The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-03-08

views of Mr.. Pegler, and often disagree
| with them as much as many OF MS read
ers. His articles serve the good purpose
of making people Think
| By Westbrook Pegler
Copyright, 1915. by King Features
Syndicate.)
| General deGaulles petulant rudeness and the
demanding attitude of his France toward the
United States will be all for the best II they
cure u.s. finally, of the juvenile crush which
has controlled relations with this IRE
sponsible people. In that case, we would see,
France and the French very much as their
continental neighbors and many of the Brit
ish saw them, not through the calf eyes OF
rich. young, extravagant and geographically
distant nation which regarded even her VII
lage manure piles as fetchingly quaint and
the innate larceny of her merchants as some
how lovable foible.
The plain fact of the matter is that France
quit cold in this and later was rescued
bv the Americans, the second time in quarter
of century that her life was saved by the
United States. Her conduct in the brief fight
ing war in 1910 was not comparable to that OF
the Russians when their homeland was attack
ed year later nor to the tenac-ty OF the Nazls
in recent weeks. Reporters who covered the
rout wrote that French army units were IN
Inundated by the mere noise OF the Stukas and
that the soldier of 1910 was no worthy son OF the
munsts, now so officious and patriotic, were
saboteurs in the war industries and traitors
in the army Her politics and her press were
corrupt and it is no thanks to France that Hit
Ter failed to push on to England after Dun
kirk and wind it all up in a hurry In that
case, France would have been completely
Hitlerized and the nimble Communists would
have joined the Nazis in hating and probably.
in fighting us. Some of her late communists
- tod for
with the Boche
Our popular attitude toward France is the
erroneous impression derived from the writ
ings of lot of indolent Americans who were
charmed by a favorable rate of exchange
which enabled them to live on little income
better than they could have lived at home,
were indifferent to soap and water and en-
joyed posing as worldly, intellectual, and
superior fellows. To them, France always
came first, nothing that the United States ever
could do would bail us out of her debt and the
meanness and avarice which American visi
tors encountered were not considerable faults
but amiable manifestations Of a peculiar vir
ture called 'individualsm."
During the interval between the wars, some
times called the long arnistice the attitude
of France toward the United States was that
of a spoiled and perfumed sweetheart toward
an infatuated and o-generous sultor. Inc
French nation was a feminine concept IN our
psychology, pretty, vivacious, erratlc, unrea-
sonable, but, altogether, desirable. French
politicians, stout, practical and shrewd re-
allied all this and laughed at our gulllblllty
fer they knew themselves and their own
people 1t must have amazed them that they
could get so much propaganda and the mater
ial benefits of this unre asonng good will from
entitled essentially undistingulshed Americans
to little red ribbon or rosette in their lapels
Meanwhile. Americans were hooted in Paris
for being Americans whose country now and
again would send in bill for little payment
on the debt of World War One.
The history of France is not that of peace
loving, unaggressive nation, although, for that
matter, none of the great powers got that way
through fair and gentle methods, and the eX-
tension of France up to the Rhine after this
war will be repetition in reverse, OF Alsace-
Lorraine, with consequences which some
future generation will have the privilege or
misfortune to observe. Lost provinces always
pine for rescue every Frenchman knows
and inevitably knights go warning to release
them.
There is no reason to dislike France or the
French but neither is there any excuse to
maintain the fictitious concept that has embar
rased us in our thoughts and dealings all this
time. They have their excellent virtues which
we may appreciate without that sophomore
rapture in the contemplation of toothsome
coed which has distorted our relations.
1t was no fault of the United States that Hit
Ter overran France that he started the war
at all. Some historians will hold that France,
herself, could have stood him down had she
marched across with just threat Of force
when he remilitarized the Rhine in 1886. The
inner sickness of France was the result of bad
politics. greed and parliamentary system
which couldn't govern. Meanwhile she was
pretending to be an empire and great power
unappreciative than ever before The way to be-
power is to be one, not to play capricious and
you-chase-me among the powers that really be-
1t seems little too much to ask that in the
midst of war in which Americans landed in
the face of German Notifications on the French
coast, chased the Nazis out of Paris and, fin
ally, are smashing into Germany, the rescue
party should also give and deliver to France
rolling stock to replenish her railroads, feed
and clothe her and rearm the army which, in
1940 gave up its weapons without a creditable
fight
Americans may prudently remember also
that for long time an island outpost of
France was a dangerous point off own
coast necessitating a close watch and the
diversion of naval strength and consider the
desirabil:ty of eliminating this risk in the
future. Fortunately, the Monroe Doctrine could
do the trick. Spain had been eliminated from
the off-shore islands of the American Atlantic
YET +bo4