New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-05-03
"How Long Will 1t Last ?"

this: "How long will it LAST" However
impossible the question may be TO answer
he is confronted by il at every turn. What
makes any response more difficult is that
tie same question was asked of him at
every turn in Europe. In France, in Eng
land, the same wonder, the same puzzle Is
TO be found. There, as here, the probable
duration of the war remains matter on
which few people have even a conjecture
and none a real conviction.
All this amounts to saying that the stu
alton in France and Great Britain has
undergone no superficial change in the
twenty-one months that the Great War
has endured. Neither in London nor IN
Paris does any one seriously expect peace
at the end of any time that he cares TO
measure by months or years. For France
and for Great Britain the issues Of the war
remain unsettled as yet. What they under
took to defend remains in danger; the
principle that is in the heart of the
T.enchman, who sees more clearly than
any of his allies, remains involved.
The difficulty in understanding in
America why there is no prospect Of peace
in Europe this summer is found in the
fact that there has been no general appre-
citation in America Of the real character
Of the conflict No Frenchman, for eX-
ample, regards the present struggle as
war in the ordinary sense. France IS fight
| ing Germany to-day as one would fight
.nan-eatiug tiger, as one would fight wild
IinAl, laying aside all thought Of adj
tfnc difficulties by human speech.
ITO understand this French point OF
- lew. and it must be understood, 1t is
\ necessary 20 20 out 10 the regions OF
France whore tho German has been, 1t Is
necessary TO 20 TO the villages and towns
which were occupied by German soldiers
in the opening days of the war. 1t is nee
>cssarv to see and TO hear what has been
kne there. Go to Sermaize, 20 to Gerbe-
er. 90 to any town in the region be
gen the Oruain and the Forest of Ar
g and sec what the Germans. IN this
Ince the Bavarians. actually did.
this region there is no question Of
ordinary destruction Of war. There
villages destroyed by shell fire, and
is a legitimate circumstance Of war.
there arc other villages, towns, any
nber of them. where the torch was APP
Id 10 please the passion or the desire
destroy wantonly. Women were out
ed. children were killed, utterly indie
bable deflements were visited upon
kons and upon homes, and these things
passed into the common knowledge
millions Of Frcnchmen, because the
lch armies have passed this way and
aces remain there.
lere is no anger in the French attitude
is no bitterness Of denunciation.
is no outbreak Of a desire for re
te-nothing Of the sort. The French
takes YOU TO these villages and shows
what has taken place; he narrates
reference 10 documents and official
rts what was done in these towns.
" are part Of the grim facts of his life;
is no more angry with the Germans
he would be with wild animal. But
things are so; they arc hard, palpa-
BILE facts; this being true, what can he do
but go on?
II is different only IN degree in Eng
land. In London you will see where
women and children have been murdered
by Zeppelns; the same is true in many
British cities. The women and children
who have been drowned by submarines are
ts in tbo Rrlf
on's tone and manner frequently, though
not always: but this is only an incident.
The real attitude toward the German thing
is the attitude Of a physician toward a
cholera germ or a typhoid germ. 1t IS
thing that destroys human life; it is a
peril and must be disposed Of. There is no
|. other way 20 dispose Of it; no other treat
ment than that Of the rifle, the machine
gun and the high explosive.
In America we talk about the war and
sneculate and argue about it as if it were
a war. Nothing of the sort happens IN
France or in Great Britain. Nothing OF
the sort happens in the case of Americans
when they have seen what the German
thing has meant in the countries in which
il has been expressed. To see Champagne
or Lorraine is TO put aside the discussion
Of those issues which delight the historian
alone. You go into a village and story
is told. The Germans took this village IN
August, 1914; some Of it they burned;
they took the women prisoners, and II
September, 1914, when the French soldiers
| fought their way back the women leaned
out Of the windows and begged the men
take no prisoners. None were taken
and the reason was obvious.
No Frenchman imagines that he is
fighting war with lnatiOn whose rivaI
ambitions have produced a conflict. lie