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diff --git a/15194-h/15194-h.htm b/15194-h/15194-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..149d64f --- /dev/null +++ b/15194-h/15194-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5542 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> +<head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" + content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" /> + + <title>Out to Win.</title> + <style type="text/css"> + /*<![CDATA[*/ + + <!-- + body {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + p {text-align: justify;} + blockquote {text-align: justify;} + h1,h2,h3,h4 {text-align: center;} + h5,h6 {text-align: left;} + pre {font-size: 0.7em;} + + hr {text-align: center; width: 50%;} + html>body hr {margin-right: 25%; margin-left: 25%; width: 50%;} + hr.full {width: 100%;} + html>body hr.full {margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 0%; width: 100%;} + hr.short {text-align: center; width: 20%;} + html>body hr.short {margin-right: 40%; margin-left: 40%; width: 20%;} + + span.pagenum + {position: absolute; left: 1%; right: 91%; font-size: 8pt; text-indent: 0;} + + .poem + {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: left;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem p {margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem p.i2 {margin-left: 1em;} + .poem p.i4 {margin-left: 2em;} + .poem p.i6 {margin-left: 3em;} + .poem p.i8 {margin-left: 4em;} + .poem p.i10 {margin-left: 5em;} + + .figure, .figcenter, .figright, .figleft + {padding: 1em; margin: 0; text-align: center; font-size: 0.8em;} + .figure img, .figcenter img, .figright img, .figleft img + {border: none;} + .figure p, .figcenter p, .figright p, .figleft p + {margin: 0; text-indent: 1em;} + .figcenter {margin: auto;} + + .footnote {font-size: 0.9em; margin-right: 10%; margin-left: 10%;} + --> + /*]]>*/ + </style> +</head> + +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Out To Win, by Coningsby Dawson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Out To Win + The Story of America in France + +Author: Coningsby Dawson + +Release Date: February 27, 2005 [EBook #15194] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUT TO WIN *** + + + + +Produced by Rick Niles, William Flis, and the PG Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +</pre> + + <div class="figcenter" + style="width:75%;"> + <a href="images/1.jpg"><img width="100%" + src="images/1.jpg" + alt="(Cover)" /></a> + </div> + + <h1>OUT TO WIN</h1> + + <h3>THE STORY OF AMERICA IN FRANCE</h3> + + <h4>BY</h4> + + <h3>CONINGSBY DAWSON</h3> + + <h4>Author of<br /> + "THE GLORY OF THE TRENCHES,"<br /> + "CARRY ON: LETTERS IN WARTIME," ETC.</h4> + + <h4>NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY<br /> + LONDON: JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD<br /> + MCMXVIII</h4> + + <center> + Copyright, 1918, BY JOHN LANE COMPANY + </center> + + <center> + Press of J.J. Little & Ives Company New York, U.S.A. + </center> + <hr /> + + <h4>TO</h4> + + <h4>MY AMERICAN FRIENDS AND BROTHERS-IN-ARMS<br /> + THIS FRANK APPRECIATION OF THEIR EFFORT IN FRANCE IS + DEDICATED</h4> + <hr /> + + <h2>CONTENTS</h2> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"></div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>A PREFACE FOR FOOLS ONLY <a href="#page9">9</a></p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"WE'VE GOT FOUR YEARS" <a href="#page29">29</a></p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>WAR AS A JOB <a href="#page61">61</a></p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>THE WAR OF COMPASSION <a href="#page109">109</a></p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>THE LAST WAR <a href="#page196">196</a></p> + </div> + </div> + <hr /> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page9" + id="page9"></a>[pg 9]</span> + + <h2>A PREFACE FOR FOOLS ONLY</h2> + + <p>I am not writing this preface for the conscious fool, but + for his self-deceived brother who considers himself a very wise + person. My hope is that some persons may recognise themselves + and be provided with food for thought. They will usually be + people who have contributed little to this war, except mean + views and endless talk. Had they shared the sacrifice of it, + they would have developed within themselves the faculty for a + wider generosity. The extraordinary thing about generosity is + its eagerness to recognise itself in others.</p> + + <p>You find these untravelled critics and mischief-makers on + both sides of the Atlantic. In most cases they have no definite + desire to work harm, but they have inherited cantankerous + prejudices which date back to the American Revolution, and they + lack the vision to perceive that this war, despite its horror + and tragedy, is the God-given chance of centuries to re-unite + the great Anglo-Saxon races of the world in a truer bond of + kindness and kinship. If we miss this chance we are + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page10" + id="page10"></a>[pg 10]</span> flinging in God's face His + splendid recompense for our common heroism.</p> + + <p>It is an unfortunate fact that the merely foolish person + constitutes as grave a danger as the deliberate plotter. His + words, if they are acid enough, are quoted and re-quoted. They + pass from mouth to mouth, gaining in authority. By the time + they reach the friendly country at which they are directed, + they have taken on the appearance of an opinion representative + of a nation. The Hun is well aware of the value of gossip for + the encouraging of divided counsels among his enemies. He + invents a slander, pins it to some racial grievance, confides + it to the fools among the Allies and leaves them to do the + rest. Some of them wander about in a merely private capacity, + nagging without knowledge, depositing poison, breeding doubts + as to integrity, and all the while pretending to maintain a + mildly impartial and judicial mental attitude. Their souls + never rise from the ground. Their brains are gangrenous with + memories of cancelled malice. They suspect hero-worship; it + smacks to them of sentiment. They examine, but never praise. + Being incapable of sacrifice, they find something + meretriciously melodramatic about men and nations who are + capable. Had they lived nineteen hundred + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page11" + id="page11"></a>[pg 11]</span> years ago, they would have + haunted Calvary to discover fraud.</p> + + <p>Then, there are others, by far more dangerous. These make + their appearance daily in the morning press, thrusting their + pessimisms across our breakfast tables, beleaguering our faith + with ill-natured judgements and querulous warnings. One of our + London Dailies, for instance, specializes in annoying America; + it works as effectively to breed distrust as if its policy were + dictated from Berlin.</p> + + <p>I have just returned from a prolonged tour of America's + activities in France. Wherever I went I heard nothing but + unstinted appreciation of Great Britain's surpassing gallantry: + "We never knew that you Britishers were what you are; you never + told us. We had to come over here to find out." When that had + been said I always waited, for I guessed the qualifying + statement that would follow: "There's only one thing that makes + us mad. Why the devil does your censor allow the + P—— to sneer at us every morning? Your army doesn't + feel that way towards us; at least, if it ever did, it doesn't + now. Are there really people in England who—?"</p> + + <p>At this point I would cut my questioner short: "There are + men so short-sighted in every country that, to warm their + hands, they would burn <span class="pagenum"><a name="page12" + id="page12"></a>[pg 12]</span> the crown of thorns. You have + them in America. Such men are not representative."</p> + + <p>The purpose of this book is to tell what America has done, + is doing, and, on the strength of her splendid and accomplished + facts, to plead for a closer friendship between my two + countries. As an Englishman who has lived in the States for ten + years and is serving with the Canadian Forces, I feel that I + have a sympathetic understanding of the affections and + aloofnesses of both nations; as a member of both families I + claim the domestic right of indulging in a little plain + speaking to each in turn.</p> + + <p>In my appeal I leave the fighting men out of the question. + Death is a universal teacher of charity. At the end of the war + the men who survive will acknowledge no kinship save the + kinship of courage. To have answered the call of duty and to + have played the man, will make a closer bond than having been + born of the same mother. At a New York theatre last October I + met some French officers who had fought on the right of the + Canadian Corps frontage at the Somme. We got to talking, + commenced remembering, missed the entire performance and parted + as old friends. In France I stayed with an American-Irish + Division. They were for the most part American citizens in the + second generation: few <span class="pagenum"><a name="page13" + id="page13"></a>[pg 13]</span> of them had been to Ireland. + As frequently happens, they were more Irish than the Irish. + They had learned from their parents the abuses which had + driven them to emigrate, but had no knowledge of the + reciprocal provocations which had caused the abuses. + Consequently, when they sailed on their troop-ships for + France they were anti-British almost to a man—many of + them were theoretically Sinn Feiners. They were coming to + fight for France and for Lafayette, who had helped to lick + Britain—but not for the British. By the time I met + them they were marvellously changed. They were going into + the line almost any day and—this was what had worked + the change—they had been trained for their ordeal by + British N.C.O.'s and officers. They had swamped their hatred + and inherited bitterness in admiration. Their highest hope + was that they might do as well as the British. "They're men + if you like," they said. In the imminence of death, their + feeling for these old-timers, who had faced death so often, + amounted to hero-worship. It was good to hear them deriding + the caricature of the typical Briton, which had served in + their mental galleries as an exact likeness for so many + years. It was proof to me that men who have endured the same + hell in a common cause will be nearer in spirit, when the + war is ended, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page14" + id="page14"></a>[pg 14]</span> than they are to their own + civilian populations. For in all belligerent countries there + are two armies fighting—the military and the civilian; + either can let the other down. If the civilian army loses + its <i>morale</i>, its vision, its unselfishness, and allows + itself to be out-bluffed by the civilian army of Germany, it + as surely betrays its soldiers as if it joined forces with + the Hun. We execute soldiers for cowardice; it's a pity that + the same law does not govern the civilian army. There would + be a rapid revision in the tone of more than one English and + American newspaper. A soldier is shot for cowardice because + his example is contagious. What can be more contagious than + a panic statement or a doubt daily reiterated? Already there + are many of us who have a kindlier feeling and certainly + more respect for a Boche who fights gamely, than for a + Britisher or American who bickers and sulks in comfort. Only + one doubt as to ultimate victory ever assails the Western + Front: that it may be attacked in the rear by the premature + peace negotiations of the civil populations it defends. + Should that ever happen, the Western Front would cease to be + a mixture of French, Americans, Canadians, Australians, + British and Belgians; it would become a nation by itself, + pledged to fight on till the ideals for which it set out to + fight are definitely + established.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page15" + id="page15"></a>[pg 15]</span> + + <p>We get rather tired of reading speeches in which civilians + presume that the making of peace is in their hands. The making + may be, but the acceptance is in ours. I do not mean that we + love war for war's sake. We love it rather less than the + civilian does. When an honourable peace has been confirmed, + there will be no stauncher pacifist than the soldier; but we + reserve our pacifism till the war is won. We shall be the last + people in Europe to get war-weary. We started with a + vision—the achieving of justice; we shall not grow weary + till that vision has become a reality. When one has faced up to + an ultimate self-denial, giving becomes a habit. One becomes + eager to be allowed to give all—to keep none of life's + small change. The fury of an ideal enfevers us. We become + fanatical to outdo our own best record in self-surrender. Many + of us, if we are alive when peace is declared, will feel an + uneasy reproach that perhaps we did not give enough.</p> + + <p>This being the spirit of our soldiers, it is easy to + understand their contempt for those civilians who go on strike, + prate of weariness, scream their terror when a few Hun planes + sail over London, devote columns in their papers to pin-prick + tragedies of food-shortage, and cloud the growing generosity + between England and America by cavilling + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page16" + id="page16"></a>[pg 16]</span> criticisms and mean + reflections. Their contempt is not that of the fighter for + the man of peace; but the scorn of the man who is doing his + duty for the shirker.</p> + + <p>A Tommy is reading a paper in a muddy trench. Suddenly he + scowls, laughs rather fiercely and calls to his pal, jerking + his head as a sign to him to hurry. "'Ere Bill, listen to wot + this 'ere cry-baby says. 'E thinks we're losin' the bloomin' + war 'cause 'e didn't get an egg for breakfast. Losin' the war! + A lot 'e knows abart it. A blinkin' lot 'e's done either to win + or lose it. Yus, I don't think! Thank Gawd, we've none of 'is + sort up front."</p> + + <p>To men who have gazed for months with the eyes of + visionaries on sudden death, it comes as a shock to discover + that back there, where life is so sweetly certain, fear still + strides unabashed. They had thought that fear was + dead—stifled by heroism. They had believed that personal + littleness had given way before the magnanimity of + martyrdom.</p> + + <p>In this plea, then, for a firmer Anglo-American friendship I + address the civilian populations of both countries. The fate of + such a friendship is in their hands. In the Eden of national + destinies God is walking; yet there are those who bray their + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page17" + id="page17"></a>[pg 17]</span> ancient grievances so loudly + that they all but drown the sound of His footsteps.</p> + + <p>Being an Englishman it will be more courteous to commence + with the fools of my own flesh and blood. Let me paint a + contrast.</p> + + <p>Last October I sailed back from New York with a company of + American officers; they consisted in the main of trained + airmen, Navy experts and engineers. Before my departure the + extraordinary sternness of America, her keenness to rival her + allies in self-denial, her willing mobilisation of all her + resources, had confirmed my optimism gained in the trenches, + that the Allies must win; the mere thought of compromise was + impossible and blasphemous. This optimism was enhanced on the + voyage by the conduct of the officers who were my companions. + They carried their spirit of dedication to an excess that was + almost irksome. They refused to play cards. They were + determined not to relax. Every minute they could snatch was + spent in studying text-books. Their country had come into the + war so late that they resented any moment lost from making + themselves proficient. When expostulated with they explained + themselves by saying, "When we've done our bit it will be time + to amuse ourselves." They were dull company, but, in a time of + war, inspiring. All their talk was of when + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page18" + id="page18"></a>[pg 18]</span> they reached England. Their + enthusiasm for the Britisher was such that they expected to + be swept into a rarer atmosphere by the closer contact with + heroism.</p> + + <p>We had an Englishman with us—obviously a consumptive. + He typified for them the doggedness of British pluck. He had + been through the entire song and dance of the Mexican + Revolution; a dozen times he had been lined up against a wall + to be shot. From Mexico he had escaped to New York, hoping to + be accepted by the British military authorities. Not + unnaturally he had been rejected. The purpose of his voyage to + the Old Country was to try his luck with the Navy. He held his + certificate as a highly qualified marine engineer. No one could + persuade him that he was not wanted. "I could last six months," + he said, "it would be something. Heaps of chaps don't last as + long."</p> + + <p>This man, a crock in every sense, hurrying back to help his + country, symbolised for every American aboard the unconquerable + courage of Great Britain. If you hadn't the full measure of + years to give, give what was left, even though it were but six + months. I may add that in England his services were accepted. + His persistence refused to be disregarded. When red-tape + stopped his <span class="pagenum"><a name="page19" + id="page19"></a>[pg 19]</span> progress, he used back-stairs + strategy. No one could bar him from his chance of + serving.</p> + + <p>In believing that he represented the Empire at its best, my + Americans were not mistaken. There are thousands fighting + to-day who share his example. One is an ex-champion sculler of + Oxford; even in those days he was blind as a bat. His + subsequent performance is consistent with his record; we always + knew that he had guts. At the start of the war, he tried to + enlist and was turned down on the score of eyesight. He tried + four times with no better result. The fifth time he presented + himself he was fool-proof; he had learnt the eyesight tests by + heart. He went out a year ago as a "one pip artist"—a + second lieutenant. Within ten months he had become a captain + and was acting lieutenant-colonel of his battalion, all the + other officers having been killed or wounded. At Cambrai he did + such gallant work that he was personally congratulated by the + general of his division. These American officers had heard such + stories; they regarded England with a kind of worship. As men + who hoped to be brave but were untested, they found something + mystic and well-nigh incredible in such utter courage. The + consumptive racing across the Atlantic that he might do + something for England <span class="pagenum"><a name="page20" + id="page20"></a>[pg 20]</span> before death took him, made + this spirit real to them.</p> + + <p>We travelled to London as a party and there for a time we + held together. The night before several set out for France, we + had a farewell gathering. The consumptive, who had just + obtained his commission, was in particularly high feather; he + brought with him a friend, a civilian official in the Foreign + Office. Please picture the group: all men who had come from + distant parts of the world to do one job; men in the army, + navy, and flying service; every one in uniform except the + stranger.</p> + + <p>Talk developed along the line of our absolute certainty as + to complete and final victory. The civilian stranger commenced + to raise his voice in dissent. We disputed his statements. He + then set to work to run through the entire argument of + pessimism: America was too far away to be effective; Russia was + collapsing; France was exhausted; England had reached the + zenith of her endeavour; Italy was not united in purpose. On + every front he saw a black cloud rising and took a dyspeptic's + delight in describing it as a little blacker than he saw it. + There was an apostolic zeal about the man's dreary earnestness. + He spoke with that air of authority which is not uncommon with + civilian Government officials. The Americans + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page21" + id="page21"></a>[pg 21]</span> stared rather than listened; + this was not the mystic and utter courage which they had + expected to find well-nigh incredible. Their own passion far + out-topped it.</p> + + <p>The argument reached a sudden climax. There were wounded + officers present. One of them said, "You wouldn't speak that + way if you had the foggiest conception of the kind of chaps we + have in the trenches."</p> + + <p>"It makes no difference what kind they are," the pessimist + replied intolerantly. "I'm asking you to face facts. Because + you've succeeded in an attack, you soldiers seem to think that + the war is ended. You base your arguments all the time on your + little local knowledge of your own particular front."</p> + + <p>The discussion ceased abruptly. Every one sprang up. Voices + strove together in advising this "facer of facts" to get into + khaki and to go to where he could obtain precisely the same + kind of little local knowledge—perhaps, a few wounds as + well. His presence was dishonourable—contaminating. We + filed out and left him sitting humped in a chair, looking + puzzled and pathetic, murmuring, "But I thought I was among + friends."</p> + + <p>My last clear-cut recollection is of a chubby young American + Naval Airman standing over + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page22" + id="page22"></a>[pg 22]</span> him, with clenched fists, + passionately instructing him in the spiritual geography of + America. That's one type of fool; the type who specialises + in catastrophe; the type who in eternally facing up to + facts, takes no account of that magic quality, courage, + which can make one man more terrible than an army; the type + who is so profoundly well-informed, about externals, that he + ignores the mightiness of soul that can remould externals to + spiritual purposes. Were I a German, the spectacle of that + solitary consumptive leaving the climate which meant life to + him and hastening home to give just six months of service to + his country, would be more menacing than the loss of an + entire corps frontage.</p> + + <p>And there's the type who can't forget; he suffers from a + fundamental lack of generosity. The Englishman of this type + can't refrain from quoting such phrases as, "Too proud to + fight," whenever opportunity offers. His American counterpart + insists that he is not fighting for Great Britain, but for the + French. He makes himself offensive by silly talk about sister + republics, implying that all other forms of Government are + essentially tyrannic. He never loses an opportunity to mention + Lafayette, assuming that one French man is worth ten + Britishers. A very gross falsehood is frequently on the lips of + this sort of man; <span class="pagenum"><a name="page23" + id="page23"></a>[pg 23]</span> he doesn't know where he + picked it up and has never troubled to test its accuracy. I + can tell him where it originated; at Berlin in the bureau + for Hun propaganda. Every time he utters it he is helping + the enemy. This falsehood is to the effect that Great + Britain has conserved her man-power; that in the early days + she let Frenchmen do the fighting and that now she is + marking time till Americans are ready to die in her stead. + This statement is so stupendously untrue that it goes + unheeded by those who know the empty homes of England or + have witnessed the gallantry of our piled-up dead.</p> + + <p>Then there's the jealous fool—the fool who in England + will see no reason why this book should have been published. + His line of argument will be, "We've been in this war for more + than three years. We've done everything that America is doing; + because she's new to the game, we're doing it much better. We + don't want any one to appreciate us, so why go praising her?" + Precisely. Why be decent? Why seek out affections? Why be + polite or kindly? Why not be automatons? I suppose the answer + is, "Because we happen to be men, and are privileged + temporarily to be playing in the rôle of heroes. The heroic + spirit rather educates one to hold out the hand of friendship + to new arrivals of the same + sort."</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page24" + id="page24"></a>[pg 24]</span> + + <p>There is one type of fool, exclusively American, whose + stupidity arises from love and tenderness. Very often she is a + woman. She has been responsible for the arrival in France of a + number of narrow-minded and well-intentioned persons; their + errand is to investigate vice-conditions in the U.S. Army. This + suspicion of the women at home concerning the conduct of their + men in the field, is directly traceable to reports of the + debasing influences of war set in circulation by the + anti-militarists. I want to say emphatically that cleaner, more + earnest, better protected troops than those from the United + States are not to be found in Europe. Both in Great Britain and + on the Continent their puritanism has created a deep + impression. By their idealism they have made their power felt; + they are men with a vision in their eyes, who have travelled + three thousand miles to keep a rendezvous with death. That + those for whom they are prepared to die should suspect them is + a degrading disloyalty. That trackers should be sent after them + from home to pick up clues to their unworthiness is sheerly + damnable. To disparage the heroism of other nations is bad + enough; to distrust the heroes of your own flesh and blood, + attributing to them lower than civilian moral standards, is to + be guilty of the meanest treachery and + ingratitude.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page25" + id="page25"></a>[pg 25]</span> + + <p>Here, then, are some of the sample fools to whom this + preface is addressed. The list could be indefinitely + lengthened. "The fool hath said in his heart, 'There is no + God'." He says it in many ways and takes a long while in saying + it; but the denying of God is usually the beginning and the end + of his conversation. He denies the vision of God in his + fellow-men and fellow-nations, even when the spikes of the + cross are visibly tearing wounds in their feet and hands.</p> + + <p>Life has swung back to a primitive decision since the war + commenced. The decision is the same for both men and nations. + They can choose the world or achieve their own souls. They can + cast mercenary lots for the raiment of a crucified + righteousness or take up their martyrdom as disciples. Those + men and nations who have been disciples together can scarcely + fail to remain friends when the tragedy is ended. What the fool + says in his heart at this present is not of any lasting + importance. There will always be those who mock, offering + vinegar in the hour of agony and taunting, "If thou be what + thou sayest...." But in the comradeship of the twilit walk to + Emmaus neither the fool nor the mocker are + remembered.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page27" + id="page27"></a>[pg 27]</span> + + <h2>OUT TO WIN</h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="page29" + id="page29"></a>[pg 29]</span> + + <h2>I</h2> + + <h2>"WE'VE GOT FOUR YEARS"</h2> + + <p>The American Troops have set words to one of their bugle + calls. These words are indicative of their spirit—of the + calculated determination with which they have faced up to their + adventure: an adventure unparalleled for magnitude in the + history of their nation.</p> + + <p>They fall in in two ranks. They tell off from the right in + fours. "Move to the right in fours. Quick March," comes the + order. The bugles strike up. The men swing into column + formation, heads erect and picking up the step. To the song of + the bugles they chant words as they march. "We've got four + years to do this job. We've got four years to do this job."</p> + + <p>That is the spirit of America. Her soldiers give her four + years, but to judge from the scale of her preparations she + might be planning for thirty.</p> + + <p>America is out to win. I write this opening sentence in + Paris where I am temporarily absent + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page30" + id="page30"></a>[pg 30]</span> from my battery, that I may + record the story of America's efforts in France. My purpose + is to prove with facts that America is in the war to her + last dollar, her last man, and for just as long as Germany + remains unrepentant. Her strength is unexpended, her spirit + is un-war-weary. She has a greater efficient man-power for + her population than any nation that has yet entered the + arena of hostilities. Her resources are continental rather + than national; it is as though a new and undivided Europe + had sprung to arms in moral horror against Germany. She has + this to add fierceness to her soul—the reproach that + she came in too late. That reproach is being wiped out + rapidly by the scarlet of self-imposed sacrifice. She did + come in late—for that very reason she will be the last + of Germany's adversaries to withdraw.</p> + + <p>She did not want to come in at all. Many of her hundred + million population emigrated to her shores out of hatred of + militarism and to escape from just such a hell as is now raging + in Europe. At first it seemed a far cry from Flanders to San + Francisco. Philanthropy could stretch that far, but not the + risking of human lives. Moreover, the American nation is not + racially a unit; it is bound together by its ideal quest for + peaceful and democratic institutions. It was a difficult task + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page31" + id="page31"></a>[pg 31]</span> for any government to + convince so remote a people that their destiny was being + made molten in the furnace of the Western Front; when once + that truth was fully apprehended the diverse souls of + America leapt up as one soul and declared for war. In so + doing the people of the United States forewent the freedom + from fear that they had gained by their journey across the + Atlantic; they turned back in their tracks to smite again + with renewed strength and redoubled hate the old brutal + Fee-Fo-Fum of despotism, from whose clutches they thought + they had escaped.</p> + + <p>America's is the case of The Terrible Meek; for two and a + half years she lulled Germany and astonished the Allies by her + abnormal patience. The most terrifying warriors of history have + been peace-loving nations hounded into hostility by outraged + ideals. Certainly no nation was ever more peace-loving than the + American. To the boy of the Middle West the fury of kings must + have read like a fairy-tale. The appeal to armed force was a + method of compelling righteousness which his entire training + had taught him to view with contempt as obsolete. Yet never has + any nation mobilised its resources more efficiently, on so + titanic a scale, in so brief a space of time to re-establish + justice with armed force. The outraged ideal which achieved + this miracle was the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page32" + id="page32"></a>[pg 32]</span> denial by the Hun of the + right of every man to personal liberty and happiness.</p> + + <p>Few people guessed that America would fling her weight so + utterly into the winning of the Allied cause. Those who knew + her best thought it scarcely possible. Germany, who believed + she knew her, thought it least of all. German statesmen argued + that America had too much to lose by such a decision—too + little to gain; the task of transporting men and materials + across three thousand miles of ocean seemed insuperable; the + differing traditions of her population would make it impossible + for her to concentrate her will in so unusual a direction. + Basing their arguments on a knowledge of the deep-seated + selfishness of human nature, Hun statesmen were of the fixed + opinion that no amount of insult would compel America to take + up the sword.</p> + + <p>Two and a half years before, those same statesmen made the + same mistake with regard to Great Britain and her Dominions. + The British were a race of shop-keepers; no matter how + chivalrous the call, nothing would persuade them to jeopardise + their money-bags. If they did for once leap across their + counters to become Sir Galahads, then the Dominions would seize + that opportunity to secure their own base safety and to fling + the Mother Country out of doors. The British gave + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page33" + id="page33"></a>[pg 33]</span> these students of selfishness + a surprise from which their military machine has never + recovered, when the "Old Contemptibles" held up the advance + of the Hun legions and won for Europe a breathing-space. The + Dominions gave them a second lesson in magnanimity when + Canada's lads built a wall with their bodies to block the + drive at Ypres. America refuted them for the third time, + when she proved her love of world-liberty greater than her + affection for the dollar, bugling across the Atlantic her + shrill challenge to mailed bestiality. Germany has made the + grave mistake of estimating human nature at its lowest worth + as she sees it reflected in her own face. In every case, in + her judgment of the two great Anglo-Saxon races, she has + been at fault through over-emphasising their capacity for + baseness and under-estimating their capacity to respond to + an ideal. It was an ideal that led the Pilgrim Fathers + westward; after more than two hundred years it is an ideal + which pilots their sons home again, racing through danger + zones in their steel-built greyhounds that they may lay down + their lives in France.