Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-07-06

cphning as TO what soldiers really are. as
10 what war really means
Ihere Is the reason England's splendid
aIIly look eighteen months or more in the
making. And In the reverse sense there is
the reason through service in comnuleion
the armies Of Germany and France stood
ana died for their cause It's tho reason.
100 why the poilu is wonderful His fell
Tow countrymen with him are the most
democratic in the world and vet his sub-
mission TO military service was an instItu.
ton with him and his fathers before him
Hence he took to its discipline as duck
to water. the very moment he was mobilized,
thirty-four months ago
DOOMED TO DISAPPOINTMENT
Summed up, all this means to one who
mas lived long C'ose to the French people
who knows them SO well as to be able al
most to say what they will think eat and
say at a given moment, that there is an ad-
ditional understanding as to how eagerly
they are waiting for something immediate
that perforCe cannot be else than relatively
distant, and that they are going to be dis
appointed ere American hosts. fresh. strong
youthful disciplined, carry the bulk Of the
burden. carry the war into Belgium, and il
God is good, into Germany.
And it is because Of this knowledge Of
French people and temperament that / de-
piore most earnestly the decision of mainly
training at home, where, despite installa
ttons based upon modern warfare, pSyCho-
logically 1t will not only be impossible to
BRING about as rapid transformation of
civilians into soldiers as were the men I'm
France, but prevent also the great moral
salutary effect of their presence as thing
the blood-weary French people could sense
and see and touch produce a great moral
effect upon the nation while more quickly
fitting the men, under "A French sky, amid
the atmosphere of France, within the smell
of war itself
We should have 100000 Of them here as
quickly as it is possible to have ships carry
| them over They would mean more toward
quick action and the upholding of French
morale than five times the quantity siN
| months hence.
France is like a man battling with a
| still strong devil. The devil is tired but
| France is tired, too, even IT, thanks to Eng
! land, less so. And because willing. sympa
! thetic hands are not ready to grid them
| selves in war gauntlets, France mus
wearily hang on. She will of course. be
wonderful youth Of England beside her
| But she is nevertheless in sore need of he'll
now. That's the situation In a word
Nothing will he gained, of course. in this
| writing. Far be II from the writer's mint
| TO presume better or even equal judgment
| with those trained in the American sens,
| military. There is seen only the immediat,
| need, and also the deplorabie short-sightcc
| political policies that through congressional
! lassitude permitted the greatest nation II
| the world to live over a volcano all the year
! il was smoldering all the years, too. afte
| IL had BROKEN out into evil and eugufnl
| flame had crossed the Atlantic Ocean anC
| struck us in the face ere we unshoathet
! swords and began training men to stand be
! hind them.
It's a far cry from a widowed French o
English or American woman whose widow
| hood might have been prevented and tn
| aims of politicians Of all parties i'm Amer
lea during the last twenty years. But ther
is a connecting link nevertheless in thi
| story.