The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-03-13

= OF so terrible an alternative, better let
thousand innocent men perish in the
DEVILS isle, Thus it appears that
France despite all her armaments-
nay; is it not because of them?-ha
become so coward of heart and craven
of spirit that she dare not even do
justice to one of her own officers foi
fear Of the fOreignerl Such abject pol
troonery would disgrace the pettiest of
states without a gun in its arsenal or
fort on its frontiers. But to this
pass has come today this distraught
republic.
SACRIFICE TO THE ARMY.
The delirium will pass. Revision Is
already virtually secured, and the light
is already beginning TO break through
the dense darkness in which France has
lain so long. But for the present the
country is still in the throeS of a fever.
which springs as directly from the at
fnOSphere Of the barrack-rOom as ague
results from the malarias of the marsh.
Nations create armies that may be
strong and Independent, able to do JUS
tice within their own frontiers, none
daring to make them afraid. But
France. having sacrificed everything to
the creation of her army. the army no
longer a means to an end, having be-
come an end in itself. thus tends to de-
feat the very aim and object of its be-
tions of the nation as find articulate
expression in the press. has been in q.
very ague Of fear. 1t covered before
its own shadow. 1t trembled at the
thought of the wrath of the foreigner.
1t shTieked in panic dread at the mere
suggestions that even officers Of the
general staff should be compelled to
obey the laws. There is no crime which
its more demented spokesman do not
commit. either in imaginati n or in fact.
They glorify forgery applaud suicide,
and openly eXult in THE prospective
massacre of thousands of. their fellow
countrymen. Everything that is base,
everything that is disHonorable. every
thing that is cowardly, everything that
is false, AFFECT and criminal forms the
constant meditation Of Frenchmen to-
day. Whichever side they belong to,
these are things they impute to each
other and if they are the party in
power, these are the things they en-
ploy without hesitation in their panic
stricken warfare against a nightmare.
To such a pass has m1litarisIn domi-
nant brought our once noble France
France of the revolution, France Of
Jeanne d. Arc
TERRIBLE PASS OF FRANCE
1t is easy to see the direct bearing OF
this upon the proposal of the car. In
the middle ages the knights progress
sively increased the thickness of their
arInor until the fighting man became a
mere iron-cased mummy. He had not
sufficient strength to move beneath his
defences. In France we see the same
phenomenon in the moral field. Her
moral vitality is no longer sufficient to
move under the superintendent mass
of her ornaments. The old ideas.
so distinctively French, of chivalry,
liberty. justice, laval the sublime
ideals which made France for centuries
the knight-errant>of humanity-appear
to have persisted beneath the weight Of
her immense military system The
amour propre of the army, the prestige
of staff, have superseded the nobler
ideals of national life. Matters are
much worse now than in the middle
ages. For the iron and steel cuiras-
ses of the overloaded knights were at
least inert matter. But the aTmature
beneath which the nation is perishing
today has a horrible vitality OF its
own. 1t is, as it were. alive. and be
lieves that the body exists for it, and
that brain, heart, conscience and the
ideal, which are, collectively. the soul
of the nation is a minus quantity COM
pared with the prestige, the authority
and the convenience of the army. They.
if not the ultimate, must at least be
very near the ultimate stage, in the
self-destructive evolution of modern
militariSm. Nowhere in Europe could
the czar find so terrible an object lesson
of the results of the baneful system up
on which he is making war. France IS
a puissant ally, indeed, in the great ar
gumant for disarmament.
A DANGER SPOT.
The danger-sopt in Europe is without
doubt, Alsace-LOrraine. The people Of
Alsace see with amaZement and indig-
nation the denial of justice TO Alsatians.
Albert DTeyfus, Ii the Isle du Diable,
is an Alsatian So is Colonel Picquart.
1t is enough to bear an Alsatian name
to be bounded as German To be a
Protestant is almost as heinouS a crime
as to be a Jew. The honest Alsatians
do not understand all this Their pa
trie, TO whose fortunes they have chung
with a touching fidelity, was different
France from this. So they are ruthless
ly being driven from their allegiance,
and every day they are more and more
strongly tempted to become more re-
conciled to the German
There is, of course. a possibility that
the very madness of the house may
lead to some sudden outbreak. As
Count Arnip wrote in 1871: The.
Franch can not be judged by the same
standard as other nations. They have
no sense of proportion, and attach i'm
portance to matters that in reality have
merest trifles may lead to a revolt, and
even if it be suppressed, it may first
cost the lives of many honest people"
There is danger here. no doubt. But, as
Bismarck wrote about the same time:
1.-TWO peoples dwell in F'rance-the
French and the Parisians. The former
love peace. The latter writes the news
papers and seeks to pick a quarrel with
the other then has to fight it out. Both,
however, should clearly remember how
near the German army is at Chateau
Thierry'' The German army is no
longer at Chateau Thierry. But the
solid argument of force is quite as ire
sistible today as it was in 1871, perhaps
even more so. And now there is added
to that ultima ratio regim the fact that
the car. the ally and the friend Of
France, has summoned all nations TO q
parliament of peace.
j. Story OF Slave.
To be bound hand and foot for years
by the chains of disease is the worst
form of slavery. George D. Williams
of Manchester. Mich, tells how such