El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-04-03
USELESSNESS OF
WAR DEMONSTRATED
Eminent French Statesman
Pleads for international
Peace.

q ESTOurnelleS de COuSIdAlts TIC HAOASAA
/ missionary in the cause Of international
peace who is making a tour of the
l country, spoke here last night, taking
as his text. The campaign in Russia,
said in part:
General ignorance has been singu-
/ larly useful TO governments in conceal
! ing the consequence OF their wars
/ from the eyes of public opinion.
( For a long time I have been en-
! deavoring in vain to find out what the
wars during the Revolution and the
| first empire cost France in men, ex-
1 elusive of everything else. The fg-
ures vary from 100000 to 100000
| Taking only the minimum and multi
! plying 1t by several generations, L 1lnd
| that Frances population has been re-
duced by 20.OeO.oO0 in the course Oh
century But for these wars We should
now in all probability, have a popula-
| ton of $4,000, 900 inhabitants instead
| of 40 who would, moreover, be phys1-
callv stronger, inasmuch as-Without
attempting to calculate the conse-
! quences of drink, which has a close
connection with the matter-these
wars eliminated the men best fitted TO
perpetuate their kind.
UseIessneSs of War.
The uselessneS of war, with the con-
flfcts between France and Russia as
the particular illustration was preached
by baron d'EstournelleS de Constant
without discussing recent wars,
but merely those that have taken place
tween France and Russia" said baron
de Constant we may be said TO have
lived through a chapter OF history
which will be written one OF these
DAYS under the title that enlightened
patriotism would give it 'useles wars.
In less than a century, French armies
have carried war into Russia, first to
Moscow and then to the Crimea- Ne1-
Their of those wars has been taken TO
heart and remembered by the Russian
people, and they have not held France
responsible. Neither at Moscow in Ma
! poleon's time nor in the trenches be
fore Sebastopol did the French SOL
diers discover any sign Of hostility,
hatred or incompatibility among the
/ Russians The past has vanished;
I liking and affection spring up from
! the first contact between the two peo-
pies, and the Franco Russian alliance
seems as If it had always existed.
And yet the two governments. be-
! fore they came to an understanding,
had long regarded war between the
/ two countries as a natural and neces-
sary state of things to be generally
accepted in virtue Of reasons Of state
/ The governments believed that both
nations were boGrd to hate each other
while the people themselves asked for
nothing better than mutual confidence
! While the two governments were de-
! Gliding for war, the two nations were
I friendly. and neither defeat nor blood
/ shed nor bitterness has been able to
stifle this sentiment
1T was all very well for govern
ments to admit that they were mistak-
en-. but that did not bring back the
victims to life and to the service Of
their country. During a visit l paid
/ to Moscow, it seemed as if I were liv-
| ing the trials and sufferings Of our
unfortunate Grand Army all over
again. At least 100000 men were mo-
bilized for the campaign in Russia.
! They were drawn from all the cOun-
tries conquered by France, and they
included about 10000 young French
| conscripts. AS the generations fit for
/ service in the army had been already
wiped out, it was found necessary to
/ lower the age limit and begin to take
mere boys who, though brave enough.
were physically unable to withstand
/ the fattgueB Of campaigning. All
| those youths had to be marched across
Europe as far as the Niemen and part
of them, at least, beyond over the
Russian steppes, only to take part in
the climax of the war, the burning
| of Moscow, the retreat of all the in
! habitants, carrying away with them all
| means of subsistence, and the most
I pitiless of winters, combined with the
retreat, coming as the denouement Of
! the tragedy.
my way back to France from Mos
! COW by railway took me over prac-
ticsI1y the same route as the French
/ troops followed in their retreat. Even
| in an express train it seemed endless.
I 1t took in a whole day and night. and
! the names Of the stations, such as
Berodino, Smolensk and Beresino.
aroused painful memories. Those were
the places where our troops had TO
! fight their way back to a hostile Eu
rope. the battlefield Of Leipzig and the
/ final campaign in France"