The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1918-04-04

annexed them, and had undertaken to
make Missourians out of the people
whko lived in those counties; had Civ
on them no voice in their own govern
ment. and had held them by force in
nractical slavery. Then suppose that
before this sore healed, if it ever could
heal, Missouri had again raped Iowa
and forcibly taken over all that terri
tory lying between Council Bluffs and
Atlantic and from the state line on the
south of Sioux City.
If YOU can imagine these things
happening, and the resultant state
of mind Of the Iowa people, you can
begin to understand the attitude of
France today. All that France has
she is putting into the struggle-her
resources, her strength, her very soul.
The other day French soldiers dis
covered a woman cropping her way
near the front among the marked
graves of the soldiers. They demand
ed to know why she was there. She
replied that she had already visited
the graves of six of her sons and was
searching for the grave of the seventh,
her last, who had fallen on that field.
They led her to the spot where the
boy was buried. She knelt a moment
in silent sorrow, then extended her
arms and shouted Frances patriotic
battle cry, "Vive la France"
Such is the spirit Of France.
Such a spirit of sacrifice and
courage can only possess a people who
love liberty. Three times in a little
more than a century have the French
people overthrow monarchy in their
own country, and now they are com
PEELED to fight the monarchy of Prus-
STA. To the side Of the Frenchmen
have come another people who fought
their way up into Gods sunlight of
freedom, and today the American and
French soldier are fr%aternizing and
fighting side by side, singing the same
songs, drinking out of the same can.
teen, interpreting each other in the
light of liberty which they both know
and understand.
Here's an incident that illustrates
the tender regard which the French
hold for the American soldier: A Unit.
oil Ct.tnr oontoip u,nc rooontlu h,rioI
at Cambria. Two Y. NJ. C. A. secre-
taries sought his grave to see that it
was properly marked and to decorate
it. They found the grave literally
banked with flowers, placed there by
French soldiers.
This is strange news coming out of
Germany and Austria telling of labor
strikes and riots. and unrest on the
part of the people. Why should the
German government permit the news
that some 100000 laboring men are
striking, not for higher wages or short
er hours, but for peace? Such stories
do not appear in the papers of Ger
many or Austria, yet they are carried
by wire to the outside world.
1t was such propaganda as this that
demoralized Russia. During the entire
war the leading socialists of Germany
have kept in close contact with the so.
c~ialists Of Russia. The Russians were
told that the socialist party of Ger
many, the strongest political party in
the empire, a party that polled 1000.
900 votes the last election and elected
more members of the reichstag than
any other party-this German socialist
party was growing in power; it was
the party of the workingmen; it stood
for peace, peace without annexation or
indemnity; the ranks of this party
were being swollen by the addition of
hundreds of thousands; the pan-Ger.
mans and militarists we're rapidly los.
ing their power. All this was dinned
into the willing, ignorant ears of the
| Russians.
All that was needed to cause a revo.
luton in Germany and Austria was
the refusal of the Russians to fight.
To emphasize the argument. and 10
further blind the Russians, the German
reichstag passed a resolution for peace
without annexation or indemnity. AL
though the reichstag has no more jur.
isdiction over such matters than a hog
has over the enforcement of a Sunday
blue law, it served to fool the simple