Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1919-09-10
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 3. CLARK.

TO rat1fy the French treaty, and they
may not ratify it, but lacking ratifica-
ton, the mind of the opposition ap-
parently is in favor Of doing some
thing equally strong and comprehen-
| sive in behalf of France
1t Is known that some Of the sena-
tors, and perhaps what is known Of
them Is true OF the majority, feel
there is sentiment in behalf of France
and its cause among the people of the
United States that will necessitate
some adequate recognition of the
French peoples need for that Is what
1t Is, for protection against the Ger
mhn wnen he shall have rehabilitated
| himself, and the old spirit of hatred
against his neighbOr to the west shall
have reasserted itself. Common po-
litical sense If not gratitude, observers
say, probably will dictate a response
to the request embodied in the treaty,
even if the treaty in its present form
should not be sanctioned.
1t is held by men who seem to have
an appreciation of the situation that
Americans Of long American ancestry
are by hereditary sympathies and in
| stinct just as grateful to France for
what 1t did for this country in the
revolutionary days as were Americans
of that time. On the other hand, it
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. 1t is rec
Ognized by the men who talk about
1t that this condition is natural and
yet one which would be unnatural If
the citizens of a later day" would
look at the thing from another point
1 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-
dictionary days, but it Is probable
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.
1t 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
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.
Frequently the argument is adj
vanced by opponents of the sanction
ing of the French treaty that France
came to the aid of the United States
only because she wanted to weaken
Great Britain by separating her from
one Of her colonies, and also to make
1t certain that a considerable part of
the British army and navy should be
confined to operations on this side of
the Atlantic In other words, the ar
gument Is that France was essentially
selfish.
1t is not known to what extent the
ambassador of the French to this
country, J. J. Jusserand, can enter in
to activities In behalf of a treaty in
which his countrys future safety is
said to be involved, but already Mr..
Jusserand in 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 a volume con-
tanning articles on Rochambeau in
America; LEnfant, the French engi-
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 pre-revolutionary 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 toabe the undoubted fact that
1t was the democratic spirit of France,
rousing into life, that led to the fitting
out of the expeditions, military and
naval, which came to the aid Of the
American colonists.
The expeditions went forth not be-
cause of Louis XVI, but in spite of
him. This in brief is the Jusserand
argument. The ambassador goes into
minute details, gives names and out
lines the various movements, demo-
cratic in their nature, which led other
Frenchmen to follow Lafayette into
the field Of liberty's struggle In
America.
Writers Doffing Their Uniforms.
Under orders of the war department
all the officers holding temporary
commissions in the United States
army will sever their connection
with the service by September 80.
4 So. k.0