</p> + + <p>In view of the monumental stupidity of her diplomacy Germany + has found it necessary to invent explanations. The form these + have taken as regards America has been the attributing of + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page34" + id="page34"></a>[pg 34]</span> fresh low motives. Her object + at first was to prove to the world at large how very little + difference America's participation in hostilities would + make. When America tacitly negatived this theory by the + energy with which she raised billions and mobilised her + industries, Hun propagandists, by an ingenious casuistry, + spread abroad the opinion that these mighty preparations + were a colossal bluff which would redound to Germany's + advantage. They said that President Wilson had bided his + time so that his country might strut as a belligerent for + only the last six months, and so obtain a voice in the peace + negotiations. He did not intend that America should fight, + and was only getting his armies ready that they might + enforce peace when the Allies were exhausted and already + counting on Americans manning their trenches. Inasmuch as + his country would neither have sacrificed nor died, he would + be willing to give Germany better terms; therefore America's + apparent joining of the Allies was a camouflage which would + turn out an advantage to Germany. This lie, with variations, + has spread beyond the Rhine and gained currency in certain + of the neutral nations.</p> + + <p>Four days after President Wilson's declaration of war the + Canadians captured Vimy Ridge. As the Hun prisoners came + running like scared rabbits + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page35" + id="page35"></a>[pg 35]</span> through the shell-fire, we + used to question them as to conditions on their side of the + line. Almost the first question that was asked was, "What do + you think about the United States?" By far the most frequent + reply was, "We have submarines; the United States will make + no difference." The answer was so often in the same formula + that it was evident the men had been schooled in the + opinion. It was only the rare man of education who said, "It + is bad—very bad; the worst mistake we have made."</p> + + <p>We, in the front-line, were very far from appreciating + America's decision at its full value. For a year we had had the + upper-hand of the Hun. To use the language of the trenches, we + knew that we could go across No Man's Land and "beat him up" + any time we liked. To tell the truth, many of us felt a little + jealous that when, after two years of punishment, we had at + last become top-dog, we should be called upon to share the + glory of victory with soldiers of the eleventh hour. We + believed that we were entirely capable of finishing the job + without further aid. My own feeling, as an Englishman living in + New York, was merely one of relief—that now, when war was + ended, I should be able to return to friends of whom I need not + be ashamed. To what extent America's earnestness has changed + that <span class="pagenum"><a name="page36" + id="page36"></a>[pg 36]</span> sentiment is shown by the + expressed desire of every Canadian, that if Americans are + anywhere on the Western Front, they ought to be next to us + in the line. "They are of our blood," we say; "they will + carry on our record." Only those who have had the honour to + serve with the Canadian Corps and know its dogged adhesion + to heroic traditions, can estimate the value of this + compliment.</p> + + <p>I should say that in the eyes of the combatant, after + President Wilson, Mr. Ford has done more than any other one man + to interpret the spirit of his nation; our altered attitude + towards him typifies our altered attitude towards America. Mr. + Ford, the impassioned pacifist, sailing to Europe in his ark of + peace, staggered our amazement. Mr. Ford, still the impassioned + pacifist, whose aeroplane engines will help to bomb the Hun's + conscience into wakefulness, staggers our amazement but + commands our admiration. We do not attempt to understand or + reconcile his two extremes of conduct, but as fighters we + appreciate the courage of soul that made him "about turn" to + search for his ideal in a painful direction when the old + friendly direction had failed. Here again it is significant + that both with regard to individuals and nations, Germany's + sternest foes are war-haters—war-haters to such an extent + that their <span class="pagenum"><a name="page37" + id="page37"></a>[pg 37]</span> principles at times have + almost shipwrecked their careers. In England our example is + Lloyd George. Throughout the Anglo-Saxon world the + slumbering spirit of Cromwell's Ironsides has sprung to + life, reminding the British Empire and the United States of + their common ancestry. After a hundred and forty years of + drifting apart, we stand side by side like our forefathers, + the fighting pacifists at Naseby; like them, having failed + to make men good with words, we will hew them into virtue + with the sword.</p> + + <p>At the end of June I went back to Blighty wounded. One of my + most vivid recollections of the time that followed is an early + morning in July; it must have been among the first of the days + that I was allowed out of hospital. London was green and leafy. + The tracks of the tramways shone like silver in the sunlight. + There was a spirit of release and immense good humour abroad. + My course followed the river on the south side, all a-dance + with wind and little waves. As I crossed the bridge at + Westminster I became aware of an atmosphere of expectation. + Subconsciously I must have been noticing it for some time. + Along Whitehall the pavements were lined with people, craning + their necks, joking and jostling, each trying to better his + place. Trafalgar Square was jammed with a dense mass of + humanity, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page38" + id="page38"></a>[pg 38]</span> through which mounted police + pushed their way solemnly, like beadles in a vast unroofed + cathedral. Then for the first time I noticed what I ought to + have noticed long before, that the Stars and Stripes were + exceptionally prevalent. Upon inquiry I was informed that + this was the day on which the first of the American troops + were to march. I picked up with a young officer or the + Dublin Fusiliers and together we forced our way down Pall + Mall to the office of The Cecil Rhodes Oxford Scholars' + Foundation. From here we could watch the line of march from + Trafalgar Square to Marlborough House. While we waited, I + scanned the group-photographs on the walls, some of which + contained portraits of German Rhodes Scholars with whom I + had been acquainted. I remembered how they had always spent + their vacations in England, assiduously bicycling to the + most unexpected places. In the light of later developments I + thought I knew the reason.</p> + + <p>Suddenly, far away bands struck up. We thronged the windows, + leaning out that we might miss nothing. Through the half mile + of people that stretched between us and the music a shudder of + excitement was running. Then came cheers—the + deep-throated babel of men's voices and the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page39" + id="page39"></a>[pg 39]</span> shrill staccato of women's. + "They're coming," some one cried; then I saw them.</p> + + <p>I forget which regiment lead. The Coldstreams were there, + the Scotch and Welsh Guards, the Irish Guards with their + saffron kilts and green ribbons floating from their bag-pipes. + A British regimental band marched ahead of each American + regiment to do it honour. Down the sunlit canyon of Pall Mall + they swung to the tremendous cheering of the crowd. Quite + respectable citizens had climbed lamp-posts and railings, and + were waving their hats. I caught the words that were being + shouted, "Are we downhearted?" Then, in a fierce roar of + denial, "No!" It was a wonderful ovation—far more + wonderful than might have been expected from a people who had + grown accustomed to the sight of troops during the last three + years. The genuineness of the welcome was patent; it was the + voice of England that was thundering along the pavements.</p> + + <p>I was anxious to see the quality of the men which America + had sent. They drew near; then I saw them plainly. They were + fine strapping chaps, broad of shoulder and proudly + independent. They were not soldiers yet; they were civilians + who had been rushed into khaki. Their equipment was of every + kind and sort and spoke eloquently of the hurry in which they + had been <span class="pagenum"><a name="page40" + id="page40"></a>[pg 40]</span> brought together. That meant + much to us in London-much more than if they had paraded with + all the "spit and polish" of the crack troops who led them. + It meant to us that America was doing her bit at the + earliest date possible.</p> + + <p>The other day, here in France, I met an officer of one of + those battalions; he told me the Americans' side of the story. + They were expert railroad troops, picked out of civilian life + and packed off to England without any pretence at military + training. When they were informed that they were to be the + leading feature in a London procession, many of them even + lacked uniforms. With true American democracy of spirit, the + officers stripped their rank-badges from their spare tunics and + lent them to the privates, who otherwise could not have + marched.</p> + + <p>"I'm satisfied," my friend said, "that there were Londoners + so doggone hoarse that night that they couldn't so much as + whisper."</p> + + <p>What impressed the men most of all was the King's friendly + greeting of them at Buckingham Palace. There were few of them + who had ever seen a king before. "Friendly—that's the + word! From the King downwards they were all so friendly. It was + more like a family party than a procession; and on the return + journey, when we marched at ease, old ladies broke up our + formations <span class="pagenum"><a name="page41" + id="page41"></a>[pg 41]</span> to kiss us. Nice and + grandmotherly of them we thought."</p> + + <p>This, as I say, I learnt later in France; at the time I only + knew that the advance-guard of millions was marching. As I + watched them my eyes grew misty. Troops who have already fought + no longer stir me; they have exchanged their dreams of glory + for the reality of sacrifice—they know to what they may + look forward. But untried troops have yet to be disillusioned; + dreams of the pomp of war are still in their eyes. They have + not yet owned that they are merely going out to die + obscurely.</p> + + <p>That day made history. It was then that England first + vividly realised that America was actually standing shoulder to + shoulder at her side. In making history it obliterated almost a + century and a half of misunderstanding. I believe I am correct + in saying that the last foreign troops to march through London + were the Hessians, who fought against America in the + Revolution, and that never before had foreign volunteers + marched through England save as conquerors.</p> + + <p>On my recovery I was sent home on sick leave and spent a + month in New York. No one who has not been there since America + joined the Allies can at all realise the change that has taken + place. It is a change of soul, which no statistics + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page42" + id="page42"></a>[pg 42]</span> of armaments can photograph. + America has come into the war not only with her factories, + her billions and her man-power, but with her heart shining + in her eyes. All her spread-eagleism is gone. All her + aggressive industrial ruthlessness has vanished. With these + has been lost her youthful contempt for older civilisations, + whom she was apt to regard as decaying because they sent her + emigrants. She has exchanged her prejudices for admiration + and her grievances for kindness. Her "Hats off" attitude to + France, England, Belgium and to every nation that has shed + blood for the cause which now is hers, was a thing which I + had scarcely expected; it was amazing. As an example of how + this attitude is being interpreted into action, + school-histories throughout the United States are being + re-written, so that American children of the future may be + trained in friendship for Great Britain, whereas formerly + stress was laid on the hostilities of the eighteenth century + which produced the separation. As a further example, many + American boys, who for various reasons were not accepted by + the military authorities in their own country, have gone up + to Canada to join.</p> + + <p>One such case is typical. Directly it became evident that + America was going into the war, one boy, with whom I am + acquainted, made up his <span class="pagenum"><a name="page43" + id="page43"></a>[pg 43]</span> mind to be prepared to join. + He persuaded his father to allow him to go to a Flying + School to train as a pilot. Having obtained his certificate, + he presented himself for enlistment and was turned down on + the ground that he was lacking in a sense of equipoise. + Being too young for any other branch of the service, he + persuaded his family to allow him to try his luck in Canada. + Somehow, by hook or by crook, he had to get into the war. + The Royal Flying Corps accepted him with the proviso that he + must take out his British naturalisation papers. This + changing of nationality was a most bitter pill for his + family to swallow. The boy had done his best to be a + soldier; he was the eldest son, and there they would + willingly have had the matter rest. Moreover they could + compel the matter to rest there, for, being under age, he + could not change his nationality without his father's + consent. It was his last desperate argument that turned the + decision in his favour, "If it's a choice between my honour + and my country, I choose my honour every time." So now he's + a Britisher, learning "spit and polish" and expecting to + bring down a Hun almost any day.</p> + + <p>One noticed in almost the smallest details how deeply + America had committed her conscience to her new undertaking. + While in England we grumble about a food-control which is + absolutely <span class="pagenum"><a name="page44" + id="page44"></a>[pg 44]</span> necessary to our + preservation, America is voluntarily restricting herself not + for her own sake, but for the sake of the Allies. They say + that they are being "Hooverized," thus coining a new word + out of Mr. Hoover's name. Sometimes these Hooverish + practices produce contrasts which are rather quaint. I went + to stay with a friend who had just completed as his home an + exact reproduction of a palace in Florence. Whoever went + short, there was little that he could not afford. At our + meals I noticed that I was the only person who was served + with butter and sugar, and enquired why. "It's all right for + you," I was told; "you're a soldier; but if we eat butter + and sugar, some of the Allies who really need them will have + to go short." A small illustration, but one that is typical + of a national, sacrificial, underlying thought.</p> + + <p>Later I met with many instances of the various forms in + which this thought is taking shape. I was in America when the + Liberty War Loan was so amazingly over-subscribed. I saw buses, + their roofs crowded with bands and orators, doing the tour of + street-corners. Every store of any size, every railroad, every + bank and financial corporation had set for its employés and + customers the ideal sum which it considered that they + personally ought to subscribe. This ideal sum was recorded + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page45" + id="page45"></a>[pg 45]</span> on the face of a clock, hung + outside the building. As the gross amount actually collected + increased, the hands were seen to revolve. Everything that + eloquence and ingenuity could devise was done to gather + funds for the war. Big advertisers made a gift of their + newspaper space to the nation. There were certain + public-spirited men who took up blocks of war-bonds, making + the request that no interest should be paid. You went to a + theatre; during the interval actors and actresses sold + war-certificates, harangued the audience and set the example + by their own purchases.</p> + + <p>When the Liberty War Loan had been raised, the Red Cross + started its great national drive, apportioning the necessary + grand total among all the cities from sea-board to sea-board, + according to their wealth and population.</p> + + <p>One heard endless stories of the variety of efforts being + made. America had committed her heart to the Allies with an + abandon which it is difficult to describe. Young society girls, + who had been brought up in luxury and protected from ugliness + all their lives, were banding themselves into units, supplying + the money, hiring the experts, and coming over themselves to + France to look after refugees' babies. Others were planning to + do reconstruction work in the devastated districts immediately + behind the battle-line. I + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page46" + id="page46"></a>[pg 46]</span> met a number of these + enthusiasts before they sailed; I have since seen them at + work in France. What struck me at the time was their + rose-leaf frailness and utter unsuitability for the task. I + could guess the romantic visions which tinted their souls to + the colour of sacrifice; I also knew what refugees and + devastated districts look like. I feared that the + discrepancy between the dream and the reality would doom + them to disillusion.</p> + + <p>During the month that I was in America I visited several of + the camps. The first draft army had been called. The first call + gave the country seven million men from which to select. I was + surprised to find that in many camps, before military training + could commence, schools in English had to be started to ensure + the men's proper understanding of commands. This threw a new + light on the difficulties Mr. Wilson had had to face in coming + into the war.</p> + + <p>The men of the draft army represent as many nationalities, + dialects and race-prejudices as there are in Europe. They are a + Europe expatriated. During their residence in America a great + many of them have lived in communities where their own language + is spoken, and their own customs are maintained. Frequently + they have their own newspapers, which foster their national + exclusiveness, and reflect the hatreds and affections of the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page47" + id="page47"></a>[pg 47]</span> country from which they + emigrated. These conditions set up a barrier between them + and current American opinion which it was difficult for the + authorities at Washington to cross. The people who + represented neutral European nations naturally were anxious + for the neutrality of America. The people who represented + the Central Powers naturally were against America siding + with the Allies. The only way of re-directing their + sympathies was by means of education and propaganda; this + took time, especially when they were separated from the + truth by the stumbling block of language. For three years + they had to be persuaded that they were no longer Poles, + Swedes, Germans, Finns, Norwegians, but first and last + Americans. I mention this here, in connection with the + teaching of the draft army English, because it affords one + of the most vivid and comprehensible reasons for America's + long delay.</p> + + <p>What brought America into the war? I have often been asked + the question; in answering it I always feel that I am giving + only a partial answer. On the one hand there is the record of + her two and a half years of procrastination, on the other the + titanic upspringing of her warrior-spirit, which happened + almost in a day. How can one reconcile the multitudinous + pacific notes which issued from Washington with the bugle-song + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page48" + id="page48"></a>[pg 48]</span> to which the American boys + march: "We've got four years to do this job." The cleavage + between the two attitudes is too sharp for the comprehension + of other nations.</p> + + <p>The first answer which I shall give is entirely sane and + will be accepted by the rankest cynic. America came into the + war at the moment she realised that her own national life was + endangered. Her leaders realised this months before her masses + could be persuaded. The political machinery of the United + States is such that no Government would dare to commence + hostilities unless it was assured that its decision was the + decision of the entire nation. That the Government might have + this assurance, Mr. Wilson had to maintain peace long after the + intellect of America had declared for war, while he educated + the cosmopolitan citizenship of his country into a knowledge of + Hun designs. The result was that he created the appearance of + having been pushed into hostilities by the weight of public + opinion.</p> + + <p>For many months the Secret Service agents of the States, + aided by the agents of other nations, were unravelling German + plots and collecting data of treachery so irrefutable that it + had to be accepted. When all was ready the first chapters of + the story were divulged. They were divulged almost in the form + of a serial novel, so that the man + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page49" + id="page49"></a>[pg 49]</span> who read his paper to-day and + said, "No doubt that isolated item is true, but it doesn't + incriminate the entire German nation," next day on opening + his paper, found further proof and was forced to retreat to + more ingenious excuses. One day he was informed of Germany's + abuse of neutral embassies and mail-bags; the next of the + submarine bases in Mexico, prepared as a threat against + American shipping; the day after that the whole infamous + story of how Berlin had financed the Mexican Revolution. + Germany's efforts to provoke an American-Japanese war leaked + out, her attempts to spread disloyalty among + German-Americans, her conspiracies for setting fire to + factories and powder-plants, including the blowing up of + bridges and the Welland Canal. Quietly, circumstantially, + without rancour, the details were published of the criminal + spider-web woven by the Dernburgs, Bernstorffs and Von + Papens, accredited creatures of the Kaiser, who with + Machiavellian smiles had professed friendship for those whom + their hands itched to slay and strangle. Gradually the + camouflage of bovine geniality was lifted from the face of + Germany and the dripping fangs of the Blonde Beast were + displayed—the Minotaur countenance of one glutted with + human flesh, weary with rape and rapine, but still + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page50" + id="page50"></a>[pg 50]</span> tragically insatiable and + lusting for the new sensation of hounding America to + destruction.</p> + + <p>I have not placed these revelations in their proper + sequence; some were made after war had been declared. They had + the effect of changing every decent American into a + self-appointed detective. The weight of evidence put Germany's + perfidy beyond dispute; clues to new and endless chains of + machinations were discovered daily. The Hun had come as a guest + into America's house with only one intent—to do murder as + soon as the lights were out.</p> + + <p>The anger which these disclosures produced knew no bounds. + Hun apologists—the type of men who invariably believe + that there is a good deal to be said on both + sides—quickly faded into patriots. There had been those + who had cried out for America's intervention from the first day + that Belgium's neutrality had been violated. Many of these, + losing patience, had either enlisted in Canada or were already + in France on some errand of mercy. Their cry had reached + Washington at first only as a whisper, very faint and distant. + Little by little that cry had swelled, till it became the + nation's voice, angry, insistent, not to be disregarded. The + most convinced humanitarian, together with the sincerest + admirer of the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page51" + id="page51"></a>[pg 51]</span> old-fashioned kindly Hans, + had to join in that cry or brand himself a traitor by his + silence.</p> + + <p>America came into the war, as every country came, because + her life was threatened. She is not fighting for France, Great + Britain, Belgium, Serbia; she is fighting to save herself. I am + glad to make this point because I have heard camouflaged + Pro-Germans and thoughtless mischief-makers discriminating + between the Allies. "We are not fighting for Great Britain," + they say, "but for plucky France." When I was in New York last + October a firm stand was being made against these + discriminators; some of them even found themselves in the hands + of the Secret Service men. The feeling was growing that not to + be Pro-British was not to be Pro-Ally, and that not to be + Pro-Ally was to be anti-American. This talk of fighting for + somebody else is all lofty twaddle. America is fighting for + America. While the statement is perfectly true, Americans have + a right to resent it.</p> + + <p>In September, 1914, I crossed to Holland and was immensely + disgusted at the interpretation of Great Britain's action which + I found current there. I had supposed that Holland would be + full of admiration; I found that she was nothing of the sort. + We Britishers, in those early days, believed that we were + magnanimous big brothers <span class="pagenum"><a name="page52" + id="page52"></a>[pg 52]</span> who could have kept out of + the bloodshed, but preferred to die rather than see the + smaller nations bullied. Men certainly did not join + Kitchener's mob because they believed that England's life + was threatened. I don't believe that any strong emotion of + patriotism animated Canada in her early efforts. The + individual Briton donned the khaki because he was determined + to see fair play, and was damned if he would stand by a + spectator while women and children were being butchered in + Belgium. He felt that he had to do something to stop it. If + he didn't, the same thing would happen in Holland, then in + Denmark, then in Norway. There was no end to it. When a mad + dog starts running the best thing to do is to shoot it.</p> + + <p>But the Hollanders didn't agree with me at all. "You're + fighting for yourselves," they said. "You're not fighting to + save us from being invaded; you're not fighting to prevent the + Hun from conquering France; you're not fighting to liberate + Belgium. You're fighting because you know that if you let + France be crushed, it will be your turn next."</p> + + <p>Quite true—and absolutely unjust. The Hollander, whose + households we were guarding, chose to interpret our motive at + its most ignoble worth. Our men were receiving in their bodies + the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page53" + id="page53"></a>[pg 53]</span> wounds which would have been + inflicted on Holland, had we elected to stand out. In the + light of subsequent events, all the world acknowledges that + we were and are fighting for our own households; but it is a + glorious certainty that scarcely a Britisher who died in + those early days had the least realisation of the fact. It + was the chivalrous vision of a generous Crusade that led our + chaps from their firesides to the trampled horror that is + Flanders. They said farewell to their habitual affections, + and went out singing to their marriage with death.</p> + + <p>I suppose there has been no war that could not be + interpreted ultimately as a war of self-interest. The statesmen + who make wars always carefully reckon the probabilities of loss + or gain; but the lads who kiss their sweethearts good-bye + require reasons more vital than those of pounds, shillings and + pence. Few men lay down their lives from self-interested + motives. Courage is a spiritual quality which requires a + spiritual inducement. Men do not set a price on their chance of + being blown to bits by shells. Even patriotism is too vague to + be a sufficient incentive. The justice of the cause to be + fought for helps; it must be proportionate to the magnitude of + the sacrifice demanded. But always an ideal is + necessary—an ideal of liberty, indignation and mercy. If + this <span class="pagenum"><a name="page54" + id="page54"></a>[pg 54]</span> is true of the men who go out + to die, it is even more true of the women who send them,</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"Where there're no children left to pull</p> + + <p>The few scared, ragged flowers—</p> + + <p>All that was ours, and, God, how beautiful!</p> + + <p>All, all that was once ours,</p> + + <p>Lies faceless, mouthless, mire to mire,</p> + + <p>So lost to all sweet semblance of desire</p> + + <p>That we, in those fields seeking desperately</p> + + <p>One face long-lost to love, one face that lies</p> + + <p>Only upon the breast of Memory,</p> + + <p>Would never find it—even the very blood</p> + + <p>Is stamped into the horror of the mud—</p> + + <p>Something that mad men trample under-foot</p> + + <p>In the narrow trench—for these things are not + men—</p> + + <p>Things shapeless, sodden, mute</p> + + <p>Beneath the monstrous limber of the guns;</p> + + <p>Those things that loved us once...</p> + + <p>Those that were ours, but never ours again."</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p>For two and a half years the American press specialized on + the terror aspect of the European hell. Every sensational, + exceptional fact was not only chronicled, but widely + circulated. The bodily and mental havoc that can be wrought by + shell fire was exaggerated out of all proportion to reality. + Photographs, almost criminal in type, were published to + illustrate the brutal expression of men who had taken part in + bayonet charges. Lies were spread broadcast by supposedly + reputable persons, stating how soldiers had to be maddened + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page55" + id="page55"></a>[pg 55]</span> with drugs or alcohol before + they would go over the top. Much of what was recorded was + calculated to stagger the imagination and intimidate the + heart. The reason for this was that the supposed + eye-witnesses rarely saw what they recorded. They had + usually never been within ten miles of the front, for only + combatants are allowed in the line. They brought civilian + minds, undisciplined to the conquest of fear, to their task; + they never for one instant guessed the truly spiritual + exaltation which gives wings to the soul of the man who + fights in a just cause. Squalor, depravity, brutalisation, + death—moral, mental and physical deformity were the + rewards which the American public learned the fighting man + gained in the trenches. They heard very little of the + capacity for heroism, the eagerness for sacrifice, the + gallant self-effacement which having honor for a companion + taught. And yet, despite this frantic portrayal of terror, + America decided for war. Her National Guard and Volunteers + rolled up in millions, clamouring to cross the three + thousand miles of water that they might place their lives in + jeopardy. They were no more urged by motives of + self-interest than were the men who enlisted in Kitchener's + mob. It wasn't the threat to their national security that + brought them; it was the lure of an ideal—the fine + white <span class="pagenum"><a name="page56" + id="page56"></a>[pg 56]</span> knightliness of men whose + compassion had been tormented and whose manhood had been + challenged. When one says that America came into the war to + save herself it is only true of her statesmen; it is no more + true of her masses than it was true of the masses of Great + Britain.</p> + + <p>So far, in my explanation as to why America came into the + war, I have been scarcely more generous in the attributing of + magnanimous motives than my Hollander. To all intents and + purposes I have said, "America is fighting because she knows + that if the Allies are over-weakened or crushed, it will be her + turn next." In discussing the matter with me, one of our + Generals said, "I really don't see that it matters a tuppenny + cuss why she's fighting, so long as she helps us to lick the + Hun and does it quickly." But it does matter. The reasons for + her having taken up arms make all the difference to our respect + for her. Here, then, are the reasons which I attribute: + enthusiasm for the ideals of the Allies; admiration for the + persistency of their heroism; compassionate determination to + borrow some of the wounds which otherwise would be inflicted + upon nations which have already suffered. A small band of + pioneers in mercy are directly responsible for this change of + attitude in two and a half years from + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page57" + id="page57"></a>[pg 57]</span> opportunistic neutrality to a + reckless welcoming of martyrdom.</p> + + <p>At the opening of hostilities in 1914, America divided + herself into two camps—the Pro-Allies and the others. + "The others" consisted of people of all shades of opinion and + conviction: the anti-British, anti-French, the pro-German, the + anti-war and the merely neutral, some of whom set feverishly to + work to make a tradesman's advantage out of Europe's + misfortune. A great traffic sprang up in the manufacture of war + materials. Almost all of these went to the Allies, owing to the + fact that Britain controlled the seas. Whether they would not + have been sold just as readily to Germany, had that been + possible, is a matter open to question. In any case, the camp + of "The Others" was overwhelmingly in the majority.</p> + + <p>One by one, and in little protesting bands, the friends of + the Allies slipped overseas bound on self-imposed, sacrificial + quests. They went like knight-errants to the rescue; while + others suffered, their own ease was intolerable. The women, + whom they left, formed themselves into groups for the + manufacture of the munitions of mercy. There were men like Alan + Seeger, who chanced to be in Europe when war broke out; many of + these joined up with the nearest fighting + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page58" + id="page58"></a>[pg 58]</span> units. "I have a rendezvous + with death," were Alan Seeger's last words as he fell + mortally wounded between the French and German trenches. His + voice was the voice of thousands who had pledged themselves + to keep that rendezvous in the company of Britishers, + Belgians and Frenchmen, long before their country had dreamt + of committing herself. Some of these friends of the Allies + chose the Ford Ambulance, others positions in the Commission + for the Relief of Belgium, and yet others the more forceful + sympathy of the bayonet as a means of expressing their + wrath. Soon, through the heart of France, with the tricolor + and the Stars and Stripes flying at either end, "le train + Américaine" was seen hurrying, carrying its scarlet burden. + This sight could hardly be called neutral unless a similar + sight could be seen in Germany. It could not. The Commission + for the Relief of Belgium was actually anything but neutral; + to minister to the results of brutality is tacitly to + condemn.