Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-05-07
THE COMMON CAUSE

L
to Paris than New York is to Phila-
delphia. For thirty-three months the
man-power of France-s,0ooo 900 at the
most at the beginning-has stood them
on. Count out the aged, the defective.
the farm and Industrial workers. the
sailors, the forces on the Salonica front.
and there could have been not many more
than five, possibly six, millions NJ to take
their turn in the fiery ring OF invasion.
In one thousand days of fighting along
hundreds Of miles of zigzagging trenches
the Germans had to kill or MAIN but
two or three thousand Frenchmen every
day. six or seven hundred casualties for
every hundred miles, to take one-half the
republics man-power. Youth had to
bear the brunt, and while many older
married men have perished, it is unhap-
PLY no exaEgeration to say that fully one
third of the youth and hope of the
France of this generation arc dead.
more than two thousand a day during
the great retreat of August 1914; the bat
tie of the Marine in the next month, at
Nerdun and in tho various offensives.
Tho heart rebels and dares not credit the
fearful figures which the mind sees but
too clearly And now the boys are being
called out, boys little moro than children.
\ million and more French girls who
would have been married In the last two
years to youths now gone may marry, but
If they do they must be tho brides of
those of their race much younger than
themselves or else of foreigners.
When Marshal Joffre journeyed from
the capital to Chicago he went nine times
the distance that separates Paris from her
foe He went past and through great
States more than one of which alone. In
wealth and men, is almost as rich as all
France is today. And still he had crossed
only one corner of the country. As he
went through our teeming cities, amid the
roar of dense, enthusiastic crowds, he may
have thought: Here is France, forty.
eight times duplicated. Here is the Re-
public. forty-eight times stronger"
The British commissioners have added
their requests to those Of Joffre that an
expedtionary force be sent 1t is said that
"A regiment of Pennsylvania engineers
will soon be on its way abroad. Many
think that "the great test" of American
sympathy with the torn ranks of those
cradle tyranny Of an imperial government
gone mad will come when our thousands
begin to take the places OF weary French
boys in the line, but we do not agree.
Fifty thousand Americans have volun-
teered for the army in month in which
very little attempt was made to get re-
cruits and when wholesale volunteering
was discouraged. Ten times that number
would have volunteered If it had not been
necessary to slow up volunteering in order
to provide for the selective draft, which
proved to be overwhelmingly popular.
Wherever Joffre goes he receives ova-
tions. If the people do not mean it, why
do they shout? AS he says himself, it is
not the man they cheer, but the idea
the idea that France and America mean
liberty and democracy and will fight for
these causes until the end. Jottre
did not make himself democrat. Four
generations Of men who were always
ready to die for democracy have made
him a democrat, and II that fifth genera
tion which now is leaving its school books
to face the world tyrant is struck down.
it is from our soil and from no other that
will spring the battalions which must
complete the work of Washington, of
Lincoln and of Joffre.