New-York tribune., 1918-03-31
BY Gilbert Seldes
PARIS, March 16.

PARIS, March 16.
VT ANY ONE doubts the strength of
the French let him come to France
and see how the French are criti-
cising Themselves. No people who were
not self-confident and proud Of their
power could speak SO freely Of their
own faults. And no people who were
not certain of victory could possibly
plan such farreaching reforms.
One of the deepest criticisms made
Of the France of before the war was
that its politics and craftsmanship
were out of touch with the common
facts Of French life. Politicians and
diplomats seemed to some people to be
acting as if France were still a nation
Of few million people engaged in
small agriculture. The French system
of putting all the governmental powers
in the basket known as Paris lent itself
to this kind of politics. Diplomats
played the game Of politics as it was
played by Mazarin and Rchelieu. AS
one writer put it, the game of politics,
domestic and international, was a bull
fight. And now that is. over.
Studying the
Enemy's Methods
The French are not afraid to learn
from their ugly enemies, because they
are sure that the fine French spirit
cannot be corrupted by Prussianism.
1t is true that France has an official
dom which seems terrible to an Ameri-
can accustomed to local government.
But the spirit is not that of Prussian
bureaucracy. Therefore the French are
studying German methods They are
trying to discover how Germany man
aged to become SO strong in forty
years.
The grand discovery made by the
French is that the Germans made their
politics and their diplomacy the SER
wants of their industry. Whereas in
France industry had to wait on poll
tics. For example, the port of Havre
was found inadequate about forty years
ago--in 1877. 1t took five years before
the Chamber of Deputies, which cor
responds to our House of Representa-
tives, passed the required law for en-
larglng the halbor. But it yas not
until 1891, or fourteen years later, that
the Senate took up the measure. and
then the Senate refused to adopt the
whole scheme. Four years later, in
1873, a much more modest proposal
was passed, and by that time naviga,
tion had so increased and the dimen-
sions of ships had grown so much that
the project, which took seven years to
execute, was really worthless.
Now this was not party affair at
all. In those years parties came and
went. Ministries fell and were recon
stltuted. In those years France took
up the most serious problems of the
relation of the State to the Church,
the rights of laborers to form unions,
was neglected, because, frankly, France
was not interested. She did not realize
that her whole future depended upon
governmental encouragement of vital
industries. In certain sense France
has always been prosperous.
Her peasantry is frugal; to sec a
French peasant woman cook a cabbage
Is lesson in domestic science worth
more than all the college cooking
schools. The Bank of France has an
enormous savings fund, out or all pro-
portion to it's activities. And since
this species of prosperity prevailed
France allowed herself to think that
canals and ports and railroads did not
matter. She failed to make an agree
ment with Spain by which the railways
of the two nations might be brought
to standard gauge. She neglected her
export trade in undeveloped countries
and she neglected also the heavy in
dustries which her soil allows her to
use with profit. Her yield from agri-
culture was, in some vital crops, from
20 to 80 per cent below that of Ger
many. She has "white power" in
abundance, but she had only begun to
use it before the war.
1t is easy to say that everything will
be changed by the war-and hard to
prove while the enemy is still at the
gates. But of this we may be reasona-
bly, certain-that France has turned
the corner toward new type Of in
dustry. She has also turned the corner
toward a new type of industrial free