davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-16
The Creeping
German Disease

And year after year you can mark this
progress, you tell the age of an oak by
its circles The French inhabitants crept
back further and further into the heart of
their old town, rallied about the cathedral
as a broken regiment rallies about its
colors. German magnificence left the
French heart cold, German buildings drove
the French structures from the face of the
earth, German officers crowded French men
and women into the streets. The city grew
and fourished but the German never came
at the heart of France.
Yes, year by year the French disappeared
The old died and their bodies and the bones
of their ancestors were borne across the
frontier to be buried in French soil; young
men, as they reached the military age, fed
across the frontier to wear the French uni
form. There were $4,000 French in Metz
when the German came; there were less
than 10000 when he left and year by year
German officers, professors, soldiers and
merchants flowed into Metz. They walked
its streets with the abiding sense of being
conquerors, and each year on the annver-
sary Of the battles of 1870 the town was
tagged and filled with Germans come to
celebrate the conquest.
Beyond the city on hills toward Franco
where great battles were fought the Ger
mans filled the fields with monuments; the
earth fairly groans under the burden Of
lions and tigers and princes and generals,
all testimony to the superior German great
ness, each monument, like buildings on the
square, instinct with the true German spirit
Of essential ugliness and undeniable eff
cheney. "We are g. superior race" This
even the German graves on the battlefield
seem to clamor forth.
Even moro the Germans did. They be-
gan the task of restoring the cathedral and
on the portal they placed figures of the
prophets, and one has the face of Willia1
II, although it purports to be- repre-
sentation of the prophet Daniel.
This restless desire to express their
might, their pride, finds no more significant
expression than in this restoration of the
ancient cathedral, restoration expressed in
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-16

towards, and nothing discourages crime
more than a hopeless getaway America
has no room for dollhouse development of
these classes of urban banditti, who, un-
mounted, practise bolshevki economists
IN city streets or move in faster circles as
auto-apaches over our good roads systems.
In the science of criminology, the latter
situation constitutes new danger to So
ciety which is caused solely by the COM
paratively new invention of the automo-
bile. The whole world remembers the
dastardly crimes of the French auto
apaches who were finally shot to death
some years ago. The recent robbery of
Brooklyn savings bank was successful
through the automobile getaway. 1t is a
strange corollary of brilliant discovery
that each new invention with wonderful ad-
vantages brings also with it new class of
sinister dangers hitherto often not even
imagined
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-16

charm, the simplicity, the inconsequence,
the appeal to the senses which are reached
by the beautiful as contrasted with the
challenge, the brusque, imperious, dominat-
ing part of the German world behind. I
wish | could make clear how much of all
the story of the German idea, the German
purpose, is revealed-forced upon one by
simple promenade from the Metz depot to
the Metz Cathedral The story of the Ger
man conquest of Lorraine is all written
there. You can see, feel, hear. When the
German came he said: 81 will take this
wretched little provincial French town, and
/ will make it a world city. l will give it
avenues and parks and public buildings I
will bring it material prosperity and miser-
able inhabitants; these inferior and inef-
ficient creatures will worship me through
nv work"
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-16
But the Faces of the French Popula-
ton Bear the Imprint Even
More Deeply Written

their bones are scattered over all the hills
That camp, like the railroad station and
parks, is a symbol monument of German
efficiency.
The odd thing about Metz, too, is that
for once-and l do not recall that it has
ever before happened in history-a
mechanically superior civilization, a better
material organization, has failed, lost out,
had to give place TO an older and less eff
fective order. The answer is simple. The
materiaism was too gross, the power too
brutal; it crushed the soul with the very
burden of its colossal works, and it has
failed. France is beginning again on the
middle Moselle, a French spirit, French civ
ilization-you have a very odd but cumu-
lative sense of France itself flowing back
to what was anciently undisputed French
soil
But again and again in Metz l had the
feeling that it was only in such circum-
stances that my American compatriots. like
myself, could feel accurately what this Ger
man menace was which threatened all of US
with material organization and spiritual
death, with admirably organized towns and
city blocks and parks; which, while taking
away our Western traditions of liberty,
sought 20 reconcile US not gently but vio-
lently, by the very size of its construction
and the horsepower of it's machines
You can see how the soul of this little
French town was crushed out just as were
the Russian prisoners up on the hill. You
must be German, or die; there was no room
for any else. The same spirit stirred
here in 1870, famed all over Belgium and
Northern France in 1915; but in Metz you
felt you had resurrected the German strain;
some of the things which lately terrorzed
German for fifty years gloried in the power
to tyrannize, abuse, persecute; his material
atrocities of the late war were the natural
evolution of his spiritual atrocities Of half
century. What he did to the soul of Mes
sin he did to the body of citizens of
Louvain and to a score of French cities
have seen no such interesting or i'm
pressve city in Europe during the war or in
the world before as is Metz to-day. Hating
the German thing all my life I have never
understood it half so we'll as in this tragic
town recalled from the grave, still incredu-
lous of its delverance, hope and fear still
struggling, prisoner newly come from an
underground cell after half a century of
torture. And you have the sense in Metz
that the German may come again. The very
soldity of his buildings, the very extensive
ness Of his constructions, foster the illu-
sion. 1t was not the military caste or the
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-16

