The spectator., 1919-09-05
SENATE WILL PROMISE PROTEC- TON EVEN IF THE PRESENT
 TREATY IS REJECTED.
POPULAR SENTIMENT STRONG
Great Help the French People Gave the Colonies Is Not Forgotten Ambassador Jusserand Proves That 1t Was Not Selfish.
By EDWARD B. CLARK.


 ashington.-Senators may doubt | their authority under the Constitution | to ratify the French treaty. and they may not ratify 1t, hut lacking ratifica- l ton, the mind of the opposition ap- parently is in favor of doing some | thing equally strong and comprehen- sive in behalf of France.
 It is known that some of the sena- l tors, and perhaps what is known of l them Is true of the majority, feel there is a sentiment in behalf of France l and it's cause among the people of the 1 United States that will necessitate l some adequate recognition of the l French peoples need for that is what 1 it is, for protection against the Ger man when he shall have rehabilitated l himself, and the old spirit of hatred against his neighbor to the west shall have reasscrted itself Common po- litical sense if not gratitude, observers say. probably will dictate a response i to .iie request embodied in the treaty even if the treaty in its present form 1 should not be sanctioned.
 It is held by men who seem to have an appreciation of the situation that Americans of long American ancestry are by hereditary sympaihies and in- StInct just as grateful to France for what it did for this country in the revolutionary days as were Americans of that time. On the other hand, 1t Is said that American citizens of an ancestry which does not go back to revolutionary days in this country do not share the same feeling. It is rec ognized by the men who talk about it that this condition is natural and yet one which would be unnatural If the "citizens of later day" would look at the thing from another point of view.
 Debt Rests on Later Corners, Too.
 No one knows just what proportion of Americans can trace their ances- try back to revolutionary or pre-rev- olutionary days but 1t is probable i that much more than one-half of the citizens of the United States date the arrival of their ancestors at a time la ter than the battle of Yorktown. It is likely to be brought out in de bate in the senate in order to make popular sentiment approve of prob able affirmative action of some kind in this case, that if it had not been 1 for French help in the revolutionary war there would have been no free country in America for the ancestors of many American citizens to have come to in the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness.
 vanced by opponents of the sanction Ing of the French treaty that France came to the hid of the United States | only because she wanted to weaken Great Britain by separating her from one of her colonies. and also to make 1 1t certain that considerable part of the British army and navy should be confined to operations on this side of the Atlantic. In other words, the ar cument ia thnt France was essentially selfish.
 It is not known to what extent the ambassador of the French to tEis | country, J. J. Jusserand. can enter in to activities in behalf of a treaty in which his country's future safety Is said to be involved but already Mir. Jusserand In a book written before the present war tortured the world has given an explanation of the reasons for French aid to the colonies which may be enlightening in the present treaty making.
 Why France Aided Colonies. The ambassador in n volume con- tnining articles on Rochambeau in | America LEnfant, the French ensi- neer who planned the city of Washing ton; Lafayette, and on some other Frenchmen as well as some Ameri' cans. went deeply into the reasons for French aid to the colonies. He tells also of prc-reyolutionary days in France, of the growing love for liberty | in France, of the sympathies among the people for another people who were struggling for something which the French had not yet been able to obtain for themselves, and of what he holds to be the undoubted fact that It was the democratic spirit of France rousing into life. that led to the fitting out of the expeditions, military ant naval, which came to the aid of ths American colonists.
 The expeditions went forth not be
 cause of Louis XVI. but in spite o'
 him. This in brief is the Jusserant argument The ambassador goes int,
 minute details, gives names and out
 lines the various movements, demo
 cratic In their nature, which led othel
 Frenchmen to follow Lafayette int
 the field of liberty's struggle II
 America.
 Writers Doffine Their Uniforms.
 Under orders of the war departmen
 all the officers holding teinporar. commissions in the United Stnte
 army win sever their connection
 nh the service by September a