New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-09-20
Let Us Stand With France

The announcement OF the new Prime
Minister Of France that the republic VIII
acht on until a peace is attained "hich
hall restore Alsace to his nation should
enlist the immediate and enduring sup
rort Of the American people. The worlo
owes Il 10 France, after its service or the
last three years. TO see that out or this
treat conflict that nation comes no longer
p,utilsted. no longer indefensible. More
han a century ago France gave us liberty
T,bo +;r,o has come when our soldiers
should repay along the Rhine the debt In
,urred on the shores Of Chesapeake Bay
The German has sought to confuse the
American mind about the issue of Alsace'
There should be no confusion. II some
hing Ike a century from now Canada
grown strong, should force an unjust war
,non this country. defeat US and take as
rr;ze the State of Maine the parallel
,,o,,,d 10 nerfect. Canada might allege
that Maine had once been the possession
of Great Britain. She might allege that
+ WAS essential to scientific frontier for
her TO have Maine. She might assert that
since she had defeated the United States
and the United States was bound to re-
r,er,ber the defeat. il was essential that
she should protect Montreal and Quebec
by the possession of Portland and Augusta
This is the German case with reference
n Alsace. This is the German claim to
Strasburg and Metz. Not even German
will preterd that Alsace and Lorraine were
taken from France with the consent of
their inhabitants. Maine could not more
bitterly protest passing to foreign yoke
than did Alsace and Lorraine. Maine,
after forty-six years, would not be less
,oconciled TO an alien domination than are
Alsace and Lorraine.
But there is deeper value in the
Alsace-Lorraine issue. The things that
Germans have done all over Europe in the
last three years they had done in
smaller way in Alsace and Lorraine dur
N ing the years that followed the annexa-
" ton. Iouvain was but an expansion of
2abern. There is no crime Of all the Ger
mans crimes that are now marked all over
Europe which does not find its minor
prelude in Alsace-Lorraine Alsace-Lor-
raine has been the garden in which Ger
many has grown those fruits which are
now manifest to all mankind. There she
has demonstrated the doctrine of force and
the gospel of terror as applied to help
less people. Alsace-Lorraine was to her
the sign manual of her greatness and a
God-given Endorsement Of her brutality.
Without Alsace-L Lorraine France is in
defensible. Without Alsace-Lorraine the
future Of France remains as insecure as In
the immediate past While Germany holds
strasburg and Metz she is still able to
maintain in the face of the world her doc
trine that might is right and that other
peoples have no claim to existence, other
nations no right to integrity, when Ger
man purpose is better served by destroy
ing their liberties and anneXing their ter
ritories.
Let US in America recognize that as
Belgium must be restored to its own peo-
Die, Alsace-L Lorraine must be restored TO
France The principle at issue is the same
IN both cases. Germany has thrust her
sword through the map Of Europe in 1914
and 1870. Each time she has amputated
from her neighbors provinces and cities
which her ambition desired. To-day she
seeks to extend her conquests in France of
1870 TO include the iron districts of Lor-
raine and the Belfort gateway to Franche
Comte. Her purpose is to surround her
self with weak states broken to her will
and mutilated for her greatness.
There can be no peace in Europe which
caves Belgium other than free. There
can be no peace in Europe, just or perma-
nent. which does not restore Alsace-Lor-
,aine 10 France. Across the thousands of
miles of sea, across the generations that
separate Lafayette and Rochambeau from
Painleve and Petain, comes the appeal of