New-York tribune., 1918-07-03
Parents of French
Dead Send Wilson
Thanks for u. S. Aid
Organization, of Which
Gen. Foch Is President,
Cables Its Appreciation
Spirit of "4th" Grows
Two Nations Inseparable, ("
Says the "Temps," Com
menting on This Day

PARIS. July 2.-Thc gratitude Of the
French dead for the coming Of the
Americans is expressed in an address
cabled to President Wilson in connec-
ton with the Fourth of July celehra-
tlon by the Union Of Fathers and
Mothers Whose Sons Have Fallen for
lheir Country. General Foch, COM
mander in chief of the Entente allied
forces, is the honorary president of
the organization.
The new nameplate for the Avenue
du President Wilson was put in place
on the former Avenue Trocadcro YES
terday.
"A movement is in progress to petit
tion Victor Borct, the Minister Of
Food, to make the Fourth Of July an
exception TO the regulation which con-
stitutes Wednesdays, Thursdays and
Fridays meatless days
In a circular to the projects of
French cities prescribing the observ-
ancc of July 4, which will be celc-
brated the same as July Ia. Jules PANS,
Minister Of the Interior, writes:
Brings Encouragement
The American army is arriving by
hundreds of thousands monthly. Each
week fresh divisions enter the line
side by side with our soldiers and their
allies. giving proof in their first en-
counters of heroism equal to that of
their brothers in arms. The aid that
the United States brings US with ali
it's heart and power means to invaded
on ioC rI
encouragement at a decisive hour of
the war.
History will tell what American
assistance has been in the sacred
struggle in which we are engaged. 1t
will say that disinterested America
came to US at the cali of its eminent
chief because our cause is just. It
will say that America. pacific by prin
ciple and tradition, entered the most
atrocious war because human liberty
and the rights of democracies had to
be defended"
The circular is placarded prominent
ly throughout the country.
Two Nations Inseparable
The "Temps" declares that the ccle-
bration OF the American independence
Day will have far-reaching conse
Quences.
"The French Parliament" it says, "in
deciding to celebrate the American In
dependence Day as national holiday
has given to the United States an evi
honor unequalled in our history.
France hoists the Star-Spangled Banner
by the side Of hsr Tricolor. That
France and the United States on that
day will live together is fact the con-
sequences Of which none can estimate.
The history of human societies does not
merely obey mechanical laws; it is,
above all, swayed by individual initia
tives, by convictions and wills. Who
can say what the coming Fourth Of July
will germinate within the conscious
ness OF the millions Of men to whom
the United States and France will ap
pear inseparably uniteds
1--WE shall feast these soldiers in
khaki, so vigorous in body and so happy
in disposition, who are landing on our
soil by the thousands every month,
Their presence seems to us now quite
natural. Yet who among these Ameri-
can combatants knew France on July 4
of last year7 How many of them have
had the leisure to study the causes Of
the European way? How many were in
q posture OF divining its consequences?
They had to awaken to the far-otf, trag
ical reality for which they were asked
to leave, to sacrifice everything. 1t was
perhaps necessary that their parents
get used to seeing their sons depart for
this rurdcrous war, and this education
of an immense people WAS effected
within the short space Of few months
What an effort Of patriotism, what
rroof Of discipline, what al encomium
for the President, who all the time
shared the national sentiment!
Of Wide Significance
"Let US think of these merits when
observing Independence Day. Let us
show our American allies that we ap-
preciate the moral greatness Of their
Intervention as much as its material
value. The hours we live will have in
firitc reverberations. and part Of their
significance escapes US. Did Lafayette
and his companions know what would
spring forth from the work they ac-
complished at the side Of Washington
"These young soldiers will, after the
victory, return to their country with
whole life before them; they will recall
tho villages they defended; they vii!
carry their thoughts back to the COM
rades resting in the earth of France
and to whose graves the women of
France viii! make pilgrimages and which
they Will deck with flowers. On July
Of every year to come they will look
back upon the first of these 1ndepend-
ence Days, the Fourth Of July of the
year 1918; they will speak of it in their
homes. What intimacy will not those
souvenirs create between the two ma
tions! The two flags henceforth wav-
ing together will never separate"