</p> + + <p>At Neuilly-sur-Seine the American Ambulance Hospital sprang + up. It undertook the most grievous cases, making a specialty of + facial mutilations. American girls performed the nursing of + these pitiful human wrecks. Increasingly the crusader spirit + was finding a gallant response in the hearts of America's + girlhood. By the time that President + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page59" + id="page59"></a>[pg 59]</span> Wilson flung his challenge, + eighty-six war relief organizations were operating in + France. In very many cases these organizations only + represented a hundredth part of the actual personnel + working; the other ninety-nine hundredths were in the + States, rolling bandages, shredding oakum, slitting linen, + making dressings. Long before April, 1917, American college + boys had won a name by their devotion in forcing their + ambulances over shell torn roads on every part of the French + Front, but, perhaps, with peculiar heroism at Verdun. + Already the American Flying Squadron has earned a veteran's + reputation for its daring. The report of the sacrificial + courage of these pioneers had travelled to every State in + the Union; their example had stirred, shamed and educated + the nation. It is to these knight-errants—very many of + them boys and girls in years—to the Mrs. Whartons, the + Alan Seegers, the Hoovers and the Thaws that I attribute + America's eager acceptance of Calvary, when at last it was + offered to her by her Statesmen. From an anguished horror to + be repelled, war had become a spiritual Eldorado in whose + heart lay hidden the treasure-trove of national honor.</p> + + <p>The individual American soldier is inspired by just as + altruistic motives as his brother-Britisher. Compassion, + indignation, love of justice, the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page60" + id="page60"></a>[pg 60]</span> determination to see right + conquer are his incentives. You can make a man a conscript, + drill him, dress him in uniform, but you cannot force him to + face up to four years to do his job unless the ideals were + there beforehand. I have seen American troop-ships come into + the dock with ten thousand men singing,</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"Good-bye, Liza,</p> + + <p>I'm going to smash the Kaiser."</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p>I have been present when packed audiences have gone mad in + reiterating the American equivalent for <i>Tipperary</i>, with + its brave promise,</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"We'll be over,</p> + + <p>We're coming over,</p> + + <p>And we won't be back till it's over, over + there."</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p>But nothing I have heard so well expresses the cold anger of + the American fighting-man as these words which they chant to + their bugle-march, "We've got four years to do this + job."</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page61" + id="page61"></a>[pg 61]</span> + + <h2>II</h2> + + <h2>WAR AS A JOB</h2> + + <p>I have been so fortunate as to be able to watch three + separate nations facing up to the splendour of + Armageddon—England, France, America. The spirit of each + was different. I arrived in England from abroad the week after + war had been declared. There was a new vitality in the air, a + suppressed excitement, a spirit of youth and—it sounds + ridiculous—of opportunity. The England I had left had + been wont to go about with a puckered forehead; she was a + victim of self-disparagement. She was like a mother who had + borne too many children and was at her wits' end to know how to + feed or manage them. They were getting beyond her control. + Since the Boer War there had been a growing tendency in the + Press to under-rate all English effort and to over-praise to + England's discredit the superior pushfulness of other nations. + This melancholy nagging which had for its constant text, "Wake + up, John Bull," had produced + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page62" + id="page62"></a>[pg 62]</span> the hallucination that there + was something vitally the matter with the Mother Country. No + one seemed to have diagnosed her complaint, but those of us + who grew weary of being told that we were behind the times, + took prolonged trips to more cheery quarters of the globe. + It is the Englishman's privilege to run himself down; he + usually does it with his tongue in his cheek. But for the + ten years preceding the outbreak of hostilities, the + prophets of Fleet Street certainly carried their privilege + beyond a joke. Pessimism was no longer an amusing pose; it + was becoming a habit.</p> + + <p>One week of the iron tonic of war had changed all that. The + atmosphere was as different as the lowlands from the Alps; it + was an atmosphere of devil-may-care assurance and adventurous + manhood. Every one had the summer look of a boat-race crowd + when the Leander is to be pulled off at Henley. In comparing + the new England with the old, I should have said that every one + now had the comfortable certainty that he was wanted—that + he had a future and something to live for. But it wasn't the + something to live for that accounted for this gay alertness; it + was the sure foreknowledge of each least important man that he + had something worth dying for at last.</p> + + <p>A strange and magnificent way of answering + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page63" + id="page63"></a>[pg 63]</span> misfortune's + challenge—an Elizabethan way, the knack of which we + believed we had lost! "Business as usual" was written across + our doorways. It sounded callous and unheeding, but at night + the lads who had written it there, tiptoed out and stole + across the Channel, scarcely whispering for fear they should + break our hearts by their going.</p> + + <p>Death may be regarded as a funeral or as a Columbus + expedition to worlds unknown—it may be seized upon as an + opportunity for weeping or for a display of courage. From the + first day in her choice England never hesitated; like a boy set + free from school, she dashed out to meet her danger with + laughter. Her high spirits have never failed her. Her cavalry + charge with hunting-calls upon their lips. Her Tommies go over + the top humming music-hall ditties. The Hun is still "jolly old + Fritz." The slaughter is still "a nice little war." Death is + still "the early door." The mud-soaked "old Bills" of the + trenches, cheerfully ignoring vermin, rain and shell fire, + continue to wind up their epistles with, "Hoping this finds you + in the pink, as it leaves me at present." They are always in + the pink for epistolary purposes, whatever the strafing or the + weather. That's England; at all costs, she has to be a + sportsman. I wonder she doesn't write on the crosses above her + dead, "<i>Yours in the pink:</i> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page64" + id="page64"></a>[pg 64]</span> <i>a British soldier, killed + in action</i>." England is in the pink for the duration of + the war.</p> + + <p>The Frenchman cannot understand us, and I don't blame him. + Our high spirits impress him as untimely and indecent. War for + him is not a sport. How could it be, with his homesteads + ravaged, his cities flattened, his women violated, his + populations prisoners in occupied territories? For him war is a + martyrdom which he embraces with a fierce gladness. His spirit + is well illustrated by an incident that happened the other day + in Paris. A descendant of Racine, a well-known figure at the + opera, was travelling in the Metro when he spotted a poilu with + a string of ten medals on his breast. The old aristocrat went + over to the soldier and apologised for speaking to him. "But," + he said, "I have never seen any poilu with so many decorations. + You must be of the very bravest."</p> + + <p>"That is nothing," the man replied sombrely; "before they + kill me I shall have won many more. This I earned in revenge + for my wife, who was brutally murdered. And this and this and + this for my daughters who were ravished. And these + others—they are for my sons who are now no more."</p> + + <p>"My friend, if you will let me, I should like to embrace + you." And there, in the sight of all + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page65" + id="page65"></a>[pg 65]</span> the passengers, the old + habitué of the opera and the common soldier kissed each + other. The one satisfaction that the French blind have is in + counting the number of Boche they have slaughtered. "In that + raid ten of us killed fifty," one will say; "the memory + makes me very happy."</p> + + <p>Curiously enough the outrage that makes the Frenchman most + revengeful is not the murder of his family or the defilement of + his women, but the wilful killing of his land and orchards. The + land gave birth to all his flesh and blood; when his farm is + laid waste wilfully, it is as though the mother of all his + generations was violated. This accounts for the indomitable way + in which the peasants insist on staying on in their houses + under shell-fire, refusing to depart till they are forcibly + turned out.</p> + + <p>We in England, still less in America, have never approached + the loathing which is felt for the Boche in France. Men spit as + they utter his name, as though the very word was foul in the + mouth.</p> + + <p>In the face of all that they have suffered, I do not wonder + that the French misunderstand the easy good-humour with which + we English go out to die. In their eyes and with the continual + throbbing of their wounds, this war is an occasion for neither + good-humour nor sportsmanship, but for + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page66" + id="page66"></a>[pg 66]</span> the wrath of a Hebrew + Jehovah, which only blows can appease or make articulate. If + every weapon were taken from their hands and all their young + men were dead, with naked fists those who were left would + smite—smite and smite. It is fitting that they should + feel this way, seeing themselves as they do perpetually + frescoed against the sky-line of sacrifice; but I am glad + that our English boys can laugh while they die.</p> + + <p>In trying to explain the change I found in England after war + had commenced, I mentioned Henley and the boat-race crowds. I + don't think it was a change; it was only a bringing to the + surface of something that had been there always. Some years ago + I was at Henley when the Belgians carried off the Leander Cup + from the most crack crew that England could bring together. + Evening after evening through the Regatta week the fear had + been growing that we should lose, yet none of that fear was + reflected in our attitude towards our Belgian guests. Each + evening as they came up the last stretch of river, leading by + lengths and knocking another contestant out, the spectators + cheered them madly. Their method of rowing smashed all our + traditions; it wasn't correct form; it wasn't anything. It + ought to have made one angry. But these chaps were game; they + were winning. "Let's play fair," said the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page67" + id="page67"></a>[pg 67]</span> river; so they cheered them. + On the last night when they beat Leander, looking fresh as + paint, leading by a length and taking the championship out + of England, you would never have guessed by the flicker of + an eyelash that it wasn't the most happy conclusion of a + good week's sport for every oarsman present.</p> + + <p>It's the same spirit essentially that England is showing + to-day. She cheers the winner. She trusts in her strength for + another day. She insists on playing fair. She considers it bad + manners to lose one's temper. She despises to hate back. She + has carried this spirit so far that if you enter the college + chapels of Oxford to-day, you will find inscribed on memorial + tablets to the fallen not only the names of Britishers, but + also the names of German Rhodes Scholars, who died fighting for + their country against the men who were once their friends. + Generosity, justice, disdain of animosity-these virtues were + learnt on the playing-fields and race-courses. England knows + their value; she treats war as a sport because so she will + fight better. For her that approach to adversity is normal.</p> + + <p>With us war is a sport. With the French it is a martyrdom. + But with the Americans it is a job. "We've got four years to do + this job. We've got four years to do this job," as the American + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page68" + id="page68"></a>[pg 68]</span> soldiers chant. I think in + these three attitudes towards war as a martyrdom, as sport + and as a job, you get reflected the three gradations of + distance by which each nation is divided from the trenches. + France had her tribulation thrust upon her. She was + attacked; she had no option. England, separated by the + Channel, could have restrained the weight of her strength, + biding her time. She had her moment of choice, but rushed to + the rescue the moment the first Hun bayonet gleamed across + the Belgian threshold. America, fortified by the Atlantic, + could not believe that her peace was in any way assailed. + The idea seemed too madly far-fetched. At first she refused + to realise that this apportioning of a continent three + thousand miles distant from Germany was anything but a + pipe-dream of diplomats in their dotage. It was + inconceivable that it could be the practical and achievable + cunning of military bullies and strategists. The truth + dawned too slowly for her to display any vivid burst of + anger. "It isn't true," she said. And then, "It seems + incredible." And lastly, "What infernal impertinence!"</p> + + <p>It was the infernal impertinence of Germany's schemes for + transatlantic plunder that roused the average American. It + awoke in him a terrible, calm anger—a feeling that some + one must be punished. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page69" + id="page69"></a>[pg 69]</span> It was as though he broke off + suddenly in what he was doing and commenced rolling up his + shirt-sleeves. There was a grim, surprised determination + about his quietness, which had not been seen in any other + belligerent nation. France became consciously and tragically + heroic when war commenced. England became unwontedly + cheerful because life was moving on grander levels. In + America there was no outward change. The old habit of + feverish industry still persisted, but was intensified and + applied in unselfish directions.</p> + + <p>What has impressed me most in my tour of the American + activities in France is the businesslike relentlessness of the + preparations. Everything is being done on a titanic scale and + everything is being done to last. The ports, the railroads, the + plants that are being constructed will still be standing a + hundred years from now. There's no "Home for Christmas" + optimism about America's method of making war. One would think + she was expecting to be still fighting when all the present + generation is dead. She is investing billions of dollars in + what can only be regarded as permanent improvements. The + handsomeness of her spirit is illustrated by the fact that she + has no understanding with the French for + reimbursement.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page70" + id="page70"></a>[pg 70]</span> + + <p>In sharp contrast with this handsomeness of spirit is the + iciness of her purpose as regards the Boche. I heard no hatred + of the individual German—only the deep conviction that + Prussianism must be crushed at all costs. The American does not + speak of "Poor old Fritz" as we do on our British Front. He's + too logical to be sorry for his enemy. His attitude is too + sternly impersonal for him to be moved by any emotions, whether + of detestation or charity, as regards the Hun. All he knows is + that a Frankenstein machinery has been set in motion for the + destruction of the world; to counteract it he is creating + another piece of machinery. He has set about his job in just + the same spirit that he set about overcoming the difficulties + of the Panama Canal. He has been used to overcoming the + obstinacies of Nature; the human obstinacies of his new task + intrigue him. I believe that, just as in peace times big + business was his romance and the wealth which he gained from it + was often incidental, so in France the job as a job impels him, + quite apart from its heroic object. After all, smashing the + Pan-Germanic Combine is only another form of + trust-busting—trust-busting with aeroplanes and guns + instead of with law and ledgers.</p> + + <p>There is something almost terrifying to me about this quiet + collectedness—this Pierpont Morgan + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page71" + id="page71"></a>[pg 71]</span> touch of sphinxlike aloofness + from either malice or mercy. Just as America once said, + "Business is business" and formed her world-combines, + collaring monopolies and allowing the individual to survive + only by virtue of belonging to the fittest, so now she is + saying, "War is war"—something to be accomplished with + as little regard to landscapes as blasting a railroad across + a continent.</p> + + <p>For the first time in the history of this war Germany is "up + against" a nation which is going to fight her in her own + spirit, borrowing her own methods. This statement needs + explaining; its truth was first brought to my attention at + American General Headquarters. The French attitude towards the + war is utterly personal; it is bayonet to bayonet. It depends + on the unflinching courage of every individual French man and + woman. The English attitude is that of the knight-errant, + seeking high adventures and welcoming death in a noble cause. + But the German attitude disregards the individual and knows + nothing of gallantry. It lacks utterly the spiritual elation + which made the strength of the French at Verdun and of the + English at Mons. The German attitude is that of a soulless + organisation, invented for one purpose—profitable + conquest. War for the Hun is not a final and dreaded atonement + for the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page72" + id="page72"></a>[pg 72]</span> restoring of justice to the + world; it is a business undertaking which, as he is fond of + telling us, has never failed to yield him good interest on + his capital. I have seen a good deal of the capital he has + invested in the battlefields he has lost—men smashed + to pulp, bruised by shells out of resemblance to anything + human, the breeding place of flies and pestilence, no longer + the homes of loyalties and affections. I cannot conceive + what percentage of returns can be said to compensate for the + agony expended on such indecent Golgothas. However, the Hun + has assured us that it pays him; he flatters himself that he + is a first-class business man.</p> + + <p>But so does the American, and he knows the game from more + points of view. For years he has patterned his schools and + colleges on German educational methods. What applies to his + civilian centres of learning applies to his military as well. + German text-books gave the basis for all American military + thought. American officers have been trained in German strategy + just as thoroughly as if they had lived in Potsdam. At the + start of the war many of them were in the field with the German + armies as observers. They are able to synchronise their + thoughts with the thoughts of their German enemies and at the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page73" + id="page73"></a>[pg 73]</span> same time to take advantage + of all that the Allies can teach them.</p> + + <p>"War is a business," the Germans have said. The Americans, + with an ideal shining in their eyes, have replied, "Very well. + We didn't want to fight you; but now that you have forced us, + we will fight you on your own terms. We will make war on you as + a business, for we are businessmen. We will crush you coldly, + dispassionately, without rancour, without mercy till we have + proved to you that war is not profitable business, but + hell."</p> + + <p>The American, as I have met him in France, has not changed + one iota from the man that he was in New York or Chicago. He + has transplanted himself untheatrically to the scenes of + battlefields and set himself undisturbedly to the task of + dying. There is an amazing normality about him. You find him in + towns, ancient with châteaux and wonderful with age; he is + absolutely himself, keenly efficient and irreverently modern. + Everywhere, from the Bay of Biscay to the Swiss border, from + the Mediterranean to the English Channel, you see the lean + figure and the slouch hat of the U.S.A. soldier. He is + invariably well-conducted, almost always alone and usually + gravely absorbed in himself. The excessive gravity of the + American in khaki has astonished the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page74" + id="page74"></a>[pg 74]</span> men of the other armies who + feel that, life being uncertain, it is well to make as + genial a use of it as possible while it lasts. The soldier + from the U.S.A. seems to stand always restless, alert, + alone, listening—waiting for the call to come. He + doesn't sink into the landscape the way other troops have + done. His impatience picks him out—the impatience of a + man in France solely for one purpose. I have seen him thus a + thousand times, standing at street-corners, in the crowd but + not of it, remarkable to every one but himself. Every man + and officer I have spoken to has just one thing to say about + what is happening inside him, "Let them take off my khaki + and send me back to America, or else hurry me into the + trenches. I came here to get started on this job; the + waiting makes me tired."</p> + + <p>"Let me get into the trenches," that was the cry of the + American soldier that I heard on every hand. Having witnessed + his eagerness, cleanness and intensity, I ask no more questions + as to how he will acquit himself.</p> + + <p>I have presented him as an extremely practical person, but + no American that I ever met was solely practical. If you watch + him closely you will always find that he is doing practical + things for an idealistic end. The American who accumulates a + fortune to himself, whether it be + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page75" + id="page75"></a>[pg 75]</span> through corralling railroads, + controlling industries, developing mines or establishing a + chain of dry-goods stores, doesn't do it for the money only, + but because he finds in business the poetry of creating, + manipulating, evolving—the exhilaration and adventure + of swaying power. And so there came a day when I caught my + American soldier dreaming and off his guard.</p> + + <p>All day I had been motoring through high uplands. It was a + part of France with which I was totally unfamiliar. A thin mist + was drifting across the country, getting lost in valleys where + it piled up into fleecy mounds, getting caught in tree-tops + where it fluttered like tattered banners. Every now and then, + with the suddenness of our approach, we would startle an aged + shepherd, muffled and pensive as an Arab, strolling slowly + across moorlands, followed closely by the sentinel goats which + led his flock. The day had been strangely mystic. Time seemed a + mood. I had ceased to trouble about where I was going; that I + knew my ultimate destination was sufficient. The way that led + to it, which I had never seen before, should never see again + perhaps, and through which I travelled at the rate of an + express, seemed a fairy non-existent Hollow Land. Landscapes + grew blurred with the speed of our passage. They loomed up on + us like waves, stayed <span class="pagenum"><a name="page76" + id="page76"></a>[pg 76]</span> with us for a second and + vanished. The staff-officer, who was my conductor, drowsed + on his seat beside the driver. He had wearied himself in the + morning, taking me now here to see an American Division + putting on a manoeuvre, now there to where the artillery + were practising, then to another valley where machine-guns + tapped like thousands of busy typewriters working on death's + manuscript. After that had come bayonet charges against + dummies, rifle-ranges and trench-digging—all the + industrious pretence at slaughter which prefaces the + astounding actuality. We were far away from all that now; + the brown figures had melted into the brownness of the + hills. There might have been no war. Perhaps there wasn't. + Never was there a world more grey and quiet. I grew sleepy. + My head nodded. I opened my eyes, pulled myself together and + again nodded. The roar of the engine was soothing. The rush + of wind lay heavy against my eye-lids. It seemed odd that I + should be here and not in the trenches. When I was in the + line I had often made up life's deficiencies by imagining, + imagining.... Perhaps I was really in the line now. I + wouldn't wake up to find out. That would come + presently—it always had.</p> + + <p>We were slowing down. I opened my eyes lazily. No, we + weren't stopping—only going + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page77" + id="page77"></a>[pg 77]</span> through a village. What a + quaint grey village it was—worth looking at if I + wasn't so tired. I was on the point of drowsing off again + when I caught sight of a word written on a sign-board, + <i>Domrémy</i>. My brain cleared. I sat up with a jerk. It + was magic that I should find myself here without + warning—at Domrémy, the Bethlehem of warrior-woman's + mercy. I had dreamed from boyhood of this place as a + legend—a memory of white chivalry to be found on no + map, a record of beauty as utterly submerged as the lost + land of Lyonesse. Hauntingly the words came back, "Who is + this that cometh from Domrémy? Who is she in bloody + coronation robes from Rheims? Who is she that cometh with + blackened flesh from walking in the furnaces of Rouen? This + is she, the shepherd girl...." All about me on the little + hills were the woodlands through which she must have led her + sheep and wandered with her heavenly visions.</p> + + <p>We had come to a bend in the village street. Where the road + took a turn stood an aged church; nestling beside it in a + little garden was a grey, semi-fortified mediæval dwelling. The + garden was surrounded by high spiked railings, planted on a low + stone wall. Sitting on the wall beside the entrance was an + American soldier. He had a small French child on either + knee—one <span class="pagenum"><a name="page78" + id="page78"></a>[pg 78]</span> arm about each of them; thus + embarrassed he was doing his patient best to roll a Bull + Durham cigarette. The children were vividly interested; they + laughed up into the soldier's face. One of them was a boy, + the other a girl. The long golden curls of the girl brushed + against the soldier's cheek. The three heads bent together, + almost touching. The scene was timelessly human, despite the + modernity of the khaki. Joan of Arc might have been that + little girl.</p> + + <p>I stopped the driver, got out and approached the group. The + soldier jumped to attention and saluted. In answer to my + question, he said, "Yes, this is where she lived. That's her + house—that grey cottage with scarcely any windows. + Bastien le Page could never have seen it; it isn't a bit like + his picture in the Metropolitan Gallery."</p> + + <p>He spoke in a curiously intimate way as if he had known Joan + of Arc and had spoken with her there—as if she had only + just departed. It was odd to reflect that America had still + lain hidden behind the Atlantic when Joan walked the world.</p> + + <p>We entered the gate into the garden, the American soldier, + the children and I together. The little girl, with that wistful + confidence that all French children show for men in khaki, + slipped <span class="pagenum"><a name="page79" + id="page79"></a>[pg 79]</span> her grubby little paw into my + hand. I expect Joan was often grubby like that.</p> + + <p>Brown winter leaves strewed the path. The grass was bleached + and dead. At our approach an old sheep-dog rattled his chain + and looked out of his kennel. He was shaggy and matted with + years. His bark was so weak that it broke in the middle. He was + a Rip Van Winkle of a sheep-dog—the kind of dog you would + picture in a fairy-tale. One couldn't help feeling that he had + accompanied the shepherd girl and had kept the flock from + straying while she spoke with her visions. All those centuries + ago he had seen her ride away—ride away to save + France—and she had not come back. All through the + centuries he had waited; at every footstep on the path he had + come hopefully out from his kennel, wagging his tail and + barking ever more weakly. He would not believe that she was + dead. And it was difficult to believe it in that ancient quiet. + If ever France needed her, it was now.</p> + + <p>Across my memory flashed the words of a dreamer, prophetic + in the light of recent events, "Daughter of Domrémy, when the + gratitude of thy king shall awaken, thou wilt be sleeping the + sleep of the dead. Call her, King of France, but she will not + hear thee. Cite her by the apparitors to come and receive a + robe of honour, but she <span class="pagenum"><a name="page80" + id="page80"></a>[pg 80]</span> will not be found. When the + thunders of universal France, as even yet may happen, shall + proclaim the grandeur of the poor shepherd girl that gave up + her all for her country, thy ear, young shepherd girl, will + have been deaf five centuries."</p> + + <p>Quite illogically it seemed to me that January evening that + this American soldier was the symbol of the power that had come + in her stead.</p> + + <p>The barking of the dog had awakened a bowed old Mother + Hubbard lady. She opened the door of her diminutive castle and + peered across the threshold, jingling her keys.</p> + + <p>Would we come in? Ah, Monsieur from America was there! He + was always there when he was not training, playing with the + children and rolling cigarettes. And Monsieur, the English + officer, perhaps he did not know that she was descended from + Joan's family. Oh, yes, there was no mistake about it; that was + why she had been made custodian. She must light the lamp. + There! That was better. There was not much to see, but if we + would follow....</p> + + <p>We stepped down into a flagged room like a + cellar—cold, ascetic and bare. There was a big open + fire-place, with a chimney hooded by massive masonry and + blackened by the fires of immemorial winters. This was where + Joan's parents <span class="pagenum"><a name="page81" + id="page81"></a>[pg 81]</span> had lived. She had probably + been born here. The picture that formed in my mind was not + of Joan, but that other woman unknown to history—her + mother, who after Joan had left the village and rumours of + her battles and banquets drifted back, must have sat there + staring into the blazing logs, her peasant's hands folded in + her lap, brooding, wondering, hoping, fearing—fearing + as the mothers of soldiers have throughout the ages.</p> + + <p>And this was Joan's brother's room—a cheerless place + of hewn stone. What kind of a man could he have been? What were + his reflections as he went about his farm-work and thought of + his sister at the head of armies? Was he merely a lout or + something worse—the prototype of our Conscientious + Objector: a coward who disguised his cowardice with moral + scruples?</p> + + <p>And this was Joan's room—a cell, with a narrow slit at + the end through which one gained a glimpse of the church. + Before this slit she had often knelt while the angels drifted + from the belfry like doves to peer in on her. The place was + sacred. How many nights had she spent here with girlish folded + hands, her face ecstatic, the cold eating into her tender body? + I see her blue for lack of charity, forgotten, unloved, + neglected—the symbol of misunderstanding and loneliness. + They told her she was mad. She was a + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page82" + id="page82"></a>[pg 82]</span> laughing stock in the + village. The world could find nothing better for her to do + than driving sheep through the bitter woodlands; but God + found time to send his angels. Yes, she was mad—mad as + Christ was in Galilee—mad enough to save others when + she could not save herself. How nearly the sacrifice of this + most child-like of women parallels the sacrifice of the most + God-like of men! Both were born in a shepherd community; + both forewent the humanity of love and parenthood; both gave + up their lives that the world might be better; both were + royally apparelled in mockery; both followed their visions; + for each the price of following was death. She, too, was + despised and rejected; as a sheep before her shearers is + dumb, so she opened not her mouth.</p> + + <p>That is all there is to see at Domrémy; three starveling, + stone-paved rooms, a crumbling church, a garden full of dead + leaves, an old dog growing mangy in his kennel and the + wind-swept cathedral of the woodlands. The soul of France was + born there in the humble body of a peasant-girl; yes, and more + than the soul of France—the gallantry of all womanhood. + God must be fond of His peasants; I think they will be His + aristocracy in Heaven.</p> + + <p>The old lady led us out of the house. There + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page83" + id="page83"></a>[pg 83]</span> was one more thing she wished + to show us. The sunset light was still in the tree-tops, but + her eyes were dim; she thought that night had already + gathered. Holding her lamp above her head, she pointed to a + statue in a niche above the doorway. It had been placed + there by order of the King of France after Joan was dead. + But it wasn't so much the statue that she wanted us to look + at; it was the mutilations that were upon it. She was filled + with a great trembling of indignation. "Yes, gaze your fill + upon it, Messieurs," she said; "it was <i>les Boches</i> did + that. They were here in 1870. To others she may be a saint, + but to <i>them</i>—Bah!" and she spat, "a woman is + less than a woman always."