The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1917-05-12
AMERICAS TRIBUTE TO JOFFRE

The middle west has been paying its tributes to General
Jofre, marshal of France. He is a great man to have as the
guest of the nation. When the history of this greatest of all
wars is written his name will stand near the top of the list, if
it does not top them all.
1t was General Jofre who met the German onslaught when
it seemed as inevitable as fate and rolled the tide of field gray
back into disorder. Won Kluck and Won Buelow and the crown
prince were at that time all advancing upon Paris and the med
ais for the victory had already been struck off with the words
Mach Paris" on one side.
They came with an army of nearly two millions of men,
three-quarters of a million and more came by way of Belgium,
entering France by one of the doors that France had left open
on the assumption that Belgium was neutral territory and that
no enemy would violate that neutrality. But at Berlin they
"scrapped" that neutrality and entered by the way that they
found open. Those who watched that host marching forward
predicted that the end of the war was already in sight, they
seemed so many and so formidable. Probably no finer, no bet
ter prepared army ever marched on the earth. There was moth
ing lacking in that magnificent German organization, not a
button was missing on a uniform and their guns and equipment
were all of the best. Uhlans rode before, proud, naughty, al
most insolent in the consciousness that they had an invincible
army behind them, while the grave diggers-even to that the
German organization was co~mplete-brought up the rear.
France trembled and the civilized world trembled with her.
The government was ready to leave Paris, to move to Bordeaux.
Ielplessness and hopelessness filled the land and filled the
world with sorrow.
The French army was not prepared to meet the Teutons on
the Belgian borders, for the French army was hardly in being
as yet. France had not realized that the war was so near. She
had not dreamed of such an attack. But the nation rallied, raj
lied under the calm and wise leadership of General Joffre. The
French papers, especially those of Paris, urged him to meet the
Germans at the border. But he knew better. He knew that he
was not prepared TO meet them there. 80 ne Tell ack, Sacfl-
fcing the precious provinces of northern France rather than
sacrificing the more precious blood of her army.
It was on the Marine that he finally made his stand, and
word was sent to every soldier that France expected each one
to do his duty, to save France or to die in the attempt, for
without France life for a Frenchman would not be worth the
living. And they did meet them and they did hold them, and
that when the exultant Germans had reached at one point, can
non-shot distance of the outer walls of the city. That was the
battle of the Marine. The German writers pretended that there
was no such battle. There wasn't for many of them, for they
We're in retreat before the battle was we'll under way, and they
retreated so rapidly that the French, who seem to have been
without cavalry to follow up their victory, could not overtake
them. Won Kuck and Won BuelOW both fell back-an their ad-
herents blame the crown prince, whose army had been thor
oughly licked, for the catastrophe. They even whispered that
tn crown prime and his staff had been prematurely celebrating
the victory of mach Paris" on the champagne in the cellars of
the invaded country. But Won Kluck and Won Buelow went into
the discard and Won Moltke, the director general of the expedi-
ton, was never heard of again as a military factor. On the
Aisne the Germans finally succeeded in making a stand, and
there the long trench warfare began, until they were driven out
by the combined Anglo French offensive beginning last July,
and still under way.
That was Joffre's first victory. 1t was the first ray of hope
for the allies. He turned the tide that was sweeping onward,
sweeping like the doom of the earth. Tt was something great
and magnificent to turn back so formidable an army. It was
the first staggering setback for the Prussians, and they have
never been able to recover from that defeat. The battle of the
Marine, in a sense, decided the fate of this war. The war was
brought to an issue on that field and all the rest has been
simply the lingering German agony, a series of efforts to re-
trieve what they lost then and there. All glory to Marshall
Joffre. Americas tribute of today is the tribute the whole
world will sometime pay.