The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1917-06-02
NATIONS
FEELING
IS DEEP
by KENNETH ". PAYNE
Times staff Correspondent.

PARIS, June 2.--Amerlca has
given fun and thrilling testlmon!
of her friendship for France, Bu
does America UNDERSTAND
France?
Americans have paid unstinte'
tribute to what France has dom
In this war. Do Americans realize
what she has suffered?
A new duty eonlronts the PEG
pie of the United States today. /
Is as great duty as Is the job o
waging our part Of the war Will
full vigor. That duty IL to get bet
ter acquainted with all our new
pals in arms.
TO begin with, France is the
people OF France. France is n,
longer merely a nation, II Is thu
wounded soul of man fightini
splendidly and desperately for al
that makes life worth while.
Take any average American
citizen who has watched the wa
from a distance for nearly three
years. Put him down suddenly II
the middle of France. What arr
his first Impressions?
All In Morning.
For instance, I had read of
the universal bereavement I'm
France. but il was brought
sharply home when during
my entire first day here saw
not n single woman who was
not in mourning. And theirs
was the mourning of feature
as well rs of garment.
This wearing of mourning is moi
new, but with the opening of thu
spring offensive IL has new
meaning, for these women, already
so sore stricken, are giving still
more of what was most preciou:
In their lives. And II has mora
which Is also new to most Ameri
cans way of thought. We wht
have entered the war with words
of altruism. abjuring all mate
rial gain. must learn at once tina
the French people, for all theil
three years agony, will demand
such compensation as is possible.
We read the simple notice tina
the boys of Is have been called
to the colors. Described as they as
sembled with gaiety and enthus
iasm, it all seemed very thrilling
That is the kind of en- masse de
scription we have been getting.
But narrow IL down to
personal Incidents; the
mother whose husband fell ut
Verdun, and now her boy who
is a baby still to her, must 90.
Real, Personal.
There is the girl mother - jus
like any American girl-whos
husband fell in the great retrea
from the Marine, and never saw
the baby. Her handsome eide
brother Is legless, and now he
younger brother has been called.
These are real persona
tragedies that can be multiplied b.
the hundred thousand. Ant
in all those women Their
burns a fierce, undying spirit o
vengeance. This is sometime
America must reckon with.
The world has had ample proc
in Belgium of the Prussian pur
pose to tax the conquered cite
past endurance; and proof II
evacuated France of what German
militarism does to farms and vii
lagos. And as for the atrocities
which in America 1t has been tn
custom to think of vaguely ant
skeptically, they are tremendousl.
real to the people of France.
Here you can talk to those wht
saw the newborn babe hacked t.
pieces under its mothers eyes ant
flung from the window.
Grim Bearing.
Others have seen little boy
with their right hands cut off
And what was done to the yount
girls and women is believed nov
by millions of French people VIII,
themselves would not believe /
when the stories first came t.
them.
We Americans, after tire.
years of a semi-detached attitud,
toward these things, have got t.
learn. now that we're in the wa
ourselves, what a grim bearing oil
the outcome of the war, so far a,
the Frenche people are concerned
lies in this burning resentment
And all alike in France have
undergone material as well al
emotional sufferings.
Americans are still talking Of
no conquests and no indemnities
But whatever may be the purpose
of statesmen and peace negoti.
ators, the French people expect
some material payment as nearly
as possible with