The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-01-08
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

Gambetta lives today in restored re-
 public. His policy, as mad as it seemed
 to his critics, at his time and later. as 1 been vindicated for his beloved mistress, l LaBelle France. is the toast of the na- | tions.
 There are always timid folk who eter-
 nally count the cost of any Enterprise
 even though~it be a nations honor in l dollars and cents, and if any one thinks that the peace at t-any-price apostles are
 all dead they are mistaken. They took cover when it was dangerous to give voice to their opinions but now that they can utter them without fear ot violence they arel clamorous that the
 allies will not be too hard on poor Ger many.
 It was Moltke who set the pace to minimizethe tremendous service rendered France by the great civilian soldier and
 statesman Listen to the Prussian war
 rior, "Gamoetta's rare energy and un-
 relentlng perseverance availed, indeed.
 to induce the entire populations to take up arms, but not to direct the masses on a uniform plan" It is a good thing for Moltke's reputation that he could not accomplish the impossible, but with raw recruits he made the greatest general of the war have some very uncomforta-
 ble days.
 Motke in his indictment went on to say that Without giving them time to be drilled into fitness for the field, he sent them out with ruthless cruelty, insufficently prepared to carry out ill- dgested plans against an enemy on whose firm solidarity all their courage and devotion must De wrecked He pro- longed the struggle with great sacrifices
 on both sides without turning the ball. lance in favor of France"
 I lean to the expressed opinion that he impartial military critic is nearer the truth than the judgment of the enemy. for when all is told and known 'noth- ing but Gambetta's energy enabled France in few weeks to create and equip twelve army corps,' force of
 600,0O0 men and HOO guns. Moltke was not worrying about the ruthless cruel ty'' so much as he was chargined by the daring of civilian to halt his seasoned Veterans in their march to Paris
 It nearly takes ones breath away mere ly to read the heroic story of the men of France, who, without leadership in the field, threw themselves against the great test military machine which had yet invaded her territory. The untried sol-
 imperial troops that they were not to be
 despised. 'Tn an open field,' says Moltke
 with grudging praise, the French force
 would soon have been defeated; but
 in street fighting under shelter of the
 houses unflinching personal courage is
 all that is needed, and even the newly
 created French army did not lack that" Nothing is surer than that the renais- sance of French military strength was not counted upon by Moltke and conse- quently his plans were upset-and natu- rally he had it in for the impudent advo- cate who was the cause of it. I saw Moltke on the day of the crowning of Emperor William II, and I was at Gambetta' g funeral in Paris. Somehow the Prus-
 sians career, mighty and sventful as it was, left me untouched, but that of the gallant Frenchman has held me from the start.
 Somehow the figure of Moltke sitting with downcast countenance because a found, but brightening up when Bis marck brought it within the range of certainty by altering the famous Ems telegram, and then when walked upon
 it's declaration quietly giving orders that the plans for it's conduct would be found in such a drawer in Wilhelmstrasse. robs ,, war of it's military glory and, makes out of it murderous business.
 On the other hand the personality of Gapbetta on fire to stir France to a sense of nationality, spending himself without stint, and galvanizing corpse into life, fills me with wonder and ad-
 miration for the genius who became a veritable miracle worker. Wild and mad as he seemed to be to his enemies, he vet had the power to call into being French army almost out of the earth to prevent the union of Germany.
 
 He knew the soul of France He took l for the watchword of the Defense Ma | tionale mot an inch of our territory, not a stone of our Actresses" Rhetorical l bombast, you say in the light of the ces- sation of Alsace and Lorraine. Possibly so, but out of the sacrifices made by the
 French who followed Gambetta was born the spirit of modern France which faced with dauntiess courage the onslaught of | the Huns and saved Europe to civili-
 zation.
 1 Germany charged that France ana Gambetta ought to have known long ] before the armistice was signed that she was beaten. rather think she was
 betrayed instead of beaten-but the im-
 prov1sed troops which stood for months 1 against the furious assaults of Prussia
 were making solid nation which al