Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1921-10-19
CHAPTER III.
France and Germany As Friends

No one. it is true, in 1900, would
have dared to propose an alliance
which honor and prudence equally for
bade. Not only would such an under
taking, necessarily based upon recog
| milton Of the fait accompli. have
obliged France to subscribe anew to
the. treaty Of Frankfort,-and that
without the excuse of those who in
1871 had signed beneath the mailed
fist. But in addition this surrender
would have involved breach of faith
to accept; breach of faith which
would have been the negation of 40
years of effort and the betrayal of
that policy of peace and balance which
will remain the imperishable glory of
the third republic; a breach of faith
in proclaiming by an abrupt reversal
Of our alliances the instability Of our
democracy; breath of faith in substi-
tuting for friends who had treated us
as equals an ally who. unconsciously
perhaps and by sheer historic tradition.
would sooner or later have become a
master. But if no one spoke of an
alliance, many yielded to the tempta-
ton of extending special agreements
peace had prompted the French gov
ernment to enter into in 1905, 1906
1909 and 1911.
Under Emperor's Spell
As early as 1890 the aged Jules
Simon under the spell of the young
emperor had returned from the labor
conference of Berlin with the hope
Of such n thing. and in the following
years those Of our fellow country men
who at the kiel regattas and elsewhere
had fallen beneath the sway of imperial
seduction We're over ready TO recon-
mend this form of morganatic Franco
German alliance.
Had it not been for the continual
provocation of Germany in Morocco
and the near east from 1905 on. there
is little doubt that before long the idea
Of rapprochment would have made
headway
Besides the political evolution Of our
republic held us aloof from all idea of
war. Not that the republic-despite
the difficulties of its birth in the throes
Of defeat, despite the handicap of a
constitution drafted by its enemies
would have been incapble of having a
foreign or military policy: the war
of 1914 furnished a triumphant answer
to the doubts of reaction on these
scores by showing that France could
count both on the support of free
peoples and upon the services of an
army which at the Marne, single hand
ed, checked the German onslaught. 1t
is none the less true that the spirit
of democracy-the soul of all our laws
since 1877 and the practical expression
eighteenth century-is in it's very
essence a spirit of peace. Peace in
its highest expression which proclaims
the right both of individuals and of
nations to live and be respected; last
ing peace because political power en-
trusted to the majority insures the
welfare of the greatest number and
because legislation inspired thereby
is repugnant to preparation for war
and the increase of ornaments.
France, the most warlike of nations
on the field of battle, had in peace lost
her military habit Of mind At the top
painful controversies, like the Dreyfus
case. had brought about cleavage be-
military chiefs; at the bottom the easv
leisure of national existence provoked
protests against the obliga-
lions by the military training of the !
nation. In 1906. at the very moment
when Germany was beginning to rattle |
aer sabre. the term of compulsory ser
7ice had been reduced by third. Three |,
Years later, in, 1908, an even worse |
mprudence had reduced the period Of |!
of the reserves. a measure |!
n fragrant contradiction with the form !
n. as the shorter the time spent in the |
initial training of recruits the more |
thorough and complete should be the |
Instruction given to the reserves. In
! word no one believed war possible. |
70 one believed it possible because it's
atrocities were repugnant to mems
ordinary vision. No one believed it
,ossible because no one wanted war.
nd that being the case nobody believed
hat others wanted it. Not French
nan made the anistake of judging Ger
Continued ON Page Fsurl !