and FLAMING onons," and flew back un-
scathed to his aerodrome.
A boy left his inky notebooks and
Clipped desk at school and became. in
few months, fighting pilot. He rode
10000 feet above the earth in his war
chariot Of the skies. He met an an
tagonist perhaps in the deep blue lone
illness above the sunlit clouds. He
fought long, evenly matched duel with
none to praise him, none to encourage.
With parry and thrust, with dive and
turn, he pitted his courage and wit
against his adversary's. At last a blow
went home. The hostile machine turned
over and fell to destruction through the
clouds far below, and the victor rode on,
ready to fight, again. A few months
before he had been at school.
In the same way many an unframed
boy acquired the necessary skill and
knowledge to enable him to become an
artillery "spotter,' long distance
reconnaissance observer, low flying
trench "strafer,' an aerial photographer,
an alrshlp pllot, day bomber, kite
balloonist or some other such specialist
airman. Every one to be of use had to
be an expert in his particular brand of
work. The chief quality Of success
full airman in war was not his skill as
a pilot, but his capacity for acquiring
new information and for adapting it to
new necessities.
The attributes which the airmen of
Great Britain have gained will not be
worthless, even though these war pilots
were never to fly again. All that they
have learned of resource, courage, quick
ness, equilibrium, determination and a
hundred more such qualities will
strengthen and uplift their characters
in whatever walk Of life they may choose
after the war.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-16
Policing
The Heavens!

AS we look forward to the flying machine
and imagine the wonders of the unlighted,
unpoliced highways Of the aerial good
roads systems, may not anticipate at
the same time many sinister accompani-
ments? For instance, granted that the
flying machine will soon become common
utility, with thousands in operation, who
is there to police the high heavens? How
high in fact shall the heavens be policed?
What is to prevent the aero banditti
smuggling into a country the woolliest
fabrics and the choicest brands of wine i?
Now, customs inspectors maintain un-
ccasing watch at strategical points along
the border and examine the incoming
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-16
The Metz of
Resurrection

But in Metz it is different. 1t is rather
like an arm, long bound, restrained in a
plaster cast-the familiar difficulty of first
movements, the excruciating pain, the I'M
certainty of control-all are to be seen in
this Lorraine town. Metz is living part
Of France again to-day, but it is yet suf-
fering from long restraint. It's life re-
opens, but with great difficulties. Yet it is
not the material side of the German occu-
patton that one must first observe. Here
fifty years ago was a little city as French
as Tours or Orleans, garrison town with
history going back to Roman times, with
forts dating from Vauban. In its popula-
ton there was not q German, and there had
not been for centuries. In 1870 Metz was
sleepy little French town, politically
and economically nothing, militarily i'm
portant, because, like Verdun, it covered
the road to the heart of France. Out of
this calm Metz walked in 1870, for when
those terrible days, when Bazaine blum
dered and one of the finest armies France
ever possessed was thrown away, or rath-
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-16
PARIS, February ~.

fAhlS, FEBRUARY IL.
A T THE moment when the peace
~ conference is dealing with theories
~ of world reconstruction, with the
ushering in of a new world, it has
been my good fortune, through the cour-
tesy of the French government, to see the
Old World being restored, not in theory
but in fact, in Alsace- Lorraine, and par
ticularly in Metz. I have seen an older
civilization, Latin culture, reoccupying
territory lost half a century ago, returning
to its monuments still undestroyed. There,
and not in Paris or in London, one must
look to see the effect OF the recent world
decision.
And In Metz even more than in any
devastated area or any contested battle
feld--and I have seen most of both--one
feels the magnitude of the thing that was
Yesterday the German Empire on the
march, and maybe the German Republic on
the march tomorrow. In Lille, in Douai,
in cities recently relinquished after four
years of occupation, signs of the German
occupation are everywhere. There is the
consciousness of a great and malign spirit
recently exercised, but, after all, its stay
was brief, and French life, French spirit,
is rapidly reasserting itself.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-16
The Supreme
German AfrOcity

