New-York tribune., 1917-07-14
On Bastile Day
(Rcpri,sted from The Tribune Of July II,
1857

removed from the battle lines of the pres
ent conflict the national holiday of France
will this year seem the most splendid In
French history since the day on which the
people of the Old Monarchy appeared at
the gates Of the Bastile and battered IN
that breach in the walls Of tyranny which
has never been closed.
In our own day there has come TO France
for the third time in her wonderful history
the duty TO defend civilization against the
jnroads of destructive barbarism. As she
supplied at once the battle-ground and the
resistance in the repulse of the Saracens at
Poitiers. Of the Huns in the Plain Of Cha
Ions, hard by the fields where the World
War is still raging, France in last August
and September bore the burden of one
more assault upon the whole structure of
our own culture and civilization.
In the confused and disproportionate
bulletins Of the early days Of the war we,
like the EIlglish, failed to grasp the mag
nitude of French effort, the stupendous
character of the conflict which was fought
along the Marne. To Belgian heroism, to
British participation, we assigned impor-
tance far beyond the reality. A little
sbamefacedly, but with full and frank
acknowledgment, the British press and
public men are now making their amends.
For in that great opening act of the war
it was France and France alone that bore
the burden. Belgian resistance crumpled
in a few brief days. The something less
than a hundred thousand British troops
who shared in the campaign from the
Sambre to the Marne were but chip
tossed on the wave Of German invasion. 1t
was France, rising from defeat, from the
long period of depression stretching back
to Sedan and Gravelotte, who met the whole
food and stemmed it, rolled it back, settled
the issue of the war in the opening days,
assured TO Europe the endurance of that
democracy which the French Revolution
had brought to the Continent, to mankind.
Even at this near date there is small
reason to question that in all future time
the Battle Of the Marne will take its place
with that of Marathon in human history.
A barbarism that was rolled back in the
remoter struggle aimed at the destruction
of the Hellenic beginnings, which are the
foundation Of all we know and reverence
and live by. For all who believe in democ-
racy, in liberty, equality, the right Of men
to live their own lives, Of nations and races
to follow their own ideals and their own
culture, for all who believe in the gospel of
sweetness and light and repulse the doc
trine Of "terribleness," the idea Of the
"superman," the theory Of a right to rule
vested in a chosen race and a superior peo-
pie, the Battle Of the Marne was an au-
thentic sign Of deliverance.
And for that we have France to thank.
Upon her, unready as democratic states
must always be, fell the full fury Of more
than 100000 men equipped with all the
weapons. provided with all the utensils,
furnished with all the requisites that the
supreme genius of a nation whose gift for
organization and capacity for concentra-
ton upon its purpose have never been
equalled could supply. To meet this storm
France had little more than half as many
soldiers; she lacked the equipment, the
preparation, the whole armory Of warfare
possessed by her tremendous foe.
Yet through opening defeat, in the hours
when the thunder of German artillery
shook the hills Of Paris, when French
cities were in flame and new hordes Of fly
ing peasants and terror-stricken women
and children filed all the roads leading
from the north, France never trembled,
never lost courate. never for single mo-
ment thought 10 desert the cause for which
every Frenchman felt himself fighting, the
cause Of civilization the battle which his
ancestors had fought against the Saracen
and the Hun, the fight which France made
against Europe for her own gospel of de
nocracy in the days Of the Revolution and
won, not for herself but for mankind
And al the Marne the issue Of the war
was decided. Years may yet pass before