The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1917-08-17
WESTMINSTER, MD.
FRIDAY AFTERNOON, AUGUST II, 1917
NO MARTYR


York Times, describing the popular
reception of General Pershing and
the American troops in that city some
time ago, drew a most affecting pic
+ure of the intensity of the emotions
excited among the French people by
the arrival of our first contingent he
says:
The French people are literally mao
with delight at what America mas
Zone and the way she has done II.
r7-.nca has suffered, suffered, suffered.
Thnrn il no measure to her loss. Prac-
+ica11v very relationship in life of ev-
CRY solitary human being has been
moro or less changed since that fate
full August day the Kaiser sent MS
guardsmen goose-stepping westward
from Berlin And at the end OF three
wears, after paying the price in full OF
chivalrous, successful defense, France
stood ON the very brink of ruin.
She knows her debt to America, and
entering into her knowledge is the
beautiful thing that from America
point of view there is no debt at all.
And so France stretched out her hands
and onened her heart, and her smile
was like st. Stephen the Martyrs.
But France is not ready to play the
martyr. The statements made in the
recent letter of NJ Andre Tardieu, who
is in Washington as High Commission
er of the French Republic, gave us
an astonishing idea of her vitality and
military strength. She has now 5000
900 soldiers in the fighting zone,
million more than she had when the
war began. When the conflict opened
she could group only 300 heavy guns
with regiments Now, after allowing
for guns lost and worn out, she had
at the beginning of July 5000 heavy
guns. most of them modern. In addi-
ton, she has been able to give 500
guns to her Allies and to re-equip and
rearm the Belgian, Serbian and Greek
armies Moreover, the French Army
holds more than two-thirds of the west
ern front, and the German divisions
are distributed in the ratio of - oppO-
site the English and 81 opposite the
French. A German division holds an
average front of four kilometers, 100
meters; French division, an average
front of five kiiometers, 800 meters
that is to say One-siXth more.
We have heard a great deal about
France being "bled white" and there
is no doubt that she has poured out
her blood like water. But she is not
a dying nation She is stronger in q
military and a moral sense than she
was at the Outset Such a country may
be overwhelmed, but it cannot be
"bled white because there is not
drop Of blood in her veins that is not
red.
The surprise Of the war to the out
side world, which did not know it's
France, or which judged it by certain
phases of Paris life, certain charac-
teristics Of its stage or of its philos-
ophy, has been the difference between
the France it imagined and France as
she is revealed in the searching light
of the terrible trial through which she
has passed. We knew that the French
were a gallant, great people, a ma
ton Of wits, of scientists, of artists,
of intellectuals, whose genius in liter
ature had fire and form almost unap-
1roachable, who were models in thrift
experts in practical affairs; but
4. fought that with all this they
9 u ~eal depth and solidity of char
ched I we have been taught
2teT- Bb on. France no longer
eeded .ess art, science, literature,
eans mercy superb and supreme
enius; it means York Post said the
IeailS1h- Lille ne" ny had commit
her day that GermA war +bo+ che
d moral suicide in this dae+rovod
al almost irretrievably -a+ions r.
or moral standing for gene ontrarv
ONO France, on the other c. GRAN
80 risen to a height of moral ror
arr and beauty which she has NE =
coached before. If Germany has los
.ou1 France has found and de- 6
,.o,oned hers, and it shines with a GU