The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1918-09-20
By Gertrude Atherton
of The Niginlantes

While it is, Of course, 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
defensive--yet we accepted the IN
evitable with an enthusiasm, partly
spiritual, partly romantic, which IL
Illuminated what otherwise might
have been the usual sullen determln-
alton which characterizes peace
loving country forced into war. W
were able at last to go as a nation
to the aid of France. individually
hundreds of devoted American men
and women were serving her. Not
few had already died in her cause.
Millions of money had been raised
by popular subscriphQn to relieve
the sufferings OF her civilians and
her wounded soldiers. She was to
us the heroine OF the war, oan OF
Arc epitomized.
But it was beginning to look as
if. like her national martyr, she was
doomed to burn at the stake. She
is greater military country than
Germany. otherwise she would have
been conquered long since, and she
had great wealth and the nimbIest
wits of all the nations. 1t would
he unfair to insist that her people
are the bravest and the most pa
triotic of all the belligerents. tor the
towards in warfare are negligible,
and all countries are patriotic when
fullv reused. But there is a pas
sion and an exaltation about the
patriotism OF the French that hits
them to a plane of their own ana
i an even more formidable force
for the brutal matcrialism OF Ger
MANY to reckon with than the STRAIT
egv of Foch. La Patrie" expresses
4 religious fervor that would be
fanatical were the French not the
sanest OF all peoples. "Father!and ,
and "Deutschland uber Allies ex-
presses the sentimentality and IN
sincerity OF a race that has not
CLEAN OF spirituaity-nor OF hon
est sentiment for that matter.
Therefore. although it never VIII
he possible to force an entire rePuo-
lie at least. to submit to the horrors
and sufferings and privations oil war
for altruistic reasons only, we never
thele,s were oyerjoyed when the day
came that permitted us to hight ior
France as we'll as for our own per-
s;stence as a republic. 1t IS safe TO
saw that every intelligent young
American who shouldered his me
whether enlisted or drafted, that IS
to saw. who knew the history OF MS
,.orntrv and had followed the pres
ont war from its outbreak IN l9t4,
(elt something OF the exaltation OF
the crusader. He was +" 'lghI o''
French soil. not only for the free
dom OF the United States, and the
life Of democracy but for the
France that fought on our revolu-
tionarv soil and was the determin-
ing factor in our struggle for inde-
pendence. Without Rochambeau
and his 5000 troops when our tor
tunes were at their lowest ebb we
should no doubt be a colony OF
Great Britai ntoday; and Lafayette
has been as great hero to the
American schoolboy as Washington
himself.
1t is to be hoped that the ex-
igencies of war will permit our men
to restore. alone and unaided, Al
sace-Lorraine to France. | hap
pen to know that this ambition pos
sesses the minds of thousands OF our
Young officers and soldiers, and
when our army is once more a unit,
perhaps General Foch will withdraw
his own troops from the southeast
and enable US to pay our everlast-
ing debt to France. Not even the
inevitable victory over Germany for
which our millions in men and our
billions in money are indispensable,
would give the enlightened portion
Of this republic such profound and
spiritual satisfaction as the estab-
Iished fact that American troops of