</p> + + <p>When we turned to go she was still cursing <i>les Boches</i> + beneath her breath, tremblingly holding up the lamp above her + head that she might forget nothing of their defilement. The old + dog rattled his chain as we passed; he knew us now and did not + trouble to come out. The dead leaves whispered beneath our + tread.</p> + + <p>At the gate we halted. I turned to my American soldier. "How + long before you go into the line?"</p> + + <p>He was carrying the little French girl in his arms. As he + glanced up to answer, his face caught the sunset. "Soon now. + The sooner, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page84" + id="page84"></a>[pg 84]</span> the better. She ...," and I + knew he meant no living woman. "This place ... I don't know + how to express it. But everything here makes you want to + fight,—makes you ashamed of standing idle. If she + could do that—well, I guess that I...."</p> + + <p>He made no attempt to fill his eloquent silences; and so I + left. As the car gathered speed, plunging into the pastoral + solitudes, I looked back. The last sight I had of Domrémy was a + grey little garden, made sacred by the centuries, and an + American soldier standing with a French child in his arms, her + golden hair lying thickly against his neck.</p> + + <p>On the surface the American is unemotionally practical, but + at heart he is a dreamer, first, last and always. If the + Americans have merited any criticism in France, it is owing to + the vastness of their plans; the tremendous dream of their + preparations postpones the beginning of the reality. Their + mistake, if they have made a mistake, is an error of + generosity. They are building with a view to flinging millions + into the line when thousands a little earlier would be of + superlative advantage. They had the choice of dribbling their + men over in small contingents or of waiting till they could put + a fighting-force into the field so overwhelming in equipment + and <span class="pagenum"><a name="page85" + id="page85"></a>[pg 85]</span> numbers that its weight would + be decisive. They were urged to learn wisdom from England's + example and not to waste their strength by putting men into + the trenches in a hurry before they were properly trained. + England was compelled to adopt this chivalrous folly by the + crying need of France. It looked in the Spring of 1917, + before Russia had broken down or the pressure on the Italian + front had become so menacing, as though the Allies could + afford to ask America to conduct her war on the lines of big + business. America jumped at the chance—big business + being the task to which her national genius was best suited. + If her Allies could hold on long enough, she would build her + fleet and appear with an army of millions that would bring + the war to a rapid end. Her rôle was to be that of the + toreador in the European bull-fight.</p> + + <p>But big business takes time and usually loses money at the + start. In the light of recent developments, we would rather + have the bird-in-the-hand of 300,000 Americans actually + fighting than the promise of a host a year from now. People at + home in America realised this in January. They were so afraid + that their Allies might feel disappointed. They were so keen to + achieve tangible results in the war that they grew impatient + with the long delay. They weren't + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page86" + id="page86"></a>[pg 86]</span> interested in seeing other + nations going over the top—the same nations who had + been over so many times; they wanted to see their sons and + brothers at once given the opportunity to share the wounds + and the danger. Their attitude was Spartan and splendid; + they demanded a curtailment of their respite that they might + find themselves afloat on the crimson tide. The cry of the + civilians in America was identical with that of their men in + France. "Let them take off our khaki or else hurry us into + the trenches. We want to get started. This waiting makes us + tired."</p> + + <p>And the civilians in America had earned a right to make + their demand. Industrially, financially, philanthropically, + from every point of view they had sacrificed and played the + game, both by the Allies and their army. When they, as + civilians, had been so willing to wear the stigmata of + sacrifice, they were jealous lest their fighting men should be + baulked of their chance of making those sacrifices appear worth + while.</p> + + <p>There have been many accusations in the States with regard + to the supposed breakdown of their military organization in + France—accusations inspired by generosity towards the + Allies. From what I have seen, and I have been given liberal + opportunities to see everything, I do not think that those + accusations are justified. As a combatant + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page87" + id="page87"></a>[pg 87]</span> of another nation, I have my + standards of comparison by which to judge and I frankly + state that I was amazed with the progress that had been + made. It is a progress based on a huge scale and therefore + less impressive to the layman than if the scale had been + less ambitious. What I saw were the foundations of an + organisation which can be expanded to handle a + fighting-machine which staggers the imagination. What the + layman expects to see are Hun trophies and Americans coming + out of the line on stretchers. He will see all that, if he + waits long enough, for the American military hospitals in + France are being erected to accommodate 200,000 wounded.</p> + + <p>Unfounded optimisms, which under no possible circumstances + could ever have been realised, are responsible for the + disappointment felt in America. Inasmuch as these optimisms + were widely accepted in England and France, civilian America's + disappointment will be shared by the Allies, unless some hint + of the truth is told as to what may be expected and what great + preparations are under construction. It was generally believed + that by the spring of 1918 America would have half a million + men in the trenches and as many more behind the lines, training + to become reinforcements. People who spoke this + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page88" + id="page88"></a>[pg 88]</span> way could never have seen a + hundred thousand men or have stopped to consider what + transport would be required to maintain them at a distance + of more than three thousand miles from their base. It was + also believed that by the April of 1918, one year after the + declaring of war, America would have manufactured ten + thousand planes, standardised all their parts, trained the + requisite number of observers and pilots, and would have + them flying over the Hun lines. Such beliefs were pure + moonshine, incapable of accomplishment; but there are facts + to be told which are highly honourable.</p> + + <p>So far I have tried to give a glimpse of America's fighting + spirit in facing up to her job; now, in as far as it is + allowed, I want to give a sketch of her supreme earnestness as + proved by what she has already achieved in France. The + earnestness of her civilians should require no further proof + than the readiness with which they accepted national + conscription within a few hours of entering the war—a + revolutionising departure which it took England two years of + fighting even to contemplate, and which can hardly be said to + be in full operation yet, so long as conscientious objectors + are allowed to air their so-called consciences. In America the + conscientious objector is not regarded; he is listened to as + only one of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page89" + id="page89"></a>[pg 89]</span> two things—a deserter + or a traitor. The earnestness of America's fighting man + requires no proving; his only grievance is that he is not in + the trenches. Yet so long as the weight of America is not + felt to be turning the balance dramatically in our favour, + the earnestness of America will be open to challenge both by + Americans and by the Allies. What I saw in France in the + early months of this year has filled me with unbounded + optimism. I feel the elated certainty, as never before even + in the moment of the most successful attack, that the Hun's + fate is sealed. What is more, I have grounds for believing + that he knows it—knows that the collapse of Russia + will profit him nothing because he cannot withstand the + avalanche of men from America. Already he hears them, as I + have seen them, training in their camps from the Pacific to + the Atlantic, racing across the Ocean in their grey + transports, marching along the dusty roads of two + continents, a procession locust-like in multitude, + stretching half about the world, marching and singing + indomitably, "We've got four years to do this job." From + behind the Rhine he has caught their singing; it grows ever + nearer, stronger. It will take time for that avalanche to + pyramid on the Western Front; but when it has piled up, it + will rush forward, fall on him and crush him. He knows + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page90" + id="page90"></a>[pg 90]</span> something else, which fills + him with a still more dire sense of calamity—that + because America's honour has been jeopardised, of all the + nations now fighting she will be the last to lay down her + arms. She has given herself four years to do her job; when + her job is ended, it will be with Prussianism as it was with + Jezebel, "They that went to bury her found no more of her + than the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands. And + her carcase was as dung upon the face of the field, so that + men should not say, 'This is Jezebel.'"</p> + + <p>As an example of what America is accomplishing, I will take + a sample port in France. It was of tenth-rate importance, + little more than a harbour for coastwise vessels and + ocean-going tramps when the Americans took it over; by the time + they have finished, it will be among the first ports of Europe. + It is only one of several that they are at present enlarging + and constructing. The work already completed has been done in + the main under the direction of the engineers who marched + through London in the July of last year. I visited the port in + January, so some idea can be gained of how much has been + achieved in a handful of months.</p> + + <p>The original French town still has the aspect of a + prosperous fishing-village. There are two + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page91" + id="page91"></a>[pg 91]</span> main streets with shops on + them; there is one out-of-date hotel; there are a few modern + dwellings facing the sea. For the rest, the town consists of + cottages, alleys and open spaces where the nets were once + spread to dry. To-day in a vast circle, as far as eye can + reach, a city of huts has grown up. In those huts live men + of many nations, Americans, French, German prisoners, + negroes. They are all engaged in the stupendous task of + construction. The capacity of the harbour basin is being + multiplied fifty times, the berthing capacity trebled, the + unloading facilities multiplied by ten. A railroad yard is + being laid which will contain 225 miles of track and 870 + switches. An immense locomotive-works is being erected for + the repairing and assembling of rolling-stock from America. + It was originally planned to bring over 960 standard + locomotives and 30,000 freight-cars from the States, all + equipped with French couplers and brakes so that they could + become a permanent part of the French railroad system. These + figures have since been somewhat reduced by the purchase of + rolling-stock in Europe. Reservoirs are being built at some + distance from the town which will be able to supply six + millions gallons of purified water a day. In order to obtain + the necessary quantity of pipe, piping will be torn up from + various of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page92" + id="page92"></a>[pg 92]</span> the water-systems in America + and brought across the Atlantic. As the officer, who was my + informant remarked, "Rather than see France go short, some + city in the States will have to haul water in carts."</p> + + <p>As proof of the efficiency with which materials from America + are being furnished, when the engineers arrived on the scene + with 225 miles of track to lay, they found 100 miles of rails + and spikes already waiting for them. Of the 870 switches + required, 350 were already on hand. Of the ties required, + one-sixth were piled up for them to be going on with. Not so + bad for a nation quite new to the war-game and living three + thousand miles beyond the horizon!</p> + + <p>On further enquiry I learnt that six million cubic yards of + filling were necessary to raise the ground of the railroad yard + to the proper level. In order that the work may be hurried, + dredges are being brought across the Atlantic and, if + necessary, harbour construction in the States will be + curtailed.</p> + + <p>I was interested in the personnel employed in this work. + Here, as elsewhere, I found that the engineering and organising + brains of America are largely in France. One colonel was head + of the marble industry in the States; another had been + vice-president of the Pennsylvania Railroad. + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page93" + id="page93"></a>[pg 93]</span> Another man, holding a + sergeant's rank was general manager of the biggest fishing + company. Another, a private in the ranks, was chief engineer + of the American Aluminum Company. A major was general + manager of The Southern Pacific. Another colonel was + formerly controller of the currency and afterwards president + of the Central Trust Company of Illinois. A captain was + chief engineer and built the aqueducts over the keys of the + Florida East Coast Railroad. As with us, you found men of + the highest social and professional grade serving in every + rank of the American Army; one, a society man and banker, + was running a gang of negroes whose job it was to shovel + sand into cars. In peace times thirty thousand pounds a year + could not have bought him. What impressed me even more than + the line of communications itself was the quality of the men + engaged on its construction. As one of them said to me, "Any + job that they give us engineers to do over here is likely to + be small in comparison with the ones we've had to tackle in + America." The man who said this had previously done his + share in the building of the Panama Canal. There were others + I met, men who had spanned rivers in Alaska, flung rails + across the Rockies, built dams in the arid regions, + performed engineering feats in China, Africa, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page94" + id="page94"></a>[pg 94]</span> Russia—in all parts of + the world. They were trained to be undaunted by the hugeness + of any task; they'd always beaten Nature in the long run. + Their cheerful certainty that America in France was more + than up to her job maintained a constant wave of + enthusiasm.</p> + + <p>It may be asked why it is necessary in an old-established + country like France, to waste time in enlarging harbours before + you can make effective war. The answer is simple: France has + not enough ports of sufficient size to handle the tonnage that + is necessary to support the Allied armies within her borders. + America's greatest problem is tonnage. She has the men and the + materials in prodigal quantities, but they are all three + thousand miles away. Before the men can be brought over, she + has to establish her means of transport and line of + communications, so as to make certain that she can feed and + clothe them when once she has got them into the front-line. + There are two ways of economising on tonnage. One is to + purchase in Europe. In this way, up to February, The Purchasing + Board of the Americans had saved ninety days of transatlantic + traffic. The other way is to have modern docks, well + railroaded, so that vessels can be unloaded in the least + possible space of time and sent back for other cargoes. Hence + it has been sane economy <span class="pagenum"><a name="page95" + id="page95"></a>[pg 95]</span> on the part of America to put + much of her early energy into construction rather than into + fighting. Nevertheless, it has made her an easy butt for + criticism both in the States and abroad, since the only + proof to the newspaper-reader that America is at war is the + amount of front-line that she is actually defending.</p> + + <p>I had heard much of what was going on at a certain place + which was to be the intermediate point in the American line of + communications. I had studied a blue-print map and had been + amazed at its proportions. I was told, and can well believe, + that when completed it was to be the biggest undertaking of its + kind in the world. It was to be six and a half miles long by + about one mile broad. It was to have four and a half million + feet of covered storage and ten million feet of open storage. + It was to contain over two hundred miles of track in its + railroad yard and to house enough of the materials of war to + keep a million men fully equipped for thirty days. In addition + to this it was to have a plant, not for the repairing, but + merely for the assembling of aeroplanes, which would employ + twenty thousand men.</p> + + <p>I arrived there at night. There was no town. One stepped + from the train into the open country. Far away in the distance + there was a glimmering <span class="pagenum"><a name="page96" + id="page96"></a>[pg 96]</span> of fires and the scarlet of + sparks shooting up between bare tree-tops. My first + impression was of the fragrance of pines and, after that, as + I approached the huts, of a memory more definite and + elusively familiar. The swinging of lanterns helped to bring + it back: I was remembering lumber-camps in the Rocky + Mountains. The box-stove in the shack in which I slept that + night and the roughly timbered walls served to heighten the + illusion that I was in America. Next morning the illusion + was completed. Here were men with mackinaws and green elk + boots; here were cook-houses in which the only difference + was that a soldier did the cooking instead of a Chinaman; + and above all, here were fir and pines growing out of a + golden soil, with a soft wind blowing overhead. And here, in + an extraordinary way, the democracy of a lumber-camp had + been reproduced: every one from the Colonel down was a + worker; it was difficult, apart from their efficiency, to + tell their rank.</p> + + <p>Early in the morning I started out on a gasolene-speeder to + make the tour. At an astonishing rate, for the work had only + been in hand three months, the vast acreage was being tracked + and covered with the sheds. The sheds were not the kind I had + been used to on my own front; they were built out of anything + that came handy, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page97" + id="page97"></a>[pg 97]</span> commenced with one sort of + material and finished with another. Sometimes the + cross-pieces in the roofs were still sweating, proving that + it was only yesterday they had been cut down in the nearby + wood. There was no look of permanence about anything. As the + officer who conducted me said, "It's all run up—a race + against time." And then he added with a twinkle in his eye, + "But it's good enough to last four years."</p> + + <p>This was America in France in every sense of the word. One + felt the atmosphere of rush. In the buildings, which should + have been left when materials failed, but which had been + carried to completion by pioneer methods, one recognised the + resourcefulness of the lumberman of the West. Then came a touch + of Eastern America, to me almost more replete with memory and + excitement. In a flash I was transferred from a camp in France + to the rock-hewn highway of Fifth Avenue, running through + groves of sky-scrapers, garnished with sunshine and echoing + with tripping footsteps. I could smell the asphalt soaked with + gasolene and the flowers worn by the passing girls. The whole + movement and quickness of the life I had lost flooded back on + me. The sound I heard was the fate <i>motif</i> of the frantic + opera of American endeavour. The truly wonderful thing was that + I should hear it here, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page98" + id="page98"></a>[pg 98]</span> in a woodland in + France—the rapid tapping of a steel-riveter at + work.</p> + + <p>I learnt afterwards that I was not the only one to be + carried away by that music, as of a monstrous wood-pecker in an + iron forest. The first day the riveter was employed, the whole + camp made excuses to come and listen to it. They stood round it + in groups, deafened and thrilled—and a little homesick. + What the bag-pipe is to the Scotchman, the steel-riveter is to + the American—the instrument which best expresses his soul + to a world which is different.</p> + + <p>I found that the riveter was being employed in the erection + of an immense steel and concrete refrigerating plant, which was + to have machinery for the production of its own ice and + sufficient meat-storage capacity to provide a million men for + thirty days. The water for the ice was being obtained from + wells which had been already sunk. There was only surface water + there when the Americans first struck camp.</p> + + <p>As another clear-cut example of what America is + accomplishing in France, I will take an aviation-camp. This + camp is one of several, yet it alone will be turning out from + 350 to 400 airmen a month. The area which it covers runs into + miles. The Americans have their own ideas of aerial fighting + tactics, which they will teach here + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page99" + id="page99"></a>[pg 99]</span> on an intensive course and + try out on the Hun from time to time. Some of their experts + have had the advantage of familiarising themselves with Hun + aerial equipment and strategy; they were on his side of the + line at the start of the war as neutral military observers. + I liked the officer at the head of this camp; I was + particularly pleased with some of his phrases. He was one of + the first experts to fly with a Liberty engine. Without + giving any details away, he assured me impressively that it + was "an honest-to-God engine" and that his planes were + equipped with "an honest-to-God machine-gun," and that he + looked forward with cheery anticipation to the first + encounter his chaps would have with "the festive Hun." He + was one of the few Americans I had met who spoke with + something of our scornful affection for the enemy. It + indicated to me his absolute certainty that he could beat + him at the flying game. On his lips the Hun was never the + German or the Boche, but always "the festive Hun." You can + afford to speak kindly, almost pityingly of some one you are + going to vanquish. Hatred often indicates fear. Jocularity + is a victorious sign.</p> + + <p>When I was in America last October a great effort was being + made to produce an overwhelming quantity of aeroplanes. + Factories, both large <span class="pagenum"><a name="page100" + id="page100"></a>[pg 100]</span> and small, in every State + were specializing on manufacturing certain parts, the idea + being that so time would be saved and efficiency gained. + These separate parts were to be collected and assembled at + various big government plants. The aim was to turn out + planes as rapidly as Ford Cars and to swamp the Hun with + numbers. America is unusually rich in the human as well as + the mechanical material for crushing the enemy in the air. + In this service, as in all the others, the only difficulty + that prevents her from making her fighting strength + immediately felt is the difficulty of transportation. The + road of ships across the Atlantic has to be widened; the + road of steel from the French ports to the Front has to be + tracked and multiplied in its carrying capacity. These + difficulties on land and water are being rapidly overcome: + by adding to the means of transportation; by increasing the + efficiency of the transport facilities already existing; by + lightening the tonnage to be shipped from the States by + buying everything that is procurable in Europe. In the early + months much of the available Atlantic tonnage was occupied + with carrying the materials of construction: rails, engines, + concrete, lumber, and all the thousand and one things that + go to the housing of armies. This accounts for America's + delay in starting fighting. For three years + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page101" + id="page101"></a>[pg 101]</span> Europe had been ransacked; + very much of what America would require had to be brought. + Such work does not make a dramatic impression on other + nations, especially when they are impatient. Its value as a + contribution towards defeating the Hun is all in the future. + Only victories win applause in these days. Nevertheless, + such work had to be done. To do it thoroughly, on a + sufficiently large scale, in the face of the certain + criticism which the delay for thoroughness would occasion, + demanded bravery and patriotism on the part of those in + charge of affairs. By the time this book is published their + high-mindedness will have begun to be appreciated, for the + results of it will have begun to tell. The results will tell + increasingly as the war progresses. America is determined to + have no Crimea scandals. The contentment and good condition + of her troops in France will be largely owing to the + organisation and care with which her line of communications + has been constructed.</p> + + <p>The purely business side of war is very dimly comprehended + either by the civilian or the combatant. The combatant, since + he does whatever dying is to be done, naturally looks down on + the business man in khaki. The civilian is inclined to think of + war in terms of the mobile warfare of other days, when armies + were rarely more <span class="pagenum"><a name="page102" + id="page102"></a>[pg 102]</span> than some odd thousands + strong and were usually no more than expeditionary forces. + Such armies by reason of their rapid movements and the + comparative fewness of their numbers, were able to live on + the countries through which they marched. But our fighting + forces of to-day are the manhood of nations. The fronts + which they occupy can scarcely boast a blade of grass. The + towns which lie behind them have been picked clean to the + very marrow. France herself, into which a military + population of many millions has been poured, was never at + the best of times entirely self-supporting. Whatever surplus + of commodities the Allies possessed, they had already shared + long before the spring of 1917. When America landed into the + war, she found herself in the position of one who arrives at + an overcrowded inn late at night. Whatever of food or + accommodation the inn could afford had been already + apportioned; consequently, before America could put her + first million men into the trenches, she had to graft on to + France a piece of the living tissue of her own industrial + system—whole cities of repair-shops, hospitals, + dwellings, store-houses, ice-plants, etc., together with the + purely business personnel that go with them. These cities, + though initially planned to maintain and furnish a minimum + number of fighting men, had to be capable + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page103" + id="page103"></a>[pg 103]</span> of expansion so that they + could ultimately support millions.</p> + + <p>Here are some facts and statistics which illustrate the big + business of war as Americans have undertaken it. They have had + to erect cold storage-plants, with mechanical means for + ice-manufacture, of sufficient capacity to hold twenty-five + million pounds of beef always in readiness.</p> + + <p>They are at present constructing two salvage depots which, + when completed, will be the largest in the world. Here they + will repair and make fit for service again, shoes, harness, + clothing, webbing, tentage, rubber-boots, etc. Attached to + these buildings there are to be immense laundries which will + undertake the washing for all the American forces. In + connection with the depots, there will be a Salvage Corps, + whose work is largely at the Front. The materials which they + collect will be sent back to the depots for sorting. Under the + American system every soldier, on coming out of the trenches, + will receive a complete new outfit, from the soles of his feet + to the crown of his head. "This," the General who informed me + said tersely, "is our way of solving the lice-problem."</p> + + <p>The Motor Transport also has its salvage depot. Knock-down + buildings and machinery have been brought over from the States, + and upwards <span class="pagenum"><a name="page104" + id="page104"></a>[pg 104]</span> of 4,000 trained mechanics + for a start. This depot is also responsible for the repairs + of all horse-drawn transport, except the artillery. The + Quartermaster General's Department alone will have 35,000 + motor propelled vehicles and a personnel of 160,000 men.</p> + + <p>Every effort is being made to employ labour-saving devices + to the fullest extent. The Supply Department expects to cut + down its personnel by two-thirds through the efficient use of + machinery and derricks. The order compelling all packages to be + standardized in different graded sizes, so that they can be + forwarded directly to the Front before being broken, has + already done much to expedite transportation. The dimensions of + the luggage of a modern army can be dimly realized when it is + stated that the American armies will initially require + twenty-four million square feet of covered and forty-one + million of unroofed storage—not to mention the barrack + space.</p> + + <p>Within the next few months they will require bakeries + capable of feeding one million and a quarter men. These + bakeries are divided into: the field bakeries, which are + portable, and the mechanical bakeries which are stationary and + on the line of communications. One of the latter had just been + acquired and was described to me when I was in the American + area. It was planned <span class="pagenum"><a name="page105" + id="page105"></a>[pg 105]</span> throughout with a view to + labour-saving. It was so constructed that it could take the + flour off the cars and, with practically no handling, + convert it into bread at the rate of 750,000 lbs. a day. + This struck me as a peculiarly American contribution to big + business methods; but on expressing this opinion I was + immediately corrected. This form of bakery was a British + invention, which has been in use for some time on our lines. + The Americans owed their possession of the bakery to the + courtesy of the British Government, who had postponed their + own order and allowed the Americans to fill theirs four + months ahead of their contract.</p> + + <p>This is a sample of the kind of discovery that I was + perpetually making. Two out of three times when I thought I had + run across a characteristically American expression of + efficiency, I was told that it had been copied from the + British. I learnt more about my own army's business efficiency + in studying it secondhand with the Americans, than I had ever + guessed existed in all the time that I had been an inhabitant + of the British Front. It is characteristic of us as a people + that we like to pretend that we muddle our way into success. We + advertise our mistakes and camouflage our virtues. We are + almost ashamed of gaining credit for anything that we have done + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page106" + id="page106"></a>[pg 106]</span> well. There is a fine + dishonesty about this self-belittlement; but it is not + always wise. During these first few months of their being at + war the Americans have discovered England in almost as novel + a sense as Columbus did America. It was a joy to be with + them and to watch their surprise. The odd thing was that + they had had to go to France to find us out. Here they were, + the picked business men of the world's greatest industrial + nation, frankly and admiringly hats off to British + "muddle-headed" methods. Not only were they hats off to the + methods, many of which they were copying, but they were also + hats off to the generous helpfulness of our Government and + Military authorities in the matter of advice, co-operation + and supplies. From the private in the ranks, who had been + trained by British N.C.O.'s and Officers, to the Generals at + the head of departments, there was only one feeling + expressed for Great Britain—that of a new sincerity of + friendship and admiration. "John Bull and his brother + Jonathan" had become more than an empty phrase; it expressed + a true and living relation.</p> + + <p>A similar spirit of appreciation had grown up towards the + French—not the emotional, histrionic, Lafayette + appreciation with which the American troops sailed from + America, but an <span class="pagenum"><a name="page107" + id="page107"></a>[pg 107]</span> appreciation based on + sympathy and a knowledge of deeds and character. I think + this spirit was best illustrated at Christmas when all over + France, wherever American troops were billeted, the rank and + file put their hands deep into their pockets to give the + refugee children of their district the first real Christmas + they had had since their country was invaded. Officers were + selected to go to Paris to do the purchasing of the + presents, and I know of at least one case in which the men's + gift was so generous that there was enough money left over + to provide for the children throughout the coming year.</p> + + <p>In France one hears none of that patronising criticism which + used to exist in America with regard to the older + nations—none of those arrogant assertions that "because + we are younger we can do things better." The bias of the + American in France is all the other way; he is near enough to + the Judgment Day, which he is shortly to experience, to be + reverent in the presence of those who have stood its test. He + is in France to learn as well as to contribute. Between himself + and his brother soldiers of the British and French armies, + there exists an entirely manly and reciprocal respect. And it + is reciprocal; both the individual British and French + fighting-man, now that they have seen the American soldier, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page108" + id="page108"></a>[pg 108]</span> are clamorous to have him + adjacent to their line. The American has scarcely been + blooded at this moment, and yet, having seen him, they are + both certain that he's not the pal to let them down.