The Canon City record with which is consolidated the Canon City cannon., 1918-08-01
BY GEORGE D. GRIBBLE

war, France has found herself
AS ! write this, in the suburbs OF
Paris, there is a ceaseless, sinister
muttering, faint and persistent. in
creasing ominously when the breeze
comes from the northeast. Those
who were here in the fall of 1914 know
what that distant growl means and
whether it is tending Two years
later it came to us again across the
hills from Verdun. The fate OF the
struggle is still on the knees of the
gods. But whatever betide. this much
is certain-the victory of the Marne
has been fought out TO its final con
clusion. At last France has found
herself
For there was double Battle of the
Marne. There was the military bat
tie. which, like Valmy some hundred
and twenty years earlier, revealed the
real France to an asiounded universe
and like Valmy. failed to reap the
full fruits OF victory. There was also
the Moral Battle OF the Marne which
NdS
rte Enemy within the Gates. 1t has
taken close on four years to crush
him. for he was powerfully entrenched
and had as many heads as the hydra
John Bunyan would have called
these evil forces; Political Corruption,
Collusion, Compromise; National Ego
tism. Inertia, Avarice, Selfindulgence.
Doubtless they are by no means Pc
easy to realize is the extent to which
these forces had leagued together
the enormous strength of this Intern
al Pact But those who do realize.
who have seen thru long years before
the war the spread of poison. do not
throw up their hands in horror and
alarm every time new Bolo is brot
TO book. and cry out against the rot
tenness of the state.
THE MISiNTERPRETERS.
History will note. with little pleas
ure l think that the epic years OF
19l4-lS were also the heydey for ir-
ltSPOhNAbst lAtct
France has had 10 suffer. perhaps
more than any OF her allies. And this
because she, less than other modern
nations, can be julged by average
admiring friends have also been often
indiscriminatins, not to say obtuse.
Having made a furious declaration of
love. they feel too often that the ar
dour of their passion is master key
to all the problems of her organism
III / can pronounce. or rather write
'je vous Anne. isn't that enough? zap
pears 10 be an all too common argu-
ment. II not an excuse. for continuing
blithely in the welltrodden paths OF
easy generalizauons.
II is therefore not surprising that
many Frenchmen read with some anx-
iety the explanation OF their acts, the
Interpretation of their morality. which
appear in print some thousand miles
away.
Every month. IL not oftener. we are
1SSuitQ AldA AAAOA Va
everyone OF the Allied Countries was
never 50 high as at the present mo-
men;. The assurance recurs with the
same regularity in all reviews of stu
official communique that all enemy
raids are ill-starred. Yet We know that
enemy raids occasionally succeed. and
We have a general notion that the
barometer OF nations morale is not
invariably at eau Fixe." or what
we call Fine and Dry"
SOME DEPRESSION.
Iii France as elsewhere there have
been fluctuations during four years.
about year ago. when for reasons
wnioh were not clear an offensive was
discontinued which seemed big wah
promise; there was marked depres
sion. When Russia. after last mag
nificent effort to make good. threw up
the sponge and settled down into bo-
chevikism. the barometer went down.
Ii registered a decided drop after the
'aPoAftto uiSaStSi idse- tdii. IL II
had been otherwise. the French would
have been race of supermen. more
worthy OF admiration than of sympa-
thy. If AZ those moments Ludendorff
had been ready on the western front.
IL he could have captured the Chem
in des Danes" just then. If the Gotha
squadrons had been sufficiently
drilled and krupp's supercannon in