But perhaps the supreme German achieve
ment is the mighty esplanade they con-
structed along the banks of the Moselle an
avenue with something of the magnificence
of Riverside Drive, lined with statues of
their heroes bearing the portentous name
of Merovirgian Avenue, and providing the
conquerors with opportunity to look
out toward the forts which they had con-
structed to watch over the conquered land
For all in all, everywhere one has a sense
of this German determination to express
his conquest, his gospel of blood and iron,
the advance guard of his efficiency in every
thing he built
On the esplanade the French return is
commemorated by simple, satisfying
symbol From commanding eminence the
equestrian statue Of William l, conqueror of
Metz, surveyed the countryside, looking
menacingly out toward France, and when
the French came back they overturned the
statue, and on its pedestal put a plaster
monument of a poilu, squat-bodicd thick
legged, broad houldered soldier of Verdun,
and beneath it wrote this legend: "On les
a" We've got 'em).
So much for Metz on the material side
And to-day it IS France again. Streets
overlooking with blue-clad soldiers
French bugles sound in the streets, on the
forts far above, along the hills toward
France, the tricolor flies. The German
packed his trophies of Gravelotte to carry
home, but his departure was too rapid, and
they remain behind. He has left behind
him thousands of Germans who linger to
attest their desire to become French, and
grovel where they used to strut and domi-
neer, but still sometimes in a corner whis-
per that Germany will come back with the
next war five years later and darkly
threaten punishment to fall upon those
people who welcomed the French
Down in Paris I find my American asso-
ciates beginning to talk. They say the
German organization functioned even in
its final stage Of dissolution, German or
der still prevails on the Alsace- Lorraine
railways, while in France all is confusion
The German had way about him; he was
a master of organization; you feel the in
stinctive American appreciation of it. But
Efficient, yes; master of machines, yes; but
with all his machine and his efficiency he
made only enemies and misery. Up on the
plateau by Gravelotte there stands a
pathetic Russian prison camp. Thousands
of forsaken Russians lived and labored
there, starved and died. They, too, were
administered by the German machine, and
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-16
By Captain Paul Bewsher,
D. S. c., r. A. F.

URlNG the war; large number
of British youths, fresh from
school and office, have been
transformed by the Royal Air
Force into specialists in activities which,
five years ago, were unknown either to
them or their leaders.
Few of them had flown before the war,
even as passengers. Many had no en-
gineering knowledge whatever, and had
never controlled any vehicle more rapid
than bicycle. AS airmen, they grew
accustomed to taking themselves
through the air at 100 miles an hour,
and to climbing to a height of 10000
feet above the earth They learned to
master space.
The knack of plotting, however, was
one of the least difficult and least i'm
portant parts Of their work. They had
each to specialize in some branch, and
to acquire some particular knowledge
and skill 1t is the way in which these
young men have adapted themselves to
quite new and difficult requirements that
is one of the real wonders of the Air
Force.
A London clerk, for example, who had
been used to narrow city life, became
an observer on seaplane patrol. He
learned how to fly hundred miles out
to sea on an exact course, moving from
buoy to lightship unerringly through
the white sea mist. He learned how to
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-16
he Stones of Metz Tell the Tale of Hun Domination

avenue leading in all directions, an avenue
thanked by still other colossal buildings,
hotels, postoffice, banks, all in the same
heavy, eetlebrowed, impressively ugly-style
we know as modern German But each
building, each broad avente, hideous in it.
self, is an unmistakable monument to Ger
man efficiency, and the totality of effect is
unacceptable. 1t is as if the German had re-
solved that the mass of buildings should
as chorus eXclaim to the visitor, Damn
you, stop! You must see that Metz is Ger
man, that Germany is greater than every
thing else"
do not know any words that l can use
to give the effect, the startling, almost ter
rifying, completeness of this first effect.
Neither Hamburg nor Berlin nor Munich
would seem half so defiantly German as
Metz seemed from the railroad quarters,
seemed from the region of the new town,
where the German had thrown down the
walls of Vauban, levelled bridges, swept
off all familiar landmarks, and erected
monument after monument to the great
German god of efficiency
To be sure the Frenchman has come back
even in these regions. In most dread
fully impressive avenue with its rows of
oosestepping German mansions, until re-
Gently the home of German generals and
colonies on the retired list who came to
Metz to grow old amid proud reminders
of conquest by sword and by stone, in this
avenue which yesterday bore the name of
Kaiser Wilhelm II, derived from statue
now disappeared, the French have hung q
sign, avenue Marshal Foch" But the
touch of irony is slight. One feels rather
sorry for the marshal in such strange
street.
And beyond the railroad quarter by ave-
nues which narrow rs they advance, one
marches to broad square where, in lone
Illness, Marshal Ney for half a century has
listened to German bugles and reviewed
German regiments, until the happy hour
still recent when Marshal Petain took his
stand beside his great predecessor and re-
viewed the French army returning to Metz.
Sc far the German hand is everywhere,
the German mailed fist, unmistakable, in
barracks, in buildings, in streets.
But across the square France begins
again. One plunges into familiar, narrow
winding streets, set around with the ar
chitecture Of Verdun or Toul, sights and
even smells Of France. know of no more
sudden shock-for a mile from the station
to the monument Germany, nothing but
Germany-then Of a sudden one crosses
frontier, as impressive as the canyon be-
tween Mentone and Italy. Following these
narrow, winding streets one arrives in
moment in the main places, and above one
in all its delicate and graceful tracery
rises the Metz Cathedral, as beautiful in
little as any cathedral in all France, and
French as Rheims was or Amiens re-
mains and there in an instant is the con-
trast-the railroad station with its tower
ing and Haunting ugliness, the German
quarters with their spacious hideousness,
and at the other end of Metz the cathedral,
in its typically French square, with all the
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-16
Ferries Are
Strategic Points

