The Cordova daily times., 1918-07-30

(Written for the United Press by
 George D. Gribble. Copyright,
 1918. by United PressD
 PARIS, July l.-After four years of war, France has found herself
 As l write this. in the suburbs of Paris, there is 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 whither it is tending. Two years later it came to us again across the hills from Nerdun. 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 conclusion. At last France has found herself
 For there was q double battle of the Marne. There was the military battle. which, like Nalmy. some hundred and
 
 France 10 an astOunded universe, and, like NalmY. failed to reap the full fruits of victory. There was also the real Moral Battle of the Marnc, which was engaged. simultaneously. against the enemy within the gates It has taken close on four years to crush him, for he was powerfully intrenched and had as many heads as the hydra John Bunyan would have called these evil forces Political Corruption, Collision. Compromise. National Egot ism, Inertia. Avarice. Self-Indulgence Doubtless they are by no means pecul jar 10 France, but what it is not easy to realize is the extent to which these forces had leagued together-the enor. nous strength of this internal pact. But those who do realize. who have seen through long years before the var the spread of the poison. do not throw up their hands in horror and alarm every time new Bolo Is brought to book, and cry out against the rottenness of the state.
 The misnterpreters
 History will note. with little pleas ure. think, that the epic years of l914-lS were also the heyday for ire sponsible chroniclers. From these ErNnra hod tn than any Of her allies. And this be- canSe she less than other modern na- tions, can be judged by average stand ards. Not only her enemies her ad- miEing friends have also been often in. discriminating, not to say obtuse. I'aNinG made furious declaration of love, they feel too often that the ardor of their passion is d master key to all tn" problems of her organism. 'li | can pronounce or rather write. je yous aime.' isn't that enough?" ap- pcalS to h" an all too common argu- ment. if not an excuse. for continuing hhth"ly in the wcll.trodden paths of easy gcncralizations.
 It is therefore not surprising that many FrenChmen read with some anN- iety tfc 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 every one of the allied countries was never SD high as at the present mo ment. The assurance reCurs with the same regularity in all reviews of sit nations as that other assurance of tn" official Communique that all enemy raids are illstarred Yet We know that enemy raids occasionally succeed, and we have d general notion that the barometer ot d nations morale Is not invariably at beau ike" or what We call fine and dry"
 Some Depression
 In France as elsewhere there have
 
 About q year ago, when for reasons which were not clear an offensive was discontinued which seemed big with promise there was q marked depres- sion, When Russia, after a last mag. nifCent effort to make good, threw up the sponge and settled down into bolshevikism. the barometer went down It registered a decided drop after the Caporetto disaster last fall. If il had been otherwise, the French would have been a race of supermen, more worthy of admiration than Of sympathy. If at those moments Lu- dendorff had been ready on the west ern front, if he could have captured the "Chemin des Danes" just then,