Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1919-03-07
North Dak0fd's Createsf
Classified Section
ference. a. an attitude OF Bourbon-
ism, which learns nothing and torgets,
nothing. we should not ignore the
reasons which make that position

possible.
Furthermore. In disagfssing With.
these men we should scrupulously
dtssociate them from the many mill
lions Of the French people who sup
port III solution against theirs, and
We should remember that the every
same horror Of the past andN terror
Of the future which palliates their
statesmen's narrowneB OF vision
glortfies the intuitive enlightenment OF
these humble men and women in
their readiness to stake their lives on
the working out Of u ideals.
When we come to the ems Of
bringing home, It is not necessary
to- determine the exact degree to
which these grievances are borne out
by facts, or the extent to which coun-
ter grievances on the part Of the
French exist. although it seem OBJ
v1ous that to acquaint the American
people with the truth concerning the
existence Of this dissatisfaction Is the
best method Of preventing these per-
sonal grievances from fostering into
national grudges.
For even granting the truth Of our
boys complaints, surely our people
should have enough Imagination and
s ss1nas ny to be able to put them
country the size of Missouri, a sixth
OF it's territory invaded by its enc
mics, the remaining five sixths Of its
territory overrun by eight millions
Of its Observation-Disclosures. British,
Belgians. Italians, Portuguese, Poles,
Indians. Maoris. Moroccans. Anna
aliens, red aliens, yellow aliens and
black aliens! Would our own sedse
Of hospitality have remained as little
frayed under such conditions? And
with women and children doing
the work of every able bodied man
between eighteen and fifty-five, would
our houses, villages and towns have
cleanliness? And If the standard OF
artistic beauty were substituted for
the standard of national efficiency
(Which in normal times is a perfect
ly legitimate substitution. Incredible
though it may SOUND to many Of us)
would not the raw and restless ugli-
ness of our frame h~abitations, with
all their modern improvements, have
been just as legitimate an offense to
a French soldier billeted non us,
as wa the u~nprogressive picturesque
ness of the French houses t o our
boys?
Finally, when our men begin COM
ing back from the Rhine with praise
of the cleanliness. the o~rderliness, the.
efficiency and the ~friendliness Of the
Germans, there will be no reason for
any but bigots and fanatics to re-
sent this appraisal except as it may
be used invidiously to discredit
France. But when it is thus unjustly
used. it can readily be c~ounteracted,
True. the Germans are clearly, the
Germans are orderly. the Germans are
efficient. and the South Germans are
normally inclined to be friendly
those are obvious facts for which any
French general in the French zone Of
occupation will readily vouch.
1t is hen the doughboy begins to
admit that the French were equally
friendly, but that theirs was a friend
illness which overcharged him, while
the Germans is a friendliness which
doesn't that a little reasoning be-
comes useful.
as underlying the whole question that
the 100000 first and second gen
GRAFTON Germans in the United States
had made German customs familiar
to the vast majority Of our soldiers of
of their friends and .neighbors Of
American stock. French customs. on
the contrary, were. entirely strange to
u men. The same difference holds
good of the German and French Ian
6AoSCo. sui III 1o4A4S .t pCA SOA4IA6S VI
our men could speak German either
because Of German blood or because
they had studied it in school,, while
French vas an unknown tongue.
1t stands to reason, therefore, that
German surroundings and speech had
a physical familiarity for most Of our
men, which was lacking in the u
~roundings and speech Of France, and
to a homesick man anything that
! fon1c RI rnroir1 him nf hnrno -oEoR
an immediate and ultimate appeal to
his sympathies.
In the next place, the German mu-
nicipal ordinances issued under
military occupation forbid the over
charging of our men. There Is, there
fore, no particular merit involved in
the maintenance of fixed prices by the
Germans. On h other hand. it is
a fairly safe assumption that had we
been in Germany as Allies instead Of
as victors, and had the Germans,
therefore, failed to issue price fixing
orders for their own self protection.
German o~ver-charges would have
been just as inevitable as were the
French. For making undue profits
out of those who come to fight as
Allies seems to be an unfortunate in
country alike. Any student Of his
tory knows that we, Ourselves. were
guilty of this practice toward h
French soldiers in our own Revolu-
tionary War.
AS for cleanliness, orderliness and
efficiency, we may concede these att
tributes to be more essentially char
acteristic Of Germany than of France
without any undue reflection on the
latter, for we should remember that
virtues are frequently, but h symp-
toms of vices. The praiseworthy
| docility of the German is the same
docility that made possible all the
sinister extravagances Of German
m~ilitarism and autocracy.
The p~raiseworthy efficiency is the
efficiency which mechanical Germany
into a national automaton~ without
scruples or Imagination, the efficiency
which followed the shortest route to
Paris through Belgium and brought
| Great Britain into the war, the effici-
ency which developed submarine war
fare and brought America into tn
a the efficiency which started tho
war and finally. through its own In
herent lack of vision lost the a
For the rest, II you insist on CONF
pairing an artists studio with an engi-
neer's office, you will probably hnd
that in cleanliness, orderliness and eff
ficiency, the studio suffers by Compare
son with the office. And yet II the
artist has been a distinguished. In
spring and loyal friend, you ID not
likely to let your admiration and your
affection suffer because Of such =,
comparison.
Any nation with q thousand yearIS
such splendid history az Frances In
war, in craftsmanship, In art. in
philosophy, In science, and with f0uf
~lo,so,,. 1,nar~ - provn that aBA q nnH