</p> + + <p>The confidence that the American soldier has created among + his soldier-Allies was best expressed to me by a British + officer: "The British, French and Americans are the three great + promise-keeping nations. For the first time in history we're + standing together. We're promise-keepers banded together + against the falsehood of Germany—that's why. It isn't + likely that we shall start to tell lies to one another."</p> + + <p>Not likely!</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page109" + id="page109"></a>[pg 109]</span> + + <h2>III</h2> + + <h2>THE WAR OF COMPASSION</h2> + + <p>Officially America declared war on Germany in the spring of + 1917; actually she committed her heart to the allied cause in + September, 1914, when the first shipment of the supplies of + mercy arrived in Paris from the American Red Cross.</p> + + <p>There are two ways of waging war: you can fight with + artillery and armed men; you can fight with ambulances and + bandages. There's the war of destruction and the war of + compassion. The one defeats the enemy directly with force; the + other defeats him indirectly by maintaining the morale of the + men who are fighting and, what is equally important, of the + civilians behind the lines. Belgium would not be the utterly + defiant and unconquered nation that she is to-day, had it not + been for the mercy of Hoover and his disciples. Their voluntary + presence made the captured Belgian feel that he was earning the + thanks of all time—that the eyes of the world were upon + him. They were neutrals, but their mere + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page110" + id="page110"></a>[pg 110]</span> presence condemned the + cause that had brought them there. Their compassion waged + war against the Hun. The same is true of the American + Ambulance Units which followed the French Armies into the + fiercest of the carnage. They confirmed the poilu in his + burning sense of injustice. That they, who could have + absented themselves, should choose the damnation of + destruction and dare the danger, convinced the entire French + nation of its own righteousness. And it was true of the + girls at the American hospitals who nursed the broken bodies + which their brothers had rescued. It was true of Miss Holt's + <i>Lighthouse</i> for the training of blinded soldiers, + which she established in Paris within eight months of war's + commencement. It was true of the American Relief Clearing + House in Paris which, up to January, 1917, had received 291 + shipments and had distributed eight million francs. By the + time America put on armour, the American Red Cross, as the + army's expert in the strategy of compassion, found that it + had to take over more than eighty-six separate organisations + which had been operating in France for the best part of two + years.</p> + + <p>One cannot show pity with indignant hands and keep the mind + neutral. The Galilean test holds true, "He who is not for me is + against me." You cannot leave houses, lands, children, + wife—everything <span class="pagenum"><a name="page111" + id="page111"></a>[pg 111]</span> that counts—for the + Kingdom of Heaven's sake without developing a rudimentary + aversion for the devil. All of which goes to prove that + America's heart was fighting for the Allies long before her + ambassador requested his passports from the Kaiser.</p> + + <p>The American Red Cross Commission landed in France on the + 12th of June, 1917, seven days ahead of the Expeditionary + Force. It had taken less than five days to organise. Its first + act was to convey a monetary gift to the French hospitals. The + first actual American Red Cross contribution was made in April + to the Number Five British Base Hospital. The first American + soldiers in France were doctors and nurses. The first American + fighting done in France was done with the weapons of pity. The + chief function of the American Red Cross up to the present has + been to "carry on" and to bridge the gap of unavoidable delays + while the army is preparing.</p> + + <p>To prove that this "war of compassion" is no idle phrase, + let me illustrate with one dramatic instance. When the Italian + line broke under the pressure of Hun artillery and propaganda, + the American Red Cross sent representatives forward to + inaugurate relief work for the 700,000 refugees, who were + pouring southward from the Friuti and Veneto, homeless, hungry, + possessing <span class="pagenum"><a name="page112" + id="page112"></a>[pg 112]</span> nothing but misfortune, + spreading despair and panic every step of the journey. Their + bodies must be cared for—that was evident; it would be + easy for them to carry disease throughout Italy. But the + disease of their minds was an even greater danger; if their + demoralisation were not checked, it would inevitably prove + contagious.</p> + + <p>The first two representatives of the American Red Cross + arrived in Rome on November 5th, with a quarter of a million + dollars at their disposal. That night they had a soup-kitchen + going and fed 400 people. Their first day's work is the record + of an amazing spurt of energy. In that first day they sent + money for relief to every American Consul in the districts + affected. They mobilised the American colony in Rome and + arranged by wire for similar organisations to be formed + throughout the length and breadth of Italy, wherever they could + lay hands on an American. On all principal junction points + through which the refugees would pass, soup-kitchens were + installed and clothes were purchased and ready to be + distributed as the trains pulled into the stations. They were + badly needed, for the passengers had endured all the rigours of + the retreat with the soldiers. They had been under shell and + machine-gun fire. They had been bombed by aeroplanes. No horror + of warfare <span class="pagenum"><a name="page113" + id="page113"></a>[pg 113]</span> had been spared them. Their + clothes were verminous with weeks of wearing. They were + packed like cattle. Babies born on the journey were wrapped + in newspapers. There were instances of officers taking off + their shirts that the little bodies should not go naked. A + telegram was at once despatched to Paris for food and + clothes and hospital supplies. Twenty-four cars came through + within a week, despite the unusual military traffic. This + ends the list of what was accomplished by two men in one + day.</p> + + <p>The great thing was to make the demoralised Italians feel + that America was on the spot and helping them. The sending of + troops could not have reused their fighting spirit. They were + sick of fighting. What they needed was the assurance that the + world was not wholly brutal—that there was some one who + was merciful, who did not condemn and who was moved by their + sorrow. This assurance the prompt action of the American Red + Cross gave. It restored in the affirmative with mercy, + precisely the quality which Hun fury and propaganda had + destroyed with lies. It restored to them their belief in the + nobility of mankind, out of which belief grows all true + courage.</p> + + <p>As the work progressed, it branched out on a much larger + scale, embracing civilian, military and child-welfare + activities. In the month of + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page114" + id="page114"></a>[pg 114]</span> November upward of half a + million lire were placed in the hands of American consuls + for distribution. One million lire were contributed for the + benefit of soldiers' families. A permanent headquarters was + established with trained business men and men who had had + experience under Hoover in Belgium in charge of its + departments. Over 100 hospitals and two principal magazines + of hospital stores had been lost in the retreat. The + American Red Cross made up this deficiency by supplying the + bedding for no less than 3,000 beds. Five weeks after the + first two representatives had reached Rome three complete + ambulance sections, each section being made up of 20 + ambulances, a staff car, a kitchen trailer and 33 men, were + turned over to the Italian Medical Service of the third + Army. By the first week in December the stream of refugees + had practically stopped. Italy had been made to realise that + she was not fighting alone; her morale had returned to her. + This work, which had been initially undertaken from purely + altruistic motives, had proved to possess a value of the + highest military importance—an importance of the + spirit utterly out of proportion to the money and labour + expended. Magnanimity arouses magnanimity. In this case it + revived the flame of Garibaldi which had all but died. It + achieved a strategic victory + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page115" + id="page115"></a>[pg 115]</span> of the soul which no amount + of military assistance could have accomplished. The victory + of the American Red Cross on the Italian Front is all the + more significant since it was not until months later that + Congress declared war on Austria.</p> + + <p>The campaign which the American Red Cross is waging in every + country in which it operates, is frankly an "out to win" + campaign. To win the war is its one and only object. What the + army does for the courage of the body, the Red Cross does for + the courage of the mind. It builds up the hearts and hopes of + people who in three and a half years have grown numb. It + restores the human touch to their lives and, with it, the + spiritual horizon. Its business, while the army is still + preparing, is to bring home to the Allies in every possible way + the fact that America, with her hundred and ten millions of + population, is in the war with them, eager to play the game, + anxious to sacrifice as they have sacrificed, to give her + man-power and resources as they have done, until justice has + been established for every man and nation.</p> + + <p>It is necessary to lay stress on this programme since it + differs greatly from the popular conception of the functions of + the Red Cross in the battle area. It was on the field of + Solferino in <span class="pagenum"><a name="page116" + id="page116"></a>[pg 116]</span> 1859, that Henri Dunant + went out before the fury had spent itself to tend the + wounded. It was here that he was fired with his great + ambition to found a non-combatant service, which should + recognise no enemies and be friends with every army. His + ambition was realised when in 1864 the Conference at Geneva + chose the Swiss flag, reversed, as its emblem—a red + cross on a field of white—and laid the foundations for + those international understandings which have since formed + for all combatants, except the Hun in this present warfare, + the protective law for the sick and wounded. The original + purpose of the Red Cross still fills the imagination of the + masses to the exclusion of all else that it is doing. + Directly the term "Red Cross" is mentioned the picture that + forms in most men's minds is of ambulances galloping through + the thick of battle-smoke and of devoted stretcher-bearers + who brave danger not to kill, but in order that they may + save lives.</p> + + <p>This war has changed all that. To-day the Red Cross has to + minister to not the wounded of armies only, but to the wounded + of nations. In a country like France, with trenches dug the + entire length of her eastern frontier and vast territories from + which the entire population has been evacuated, the wounds of + her armies are small in comparison with the wounds, bodily and + mental, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page117" + id="page117"></a>[pg 117]</span> of her civil + population—wounds which are the outcome of over three + years of privation. When the civil population of any country + has lost its pluck, no matter how splendid the spirit of its + soldiers, its armies become paralysed. The civilians can + commence peace negotiations behind the backs of their men in + the trenches. They can insist on peace by refusing to send + them ammunition and supplies. As a matter of fact the morale + of the soldiers varies directly with the morale of the + civilians for whom they fight. Behind every soldier stand a + woman and a group of children. Their safety is his + inspiration. If they are neglected, his sacrifice is + belittled. If they beg that he should lay down his arms, his + determination is weakened. It is therefore a vital + necessity, quite apart from the humanitarian aspect, that + the wounds of the civilians of belligerent countries should + be cared for. If the civilians are allowed to become + disheartened and cowardly, the heroic ideal of their + fighting-men is jeopardised. This fact has been recognised + by the Red Cross Societies of all countries in the present + war; a large part of their energies has been devoted to + social and relief work of a civil nature. Even in their + purely military departments, the comfort of the troops + claims quite as much attention as their medical treatment + and hospitalisation. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page118" + id="page118"></a>[pg 118]</span> As a matter of fact, the + actual carrying of the wounded out of the trenches to the + comparative safety of the dressing station is usually done + by combatants. A man has to live continually under + shell-fire to acquire the immunity to fear which passes for + courage. The bravest man is likely to get "jumpy," if he + only faces up to a bombardment occasionally. There are other + reasons why combatants should do the stretcher-bearing which + do not need elaborating. The combatants have an expert + knowledge of their own particular frontage; they are "wise" + to the barraged areas; they are "up front" and continually + coming and going, so it is often an economy of man-power for + them to attend to their own wounded in the initial stages; + they are the nearest to a comrade when he falls and all + carry the necessary first-aid dressings; the emblem of the + Red Cross has proved to be only a slight protection, as the + Hun is quite likely not to respect it. What I am driving at + is that the Red Cross has had to adapt itself to the new + conditions of modern warfare, so that very many of its most + important present-day functions are totally different from + what popular fancy imagines.</p> + + <p>The American Red Cross has its French Headquarters in a + famous gambling club in the Place de la Concorde. It is + somewhat strange to pass + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page119" + id="page119"></a>[pg 119]</span> through these rooms where + rakes once flung away fortunes, and to find them + industriously orderly with the conscience of an imported + nation. By far the larger part of the staff are business men + of the Wall Street type—not at all the kind who have + been accustomed to sentimentalise over philanthropy. There + is also a sprinkling of trained social workers, clergy, + journalists, and university professors. The medical + profession is represented by some of the leading specialists + of the States, but at Headquarters they are distinctly in + the minority. The purely medical work of the American Red + Cross forms only a part of its total activities. The men at + the head of affairs are bankers, merchants, presidents of + corporations—men who have been trained to think in + millions and to visualise broad areas. Girls are very much + in evidence. They are usually volunteers, drawn from all + classes, who offered their services to do anything that + would help. To-day they are typists, secretaries, + stenographers, nurses.</p> + + <p>The organisation is divided into three main departments: the + department of military affairs, of civil affairs and of + administration. Under these departments come a variety of + bureaus: the bureau of rehabilitation and reconstruction; of + the care and prevention of tuberculosis; of needy children and + infant mortality; of refugees and + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page120" + id="page120"></a>[pg 120]</span> relief; of the re-education + of the French mutilés; of supplies; of the rolling canteens + for the French armies; of the U.S. Army Division; of the + Military, Medical and Surgical Division, etc. They are too + numerous to mention in detail. The best way I can convey the + picture of immense accomplishment is to describe what I + actually saw in the field of operations.</p> + + <p>The first place I will take you to is Evian, because here + you see the tragedy and need of France as embodied in + individuals. Evian-les-Bains is on Lake Geneva, looking out + across the water to Switzerland. It is the first point of call + across the French frontier for the repatriés returning from + their German bondage. When the Boche first swept down on the + northern provinces he pushed the French civilian population + behind him. He has since kept them working for him as serfs, + labouring in the captured coal-mines, digging his various lines + of defences, setting up wire-entanglements, etc. Apart from the + testimony of repatriated French civilians, I myself have seen + messages addressed by Frenchmen to their wives, scrawled + surreptitiously on the planks of Hun dug-outs in the hope that + one day the dug-outs would be captured, and the messages passed + on by a soldier of the Allies. After three and a half years of + enforced labour, many of these captured + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page121" + id="page121"></a>[pg 121]</span> civilians are worked out. + To the Boche, with his ever-increasing food-shortage, they + represent useless mouths. Instead of filling them he is + driving their owners back, broken and useless, by way of + Switzerland. To him human beings are merchandise to be sold + upon the hoof like cattle. No spiritual values enter into + the bargain. When the body is exhausted it is sent to the + knacker's, as though it belonged to a worn-out horse. The + entire attitude is materialistic and degrading. + Evian-les-Bains, the once gay gambling resort of the + cosmopolitan, has become the knacker's shop for French + civilians exhausted by their German servitude. The Hun + shoves them across the border at the rate of about 1,300 a + day. From the start I have always felt that this war was a + crusade; what I saw at Evian made me additionally certain. + When I was in the trenches I never had any hatred of the + Boche. Probably I shall lose my hatred in pity for him when + I get to the Front again—but for the present I hate + him. It's here in France that one sees what a vileness he + has created in the children's and women's lives.</p> + + <p>I took the night train down from Paris. Early in the morning + I woke up to find myself in the gorges of the Alps, high peaks + with romantic Italian-looking settings soaring on every side. + At <span class="pagenum"><a name="page122" + id="page122"></a>[pg 122]</span> noon we reached Lake + Geneva, lying slate-coloured and sombre beneath a wintry + sky. That afternoon I saw the train of repatriés arrive.</p> + + <p>I was on the platform when the train pulled into the + station. It might have been a funeral cortége, only there was a + horrible difference: the corpses pretended to be alive. The + American Ambulance men were there in force. They climbed into + the carriages and commenced to help the infirm to alight. The + exiles were all so stiff with travel that they could scarcely + move at first. The windows of the train were grey with faces. + Such faces! All of them old, even the little children's. The + Boche makes a present to France of only such human wreckage as + is unuseful for his purposes. He is an acute man of business. + The convoy consisted of two classes of persons—the very + ancient and the very juvenile. You can't set a man of eighty to + dig trenches and you can't make a prostitute out of a + girl-child of ten. The only boys were of the mal-nourished + variety. Men, women and children—they all had the + appearance of being half-witted.</p> + + <p>They were terribly pathetic. As I watched them I tried to + picture to myself what three and a half long years of captivity + must have meant. How often they must have dreamt of the + exaltation of this day—and now that it had arrived, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page123" + id="page123"></a>[pg 123]</span> they were not exalted. They + had the look of people so spiritually benumbed that they + would never know despair or exaltation again. They had a + broken look; their shoulders were crushed and their skirts + bedraggled. Many of them carried babies—pretty little + beggars with flaxen hair. It wasn't difficult to guess their + parentage.</p> + + <p>As they were herded on the platform a low, strangled kind of + moaning went up. I watched individual lips to see where the + sound came from. I caught no movement. The noise was the + sighing of tired animals. Every one had some treasured + possession. Here was an old man with an alarm-clock; there an + aged woman with an empty bird-cage. A boy carried half-a-dozen + sauce-pans strung together. Another had a spare pair of patched + boots under his arm. Quite a lot of them clutched a bundle of + umbrellas. I found myself reflecting that these were the + remnants of families who had been robbed of everything that + they valued in the world. Whatever they had saved from the ruin + ought to represent the possession which had claimed most of + their affections, and yet—! What did an alarm-clock, an + empty bird-cage, a pair of patched boots, a string of + sauce-pans, a bundle of ragged umbrellas signify in any life? + What <span class="pagenum"><a name="page124" + id="page124"></a>[pg 124]</span> utter poverty, if these + were the best that they could save!</p> + + <p>There was a band on the platform, consisting mainly of + bugles and drums, to welcome them. The leader is reputed to be + the laziest man in the French Army. It is said that they tried + him at everything and then, in despair, sent him to Evian to + drum forgotten happiness into the bones of repatriés. Whatever + his former military record, he now does his utmost to + impersonate the defiant and impassioned soul of France. His + moustaches are curled fiercely. His brows are heavy as + thunderclouds. When he drums, the veins swell out in his neck + with the violence of his energy.</p> + + <p>Suddenly, with an ominous preliminary rumble, the band + struck up the Marseillaise. You should have seen the change in + this crowd of corpses. You must remember that these people had + been so long accustomed to lies and snares that it would + probably take days to persuade them that they were actually + safe home in France.</p> + + <p>As the battle-song for which they had suffered shook the air + their lips rustled like leaves. There was hardly any + sound—only a hoarse whisper. Then, all of a sudden, words + came—an inarticulate, sobbing commotion. Tears blinded + the eyes of every spectator, even those who had witnessed + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page125" + id="page125"></a>[pg 125]</span> similar scenes often; we + were crying because the singing was so little human.</p> + + <p>"Vive la France! Vive la France!" They waved flags—not + the tri-colour, but flags which had been given them in + Switzerland. They clung together dazed, women with slatternly + dresses, children with peaked faces, men unhappy and unshaven. + A woman caught sight of my uniform. "Vive l'Angleterre," she + cried, and they all came stumbling forward to embrace me. It + was horrible. They creaked like automatons. They gestured and + mouthed, but the soul had been crushed out of their eyes. You + don't need any proofs of Hun atrocities; the proofs are to be + seen at Evian. There are no severed hands, no crucified bodies; + only hearts that have been mutilated. Sorrow is at its saddest + when it cannot even contrive to appear dignified. There is no + dignity about the repatriés at Evian, with their absurd + umbrellas, sauce-pans, patched-boots, alarm-clocks and + bird-cages. They do not appeal to one as sacrificed patriots. + There is no nobility in their vacant stare. They create a cold + feeling of bodily decay—only it is the spirit that is + dead and gangrenous.</p> + + <p>There is a blasphemous story by Leonid Andreyev, which + recounts the bitterness of the after years of Lazarus and the + mischief Christ wrought <span class="pagenum"><a name="page126" + id="page126"></a>[pg 126]</span> in recalling him from the + grave. After his unnatural return to life there was a + blueness as of putrescence beneath his pallor; an iciness to + his touch; a choking silence in his presence; a horror in + his gaze, as if he were remembering his three days in the + sepulchre—as if forbidden knowledge groped behind his + eyes. He rarely looked at any one; there were none who + courted his glance, who did not creep away to die. The + terror of his fame spread beyond Bethany. Rome heard of him, + and at that safe distance laughed. It did not laugh after + Cæsar Augustus had sent for him. Cæsar Augustus was a god + upon earth; he could not die. But when he had questioned + Lazarus, peeped through the windows of his eyes, and read + what lay hidden in that forbidden memory, he commanded that + red-hot irons should quench such sight for ever. From Rome + Lazarus groped his way back to Palestine and there, long + years after his Saviour had been crucified, continued to + stumble through his own particular Gethsemane of blindness. + I thought of that story in the presence of this crowd, which + carried with it the taint of the grave.</p> + + <p>But the band was still playing the Marseillaise—over + and over it played it. With each repetition it was as though + these people, three years dead, made another effort to cast + aside their <span class="pagenum"><a name="page127" + id="page127"></a>[pg 127]</span> shrouds. Little by little + something was happening—something wonderful. Backs + were straightening; skirts were being caught up; resolution + was rippling from face to face—it passed and re-passed + with each new roll of the drums. The hoarse cries and + moaning with which we had commenced were gradually + transforming themselves into singing.</p> + + <p>There were some who were too weak to walk; these were + carried by the American Red Cross men into the waiting + ambulances. The remainder were marshalled into a disorderly + procession and led out of the station by the band.</p> + + <p>We were moving down the hill to the palaces beside the + lake—the palaces to which all France used to troop for + pleasure. We moved soddenly at first, shuffling in our steps. + But the drums were still rolling out their defiance and the + bugles were still blowing. The laziest man in the French Army + was doing his utmost to belie his record. The ill-shod, + flattened feet took up the music. They began to dance. Were + there ever feet less suited to dancing? That they should dance + was the acme of tragedy. Stockings fell down in creases about + the ankles. Women commenced to jig their Boche babies in their + arms; consumptive men and ancients waved their sauce-pans and + grotesque bundles of umbrellas. The sight was + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page128" + id="page128"></a>[pg 128]</span> damnable. It was a + burlesque. It pierced the heart. What right had the Boche to + leave these people so comic after he had squeezed the + life-blood out of them?</p> + + <p>All his insults to humanity became suddenly typified in + these five hundred jumping tatterdemalions—the way in + which he had plundered the world of its youth, its cleanness, + its decency. I felt an anger which battlefields had never + aroused, where men moulder above ground and become unsightly + beneath the open sky. The slain of battlefields were at least + motionless; they did not gape and grin at you with the dreadful + humour of these perambulating dead. I felt the Galilean passion + which animates every Red Cross worker at Evian: the agony to do + something to make these murdered people live again. This last + convoy came, I discovered, from a city behind the Boche lines + against which last summer I had often directed fire. It was + full in sight from my observing station. I had watched the very + houses in which these people, who now walked beside me, had + sheltered. For three and a half years these women's bodies had + been at the Hun's mercy. I tried to bring the truth home to + myself. Their men and young girls had been left behind. They + themselves had been flung back on overburdened France only + because <span class="pagenum"><a name="page129" + id="page129"></a>[pg 129]</span> they were no longer + serviceable. They were returning actually penniless, though + seemingly with money. The thrifty German makes a practice of + seizing all the good redeemable French money of the + repatriés before he lets them escape him, giving them in + exchange worthless paper stuff of his own manufacture, which + has no security behind it and is therefore not + negotiable.</p> + + <p>We came to the Casino, where endless formalities were + necessary. First of all in the big hall, formerly devoted to + gambling, the repatriés were fed at long tables. As I passed, + odd groups seeing my uniform, hurriedly dropped whatever they + were doing and, removing their caps, stood humbly at attention. + There was fear in their promptness. Where they came from an + officer exacted respect with the flat of his sword. What a + dumb, helpless jumble of humanity! It was as though the + occupants of a morgue had become galvanised and had temporarily + risen from their slabs.</p> + + <p>The band had been augmented by trumpets. It took its place + in the gallery and deluged the hall with patriotic fervour. An + old man climbed on a table and yelled, "Vive La France!" But + they had grown tired of shouting; they soon grew tired. The cry + was taken up faintly and + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page130" + id="page130"></a>[pg 130]</span> soon exhausted itself. + Nothing held their attention for long. Most of them sat + hunched up and inert, weakly crying. They were not + beautiful. They were not like our men who die in battle. + They were animated memories of horror. "What lies before us? + What lies before us?" That was the question that their + silence asked perpetually. Some of them had husbands with + the French army; others had sweethearts. What would those + men say to the flaxen-haired babies who nestled against the + women's breasts? And the sin was not theirs—they were + such tired, pretty mites. "What lies before us?" The babies, + too, might well have asked that question. Do you wonder that + I at last began to share the Frenchman's hatred for the + Boche?</p> + + <p>An extraordinary person in a white tie, top hat and evening + dress entered. He looked like a cross between Mr. Gerard's + description of himself in Berlin and a head-waiter. He + evidently expected his advent to cause a profound sensation. I + found out why: he was the official welcomer to Evian. Twice a + day, for an infinity of days, he had entered in solemn fashion, + faced the same tragic assembly, made the same fiery oration, + gained applause at the climax of the same rounded periods and + allowed his voice to break in the same rightly timed places. + Having <span class="pagenum"><a name="page131" + id="page131"></a>[pg 131]</span> kept his audience in + sufficient suspense as regards his mission, he unwrapped the + muffler from his neck, removed his coat, felt his throat to + see whether it was in good condition, swelled out his chest, + including his waist-coat which was spanned by the broad + ribbon of his office, then let loose the painter of his + emotion and slipped off into the mid-stream of perfunctory + eloquence. With all his disrobing he had retained his + top-hat; he held it in his right hand with the brim pressed + against his thigh, very much in the manner of a showman at a + circus. It contributed largely to the opulence of his + gestures.</p> + + <p>He always seemed to have concluded and was always starting + up afresh, as if in reluctant response to spectral clapping. He + called upon the repatriés never to forget the crimes that had + been wrought against them—to spread abroad the fire of + their indignation, the story of their ravished womanhood and + broken families all over France. They watched him leaden-eyed + and wept softly. To forget, to forget, that was all that they + wanted—to blot out all the past. This man with the + top-hat and the evening-dress, he hadn't suffered—how + could he understand? They didn't want to remember; with those + flaxen-haired children against their breasts the one boon they + craved <span class="pagenum"><a name="page132" + id="page132"></a>[pg 132]</span> was forgetfulness. And so + they cowered and wept softly. It was intolerable.</p> + + <p>And now the formalities commenced. They all had to be + medically examined. Questions of every description were asked + them. They were drifted from bureau to bureau where people sat + filling up official blanks. The Americans see to the children. + They come from living in cellars, from conditions which are + insanitary, from cities in the army zones where they were + underfed. The fear is that they may spread contagion all over + France. When infectious cases are found the remnants of + families have to be broken up afresh. The mothers collapse on + benches sobbing their hearts out as their children are led + away. For three and a half years everything they have loved has + been led away—how can they believe that these Americans + mean only mercy?