The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1919-05-08
A REAL AMERICAN TALK BY
A REAL AMERICAN CITIZEN

AiiiCi i1ell was uSllNcIeu dC Cflc ulRQ
school auditorium Wednesday night
when Hon. Burton L. French, CON
gresham for the First Idaho district,
spoke to his friends and neighbors,
telling them what he had seen and
learned while visiting the war zone
in Europe as a member of the first
congressional party to go to the war
zone since the war. There was no
carping criticism of the conduct of
the war; no egotistical statements of
how things could have been done in a
better way; no pointing out of 'costly
blunders" by those in charge of the
great undertaking. Instead of this
our congressman praised the dough
boys" who whipped the Huns; he
praised the sergeants, the lieuten-
ants, the captains, the officers higher
up. He gave to each of these credit
for the great victory won and he
commended in the highest terms the
efficiency of the Americans from the
private in the ranks to the man at
the head who provided for their every
want.
He pictured the great warehouses
and the enormous transport service
required to supply our men and said
that nothing had been neglected or
overlooked. He pictured at one point
a number of warehouses, that if plac-
ed in one would have been SO feet
wide, 80 feet high and 16 miles long,
and this was filled with supplies for
our soldiers. He pictured 1000
beeves gathered from all parts of the
and furnished to the soldiers every
day. "Surely it must have been a
great general who stood at the head
of this work and directed it so sue
cessfully," said Mr.. French.
The speaker took his audience
through the devastated regions and
over the battle fields. "Took his
audience" is right, for the great audi
ence was with the speaker through
out his address, and he pictured the
battles that had been fought and won
by American soldiers and the great
rich, fertile country that had been
laid waste and even the very soil des-
troyed by the explosion of great
shells that blew away the soil and
covered it with the chalky substance
that underlays much of France.
"The war would have ended al
most two years ago had it not been
for resolution passed by the United
States congress to enter the war;"
said Congressman French, "but it
would have ended with the central
powers debating the terms and the
allied nations yielding and in a few
years the United States would have
had to grapple with the great Ger
man octopus that would have arisen"
That belgium suffered less than
France is the statement made by Mr..
French which contradicts a popular
of the devastation of those
He told the audience that
Il dow 81 Ar1f
little although the towns, villages and
cities were destroyed, but in France
not a vestage of civilization or i'm
was left in an area so vast
that its conception is appalling. Bel
gium is not in nearly as bad a plight
as France, for the country has been
helped by America almost from the
of the war and the farms
and gardens are intact and will pro-
duct crops this year as they have
been producing crops each year since
the war began. But in France the
the roads, the bridges, the
trees, the gardens, the fields are all
aid waste and it will take decades to
rebuild them as they were.
Mr.. French told of the battles that
mad been fought by the Americans
and of the American boys who are
He visited many cemeteries where
Amrican boys sleep beside their Brit
sh, French and Belgian comrades and
With thousands of German dead ly-
ne with them. He said no one who
has not visited the country over
which the troops fought can form
wen a slight idea of the terribleness
If the war.
Unlike some sensational politicians
Who have been to the war zone for
ew days and come back telling how
he Americans blundered, Mr.. French
raised everything American and
aid the work of the Americans was
revelation to our allies. He said
hat instead of life being ruthlessly
wasted Gas had been charged by some
7onder to me is not that 100000 Am
rican boys were killed or died, but
hat 10 times that number were not
illed in that hell of war through
yhich they passed. 1t seems miracu-
ous to me that so many escaped un-
urt."
Mr.. French told of things that had
OF appeared in any of the news
apers, things that he saw and won
cred that they had not been pub
shed. One of these was the great
reparatlons made by the Germans
, thwart the tanks, which had a ter
or for the Huns. At one place he
aid great posts of reinforced con-
'ete probably two feet thick and six
let high had been built in front of
lie German trenches. Through these
lge posts ran great steel cables, not
lains, but cables as large as his arm
retched from one to the other for
long distance. These had been
ected as the only means of stopping
e onrush of the allied tanks.
He told of another place where
rest had been mined" Trees near
two feet in thickness were cut one
ird through and explosives placed
erein and each tree was connected
ith an electric wire by which the
ines could be exploded sirnultan-
usly and the entire forest brought
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