The weekly chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Craig County, Okla.) 1905-1913, 1911-04-07
GENERAL IGNORANCE HAS
BEEN S|NGULARLY USEFUL

San Francisco, April 4-Baron
d'Estournelles dc Constant, the French
missionary in the cause of information
al peace who is making tour of the
country spoke here today, taking as
his text, 1.-The Campaign in Russia"
The Baron said, in part:
General ignorance has been singu-
larly useful to governments in con-
cealing the consequence of their wars
from the eyes of public opinion.
For long time l have been en-
deayoring in vain to find out what the
wars during the Revolution and the
first empire cost France in men, ex-
elusive of anything else. The figures
vary from 100000 to 100000. TAX
| ing only the minimum and multiply
ing it by several generations, / find
that Frances population has been re-
duced by 20O0O,0O0 in the course of
a century But for these wars we
should now in all probability, have
population of sixty million inhabitants
instead of forty who would, moreover,
be physically stronger, inasmuch as
without attempting to calculate the
consequences of drink, which has a
close connection with the matter
these wars eliminated the men best
fitted to perpetuate their kind. Even
if we limit ourselves to the immediate
consequences, we should have to en-
bark upon several years of research
to obtain only doubtful results.
I'VE must also take into account
the immense opportunities lost by
Frenchmen in all parts of the world
and especially in America. The cour-
age and heroism displayed during a
quarter of century of war were not
called into being by it, as some peo-
pie imagine, but were already in ex-
istence and ready to be utilized, in
France and abroad, to further enter
prises already begun Though it was
abandoned after the seven years war,
the work accomplished by Cartier,
Champlain and LaSalle, and later on
by Lafayette and Rochambeau-none
the less great though in different
order of ideas-sowed the seeds of an
abundant harvest that Frenchmen, in
spite of all obstacles, might have reap
ed Here were openings for our enter
prise and our commerce, salvation for
our shipping, our seaports and river
ports. Our influence and our language
would have extended in all directions.
We severed all these ties. and instead
of vivifying the New World with
French blood, we watered the battle
fields of Europe with it.
''Under the head of losses, let me
confine myself to quoting the compar-
atively optimistic estimate given by
Napoleon himself. According to
Taine Napoleon said angrily to Net
ternuch, in the course of their eight
hour interview at Dresden on June 28,
1913: What do you want of me? Do
you expect me to dishonor myself?
Netternich was bold enough to reply:
: I have seen your soldiers, they are
mere children. What will you do when
your army of youths has gone? Ma
poleon replied hotly: You are not a
soldier and you do not know what
passes in a soldiers mind | have
grown upon the battlefield and man
like l am, does not care -- fol
the lives of a million men,
"On another occasion, Napoleon re
| marked to NJ de Narbonne (accordine
to the Due de Broglie, quoted by
Taine) After all the Russian cam
! paign only cost me 100000 men, and
/ great many of them were Germans.
ellis imperial chimera devoured &
/ great many more than this add:
Taine. From 1904 to 1916 the mum
ber Of killed amounted to more thar
: l 100000 Frenchmen born in France
itself, to which we can probably ado
) 900, 900 men from outside its boun
daries. killed while fighting for him a:
allies or against him as enemies.
be offered-that the farmer should Sc
l IIect his nlanting seed with as mucl