</p> + + <p>From three to four hours are spent in completing all these + necessary investigations. Before the repatriés are conducted to + their billets, all their clothes have to be disinfected and + every one has to be bathed. The poor people are utterly worn + out by the end of it—they have already done a continuous + four days' journey in cramped trains. Before being sent to + France they have been living for from two to three weeks in + Belgium. The Hun always sends the repatriés to + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page133" + id="page133"></a>[pg 133]</span> Belgium for a few weeks + before returning them. The reason for this is that they for + the most part come from the army zones, and a few weeks will + make any information they possess out of date. Another + reason is that food is more plentiful in Belgium, thanks to + the Allies' Relief Commission. These people have been kept + alive on sugar-beets for the past few months, so it is as + well to feed them at the Allies' expense for a little while, + in order that they may create a better impression when they + return to France. The American doctors pointed out to me the + pulpy flesh of the children and the distended stomachs + which, to the unpractised eye, seemed a sign of + over-nourishment. "Wind and water," they said; "that's all + these children are. They've no stamina. Sugar-beets are the + most economic means of just keeping the body and the soul + together."</p> + + <p>The lights are going out in the Casino. It is the hour when, + in the old days, life would be becoming most feverish about the + gaming tables. In little forlorn groups the repatriés are being + conducted to their temporary quarters in the town. To-morrow + morning before it is light, another train-load will arrive, the + band will again play the Marseillaise, the American Red Cross + workers will again be in attendance, the gentleman + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page134" + id="page134"></a>[pg 134]</span> in the top-hat and + white-tie will again make his fiery oration of welcome, his + audience will again pay no attention but will weep + softly—the tediously heart-rending scene will be + rehearsed throughout in every detail by an entirely new + batch of actors. Twice a day, summer and winter, the same + tragedy is enacted at Evian. It is a continuous, + never-ending performance.</p> + + <p>Poor people! These whom I have seen, if they have no friends + to claim them, will re-start their journey to some strange + department on which they will be billeted as paupers. Here + again the American Red Cross is doing good work, for it sends + one of its representatives ahead to see that proper + preparations have been made for their reception. After they + have reached their destination, it looks them up from time to + time to make sure that they are being well cared for.</p> + + <p>If one wants to picture the case of the repatrié in its true + misery, all he needs to do is to convert it into terms of his + own mother or grandmother. She has lived all her life in the + neighbourhood of Vimy, let us say. She was married there and it + was there that she bore all her children. She and her husband + have saved money; they are substantial people now and need not + fear the future. Their sons are gaining their own + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page135" + id="page135"></a>[pg 135]</span> living; one daughter is + married, the others are arriving at the marriageable age. + One day the Hun sweeps down on them. The sons escape to join + the French army; the girls and their parents stay behind to + guard their property. They are immediately evacuated from + Vimy and sent to some city, such as Drocourt, further behind + the Hun front-line. Here they are gradually robbed of all + their possessions. At the beginning all their gold is + confiscated; later even the mattresses upon their beds are + requisitioned. For three and a half years they are subjected + to both big and petty tyrannies, till their spirits are so + broken that fear becomes their predominant emotion. The + father is led away to work in the mines. One by one the + daughters are commandeered and sent off into the heart of + Germany, where it will be no one's business to guard their + virtue. At last the mother is left with only her youngest + child. Of her sons who are fighting with the French armies + she has no knowledge, whether they are living or dead. Then + one day it is decided by her captors that they have no + further use for her. They part her from her last remaining + child and pack her off by way of Belgium and Switzerland + back to her own country. She arrives at Evian penniless and + half-witted with the terror of her sorrow. There is no one + to claim her; the part of + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page136" + id="page136"></a>[pg 136]</span> France that knew her is all + behind the German lines. A label is tied to her, as if she + was a piece of baggage, and she is shipped off to Avignon, + let us say. She has never been in the South before; it is a + foreign country to her. Poverty and adversity have broken + her pride; she has nothing left that will command respect. + There is nothing left in life to which she can fasten her + affections. Such utter forlornness is never a welcome sight. + Is it to be wondered at that the strangers to whom she is + sent are not always glad to see her? Is it to be wondered at + that, after her repatriation, she often wilts and dies? Her + sorrow has the appearance of degradation. Wherever she goes, + she is a threat and a peril to the fighting morale of the + civilian population. Yet in her pre-war kindliness and + security she might have been your mother or mine.</p> + + <p>The American Red Cross, by maintaining contact with such + people, is keeping them reminded that they are not utterly + deserted—that the whole of civilised humanity cares + tremendously what becomes of them and is anxious to lighten the + load of their sacrifice.</p> + <hr /> + + <p>I have before me a pile of sworn depositions, made by exiles + returned from the invaded territories. They are separately + numbered and dated; <span class="pagenum"><a name="page137" + id="page137"></a>[pg 137]</span> each bears the name of the + region or town from which the repatrié came. Here are a few + extracts which, when pieced together, form a picture of the + life of captured French civilians behind the German lines. I + have carefully avoided glaring atrocities. Atrocities are as + a rule isolated instances, due to isolated causes. They + occur, but they are not typical of the situation. The real + Hun atrocity is the attitude towards life which calls + chivalry sentiment, fair-play a waste of opportunity and + ruthlessness strength. This attitude is all summed up in the + one word Prussianism. The repatriés have been Prussianised + out of their wholesome joy and belief in life; it is this + that makes them the walking accusations that they are + to-day. In the following depositions they give some glimpses + of the calculated processes by which their happiness has + been murdered.</p> + <hr /> + + <p>"Lately copper, tin, and zinc have been removed in the + factories and amongst the traders, and quite recently in + private houses. For all these requisitions the Germans gave + Requisition Bonds, but private individuals who received them + never got paid the money. To force men to work 'voluntarily' + and sign contracts the Germans employed the following means: + the Germans gave <span class="pagenum"><a name="page138" + id="page138"></a>[pg 138]</span> these men nothing to eat, + but authorised their families to send them parcels; these + parcels once in the hands of the Germans are shown to these + unhappy men and are not handed over until they have signed. + About a week ago young boys from the age of fourteen who had + come back from the Ardennes had to present themselves at the + Kdr to be registered anew; a number of the young people work + in the sawmills, etc.; some have died of privation and + fatigue."</p> + <hr /> + + <p>"A week after Easter this year the population of LILLE was + warned by poster that all must be ready to leave the town. At + three o'clock in the morning private houses were invaded by the + German soldiers; they sorted out women and girls who were to be + deported. There then took place scandalous scenes: young girls + belonging to the most worthy families in the town had to pass + medical visits even with the speculum and had to endure most + atrocious physical and moral suffering. These young girls were + segregated like beasts anywhere in the rooms of the town halls + and schoolhouses, and were mingled with the dregs of the + population."</p> + <hr /> + + <p>"For a certain time the Germans did not requisition milk and + allowed it to be sold, but now this + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page139" + id="page139"></a>[pg 139]</span> is forbidden under a fine + of 1,000 marks or three months' imprisonment. Recently + WIGNEHIES was fined 100,000 frcs., and as the whole of this + sum was not paid the Germans inflicted punishment as + follows: Several inhabitants of WIGNEHIES were caught in the + act of disobeying by the gendarmes and were struck, and + bitten by the police dogs of the gendarmes because they + refused to denounce the sellers.... Brutal treatment is due + more to the gendarmes than to the soldiers. About six weeks + ago Marceau Horlet of WIGNEHIES was found, on a search by + the gendarmes, to have a piece of meat in his possession. He + was brutally beaten by them and bitten by the police dogs + because he refused to say who had given it to him. In 1915, + the youth Rémy Valléi of WIGNEHIES, age 15, was walking in + the street after 6-9 p.m., which was forbidden; he was seen + by two gendarmes and ran away. He was straightway killed, + receiving six revolver bullets in his body."</p> + <hr /> + + <p>"At PIGNICOURT during the CHAMPAGNE offensive the village + was bombarded by the French, who were attempting to destroy the + railway lines and bridges. The Commandant, by name Krama, of + the Kdr, forced men and youths, and even women, to fill up the + holes made by the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page140" + id="page140"></a>[pg 140]</span> bombardment during the + action. A German general passed and reprimanded them on the + ground that there was danger to the civilians; they were + withdrawn for the moment, but sent back as soon as the + general had left."</p> + <hr /> + + <p>"As regards the Hispano-American revictualling, it may be + said with truth that without this the population of Northern + France would have died of hunger, for the Germans considered + themselves liberated from any responsibility. During the first + months of the war before this Committee started, the Germans + put up posters saying that the Allies were trying to starve + Germany, who in turn was not obliged to feed the invaded + territory.... When informant (who is from ST. QUENTIN) left at + the general evacuation of this town, no requisition bonds were + given for household goods. As the inhabitants left, their + furniture was loaded on to motor lorries and taken to the + station, whence it was sent by special train to Germany. This + shows clearly that requisition bonds issued by the Germans show + only the small proportion of what has been suffered by the + inhabitants.... Informant was the witness of the execution of + French civilians whose only fault was either to hide arms or + pigeons: several who had committed + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page141" + id="page141"></a>[pg 141]</span> these infractions of + requisitions were shot, and the Germans announced the fact + by poster of a blood-red colour. In other cases the men shot + were British prisoners who had dressed in civil clothes on + the arrival of the Germans. Informant had a long + conversation with one of them before his execution. He told + informant how he had been unable to leave ST. QUENTIN, viz., + by the 28th August. Some passers-by offered to hide him. It + appears that, through his ignorance of the French language, + he was unaware that the Germans threatened execution to all + men found after a certain date. He was discovered and + condemned to death for espionage. It is obvious, as the man + himself said, that one could not imagine a man acting as a + spy without knowing either the language of the country or + that of the enemy."</p> + <hr /> + + <p>"Before the evacuation of the population the Germans chose + those who were to remain as civilian workers, viz., 120 men + from 15 to 60. On the very day of the evacuation they kept back + at the station 27 others. These men are now at CANTIN or + SOMAIN, where they are employed on the roads or looking after + munitions in the Arras group. The others at DECHY and GUESNIN + are in the VIMY group and are making pill-boxes or + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page142" + id="page142"></a>[pg 142]</span> railway lines. A certain + number of these workers refused to carry out the work + ordered, and as punishment during the summer were tied to + chairs and exposed bareheaded to the full blaze of the sun. + They were often threatened to be shot."</p> + <hr /> + + <p>"After the bombardment of LILLE the Germans entered + ENNETIÈRES on the 12th October, 1914. On the next Monday 200 + Uhlans occupied the Commune, and houses and haystacks were + burned.... At LOMME every one was forced to work: the Saxon + Kdnt. Schoper announced that all women who did not obey within + 24 hours would be interned: all the women obeyed. They were + employed in the making of osier-revêtement two metres high for + the trenches. The men were forced to put up barbed wire near + Fort Denglas, two kltrs. from the front. A few days after the + evacuation of ENNETIÈRES the Uhlans shot a youth, Jean + Leclercq, age 17, son of the gardener of Count D'Hespel, simply + because they had found a telephone wire in the courtyard of the + château."</p> + <hr /> + + <p>"Informant, who has lost his right arm, was nevertheless + forced to work for the Germans, notably to unload coal and to + work on the roads. He had with him males from 13 to 60. Having + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page143" + id="page143"></a>[pg 143]</span> objected because of his + lost arm, he was threatened with imprisonment. At LOMME + squads of workers were given the work of putting up barbed + wire; women were forced to make sand bags. In cases of + refusal on either side the Kdr. inflicted four or five + weeks' imprisonment, to say nothing of blows with sticks + inflicted by the soldiers. In spring 1917 a number of men + were sent from LOMME to the BEAUVIN-PROVINS region to work + on defences.... Those who refused to sign were threatened + and struck with the butts of rifles, and left in cellars + sometimes filled with water during bombardments. Several of + them came back seriously ill from privation."</p> + <hr /> + + <p>"Young girls are separated from their mothers; there are + levies made at every moment. Sometimes these young girls have + barely a few hours before the moment of departure.... Several + young girls have written to say that they are very unhappy and + that they sleep in camps amongst girls of low class and + condition."</p> + <hr /> + + <p>"For a long time past women have been forced to work as road + labourers. These work in the quarries and transport wood cut + down by the men in the mountain forest. A number of + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page144" + id="page144"></a>[pg 144]</span> women and young girls have + been removed from their families and sent in the direction + of RHEIMS and RETHEL, where it is said (although this cannot + be confirmed) that they are employed in aerodromes."</p> + <hr /> + + <p>These extracts should serve to explain the mental and + physical depression of the returning exiles. They have been + bullied out of the desire to live and out of all possession of + either their bodies or their souls. They have been treated like + cattle, and as cattle they have come to regard themselves. + Lazaruses—that's what they are! The unmerciful Boche, + having killed and buried them, drags them out from the tomb and + compels them to go through the antics of life. Le Gallienne's + poem comes to my mind:</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"Loud mockers in the angry street</p> + + <p>Say Christ is crucified again—</p> + + <p>Twice pierced those gospel-bearing feet,</p> + + <p>Twice broken that great heart in vain...."</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p>That is all true at Evian. But when I see the American men + and girls, leaning over the Boche babies in their cots and + living their hearts into the hands and feet of the spiritually + maimed, the last two lines of the poem become true for + me:</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page145" + id="page145"></a>[pg 145]</span> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"I hear, and to myself I say,</p> + + <p>'Why, Christ walks with me every day.'"</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p>The work of the American Red Cross at Evian is largely + devoted to children. It provides all the ambulance + transportation for the repatriés, to and from the station. + American doctors and nurses do all the examining of the + children at the Casino. On an average, four hundred pass + through their hands daily. The throat, nose, teeth, glands and + skin of each child are inspected. If the child is suspected or + attacked by any disease, it is immediately segregated and sent + to the American hospital. If the infection is only local or + necessitates further examination, the child and its family are + summoned to present themselves at the American dispensary next + day. Every precaution is employed to prevent the spread of + infection—particularly the infection of tuberculosis. + Evian is the gateway from Germany through which disease and + death may be carried to the furthest limits of France. Very few + of the repatriés are really healthy. It would be a wonder if + they were after the privations through which they have passed. + All of them are weakened in vitality and broken down in + stamina. Many of them have no homes to go to and have to be + sent to departments of the interior + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page146" + id="page146"></a>[pg 146]</span> and the south. If they were + sent in an unhealthy condition, it would mean the spread of + epidemics.</p> + + <p>The Red Cross has a large children's hospital at Evian in + the villas and buildings of the Hôtel Chatelêt. This hospital + deals with the contagious cases. It has others, especially one + at the Château des Halles, thirty kilometers from Lyons, which + take the devitalised, convalescent and tubercular cases. The + Château des Halles is a splendidly built modern building, + arranged in an ideal way for hospital use. It stands at the + head of a valley, with an all day sun exposure and large + grounds. Close to the Château are a number of small villages in + which it is possible to lodge the repatriés in families. This + is an important part of the repatrié's problem, as after their + many partings they fight fiercely against any further + separations. One of the chief reasons for having the + Convalescent Hospital out in the country is that families can + be quartered in the villages and so kept together.</p> + + <p>The pathetic hunger of these people for one another after + they have been so long divided, was illustrated for me on my + return journey to Paris. A man of the tradesman class had been + to Evian to meet his wife and his boy of about eleven. They + were among the lucky ones, for + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page147" + id="page147"></a>[pg 147]</span> they had a home to go to. + He was not prepossessing in appearance. He had a weak face, + lined with anxiety, broken teeth and limp hair. His wife, as + so often happens in French marriages, had evidently been the + manageress. She was unbeautiful in rusty black; her clothes + were the ill-assorted make-shifts of the civilian who + escapes from Germany. Her eyes were shifty with the habit of + fear and sunken with the weariness of crying. The boy was a + bright little fellow, full of defiance and anecdotes of his + recent captors.</p> + + <p>When I entered the carriage, they were sitting huddled + together—the man in the middle, with an arm about either + of them. He kept pressing them to him, kissing them by turn in + a spasmodic unrestrained fashion, as if he still feared that he + might lose them and could not convince himself of the happy + truth that they were once again together. The woman did not + respond to his embraces; she seemed indifferent to him, + indifferent to life, indifferent to any prospects. The boy + seemed fond of his father, but embarrassed by his starved + demonstrativeness.</p> + + <p>I listened to their conversation. The man's talk was all of + the future—what splendid things he would do for them. + How, as long as they lived, he would never waste a moment from + their sides. It appeared that he had been at Tours, on + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page148" + id="page148"></a>[pg 148]</span> a business trip when the + war broke out, and could not get back to Lille before the + Germans arrived there. For three and a half years he had + lived in suspense, while everything he loved had lain behind + the German lines. The woman contributed no suggestions to + his brilliant plans. She clung to him, but she tried to + divert his affection. When she spoke it was of small + domestic abuses: the exorbitant prices she had had to pay + for food; the way in which the soldiery had stolen her pots + and pans; the insolence she had experienced when she had + lodged complaints against the men before their officers. And + the boy—he wanted to be a poilu. He kept inventing + revenges he would take in battle, if the war lasted long + enough for his class to be called out. As darkness fell they + ceased talking. I began to realise that in three and a half + years they had lost contact. They were saying over and over + the things that had been said already; they were trying to + prevent themselves from acknowledging that they had grown + different and separate. The only bond which held them as a + family was their common loneliness and fear that, if they + did not hold together, their intolerable loneliness would + return. When the light was hooded, the boy sank his hand + against his father's shoulder; the woman nestled herself in + the fold of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page149" + id="page149"></a>[pg 149]</span> his arm, with her head + turned away from him, that he might not kiss her so often. + The man sat upright, his eyes wide open, watching them + sleeping with a kind of impotent despair. They were + together; and yet they were not together. He had recovered + them; nevertheless, he had not recovered them. Those Boches, + the devils, they had kept something; they had only sent + their bodies back. All night long, whenever I woke up as the + train halted, the little man was still guarding them + jealously as a dog guards a bone, and staring morosely at + the blank wall of the future.</p> + + <p>These were among the lucky ones; the boy and woman had had a + man to meet them. Somewhere in France there was protection + awaiting them and the shelter of a house that was not charity. + And yet ... all night while they slept the man sat awake, + facing up to facts. These were among the lucky ones! That is + Evian; that is the tragedy and need of France as you see it + embodied in individuals.</p> + <hr /> + + <p>The total number of repatriés and réfugiés now in France is + said to total a million and a half. The repatriés are the + French civilians who were captured by the Germans in their + advance and have since been sent back. The réfugiés are + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page150" + id="page150"></a>[pg 150]</span> the French civilians from + the devastated areas, who have always remained on the + Allies' side of the line. The réfugiés are divided into two + classes: réfugiés proper—that is fugitives from the + front, who fled for the most part at the time of the German + invasion; and évacués—those who were sent out of the + war zone by the military authorities. Naturally a large + percentage of this million and a half have lost everything + and, irrespective of their former worldly position, now live + with the narrowest margin between themselves and starvation. + The French Government has treated them with generosity, but + in the midst of a war it has had little time to devote to + educating them into being self-supporting. A great number of + funds have been privately raised for them in France; many + separate organisations for their relief have been started. + The American Red Cross is making this million and a half + people its special care, and to do so is co-operating + directly with the French Government and with existing French + civilian projects. Its action is dictated by mercy and + admiration, but in results this policy is the most + far-seeing statesmanship. A million and a half plundered + people, if neglected and allowed to remain downhearted, are + likely to constitute a danger to the morale of the bravest + nation. Again, from the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page151" + id="page151"></a>[pg 151]</span> point of view of after-war + relations, to have been generous towards those who have + suffered is to have won the heart of France. The caring for + the French repatriates and refugees is a definite + contribution to the winning of the war.</p> + + <p>The French system of handling this human stream of tragedy + is to send the sick to local hospitals and the exhausted to the + <i>maison de repos</i>. The comparatively healthy are allowed + to be claimed by friends; the utterly homeless are sent to some + prefecture remote from the front-line. The prefects in turn + distribute them among towns and villages, lodging them in old + barracks, casinos and any buildings which war-conditions have + made vacant. The adults are allowed by the Government a franc + and a half per day, and the children seventy-five centimes.</p> + + <p>The armies have drained France of her doctors since the war; + until the Americans came, the available medical attention was + wholly inadequate to the civilian population. The American Red + Cross is now establishing dispensaries through the length and + breadth of France. In country districts, inaccessible to towns, + it is inaugurating automobile-dispensaries which make their + rounds on fixed and advertised days. In addition to this it has + started a child-welfare movement, the aim of which is to build + up the birth-rate and <span class="pagenum"><a name="page152" + id="page152"></a>[pg 152]</span> lower the infant mortality + by spreading the right kind of knowledge among the women and + girls.</p> + + <p>The condition of the refugees and repatriates, thrust into + communities to which they came as paupers and crowded into + buildings which were never planned for domestic purposes, has + been far from enviable. In September, 1917, the American Red + Cross handed over the solving of this problem to one of its + experts who had organised the aid given to San Francisco after + the earthquake, and who had also had charge of the relief-work + necessitated by the Ohio floods at Dayton. Co-operating with + the French, houses partially constructed at the outbreak of war + were now completed and furnished, and approximately three + thousand families were supplied with homes and privacy. The + start made proved satisfactory. Supplies, running into millions + of francs, were requisitioned, and the plan for getting the + people out of public buildings into homes was introduced to the + officials of most of the departments of France. Delegates were + sent out by the Red Cross to undertake the organisation of the + work. Money was apportioned for the supplying of destitute + families with furniture and the instruments of trade; the + object in view was not to pauperise them, but to afford them + the opportunity for becoming self-supporting. + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page153" + id="page153"></a>[pg 153]</span> Re-construction work in + those devastated areas which have been won back from the + Boche was hurried forward in order that the people who had + been uprooted from the soil might be returned to it and, in + being returned to their own particular soil, might recover + their place in life and their balance.</p> + + <p>I visited the devastated areas of the Pas-de-Calais, Somme, + Oise and Aisne and saw what is being accomplished. This + destroyed territory is roughly one hundred miles long by thirty + miles broad at its widest point. In 1912 one-quarter of the + wheat produced in France and eighty-seven per cent. of the beet + crop employed in the national industry of sugar-making, were + raised in these departments of the north. The invasion has + diminished the national wheat production by more than a half. + It is obvious, then, that in getting these districts once more + under cultivation two birds are being killed with one stone: + the refugee is being made a self-supporting person—an + economic asset instead of a dead weight—and the tonnage + problem is being solved. If more food is grown behind the + Western Front, grain-ships can be released for transporting the + munitions of war from America.</p> + + <p>The French Government had already made a start in this + undertaking before America came + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page154" + id="page154"></a>[pg 154]</span> into the war. As early as + 1914 it voted three hundred million francs and appointed a + group of <i>sous-préfets</i> to see to the dispensing of it. + Little by little, as the Huns have been driven back, the + wealthier inhabitants, whose money was safe in Paris banks, + have returned to these districts and opened <i>oeuvres</i> + for the poorer inhabitants. Many of them have lost their + sons and husbands; they find in their daily labour for + others worse off than themselves an escape from life-long + despair. Misfortune is a matter of comparison and contrast. + We are all of us unhappy or fortunate according to our + standards of selfishness and our personal interpretation of + our lot. These patriots are bravely turning their experience + of sorrow into the materials of service. They can speak the + one and only word which makes a bond of sympathy between the + prosperous and the broken-hearted, "I, too, have suffered." + I came across one such woman in the neighbourhood of + Villequier-au-Mont. She was a woman of title and a royalist. + Her estates had been laid waste by the invasion and all her + men-folk, save her youngest son, were dead. Directly the Hun + withdrew last spring, she came back to the wilderness which + had been created and commenced to spend what remained of her + fortune upon helping her peasants. These + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page155" + id="page155"></a>[pg 155]</span> peasants had been the + hewers of wood and drawers of water for the Hun for three + and a half years. When his armies retreated, they took with + them the girls and the young men, leaving behind only the + weaklings, the children and the aged. Word came to the Red + Cross official of the district that her remaining son had + been killed in action; he was asked to break the news to + her. He went out to her ruined village and found her sitting + among a group of women in the shell of a house, teaching + them to make garments for their families. She was pleased to + see him; she was in need of more materials. She had been + intending to make the journey to see him herself. She was + full of her work and enthusiastic over the valiance of her + people. He led her aside and told her. She fell silent. Her + face quivered—that was all. Then she completed her + list of requirements and went back to her women. In living + to comfort other people's grief, she had no time to nurse + her own.</p> + + <p>These "oeuvres," or groups of workers, settle down in a + shattered village or township. The military authorities place + the township in their charge. They at once commence to get + roofs on to such houses as still have walls. They supply + farm-implements, poultry, rabbits, carts, seeds, plants, etc. + They import materials from Paris + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page156" + id="page156"></a>[pg 156]</span> and form sewing classes for + the women and girls. They encourage the trades-people to + re-start their shops and lend them the necessary initial + capital. What is perhaps most valuable, they lure the + terror-stricken population out of their caves and dug-outs, + and set them an example of hope and courage. Some of the + best pioneer work of this sort has been done by the English + Society of Friends who now, together with the Friends of the + United States, have become a part of the Bureau of the + Department of Civil Affairs of the American Red Cross.</p> + + <p>The American Red Cross works through the "oeuvres" which it + found already operating in the devastated area; it places its + financial backing at their disposal, its means of motor + transport and its personnel; it grafts on other "oeuvres," + operating in newly taken over villages, in which Americans, + French and English work side by side for the common welfare; at + strategic points behind the lines it has established a chain of + relief warehouses, fully equipped with motor-lorries and cars. + These warehouses furnish everything that an agricultural people + starting life afresh can require—food, clothes, blankets, + beds, mattresses, stoves, kitchen utensils, reapers, binders, + mowing-machines, threshing-machines, garden-tools, soap, tooth + brushes, etc. If you can conceive of + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page157" + id="page157"></a>[pg 157]</span> yourself as having been a + prosperous farmer and waking up one morning broken in heart + and dirty in person, with your barns, live-stock, daughters, + sons, everything gone—not a penny left in the + world—you can imagine your necessities, and then form + some picture of the fore-thought that goes to the running of + a Red Cross warehouse.</p> + + <p>But the poverty of these people is not the worst condition + that the Red Cross workers have to tackle; money can always + replace money. Hope, trust, affection and a genial belief in + the world's goodness cannot be transplanted into another man's + heart in exchange for bitterness by even the most lavish giver. + I can think of no modern parallel for their blank despair; the + only eloquence which approximately expresses it is that of Job, + centuries old, "Why is light given to a man whose way is hid + and whom God hath hedged in? My sighing cometh before I eat. My + roarings are poured out like waters. My harp is turned to + mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep. I was + not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet + trouble came."