New-York tribune., 1919-04-11
America and France

of croakers and sneerers and deriders.
What we say ard believe is that the
people of America stand just as strongly
for France as they ever stood. They ad-
mire her and love her and they are for
her--for granting her whatever she needs
to regain her health and strength. Any
body who asserts anything else is stupid
or worse.
There are many signs Of this. There
are cartoons from the whole country.
There is the applause that any speaker
can always get for Frances heroism in
the war. There is the common talk that
you can hear IN any car or hotel. Last
week at luncheon of peace league in
this city. there was striking example
of the sentiment The audience was COM
posed chiefly of radicals Of the parlor-
Bolshevik breed. They have for weeks
been fed by The NslU Republic and other
radical journals the familiar sneers at
Frances imperialism" Yet when Mr..
Walter Lippmann-the only intelligent
member of the intelligentsia that has
ever crossed our horizon-talked plain
sense to the effect that France was
bankrupt and that this country ought to
assume part Of her debt if payment in
German territory was denied her there
was long and loud applause. The parlor-
Bosheviks forgot their new-found phi
losophy of idealism-f for r-other-folks and
reverted to their old Americanism. 1t
was only a graceful gesture, to be sure,
and cost nothing But the reaction was
significant and instructive.
That is true of the whole country.
Love for France is not new and tenu-
Gus emotion for Americans, a sudden
growth of the war. 1t is of our an
cientest faith, our most sacred past,
fibre of our inmost national being, as
elemental as our folklore or love of
home or the Declaration of independence.
The immortal fashion in which France
fought the battle of the world and, all
but single handed, saved the day
warmed all our old affections and added
a new reverence. But it did not initiate
our national bond with France-that was
of a century's standing.
There have been two factors of late to
work against this historic attitude One
is the poison which the Wilsonian corre-
| spondents in Paris have been instiling at
/ frequent intervals. "France is selfish ;
b Clemenceau asks too much; why can't
/ France be noble and generous like US !"
has been the burden Of the cables. The
poison has probably worked-a little,
/ here and there.
The other factor is the returning SOL
! der with his complaints of French
prices and French weather and French
this and that. Much of what he says is
true; Tor French weather is wet and the
French are exceedingly human and have
their own very human and considerable
faults and weaknesses. Much more flows
inevitably from the misunderstanding of
foreign language and foreign ways
The fond idea that all the world held
that by stirring enough aliens together
violently on battlefront you would pro
duce harmony is pretty we'll discredited
Mr. Wilson's epigram that YOU cannot
dislike man you know holds true only
of real knowledge, based on comrade.
ship and true familiarity. 1t is a sad
untruth as applied to private soldiers
casually rubbing one another the wrong
way. The soldiers crouch operates there
to make him class everybody consider.
ably unlike himself as a "foreigner"-
whether he talks French or Cockne,
English. The fact seems to be that on,
American soldiers struck up heart,
friendship only with the Australians ane
Canadians. The rest of the fighting
world was foreign" and that wa.
enough
But this soldier criticism, we, think
goes not at all to the root of nationa
friendship which Is based on element.
lying fss deeper. The American sol
J der himself still is for France, the coun
try of Joan of Arc, the country that out
} fought the German at the Marne an,
Verdun and whenever necessary. H
J simply prefers America and America,
ways and dislikes certain French way
, exceedingly. In short, home is still best
and the beautiful internationalsm tha
the war was to produce is a myth.
lovely mirage that never came true. TIL
basic friendship between America an
France and the friendship betwee
America and England are another mat
ter. Different utterly as these tw
friendships are, both have been vast
strengthened by the comradeship Of tn
nations themselves in a great, common
cause They have been so strengthene
that no insidious poison of politicians an
no personal irritations Of returned sol
diers can affect them.
America is not tickle or Of short mem
ory What France did In the Great Wa