Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-02-16

world, it has been my good fortune
through the courtesy OF the French gov
eminent, to see the old world being re-
stored. not in theory. but in fact, in
Alsace-I-orraine, and particularly in
Metz l have seen 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 on any contested
battlefield--and l have seen most of
both-one feels the magnitrJe of the
thing that was yesterday the German
empire on the march, and may be the
German republic on the march to-
morrow.
Trail of the Serpent Grows.
In Lille. in Douai in cities recently
reIinquished after four years occu-
patton, signs of the German occupa-
tion 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 reas-
sorting itself.
But in Metz 1t is different. 1t is
rather like an arm, long bound. re-
strained in plaster cast; the familiar
difficulty of first movements, the ex-
cruciating pain, the uncertainty of
control-all are to be seen in this
Lorraine town. Metz is living part
suffering from long restraint. Its life
reopens, but with great difficulties
Yet it is not the material side of
the German occupation that one must
first observe. Here fifty years ago
was a little city as French as Tours
or Orleans. a. garrison town with
history going back to Roman times.
with forts dating from yauban. In its
population there was not a German
and there had not been for centuries
In 1870 Metz was sleepy little French
town. politically and economically
nothing. militarily important. because.
like Ferdun. it covered the road to
the heart of France. Out of this
calm Metz walked in 1870, for those
terrible days when Bazaine blundered
and one of the finest armies France
ever possessed was thrown away, or
rather permitted to die of hamilton;
and then the German came pouring in
by all roads, north and south, west
and east, and bringing with him his
familiar green map" and learned
professors with their musty documents
to prove that Metz was German land,
while the soldier came to enforce ar
gument with the guns
Germany Revealed at Metz.
And now. after half century. the
story of German occupation lies open
to the traveller. More than this. there
is disclosed clear and unmistakabIe
evidence of what the German meant
to do to all of US in time, perhaps
still means to do, for in Metz as no.
where else in all his conquered lands
the German expressed his soul. or his
lack of soul: his materialism. his doc
trine of mechanical efficiency. Poor,
half-strangied. totally suppressed,
Metz is just beginning to peer out
from the darkness of fifty years of
German domination. to supply endur-
ing evidence of what the German
means. II you would understand him
story is there
And this is the story as you will
find it Remember. Metz of 1870. a lit
tie French town. huddled about its
charming cathedral, leaning on the
banks of it's Moselie canals. pictur-
esque, quaint, insanitary, irnpregnabIe
to progress or TO the new doctrine
OF efficiency. beautiful alike in site,
in surroundings. beautiful itself as all
French provincial towns are, but
beautiful with the spirit and atmos-
phere which came up in remote times
from the Mediterranean.
Now, by contrast the traveller who
comes to Metz finds this: First of
all. he arrives at the railroad sta
ton. which, to the American. Will
suggest ST. Louis or Kansas CITY. tn.
union station OF any one of our great
American cities. stretching block on
block in towering and colossal ugh
ness. a station adequate for the
needs of city of half a million in
n4pitants bestowed upon town of
little more than fifty thousand.
Built on Immense Scale.
And mile on mile, in all directions.
behind the facade of a structure done
in the familiar armory architecture
OF the latter period of Grover CIeve-
land or earlier period of William
Mckinley. stretch endless tracks and
structures. all colossal, and vast
creation surmounted by a statue of
Roland. bearing the personal features
OF a recent German governor
From the station one comes into
a broad avenue leading in all di-
rections. an avenue fianked by still
other colossal buildings, hotels, post
Office. banks, all in the same heavy
beetle-brown, impressively ugly style
va know as modern German But
each building. each broad avenue.
hideous in itself. is an unmistakabIe
monument to German efficiency, and
the totality of effect is unacceptable
1T is as if the German had resolved
that the mass of buildings should as
chorus exclaim to the visitor:
Damn you, stop, You must see that
Metz Is German, that Germany is
greater than everything else"
do not know any words that !
can use to give the effect the star
Ting, almost terrifying completeness
of this first effect Neither Hamburg
nor Berlin nor Munich would seem
half as defiantly German as Metz
seemed from the railroad quarters.
seemed from the region of the new
down the walls of Vauban. leveIed
bridges, swept Off all familiar land
marks and erected monument after
monument to the great German god