</p> + + <p>This hell which the Hun has created, beggars any description + of Dante.<a id="footnotetag1" + name="footnotetag1"></a><a href="#footnote1"><sup>1</sup></a> + It is still more appalling + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page158" + id="page158"></a>[pg 158]</span> to remember that the + external hell which one sees, does not represent one tithe + of the dreariness which lies hidden behind the eyes of the + inhabitants. To imagine amid such scenes is to paralyse + compassion with agony. The craving, never far from one's + thoughts, is the age-old desire, "O that one might plead + with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour!"</p> + + <p>I started out on my trip in a staff-car from a city well + behind the lines. In the first half hour of the journey the + country was green and pleasant. We passed some cavalry officers + galloping across a brown field; birds were battling against a + flurrying wind; high overhead an aeroplane sailed serenely. + There was a sense of life, motion and exhilaration abroad, but + only for the first half hour of our journey. Then momentarily a + depression grew up about us. Fields and trees were becoming + dead, as if a swarm of locusts had eaten their way across them. + Greenness was vanishing. Houses were becoming untenanted; there + were holes in the walls of many of them, through which one + gained glimpses of the sky. Here, by the road-side, we passed a + cluster of insignificant graves. Then, almost + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page159" + id="page159"></a>[pg 159]</span> without warning, the + barbed-wire entanglements commenced, and the miles and miles + of abandoned trenches. This, not a year ago from the day on + which I write, was the Hun's country. Last spring, in an + attempt to straighten his line, he retreated from it. Our + offensives on the Somme had converted his Front into a + dangerous salient.</p> + + <p>We are slowing down; the road is getting water-logged and + full of holes. The skull of a dead town grows up on the + horizon. Even at this distance the light behind empty windows + glares malevolently like the nothingness in vacant sockets. A + horror is over everything. The horror is not so much due to the + destruction as to the total absence of any signs of life. One + man creeping through the landscape would make it seem more + kindly. I have been in desolated towns often, but there were + always the faces of our cheery Tommies to smile out from + cellars and gaps in the walls. From here life is banished + utterly. The battle-line has retired eastward; one can hear the + faint rumble of the guns at times. No civilian has come to + re-inhabit this unhallowed spot.</p> + + <p>We enter what were once its streets. They are nothing now + but craters with boards across them. On either side the trees + lie flat along the ground, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page160" + id="page160"></a>[pg 160]</span> sawn through within a foot + of the roots. What landmarks remain are the blackened walls + of houses, cracked and crashed in by falling roofs. The + entire place must have been given over to explosion and + incendiarism before the Huns departed. One stands in awe of + such completeness of savagery; one begins to understand what + is meant by the term "frightfulness." As far as eye can + reach there is nothing to be seen but decayed fangs, + protruding from a swamp of filth, covered with a green slime + where water has accumulated. This is not the unavoidable + ruin of shell-fire. No battle was fought here. The + demolition was the wanton spite of an enemy who, because he + could not hold the place, was determined to leave nothing + serviceable behind. With such masterly thoroughness has he + done his work that the spot can never be re-peopled. The + surrounding fields are too poisoned and churned up for + cultivation. The French Government plans to plant a forest; + it is all that can be done. As years go by, the kindliness + of Nature may cause her to forget and cover up the scars of + hatred with greenness. Then, perhaps, peasant lovers will + wander here and refashion their dreams of a chivalrous + world. Our generation will be dead by that time; throughout + our lives this memorial to "frightfulness" will + remain.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page161" + id="page161"></a>[pg 161]</span> + + <p>We have left the town and are out in the open country. It is + clean and unharried. Man can murder orchards and + habitations—the things which man plants and makes; he + finds it more difficult to strangle the primal gifts of Nature. + All along by the roadside the cement telegraph-posts have been + broken off short; some of them lie flat along the ground, + others hang limply in the bent shape of hairpins. Very often we + have to make a detour where a steel bridge has been blown up; + we cross the gulley over an improvised affair of struts and + planks, and so come back into the main roadway. Every now and + then we pass steam-tractors at work, ploughing huge fields into + regular furrows. The French Department of Agriculture purchased + in America nineteen teams of ten tractors apiece in the autumn + of last year. The American Red Cross has supplied others. The + fields of this district are unfenced—the farmers used to + live together in villages; so the work is made easy. It is + possible to throw a number of holdings together and to apply to + France the same wholesale mechanical means of wheat-growing + that are employed on the prairies of Canada. All the cattle and + horses have been carried off into Germany. All the + farm-implements have been destroyed—and destroyed with a + surprising ingenuity. The same parts were destroyed + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page162" + id="page162"></a>[pg 162]</span> in each instrument, so that + an entire instrument could not be reconstructed. The farms + could not have been brought under cultivation this year, had + not the Government and the Red Cross lent their + assistance.</p> + + <p>We are approaching Noyon, the birthplace of Calvin. This is + one of the few towns the Hun spared in his retreat; he spared + it not out of a belated altruism, but purely to serve his own + convenience. There were some of the French civilians who + weren't worth transporting to Germany. They would be too weak, + or too old, or too young to earn their keep when he got them + there. These he sorted out, irrespective of their family ties, + and herded from the surrounding districts into Noyon. They were + crowded into the houses and ordered under pain of death not to + come out until they were given permission. They were further + ordered to shutter all their windows and not to look out.</p> + + <p>As an old lady, who narrated the story, said, "We had no + idea, Monsieur, what was to happen. <i>Les Boches</i> had been + with us for nearly three years; it never entered our heads that + they were leaving. When they took the last of our young girls + from us and all who were strong among our men, it was something + that they had done so often and so often. When they made us + hide <span class="pagenum"><a name="page163" + id="page163"></a>[pg 163]</span> in our houses, we thought + it was only to prevent a disturbance. It is not easy to see + your boys and girls marched away into slavery—Monsieur + will understand that. Sometimes, on former occasions, the + mothers had attacked <i>les Boches</i> and the young girls + had become hysterical; we thought that it was to avoid such + scenes that we were shut up in our houses. When darkness + fell, we sat in our rooms without any lights, for they also + were forbidden. All night long through our streets we heard + the endless tramping of battalions, the clattering wheels of + guns and limbers, the sharp orders, the halting and the + marching taken up afresh. Towards dawn everything grew + silent. At first it would be broken occasionally by the + hurried trot of cavalry or the shuffling footsteps of a + straggler. Then it grew into the absolute silence of death. + It was nerve-racking and terrible. One could almost hear the + breathing of the listening people in all the other houses. I + do not know how time went or what was the hour. I could + endure the suspense no longer. They might kill me, but ... + Ah well, at my age after nearly three years with 'les + Boches,' killing is a little matter! I crept down the + passage and drew back the bolts. I was very gentle; a sentry + might hear me. I opened the door just a crack. I expected to + hear a rifle-shot ring out, but nothing + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page164" + id="page164"></a>[pg 164]</span> happened. I opened it + wider, and saw that the street was empty and that it was + broad daylight. Then I waited—I do not know how long I + waited. I crouched against the wall, huddled with terror. + All this took much longer in the doing than in the telling. + At last I could bear myself no longer. I tiptoed out on to + the pavement—and, Monsieur will believe me, I expected + to drop dead. But no one disturbed me. Then I heard a + rustling. Doors everywhere were opening stealthily, ah, so + stealthily! Some one else tiptoed out, and some one else, + and some one else. We stood there staring, aghast at our + daring. Suddenly we realised what had happened. The brutes + had gone. We were free. It was indescribable, what + followed—we ran together, weeping and embracing. At + first we wept for gladness; soon we wept for sorrow. Our + youth had departed; we were all old women or very ancient + men. Two hours later our poilus came, like a blue-grey wave + of laughter, fighting their way through the burning country + that those swine had left in a sea of smoke and flames."</p> + + <p>And so that was why the Hun spared Noyon. But if he spared + Noyon, he spared little else.<a id="footnotetag2" + name="footnotetag2"></a><a href="#footnote2"><sup>2</sup></a> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page165" + id="page165"></a>[pg 165]</span> Every village between here + and the present front line has been levelled; every + fruit-tree cut down. The wilful wickedness and pettiness of + the crime stir one's heart to pity and his soul to white-hot + anger. The people who did this must make payment in more + than money; to settle such a debt blood is required. + American soldiers who came to Europe to do a job and with no + decided detestation of the Hun, are being taught by such + landscapes. They know now why they came. The wounds of + France are educating them.</p> + + <p>There has been a scheme proposed in America under which + certain individual cities and towns in the States shall make + themselves responsible for the re-building of certain + individual cities and towns in the devastated areas. The scheme + is noble; it has only one drawback, namely that it specialises + effort and tends to ignore the immensity of the problem as a + whole. I visited one of these towns—it is a town for + which Philadelphia has made itself responsible. I wish the + people of Philadelphia might get a glimpse of the task they + have undertaken. There is a church-spire still standing; that + is about all. The rest is a pile of bricks. In the midst of + this havoc some Philadelphia ladies are living, one of whom is + a nurse. They run a dispensary for the people who keep house + for the most part in cellars and holes + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page166" + id="page166"></a>[pg 166]</span> in the ground. A doctor + visits them to hold a clinic ever so often. They have a + little warehouse, in which they keep the necessities for + immediate relief work. They have a rest hut for soldiers. + They employ whatever civilian labour they can hire for the + roofing of some of the least damaged cottages; for this + temporary reconstruction they provide the materials. When I + was there, the place was well within range of enemy + shell-fire. The approach had to be made by way of + camouflaged roads. The sole anxiety of these brave women was + that on account of their nearness to the front-line, the + military might compel them to move back. In order to + safeguard themselves against this and to create a good + impression, they were making a strong point of entertaining + whatever officers were billeted in this vicinity. Their + effort to remain in this rural Gomorrah was as courageous as + it was pathetic. "The people need us," they said, and then, + "you don't think we'll be moved back, do you?" I thought + they would, and I didn't think that the grateful officers + would be able to prevent it—they were subalterns and + captains for the most part. "But we once had a major to + tea," they said. "A major!" I exclaimed, trying to look + impressed, "Oh well, that makes a difference!"</p> + + <p>There was one unit I wished especially to visit; + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page167" + id="page167"></a>[pg 167]</span> it was a unit consisting + entirely of women, sent over and financed by a women's + college. When I was in America last October and heard that + they were starting, I made up my mind that they were doomed + to disappointment. I pictured the battlefield of the Somme + as I had last seen it—a sea of mud stretching for + miles, furrowed by the troughs of battered trenches, pitted + every yard with shell-holes and smeared over with the + wreckage of what once were human bodies. I could not imagine + what useful purpose women could serve amid such + surroundings. It seemed to me indecent that they should be + allowed to go there. They were going to do reconstruction, I + was told. Reconstruction! you can't reconstruct towns and + villages the very foundations of which have been buried. + There is a Bible phrase which expresses such annihilation, + "The place thereof shall know it no more." Yes, only the + names remain in one's memory—the very sites have been + covered up and the contours of the landscape re-dug with + high explosives. It took millions of pounds to work this + havoc. Men tunnelled under-ground and sprung mines without + warning. They climbed like birds of prey, into the heavens + to hurl death from the clouds. They lined up their guns, + tier upon tier, almost axle to axle in places, and at a + given sign rained a deluge of corruption + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page168" + id="page168"></a>[pg 168]</span> on a country miles in + front, which they could not even discern. The infantry went + over the top throwing bombs and piled themselves up into + mounds of silence. Nations far away toiled day and night in + factories—and all that they might achieve this + repellant desolation. The innocence of the project made one + smile—a handful of women sailing from America to + reconstruct! To reconstruct will take ten times more effort + than was required to destroy. More than eight hundred years + ago William the Norman burnt his way through the North + Country to Chester. Yorkshire has not yet recovered; it is + still a wind-swept moorland. This women's college in America + hoped to repair in our lifetime a ruin a million times more + terrible. Their courage was depressing, it so exceeded the + possible. They might love one village back to life, but.... + That is exactly what they are doing.</p> + + <p>I arrived at Grécourt on an afternoon in January. It is here + that the women of the Smith College Unit have taken up their + tenancy. We had extraordinary difficulty in finding the place. + The surrounding country had been blasted and scorched by fire. + There was no one left of whom we could enquire. Everything had + perished. Barns, houses, everything habitable had been blown up + by the departing Hun. As a study in + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page169" + id="page169"></a>[pg 169]</span> the painstaking completion + of a purpose the scenes through which we passed almost + called for admiration. Berlin had ordered her armies to + destroy everything before withdrawing; they had obeyed with + a loving thoroughness. The world has never seen such past + masters in the art of demolition. Ever since they invaded + Belgium, their hand has been improving. In the neighbourhood + of Grécourt they have equalled, if not surpassed, their own + best efforts. I would suggest to the Kaiser that this manly + performance calls for a distribution of iron crosses. It is + true that his armies were beaten and retiring; but does not + that fact rather enhance their valour? They were retiring, + yet there were those who were brave enough to delay their + departure till they had achieved this final victory over old + women and children to the lasting honour of their country. + Such heroes are worthy to stand beside the sinkers of the + <i>Lusitania</i>. It is not just that they should go + unrecorded.</p> + + <p>In the midst of this hell I came across a tumbled château. + Its roof, its windows, its stairways were gone; only the + crumbling shell of its former happiness was left standing. A + high wall ran about its grounds. The place must have been + pleasant with flower-gardens once. There was an impressive + entrance of wrought-iron, a porter's + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page170" + id="page170"></a>[pg 170]</span> lodge and a broad driveway. + At the back I found rows of little wood-huts. There was a + fragrance of log-fires burning. I was glad of that, for I + had heard of the starving cold these women had had to endure + through the first winter months of their tenure. On tapping + at a door, I found the entire colony assembled. It was + tea-time and Sunday. Ten out of the seventeen who form the + colony were present. A box-stove, such as we use in our + pioneer shacks in Canada, was throwing out a glow of + cheeriness. Candles had been lighted. Little knicknacks of + feminine taste had been hung here and there to disguise the + bareness of the walls. A bed, in one corner, was carefully + disguised as a couch. Save for the fact that there was no + glass in the window—glass being unobtainable in France + at present—one might easily have persuaded himself + that he was back in America in the room of a + girl-undergraduate.</p> + + <p>The method of my greeting furthered this illusion. + Americans, both men and women, have an extraordinary + self-poise, a gift for remaining normal in the most abnormal + surroundings. They refuse to allow themselves to be surprised + by any upheaval of circumstances. "I should worry," they seem + to be saying, and press straight on with the job in hand. There + was one small touch <span class="pagenum"><a name="page171" + id="page171"></a>[pg 171]</span> which made the environment + seem even more friendly and unexceptional. One of the girls, + on being introduced, promptly read to me a letter which she + had just received from my sister in America. It made this + oasis in an encircling wilderness seem very much a part of a + neighbourly world. This girl is an example of the varied + experiences which have trained American women into becoming + the nursemaids of the French peasantry.</p> + + <p>She was visiting relations in Liége when the war broke out. + On the Sunday she went for a walk on the embattlements and was + turned back. Baulked in this direction, she strolled out + towards the country and found men digging trenches. That was + the first she knew that war was rumoured. On the Tuesday, two + days later, Hun shells were detonating on the house-tops. She + was held prisoner in Liége for some months after the Forts had + fallen and saw more than all the crimes against humanity that + the Bryce Report has recorded. At last she disguised herself + and contrived her escape into Holland. From there she worked + her way back to America and now she is at Grécourt, starting + shops in the villages, educating the children, and behaving + generally as if to respond to the "Follow thou me" of the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page172" + id="page172"></a>[pg 172]</span> New Testament was an + entirely unheroic proceeding for a woman.</p> + + <p>And what are these women doing at Grécourt? To condense + their purpose into a phrase, I should say that by their example + they are bringing sanity back into the lives of the French + peasants. That is what the American Fund for French Wounded is + doing at Blérancourt, what all these reconstruction units are + doing in the devastated areas, and what the American Red Cross + is doing on a much larger scale for the whole of France. At + Grécourt they have a dispensary and render medical aid. If the + cases are grave, they are sent to the American Hospital at + Nesle. They hunt out the former tradespeople among the refugees + and encourage them to re-start their shops, lending them the + money for the purpose. If the men are captives in Germany, then + their wives are helped to carry on the business in their + absence and for their sakes. Groups of mothers are brought + together and set to work on making clothes for themselves and + their children. Schools are opened so that the children may be + more carefully supervised. Two of the girls at Grécourt have + learnt to plough, and are instructing the peasant women. Cows + are kept and a dairy has been started to provide the + under-nourished babies of the district. An + automobile-dispensary <span class="pagenum"><a name="page173" + id="page173"></a>[pg 173]</span> is sent out from the + hospital at Nesle to visit the remoter districts. It has a + seat along one side for the patient and the nurse. Over the + seat is a rack for medicine and instruments. On the opposite + side is a rack for splints and surgical dressings. On the + floor of the car a shower-bath is arranged, which is so + compact that it can be carried into the house where the + water is to be heated. The water is put into a tub on a + wooden base; while the doctor manipulates the pump for the + shower, the nurse does the scrubbing. Most of the diseases + among the children are due to dirt; the importance of + keeping clean, which such colonies as that at Grécourt are + impressing on all the people whom they serve, is doing much + to improve the general state of health. In this direction, + as in so many others, the most valuable contribution that + they are making to their districts is not material and + financial, but mental—the contribution of example and + suggestion. Seventeen women cannot re-build in a day an + external civilisation which has been blotted out by the + savagery of a nation; but they can and they are re-building + the souls of the human derelicts who have survived the + savagery. This war is going to be won not by the combination + of nations which has most men and guns, but by the side + which possesses the highest spiritual qualities. The same is + true of the countries which + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page174" + id="page174"></a>[pg 174]</span> will wipe out the effects + of war most quickly when the war is ended. The first + countries to recover will be those which fight on in a new + way, after peace has been signed, for the same ideals for + which they have shed their blood. The sight of these + American women, living helpfully and voluntarily for the + sake of others among hideous surroundings, is a perpetual + reminder to the dispirited refugees that, whatever else is + lost, valiance and loyalty still survive.</p> + + <p>From Grécourt I went farther afield to Croix, Y and Matigny. + Here a young architect is in charge of the reconstruction. No + attempt is being made at present to re-build the farms + entirely. Labour is difficult to obtain—it is all + required for military purposes. The same applies to materials. + Patching is the best that can be done. Just to get a roof over + one corner of a ruin is as much as can be hoped for. Until that + is done the people have to live in cellars, in shell-holes, in + verminous dug-outs like beasts of prey or savages. Their + position is far more deplorable than that of Indians, for they + once knew the comforts of civilisation. For instance, I visited + a farmer who before the war was a millionaire in French money. + Many of the farmers of this district were; their acreages were + large even by prairie standards. The American Red Cross has + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page175" + id="page175"></a>[pg 175]</span> managed to reconstruct one + room for him in a pile of debris which was once a spacious + house. There he lives with his old wife, who, during the Hun + occupation, became nearly blind and almost completely + paralytic. His sons and daughters have been swept beyond his + knowledge by the departing armies. Before the Huns left, he + had to stand by and watch them uselessly lay waste his home + and possessions. His trees are cut down. His barns are laid + flat. His cattle are behind the German lines. At the age of + seventy, he is starting all afresh and working harder than + ever he did in his life. The young architect of the Red + Cross visits him often. They sit in the little room of + nights, erecting barns and houses more splendid than those + that have vanished, but all in the green quiet of the + untested future. They shall be standing by the time the + captive sons come back. It is a game at which they play for + the sake of the blinded mother; she listens smilingly, + nodding her old head, her frail hands folded in her lap.</p> + + <p>These pictures which I have painted are typical of some of + the things that the American Red Cross is doing. They are + isolated examples, which by no means cover all its work. There + are the rolling canteens which it has instituted, which follow + the French armies. There are the rest + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page176" + id="page176"></a>[pg 176]</span> houses it has built on the + French line of communications for <i>poilus</i> who are + going on leave or returning. There is the farm for the + mutilated, where they are taught to be specialists in + certain branches of agriculture, despite their physical + curtailments. There is the great campaign against + tuberculosis which it is waging. There are its + well-conceived warehouses, stored with medical supplies and + military and relief necessities, spreading in a great + net-work of usefulness and connected by ambulance transport + throughout the whole of the stricken part of France. There + are its hospitals, both military and civil. There is the + "Lighthouse" for men wounded in battle, founded by Miss Holt + in Paris.</p> + + <p>I visited this Lighthouse; it is a place infinitely brave + and pathetic. Most of the men were picked heroes at the war; + they wear their decorations in proof of it. They are greater + heroes than ever now. Nothing has more deeply moved me than my + few hours among those sightless eyes. In many cases the faces + are hideously marred, the eyelids being quite grown together. + In several cases besides the eyes, the arms or legs have gone. + I have talked and written a good deal about the courage which + this war has inspired in ordinary men; but the courage of these + blinded men, who once were ordinary, leaves me silent and + appalled. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page177" + id="page177"></a>[pg 177]</span> They are happy—how + and why I cannot understand. Most of them have been taught + at the Lighthouse how to overcome their disability and are + earning their living as weavers, stenographers, potters, + munition-workers. Quite a number of them have families to + support. The only complaint that is made against them by + their brother-workmen is that they are too rapid; they set + too strenuous a pace for the men with eyes. It is a fact + that in all trades where sensitiveness of touch is an asset, + blindness has increased their efficiency. This is peculiarly + so at the Sévres pottery-works where I saw them making the + moulds for retorts. A soldier, who was teaching a seeing + person Braille, explained his own quickness of perception + when he exclaimed, "Ah, madame, it is your eyes which + prevent you from seeing!"</p> + + <p>I heard some of the stories of the men. There was a captain + who, after he had been wounded and while there was yet time to + save his sight, insisted on being taken to his General that he + might inform him about a German mine. When his mission was + completed, his chance of seeing was forever ended.</p> + + <p>There was a lieutenant who was blinded in a raid and left + for dead out in No Man's Land. Just before he became + unconscious, he placed two lumps of earth in line in the + direction which led <span class="pagenum"><a name="page178" + id="page178"></a>[pg 178]</span> back to his own trenches. + He knew the direction by the sound of the retreating + footsteps. Whenever he came to himself he groped his way a + little nearer to France and before he fainted again, + registered the direction with two more lumps of earth placed + in line. It took him a day to crawl back.</p> + + <p>There was another man who illustrated in a finer way that + saying, "It is your eyes which prevent you from seeing." This + man before the war was a village-priest, and no credit to his + calling. He had a sister who had spent her youth for him and + worshipped him beyond everything in the world. He took her + adoration brutally for granted. At the outbreak of hostilities + he joined the army, serving bravely in the ranks till he was + hopelessly blinded. Having always been a thoroughly selfish + man, his privation drove him nearly to madness. He had always + used the world; now for the first time he had been used by it. + His viciousness broke out in blasphemy; he hated both God and + man. He made no distinction between people in the mass and the + people who tried to help him. His whole desire was to inflict + as much pain as he himself suffered. When his sister came to + visit him, he employed every ingenuity of word and gesture to + cause her agony. Do what she would, he refused to allow her + love <span class="pagenum"><a name="page179" + id="page179"></a>[pg 179]</span> either to reach or comfort + him. She was only a simple peasant woman. In her grief and + loneliness she thought matters out and arrived at what + seemed to her a practical solution. On her next visit to the + hospital she asked to see the doctor. She was taken to him + and made her request. "I love my brother," she said; "I have + always given him everything. He has lost his eyes and he + cannot endure it. Because I love him, I could bear it + better. I have been thinking, and I am sure it is possible: + I want you to remove my eyes and to put them into his empty + sockets."</p> + + <p>When the priest was told of her offer, he laughed derisively + at her for a fool. Then the reason she had given for her + intended sacrifice was told to him, "Because I love him, I + could bear it better." He fell silent. All that day he refused + food; in the eternal darkness, muffled by his bandages, he was + arriving at the truth: she had been willing to suffer what he + was now suffering, because she loved him. The hand of love + would have made the burden bearable and, if for her, why not + for himself? At last, after years of refusal, the simplicity of + her tenderness reached and touched him. Presently he was + discharged from hospital and taken in hand by the teachers of + the blind, who taught him to play the organ. One day his sister + came and led him back <span class="pagenum"><a name="page180" + id="page180"></a>[pg 180]</span> to his village-parish. + Before the war, by his example, he was a danger to God and + man; now he sets a very human example of sainthood, + labouring without ceasing for others more fortunate than + himself. He has increased his efficiency for service by his + blindness. Of him it is absolutely true that it was his eyes + that prevented him from seeing—from seeing the + splendour that lay hidden in himself, no less than in his + fellow creatures.</p> + + <p>So far I have sketched in the main what the war of + compassion is doing for the repatriés—the captured French + civilians sent back from Germany—and for the refugees of + the devastated areas, who have either returned to their ruined + farms and villages or were abandoned as useless when the Hun + retired. To complete the picture it remains to describe what is + being done for the civilian population which has always lived + in the battle area of the French armies.</p> + + <p>The question may be asked why civilians have been allowed to + live here. Curiously enough it is due to the extraordinary + humanity of the French Government which makes allowances for + the almost religious attachment of the peasant to his tiny plot + of land; it is an attachment which is as instinctive and + fiercely jealous as that of a cat for her young. He will endure + shelling, gassing <span class="pagenum"><a name="page181" + id="page181"></a>[pg 181]</span> and all the horrors that + scientific invention has produced; he will see his cottage + and his barns shattered by bombs and siege-guns, but he will + not leave the fields that he has tilled and toiled over, + unless he is driven out at the point of the bayonet. I have + been told, though I have never seen it, that behind quiet + parts of the line, French peasants will gather in their + harvest actually in full sight of the Hun. Shells may be + falling, but they go stolidly on with their work. There is + another reason for this leniency of the Government: they + have enough refugees on their hands already and are not + going in search of further trouble, until the trouble is + forced upon them by circumstances.</p> + + <p>As may be imagined, these people live under physical + conditions that are terrible. They consist for the most part of + women and children; the women are over-worked and the children + are neglected. Skin diseases and vermin abound. Clothes are + negligible. Washing is a forgotten luxury. Much havoc is + wrought by asphyxiating gases which drift across the front-line + into the back-country. To the adults are issued protective + masks like those that the soldiers wear, but the children do + not know how to use them. Many of them are orphans, and live + like little animals on roots and offal; for shelter they seek + holes in the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page182" + id="page182"></a>[pg 182]</span> ground. The American Red + Cross is specialising on its efforts to reclaim these + children, realising that whatever happens to the adults, the + children are the hope of the world.