A. similar situation exists at New London
ferry and bridge. There are double ferries
at Newport. Everywhere there are these
strategical points. All through traffic from
New London to New York must pass through
the Washington bridge at Stratford or on
wide detour cross similar bridges at Derby.
The ferries and bridges at New York and
across the Hudson to Albany will occur to
the Automobiles at once. Bat these strate
gical or limiting points which concentrate
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-16

one does not land, even if the intervening
country objects? A nation now has juris-
diction three miles out to sea. Shall we
limit the aerial jurisdiction of country
to 1000 feet and reserve the balance for
international jurisdiction, or shall we say
nation owns clear up to the great White
Throne? These questions of the i'm
mediate tomorrow. They are not far remote.
Accidents will happen. An aeroplane will
fall some day on the frail roof of a moving
picture house and dozen or more will be
Canadian aeroplane falls on New York CIV
who Is to pay the damage4~and in what
court will the injured sue or what prin-
clpal Will defend the case? How will YOU
provide for aerial compensation in advance,
since the damaging party will be generally
most damaged, too often beyond the courts
of this worlds jurisdiction Again, will You
forbid all immigration during the next four
years? What will prevent the aerial rail
roads spiriting across the borders into our
country those enthusiastic immigrants who
believe In the ancient slogan "where there's
a Will, there's way? These are not
questions of remote tomorrow. They are
here to-day-the inerasible evidences of
world oneness, caused just by plain Amer
lean citizens. such Henry Ford, Thomas
Edison and Orville Wright and his brother.
The world do move" and it is going to be
race for the lawmakers to keep UP with
It, At last accounts, they were following.
half a dozen laps in the rear.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-16

both easy, effective and safe for the foot Of
f1cers. 1t consists of large rope filled with
projecting iron spikes, like the skin of a
porcuplne, which lies across the road ahead
of too impatient autosts, and will automati-
cally blow the tires of cars continuing on
"too bounding career This rope can be
removed by winding up by the officer oper-
ating it from distance
1t is truism to suggest that the sooner
the countrys strategical points are properly
recorded by police system, the better will
all good citizens sleep, with nothing to
fear but their consciences. Criminals are
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-16

freight and baggage. But where are the
customs inspectors who can maintain vigil
lance in the high heavens? Who will know
whether the man who lands in his back
yard in the suburbs of some little town in
New York State has just returned from
visit to some friend fifty miles beyond the
Canadian border? Who is to inspect his
landing and assess duties on his woollen
cloth, his furs, his cigars and his favorite
viands with the heavy duties?
1t is possible that customs duties will
eventually fail as financial system
through the invention of the aeroplane as
1t comes moro and mora into general use.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-16

travelling over roads owned by society-in
an unregulated enjoyment Of free privi
'ege conferred by society, with all the pos
abilities included in an unbrided oppor-
UNITY! II the latter is the true situation
az every one will readily admit-then why
not bring bit Of publicity into the night
hours: Unless this situation is handled
WITH healthy kind of decision, all small
isoia'ed communities are practically at the
mercy Of these organized apaches Of the
iAsger centres Last summers criminal col
amhs were filed with continuous list OF
pstsy robberies throughout the eastern
ss's'es--committed by these auto-apaches of
we night. As we enter a period Of unem-
p'yfnent, 1t is Of the highest importance
:" discourage further development Of the
ssp'taiistic bolsheviki who ride by night
ihs traffic in stolen automobiles already
Ass assumed such proportions that insur-
sage rates against theft are at cxorbitant
axures On this account.
iss just how are We to hold up the auto
.sAsnes most effective, with the minimum
- - expense? Before answering this aues-
Sn' " IL important to note that there is
80 aaazer in intraurbsn raiding than in
ss 'atsfurban field. IL is easier for men
: pass unnoticed, il they are entirely I'M
~av"n IN community. Therefore, the i'm
t,..sshs point Is TO bring the light Of pub
hs 49, 70 bear ut the strategic points of the
sSssaFAy systems, II IL up 10 state and
- police 10 perfect the System. But II