents argue that there
would be no republic in France were it
rot for the example of the United
States. The same argument is put forth
by the RoyaliStS and the ImperialiSts;
they liked the United States as long as
they were a minor power, and as long
as France was safely a monarchy.
These things breed resentment Final
ly, all classes, governing as we'll as
those that may be called upon to gov
ern, are Jealous Of the prosperity of the
United States, feeling that that pros
perity is at the cost, If only'in minor
degree, of France; and they are also
jealous of the growing power of Amer
lea as a nation, just as Germany and
other European nations are jealous.
These are my frank opinions. I do not
think that the feeling against America
in France is widespread, but think 1t
is very genuine"
Another Frenchman, a banker. de-
livered himself OF views very similar.
When asked if there were not also a So
cial side to the question, he said
t'In a delicate matter of that kind I
can only be general. In the first place
you must remember that American
families in France, even when they
live here for number of years, do
not often become acquainted with
French families. We are expansive
but, for some reason or other, not with
Americans. I cannot recall a single
instance of an American family be-
coming on terms of intimacy with a
French family. The American colony
Of Paris, as you know, is confined in it's
social intercourse to its own members,
plus a large contingent of French I'M
married men, who, Of course, go ev-
eryWhere. There is no opposition in
French families when one of their
young men marries an American girl,
because the young man who Is re-
garded as a catch doesn't often do that
sort of thing. When he marries an
American girl he is usually very much
in debt, and finds himself unable to
get girl IN France with sufficient cap
ital to pay. It is a commercial trans
action purely, and it is so regarded bv