</p> + + <p>The part of the Front to which I went to study this work was + made famous in 1914 by the disembowellings, shootings and + unspeakable indecencies that were perpetrated there. Near by is + the little village in which Sister Julie risked her life by + refusing to allow her wounded to be butchered. She wears the + Legion of Honour now. In the same neighbourhood there lives a + Mayor who, after having seen his young wife murdered, protected + her murderers from the lynch-law of the mob when next day the + town was recaptured. In the same district there is a meadow + where fifteen old men were done to death, while a Hun officer + sat under an oak-tree, drinking mocking toasts to the victims + of each new execution.</p> + + <p>The influence of more than three years of warfare has not + been elevating, as far as these peasants are concerned. As + early as July, a little over a month from its arrival in + France, an S.O.S. was sent out by the Préfet of the department, + begging the American Red Cross to come and help. In addition to + the refugees of old standing, 350 children had been suddenly + put into his care. He had nothing but a temporary shelter for + them and <span class="pagenum"><a name="page183" + id="page183"></a>[pg 183]</span> his need for assistance was + acute. Within a few hours the Red Cross had despatched eight + workers—a doctor, nurse, bacteriologist, an + administrative director and two women to take charge of the + bedding, food and clothing. A camionette loaded with + condensed milk and other relief necessities was sent by + road. On the arrival of the party, they found the children + herded together in old barracks, dirty and unfurnished, with + no sanitary appliances whatsoever. The sick were crowded + together with the well. Of the 350 children, twenty-one were + under one year of age, and the rest between one and eight + years. The reason for this sudden crisis was that the Huns + were bombing the villages behind the lines with asphyxiating + gas. The military authorities had therefore withdrawn all + children who were too young to adjust their masks + themselves, at the same time urging their mothers to carry + on the patriotic duty of gathering in the harvest. It was + the machinery of mercy which had been built up in six months + about this nucleus of eight persons that I set out to + visit.</p> + + <p>The roads were crowded with the crack troops of + France—the Foreign Legion, the Tailleurs, the + Moroccans—all marching in one direction, eastward to the + trenches. There were rumours of something immense about to + happen—no one <span class="pagenum"><a name="page184" + id="page184"></a>[pg 184]</span> knew quite what. Were we + going to put on a new offensive or were we going to resist + one? Many answers were given: they were all guesswork. + Meanwhile, our progress was slow; we were continually + halting to let brigades of artillery and regiments of + infantry pour into the main artery of traffic from lanes and + side-roads. When we had backed our car into hedges to give + them room to pass, we watched the sea of faces. They were + stern and yet laughing, elated and yet childish, eloquent of + the love of living and yet familiar with their old friend, + Death. They knew that something big was to be demanded of + them; before the demand had been made, they had determined + to give to the ultimate of their strength. There was a + spiritual resolution about their faces which made all their + expressions one—the uplifted expression of the + unconquered soul of France. That expression blotted out + their racial differences. It did not matter that they were + Arabs, Negroes, Normans, Parisians; they owned to one + nationality—the nationality of martyrdom—and + they marched with a single purpose, that freedom might be + restored to the world.</p> + + <p>When we reached the city to which we journeyed, night had + fallen. There was something sinister about our entry; we were + veiled in fog, and crept through the gate and beneath the + ramparts <span class="pagenum"><a name="page185" + id="page185"></a>[pg 185]</span> with extinguished head + lights. Scarcely any one was abroad. Those whom we passed, + loomed out of the mist in silence, passed stealthily and + vanished.</p> + + <p>This city is among the most beautiful in France; until + recently, although within range of the Hun artillery, it had + been left undisturbed. In return the French had spared an + equally beautiful city on the other side of the line. This + clemency, shown towards two gems of architecture, was the + result of one of those silent bargains that are arranged in the + language of the guns. But the bargain had been broken by the + time I arrived. Bombing planes had been over; the Allied planes + had retaliated. Houses, emptied like cart-loads of bricks into + the street, were significant of the ruin that was pending. Any + moment the orchestra of destruction might break into its + overture. Without cessation one could hear a distant booming. + The fiddlers of death were tuning up.</p> + + <p>Early next morning I went to see the Préfet. He is an old + man, whose courage has made him honoured wherever the French + tongue is spoken. Others have thought of their own safety and + withdrawn into the interior. Never from the start has his sense + of duty wavered. Night and day he has laboured incessantly for + the refugees, whom he refers to always as "my suffering + people." <span class="pagenum"><a name="page186" + id="page186"></a>[pg 186]</span> He kept me waiting for some + time. Directly I entered he volunteered the explanation: he + had just received word from the military authorities that + the whole of his civil population must be immediately + evacuated. To evacuate a civil population means to tear it + up and transplant it root and branch, with no more of its + possession than can be carried as hand-baggage. Some 75,000 + people would be made homeless directly the Préfet published + the order.</p> + + <p>It was a dramatic moment, full of tragedy. I glanced out + into the square filled with wintry sunlight. I took note of the + big gold gates and the monuments. I watched the citizens + halting here and there to chat, or going about their errands + with a quiet confidence. All this was to be shattered; it had + been decided. The same thing was to happen here as had happened + at Yprés. The bargain was off. The enemy city, the other side + of the line, was to be shelled; this city had to take the + consequences. The bargain was off not only as far as the city + was concerned, but also as regards its inhabitants' happiness. + They had homes to-day; they would be fugitives to-morrow. Then + I looked at the old Préfet, who had to break the news to them. + He was sitting at his table in his uniform of office, + supporting his head in his tired + hands.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page187" + id="page187"></a>[pg 187]</span> + + <p>"What are you going to do?" I asked.</p> + + <p>"I have called on the Croix Rouge Américaine to help me," he + said. "They have helped me before; they will help me again. + These Americans—I have never been to America—but + they are my friends. Since they came, they have looked after my + babies. Their doctors and nurses have worked day and night for + my suffering people. They are silent; but they do things. There + is love in their hands."</p> + + <p>While I was still with him the Red Cross officials arrived. + They had already wired to Paris. Their lorries and ambulances + were converging from all points to meet the emergency. They + undertook at once to place all their transport facilities at + his disposal. They had started their arrangements for the + handling of the children. Extra personnel were being rushed to + the spot. There was one unit already in the city. They had + hoped to go nearer to the Front, but on arriving had learnt + that their permission had been cancelled. It was a bit of luck. + They could set to work at once.</p> + + <p>I knew this unit and went out to find it. It was composed of + American society girls, who had been protected all their lives + from ugliness. They had sailed from New York with the vaguest + ideas of the war conditions they would encounter; they + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page188" + id="page188"></a>[pg 188]</span> believed that they were + needed to do a nurse-maid's job for France. Their original + purpose was to found a crêche for the babies of women + munition-workers. When they got to Paris they found that + such institutions were not wanted. They at once changed + their programme, and asked to be allowed to take their + crêche into the army zone and convert it into a hospital for + refugee children. There were interminable delays due to + passport formalities—the delays dragged on for three + months. During those three months they were called on for no + sacrifice; they lived just as comfortably as they had done + in New York and, consequently, grew disgusted. They had + sailed for France prepared to give something that they had + never given before, and France did not seem to want it. At + last their passports came; without taking any chances, they + got out of Paris and started for the Front. Their haste was + well-timed; no sooner had they departed than a message + arrived, cancelling their permissions. They had reached the + doomed city in which I was at present, two days before its + sentence was pronounced. Within four hours of their arrival + they had had their first experience of being bombed. Their + intention had been to open their hospital in a town still + nearer to the front-line. The hospital was prepared and + waiting for them. But in the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page189" + id="page189"></a>[pg 189]</span> last few days the military + situation had changed. A hospital so near the trenches stood + a good chance of being destroyed by shell-fire; so once + again the unit was held up. It volunteered to abandon its + idea of running the hospital for children; it would run it + as a first aid hospital for the armies. The offer was + refused. These girls, whose gravest interest a year ago had + been the season's dances and the latest play, were + determined to experience the thrill of sacrifice. So here + they were in the doomed city, as the Red Cross officials + said, "by luck"—the very place where they were most + needed.</p> + + <p>When I visited them, after leaving the Préfet's, they had + not yet heard that they were to be allowed to stay. They had + heard nothing of the city's sentence or of the evacuation of + the civil population. All they knew was that the hospital, + which had been appointed with their money, was only a few + kilometres away and that they were forbidden even to see it. + They were gloomy with the fear that within a handful of days + they would be again walking the boulevards of Paris. When the + news was broken to them of the part they were to play, the full + significance of it did not dawn on them at once. "But we don't + want anything easy," they complained; "this isn't the Front." + "It will be soon," the official told them. When + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page190" + id="page190"></a>[pg 190]</span> they heard that they + cheered up; then their share in the drama was explained. In + all probability the city would soon be under constant + shell-fire. Refugees would be pouring back from the forward + country. The people of the city itself had to be helped to + escape before the bombardment commenced. They would have to + stay there taking care of the children, packing them into + lorries, driving ambulances, rendering first aid, taking the + wounded and decrepit out of danger and always returning to + it again themselves. As the certainty of the risk and + service was impressed on them their faces brightened. Risk + and service, that was what they most desired; they were + girls, but they hungered to play a soldier's part. They had + only dreamt of serving when they had sailed from New York. + Those three months of waiting had stung their pride. It was + in Paris that the dream of risk had commenced. They would + make France want them. Their chance had come.</p> + + <p>When I came out into the streets again the word was + spreading. Carts were being loaded in front of houses. + Everything on wheels, from wagons to perambulators, was being + piled up. Everything on four legs, dogs, cattle, horses, was + being harnessed and made to do its share in hauling. We left + the city, going back to the next point where the refugees would + be cared for. On <span class="pagenum"><a name="page191" + id="page191"></a>[pg 191]</span> either side of the road, as + far as eye could stretch, trenches had been dug, barricades + thrown up, blockades and wire-entanglements constructed. It + all lay very quiet beneath the sunlight. It seemed a kind of + preposterous pretence. One could not imagine these fields as + a scene of battle, sweating torture and agony and death. I + looked back at the city, one of the most beautiful in + France, growing hazy in the distance with its spires and its + ramparts. Impossible! Then I remembered the carts being + hurriedly loaded and the uplifted faces of those American + girls. Where had I seen their expression before? Yes. + Strange that they should have caught it! Their expression + was the same as that which I had noticed on the Tailleurs, + the Foreign Legion and the Moroccans—the crack troops + of France.... So they had become that already! At the first + hint of danger, their courage had taken command; they had + risen into soldiers.</p> + + <p>Through villages swarming with troops and packed with + ordnance we arrived at an old caserne, which has been converted + into the children's hospital of the district. It is in charge + of one of the first of America's children's specialists. While + he works among the refugees, his wife, who is a sculptress, + makes masks for the facially mutilated. He has brought with him + from the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page192" + id="page192"></a>[pg 192]</span> States some of his + students, but his staff is in the main cosmopolitan. One of + his nurses is an Australian, who was caught at the outbreak + of hostilities in Austria and because of her knowledge, + despite her nationality, was allowed to help to organise the + Red Cross work of the enemy. Another is a French woman who + wears the Croix de Guerre with the palm. She saved her + wounded from the fury of the Hun when her village was lost, + and helped to get them back to safety after it had been + recaptured. The Matron is Swedish and Belgian. The + ambulance-drivers are some of the American boys who saw + service with the French armies. In this group of workers + there are as many stories as there are nationalities.</p> + + <p>If the workers have their stories, so have the five hundred + little patients. This barrack, converted into a hospital, is + full of babies, the youngest being only six days old when I was + there. Many of the children have no parents. Others have lost + their mothers; their fathers are serving in the trenches. It is + not always easy to find out how they became orphans; there are + such plentiful chances of losing parents who live continually + under shell-fire. One little boy on being asked where his + mother was, replied gravely, "My Mama, she is dead. Les Boches, + they put a gun to 'er 'ead. She is finished; I 'ave no + Mama."</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page193" + id="page193"></a>[pg 193]</span> + + <p>The unchildlike stoicism of these children is appalling. I + spent two days among them and heard no crying. Those who are + sick, lie motionless as waxen images in their cots. Those who + are supposedly well, sit all day brooding and saying nothing. + When first they arrive, their faces are earth-coloured. The + first thing they have to be taught is how to be children. They + have to be coaxed and induced to play; even then they soon grow + weary. They seem to regard mere playing as frivolous and + indecorous; and so it is in the light of the tragedies they + have witnessed. Children of seven have seen more of horror in + three years than most old men have read about in a life-time. + Many of them have been captured by and recaptured from the + Huns. They have been in villages where the dead lay in piles + and not even the women were spared. They have been present + while indecencies were worked upon their mothers. They have + seen men hanged, shot, bayoneted and flung to roast in burning + houses. The pictures of all these things hang in their eyes. + When they play, it is out of politeness to the kind Americans; + not because they derive any pleasure from it.</p> + + <p>Night is the troublesome time. The children hide under their + beds with terror. The nurses have to go the rounds continually. + If the children <span class="pagenum"><a name="page194" + id="page194"></a>[pg 194]</span> would only cry, they would + give warning. But instead, they creep silently out from + between the sheets and crouch against the floor like dumb + animals. Dumb animals! That is what they are when first they + are brought in. Their most primitive instincts for the + beginnings of cleanliness seem to have vanished. They have + been fished out of caves, ruined dug-outs, broken houses. + They are as full of skin-diseases as the beggar who sat + outside Dives' gate, only they have had no dogs to lick + their sores. They have lived on offal so long that they have + the faces of the extremely aged. And their hatred! Directly + you utter the word "Boche," all the little night-gowned + figures sit up in their cots and curse. When they have done + cursing, of their own accord, they sing the + Marseillaise.</p> + + <p>Surely if God listens to prayers of vengeance, He will + answer the husky petitions of these victims of Hun cruelty! The + quiet, just, deep-seated venom of these babies will work the + Hun more harm than many batteries. Their fathers come back from + the trenches to see them. On leaving, they turn to the American + nurses, "We shall fight better now," they say, "because we know + that you are taking care of them."</p> + + <p>When those words are spoken, the American Red Cross knows + that it is achieving its object + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page195" + id="page195"></a>[pg 195]</span> and is winning its war of + compassion. The whole drive of all its effort is to win the + war in the shortest possible space of time. It is in Europe + to save children for the future, to re-kindle hope in broken + lives, to mitigate the toll of unavoidable suffering, but + first and foremost to help men to fight + better.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page196" + id="page196"></a>[pg 196]</span> + + <h2>IV</h2> + + <h2>THE LAST WAR</h2> + + <p><i>The last war!</i> I heard the phrase for the first time + on the evening after Great Britain had declared war. I was in + Quebec en route for England, wondering whether my ship was to + be allowed to sail. There had been great excitement all day, + bands playing the Marseillaise, Frenchmen marching arm-in-arm + singing, orators, gesticulating and haranguing from balconies, + street-corners and the base of statues.</p> + + <p>Now that the blue August night was falling and every one was + released from work, the excitement was redoubled. Quebec was + finding in war an opportunity for carnival. Throughout all the + pyramided city the Tri-colour and the Union Jack were waving. + At the foot of the Heights, the broad basin of the St. Lawrence + was a-drift in the dusk with fluttering pennons. They looked + like homing birds, settling in dovecotes of the masts and + rigging.</p> + + <p>As night deepened, Chinese lanterns were + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page197" + id="page197"></a>[pg 197]</span> lighted and carried on + poles through the narrow streets. Troops of merry-makers + followed them, blowing horns, dragging bells, tin-cans, + anything that would make a noise and express high spirits. + They linked arms with girls as they marched and were lost, + laughing in the dusk. If a French reservist could be found + who was sailing in the first ship bound for the slaughter, + he became the hero of the hour and was lifted shoulder high + at the head of the procession. War was a brave game at which + to play. This was to be a short war and a merry one. Down + with the Germans! Up with France! Hurrah for the entente + cordiale!</p> + + <p>Beneath the coronet of stars on the Heights of Abraham the + spirit of Wolfe kept watch and brooded. It was under these + circumstances, that I heard the phrase for the first + time—<i>the last war</i>.</p> + + <p>The street was blocked with a gaping crowd. All the faces + were raised to an open window, two storeys up, from which the + frame had been taken out. Inside the building one could hear + the pounding of machinery, for it was here that the most + important paper of Quebec was printed. Across a huge white + sheet a man on a hanging platform painted the latest European + cables. A cluster of electric lights illuminated him strongly; + but he was not the centre of the crowd's attention. In the + window stood another man. Like + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page198" + id="page198"></a>[pg 198]</span> myself he was waiting for + his ship to sail, but not to England—to France. He was + a returning French reservist. Across the many miles of ocean + the hand of duty had stretched and touched him; he was + ecstatically glad that he was wanted. In those first days + this ecstasy of gladness was a little hard to understand. + Thank God we all share it instinctively now. He was speaking + excitedly, addressing the crowd. They cheered him; they were + in a mood to cheer anybody. His face was thin with + earnestness; he was a spirit-man. He waved aside their + applause with impatience. He was trying to inspire them with + his own intensity. In the intervals between the shouting, I + caught some of his words, "I am setting out to fight the + last war—the war of humanity which will bring + universal peace and friendship to the world."</p> + + <p>A sailor behind me spat. He was drunk and feeling the need + of sympathy. He began to explain to me the reason. He was a + fireman on one of the steamers in the basin and a reservist in + the British Navy. He had received his orders that day to report + back in England for duty; he knew that he was going to be + torpedoed on his voyage across the Atlantic. How did he know? + He had had a vision. Sailors always had visions + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page199" + id="page199"></a>[pg 199]</span> before they were drowned. + It was to combat this vision that he had got drunk.</p> + + <p>I shook him off irritably. One didn't require the + superstitions of an alcoholic imagination to emphasize the new + terror which had overtaken the world. There was enough of fear + in the air already. All this spurious gaiety—what was it? + Nothing but the chatter of lonely children who were afraid to + listen to the silence—afraid lest they might hear the + creaking footstep of death upon the stairs. And these candles, + lighting up the fringes of the night—they were nothing + but a vain pretence that the darkness had not gathered.</p> + + <p>But this spirit-man framed in the window, he was genuine and + different. Yesterday we should have passed him in the street + unnoticed; to-day the mantle of prophecy clothed him. Within + two months he might be dead—horribly dead with a bayonet + through him. That thought was in the minds of all who watched + him; it gave him an added authority. Yet he was not thinking of + himself, of wounds, of death; he was not even thinking of + France. He was thinking of humanity: "I am setting out to fight + the last war—the war of humanity which will bring + universal peace and friendship to the world."</p> + + <p>Since the war started, how often have we heard + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page200" + id="page200"></a>[pg 200]</span> that phrase—<i>the + last war!</i> It became the battle-cry of all + recruiting-men, who would have fought under no other + circumstances, joined up now so that this might be the final + carnage. Nations left their desks and went into battle + voluntarily, long before self-interest forced them, simply + because organised murder so disgusted them that they were + determined by weight of numbers to make this exhibition of + brutality the last.</p> + + <p>Before Europe burst into flames in 1914, we believed that + the last war had been already fought. The most vivid + endorsement of this belief came out of Germany in a book which, + to my mind, up to that time was the strongest peace-argument in + modern literature. It was so strong that the Kaiser's + Government had the author arrested and every copy that could be + found destroyed. Nevertheless, over a million were secretly + printed and circulated in Germany, and it was translated into + every major European language. The book I refer to was known + under its American title as, <i>The Human Slaughter-House</i>. + It told very simply how men who had played the army game of + sticking dummies, found themselves called upon to stick their + brother-men; how they obeyed at first, then sickened at sight + of their own handiwork, until finally the rank and file on both + sides flung down their arms, banded + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page201" + id="page201"></a>[pg 201]</span> themselves together and + refused to carry out the orders of their generals. There was + no declaration of peace; in that moment national boundaries + were abolished.</p> + + <p>In 1912 this sounded probable. I remember the American + press-comments. They all agreed that national prejudices had + been broken down to such an extent by socialism and friendly + intercourse, that never again would statesmen be able to launch + attacks of nations against nations. Governments might declare + war; the peoples whom they governed would merely overthrow + them. The world had become too common-sense to commit murder on + so vast a scale.</p> + + <p>Had it? The world in general might have: but Germany had + not. The argument of <i>The Human Slaughter-House</i> proposed + by a German in protest against what he foresaw was surely + coming, turned out to be a bad guess. It made no allowance for + what happens when a mad dog starts running through the world. + One may be tender-hearted. One may not like killing dogs. One + may even be an anti-vivisectionist; but when a dog is mad, the + only humanitarian thing to do is to kill it. If you don't, the + women and children pay the penalty.</p> + + <p>We have had our illustration in Russia of what occurs when + one side flings away its arms, practising + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page202" + id="page202"></a>[pg 202]</span> the idealistic reasonings + which this book propounds: the more brutal side conquers. + While the Blonde Beast runs abroad spreading rabies, the + only idealist who counts is the idealist who carries a rifle + on his shoulder—the only gospel to which the world + listens is the gospel which saviours are dying for.</p> + + <p>The last war! It took us all by surprise. We had believed so + utterly in peace; now we had to prove our faith by being + prepared to die for it. If we did not die, this war would not + be the last; it would be only the preface to the next. To + paraphrase the words of Mr. Wells, "We had been prepared to + take life in a certain way and life had taken us, as it takes + every generation, in an entirely different way. We had been + prepared to be altruistic pacifists, and ..."</p> + + <p>And here we are, in this year of 1918, engaged upon the + bloodiest war of all time, harnessing the muscle and + brain-power of the universe to one end—that we may + contrive new and yet more deadly methods of butchering our + fellow men. The men whom we kill, we do not hate individually. + The men whom we kill, we do not see when they are dead. We + scald them with liquid fire; we stifle them with gas; we drop + volcanoes on them from the clouds; we pull firing-levers three, + ten, even fifteen miles away and hurl them + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page203" + id="page203"></a>[pg 203]</span> into eternity unconfessed. + And this we do with pity in our hearts, both for them and + for ourselves. And why? Because they have given us no + choice. They have promised, unless we defend ourselves, to + snatch our souls from us and fashion them afresh into souls + which shall bear the stamp of their own image. Of their + souls we have seen samples; they date back to the dark + ages—the souls of Cain, Judas and Cæsar Borgia were + not unlike them. Of what such souls are capable they have + given us examples in Belgium, captured France and in the + living dead whom they return by way of Evian. We would + rather forego our bodies than so exchange our souls. A + Germanised world is like a glimpse of madness; the very + thought strikes terror to the heart. Yet it is to Germanise + the world that Germany is waging war to-day—that she + may confer upon us the benefits of her own proved + swinishness. There is nothing left for us but to fight for + our souls like men.</p> + + <p>The last war! We believed that at first, but as the years + dragged on the certainty became an optimism, the optimism a + dream which we well-nigh knew to be impossible. We have always + known that we would beat Germany—we have never doubted + that. But could we beat her so thoroughly that she would never + dare to reperpetrate this horror? Could we prove to her that + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page204" + id="page204"></a>[pg 204]</span> war is not and never was a + paying way of conducting business? Men began to smile when + we spoke of this war as the last. "There have always been + wars," they said; "this one is not the last—there will + be others."</p> + + <p>If it is not to be the last, we have cheated ourselves. We + have cheated the men who have died for us. Our chief ideal in + fighting is taken away. Many a lad who moulders in a stagnant + trench, laid down his life for this sole purpose, that no + children of the future ages should have to pass through his + Gethsemane. He consciously gave himself up as a scapegoat, that + the security of human sanity should be safeguarded against a + recurrence of this enormity. The spirit-man, framed in the + dusky window above the applauding crowds in Quebec, was typical + of all these men who have made the supreme sacrifice. His words + utter the purpose that was in all their hearts, "I am setting + out to fight the last war—the war of humanity which will + bring universal peace and freedom to the world."</p> + + <p>That promise was becoming a lie; it is capable of fulfilment + now. The dream became possible in April, 1917, when America + took up her cross of martyrdom. Great Britain, France and the + United States, the three great promise-keeping nations, are + standing side by side. They together, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page205" + id="page205"></a>[pg 205]</span> if they will when the war + is ended, can build an impregnable wall for peace about the + world. The plunderer who knew that it was not Great Britain, + nor France, nor America, but all three of them united as + Allies that he had to face, no matter how tempted he was to + prove that armed force meant big business, would be + persuaded to expand his commerce by more legitimate methods. + Whether this dream is to be accomplished will be decided not + upon any battlefield but in the hearts of the civilians of + all three countries—particularly in those of America + and Great Britain. The soldiers who have fought and suffered + together, can never be anything but friends.</p> + + <p>My purpose in writing this account of America in France has + been to give grounds for understanding and appreciation; it has + been to prove that the highest reward that either America or + Great Britain can gain as a result of its heroism is an + Anglo-American alliance, which will fortify the world against + all such future terrors. There never ought to have been + anything but alliance between my two great countries. They + speak the same tongue, share a common heritage and pursue the + same loyalties. Had we not blundered in our destinies, there + would never have been occasion for anything but generosity.</p> + + <p>The opportunity for generosity has come again. + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page206" + id="page206"></a>[pg 206]</span> Any man or woman who, + whether by design or carelessness, attempts to mar this + growing friendship is perpetrating a crime against humanity + as grave as that of the first armed Hun who stepped across + the Belgian threshold. It were better for them that + mill-stones were hung about their necks and they were cast + into the sea, than ...</p> + + <p>God is giving us our chance. The magnanimities of the + Anglo-Saxon races are rising to greet one another. If those + magnanimities are welcomed and made permanent, our + soldier-idealists will not have died in vain. Then we shall + fulfil for them their promise, "We are setting out to fight the + last war."</p> + + <center> + THE END + </center> + + <blockquote class="footnote"> + <a id="footnote1" + name="footnote1"></a><b>Footnote 1:</b> + <a href="#footnotetag1">(return)</a> + + <p>Since this was written and just as I am returning to the + front, the Hun has set to work to create this hell for the + second time. Most of the places referred to below are once + more within the enemy country and all the mercy of the + American Red Cross has been wiped out.</p> + </blockquote> + + <blockquote class="footnote"> + <a id="footnote2" + name="footnote2"></a><b>Footnote 2:</b> + <a href="#footnotetag2">(return)</a> + + <p>Goodness knows where the "present Front-line" may be by + the time this book is published. I visited Noyon in + February, 1918, just before the big Hun offensive + commenced.</p> + </blockquote> + <hr class="full" /> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Out To Win, by Coningsby Dawson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUT TO WIN *** + +***** This file should be named 15194-h.htm or 15194-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/1/9/15194/ + +Produced by Rick Niles, William Flis, and the PG Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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