The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-04-03
BARON DISCUSSES
 USELESS WARS"
French Senator Campaign ing for Universal Peace
ELOQUENT PLEA MADE
Admission of Government's Mistake Does Not Bring Back the Thou sands of Lives Which
 Were Sacrificed

San Francisco, April 2-"The useless" ness of war" with the conflicts be- tween France and Russia as the par ticular illustration was preached here tonight in the First Congregational church by Baron D'Estournelles De Constant, the eminent French senator who has been speaking throughout the United States for the cause of inter- national peace
 It was his first address in English in this city and was heard by large audience. He said in part:
 "without discussing recent wars, but merely those that have taken place be- tween France and Russia," said Baron de Constant, i've may be said to have lived through g. chapter of history which will be written one of these days under the title that enlightened pat riotism would give 1t useless wars In less than a century French armies have carried war into Russia, first to Moscow and then to the Crime. Neither of these wars has been taken to heart and remembered by the Russian people, and they have not held France responsible Neither at Moscom in Napoleons time nor in the trenches before Sebastopol did the French soldiers discover any sign of hostility, hatred or incompat- bility among the Russians The past has vanished liking and affecting spring up from the first direct contact between the two peoples, and the Franco Russian alliance seems as if 1t 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 necessary state of things to be generally accepted in virtue of reasons of state.' me gov ernments believed that both natiols were bound to hate each other' "niie the people themselves asked for noth- inc better than mutual confidence. While the two governments were de- ciding for war, the two nations were friendly, and neither defeat nor blooo- shed nor bitterness has been able 10 stifle this sentiment.
 "It was all very well for govern ments to admit that they were mlstah- en. but that did not bring back the vlc- tims to life and to the service of their country, During a visit l paid to Mos COW it seemed as if I were living the trials and sufferings of our unfortunate grand army all over agaln. AL least 6OOOOO men were mobfllZed Tor lhe campaign In Russia. They were drawn from all the countries conquered py France. and they included about 150,0OO young French conscripts. As the gen era ations fit for service In the army had been already wiped out, 1t was found necessary to lower the age-limlt and begin to- take mere boys Who, though brave enough, were physically unable to withstand the fatigues of campaigning. All these youths hao to be marched across Europe as fas as the Niemen and part of them at least. beyond over the Russian steppes only to take part in the climax or the war. the burning of Moscow, the re- treat of all the inhabitants,' carrying away with them all means of subsist- ence, and the most 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 practi- cally the same route as the French troops followed in their retreat. Even in an express train it seemed useless. It took in whole day and night, and the names of the stations, such Sas Baredino, Smolensk and Beresina, aroused painful memories. These were the places where our troops had had to fight their way back to hostile Europe. the battlefield of Peipzig and the final campaign in France.
 q saw the snow spread out over the plain like an immense white sheet. Not the least trace of a road was vis- ible for many and many mile-a waste through which our officers and men, destitute of almost all supplies, had to make their way at any cost. Every day some of the weaker suc- sumbed. Shrouded in ice before they were dead, they were devoured by the crows and wolves. Think of the nights these men passed! Even one spent in a sleeping car berth seemed long to me. but what must it have been to them and what an awakening! It is hard to say whether they had more to fear from isolation or from ambush and pursuit by fanatical enemy.
 Was it a dreaml It seemed to me as if Frances children were lying asleep under the snow and that as the train approached they rose up and held out their arms imploringly. The saddest thing of all was to have no reply to make to their doleful cry: We died for