The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-08-03

love, they feel too often that the ar
dour of their passion is master Key
to all the problems of her organism.
If I can pronounce, or rather write
'je vous Anne isn't that enough" APP
pears to be an all too common argu-
ment, if not an excuse, for continuing
blithely in the well-trodden paths of
easy congratulations.
1t is therefore not surprising that
many Frenchmen read with some
anxiety the explanation of their acts,
the Interpretation of their morality.
which appear in print some thousand
miles away.
Every month, If not oftener, we are
assured that the morale of any and
everyone of the allied countries was
never so high as at the present
moment. The assurance recurs with
the same regularit in all reviews of
situations as that other assurance of
the official communique that all
enemy raids are ilI-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 Beau
Fixe," or what we call fine and dry"
Some Depression.
In France as elsewhere, there have
been fluctuations during four years.
About a year ago, when for reasons
which were not clear, an offensive was
discontinued which seemed big with
promise, there was marked depres-
sion. When Russia after last mag
nificent effort to make good, threw up
the sponge and settled down into
bolshevikism, the barometer went
down. 1t registered a decided drop
after the Caporetto disaster last fall
If it had been otherwise, the French
would have been a race of supermen,
more worthy of admiration than sym :
pathy. If at those moments Luden-
dorff had been ready on the western
front, if he could have captured the
"Chemin des Danes just then, if the
Gotha squadrons had been sufficiently
drilled and Krupp's supercannon in
place just then, if America had shown
herself less ready and determined
well, things might have turned out
differently.
These ifs were not realized. Now
it is too late France had not then
finished finding herself. She has now
Politically, France found herself
when Georges Clemenceau seized, one
might we'll say>Swrested," the rudder
of state out of the hands of his pre-
decessors and started to man the ship
for the storm which was drawing up
from the East. The speeches from
the Bridge ceased abruptly. There
were only short, peremptory orders.
There was also roll-call. Those who
posts of command. Such was the cas- :
with Chief Engineer Claveille and
Stoker-in-chief Loucher. One of the
most important changes was the ap-
peintment Of a new chief steward,
whereby weak spot in former ad-
ministrations was transformed into a
bulwark of strength. His name is
Victor Boret and it should be written
in letters of gold.
An Original Man.
He resemb1ed Ludendorff in this
that he has a way of upsetting we'll
established variations. There was
one in France about the inviolability
OF daily bread. To tamper with the
staff of life-to whittle it down, it
was affirmed, would mean disaster.
Victor Boret proved the contrary. The
institution of meatless days, after last
years experiment, was declared by
economists to be a failure. People
simply bought what they needed the
eve of the meat fast and often ate
more meat than they would have done
under normal conditions. Victor
Boret again proved the contrary by
the simple device of restricting meat