Norwich bulletin., 1918-07-27
Views of the Vigilantes
HOW WE MAY PAY oNR DEBT
By Gertrude Atherton , of The NigilanteS

While it is, of course, a historical
 fact that we went to war with Ger
 many to save our own Republic from eXtinction,--for there are only two sides to any war, offensive and defen- sive-yet we accepted the, inevitable with an enthusiasm, partly spiritual, partly romantic, which illuminated what otherwise might have been the usual suHen determination which ] characterizes peace-loving coun- | try forced into war. We are able at | last to go as. a Nation to the aid of 1 France. Individually hundreds of de- | voted American men and women were
 serving her Not few had already | died in her cause. Millions of money
 had been raised by popular suDscript- | ion to relieve the sufferings of her civ | ilians and her wounded soldiers. She
 was to us the heroine of the war, Joan | of Arc epitomiZed.
 1 But it was beginning to look as if
 like her national martyr. she was i doomed to burn, at the stake. She is d greater military country than Ger many, otherwise she would have been ! conquered long since, and she had great
 wealth and the nimblest wits of all the
 nations. It would be unfair to insist
 that her people are the bravest and the
 most patriotic of all the belligerents, i for the towards in warfare are negli- 1 gible, and all countries are patriotic when. fully aroused. But there is a 1 passion and an eXaltation about the patriotism of the French that lifts them to a plane of their own and is an even
 more formidable force for the brutal materialism of Germany to reckon with than the stategy of Foch.- La Patrie
 expresses a religious fervor that would
 be fanatical were the French not the
 sanest of peoples. "Fatherland" and
 Deutschland uber Allies" express the
 sentimentality and insincerity of a
 race that has not a gleam @aof spirit
 uality-nor of honest sentiment fol
 that matter.
 Therefore. although it never will be
 possible to force an entire Republic, al least, to submit to the horrors and suf- ferings and privations of war fol
 aItruistic reasons only, we neverthe
 less were overjoyed when the day
 came that permitted us to fight fo1 France as well as for our own per.
 sistence as a Republic. It is safe tt say that every intelligent young Amer ican who shouldered his rife. whetbe enlisted or drafted, that is to say i who knew the history of his countr! and had followed the present war iron
 it's outbreak in 1914, felt something O the exaltation of the crusader. H. was to fight on French soil, not onl! for the freedom of the United States and the life of democracy, but for tn, France that founght on our revolu
 tionary soil and was the determinin,
 factor in our struggle for inde f pendence. Without Rochambeau ant ' his eight thousand troops when ou fortunes were at their lowest ebb w T should no doubt be a colony of Grea Britain to-day; and La Fayette ha t been as great hero to the American t schoolboy as Washington himself. . F It is to be hoped that the exigencie e of war will permit our men to restore i alone and unaided, Alsace- Lorraine t V France. I happen to know that thi 2 ambition possesses the minds of thous e ands of our young officers and soldiers e and when our army is once more = unit, perhaps General Foch will with o draw his own troops from the south h east and enable us to pay our ever t lasting debt to France. Not even tn d inevitable victory over Germany fe d which our millions in men and GU ,t billions in money are indispensabl d would give the enlightened portion { a this Republic such profound and spirit r ual satisfaction as the establishe ,t fact that American troops alone ha a driven the Hun from the soil of Alsace
 Lorraine, made Alsace-Lorraine u
 special gift of the United States l. France.
 " In course of time, if the war goes c S, long enough-for our once indifferel le people now think and talk of lit d. else than the war-this passionate wis )e will possess the United States from CT r. to end; and if We failed or were n ?; permitted to pay our great historic de IT in this concrete fashion to the natic ts whose brave and ardent soldiers can :" to our rescue in our darkest hour, V Ut should feel in our new hour of victol Id that the best is lacking. War is v gross business. Let us put soul in to l it if we can.