A GLIMPSE OF AMERICA'S FRIEND--FRANCE
Although great in history, France is but a small country. It is
interesting to note that all France could be placed in the state of
Texas and there would be room enough left for Belgium, Holland, Denmark
and Switzerland, one in each corner. Even then, Delaware and the
District of Columbia could be put in for good measure and the Lone Star
State would still have more than eight hundred square miles to spare.
About half of the people of France depend wholly upon agriculture for
their living. Instead of living on farms as we do they live in small
villages. Their farms are very small, generally running from two to
fifteen acres. As a rule, the soil is thin and unproductive, but with
their patient toil, careful methods of farming and a very liberal use of
fertilizer they raise abundant crops. Just about half of the soil of
France is tilled and about one-eighth is used for grazing while all the
famous vineyards of this country cover but about four per cent of the
ground. The balance is in forests and streams, highways, canals, and
railways.
When the war broke out there were about four million French families who
owned their homes and a thriftier and more industrious people could
hardly be found. In 1871, when the heartless Bismarck insisted on having
a one billion dollar indemnity, besides the provinces of Alsace and
Lorraine, he thought he had the people of France throttled for a
generation, but to his very great amazement every dollar of this huge
sum was paid in less than three years. This fact is but an indication
that the French are a race of savers.
A silent revolution in the habits of the peasant people has been the
outcome of the war. Ages ago an uprising took the land away from wealthy
owners and gave it to the peasants. A few years later Napoleon had
enacted or rather established a Code by which a man's property was
equally divided between his children. Thus, if a man died leaving four
children and an eight-acre farm, it was divided into four strips of two
acres each. Then, in the course of time, one of these children died
leaving four children, his two-acre farm was divided into four strips of
a half acre each.
Thus a great portion of the land is cut up into little strips and
gardens. Through the intermarriage of children a family might own
several of these strips of land, often miles from each other. This often
brought complications and made it impossible to introduce modern farm
implements and do away with much of the drudgery of peasant life.
This is one advantage that grew out of the war in many places. In the
devastated areas all landmarks were often obliterated and in many cases
the government brought in tractors and plowed great fields which before
the war were hundreds of little farms and gardens. Then, too, many of
these peasants became greedy, selfish individualists. Each man worked by
himself and for himself and the idea of co-operation was almost unknown.
No ordinary farmer ever became able to have modern farm implements
himself and they never dreamed that several of them could go together
and purchase a binder, a thresher or tractor. Their one standby was the
hoe and not only the man but his wife and children often had to work
from daylight until dark to keep the wolf from the door.
Since the war a new day has dawned for the French peasantry. It was very
hard for some of them to give up their old notions and customs, but it
meant a new order for all who were in the pathway of the war. While the
city of Paris has been always known as the Gay City, yet the people in
the country did not enjoy life in any such way. They had no amusements,
no daily papers, and in some places no songs. The famous Man with the
Hoe is a picture of the French farmer. In many of the rebuilt villages
now they have amusements and movies and in many cases public libraries
have been started.
It is said that in many of the farmhouses of the French peasantry may be
seen hanging little colored prints representing the main professions. At
the top of a stairway stands a king with the motto: "I rule you all," on
a step below is a priest who says: "I pray for you all;" still farther
down stands the soldier who says: "I defend you all;" but at the bottom
of the stairway is the peasant whose motto is: "I feed you all." The
French peasant seemed to take this for granted and never imagined that
while doing it he might have advantages and pleasures that would help to
make life worth living.
Of course, there are great industries and industrial centers in France.
The city of Lille was, before the war, the Pittsburg of France. This
city was not only the center of the textile industry, but had scores and
hundreds of factories and machine shops of all kinds. While the city
itself was not totally destroyed, the factories were almost completely
ruined. In some cases railroad tracks were laid into the buildings and
whole trainloads of costly machinery were shipped out of the country. I
saw the inside of many of these buildings where high explosives were
used and all that was left was the shell of the building, the inside
being one mass of twisted iron girders and broken concrete.
Of course, the idea of the enemy was to make it impossible for French
factories to ever again compete with their own so they attempted to
destroy all they left. They especially looked after all patterns and
plans and thought they were making a clean sweep. In one case a great
factory that covered sixty acres of ground was destroyed. But the owners
had a branch factory in southern France and immediately began
manufacturing duplicate machinery so that when the war closed all that
was needed was the transportation facilities to get the machinery to
Lille.
In the great coal fields about Lens the works and machinery were so
completely destroyed that one could hardly tell there were coal mines in
the district at all. The writer went over these ruins after the war
closed and it is simply beyond the imagination to picture the actual
conditions at that time. The course of small rivers and streams were
changed so that the water could be run into these mines.
One quite remarkable distinction is noticeable to a stranger going
through France and that is that an occasional factory seems to be
located in the midst of an agricultural district. The land may be farmed
on all sides up to the factory buildings. The men often work in these
factories while the women and children and old men do the work on the
farms.
Portions of southern France are noted for the beautiful vineyards.
Bordeaux and other brands of wine are famous the world around. Some of
our boys are laughing yet about the French methods of making wine. The
grapes are gathered and piled into a great vat. When this receptacle is
filled, men, women and children take off their shoes and most all of
their clothes and climb in. Here they walk and jump and tramp until the
whole thing is a mass of pulp. In the meantime, the wine is continually
draining out and being cared for by others.
After they have tramped out all the juice possible by this method the
remains are put into a great press something like a cider press. After
all the wine has been extracted by these various methods, they use the
pulp in the manufacture of a powerful intoxicant, but this is not
generally used as a beverage. Of course, all understand that in many
places they have modern machinery and make wine along scientific lines,
but in many cases they use these old methods to this day.
The courage of the French people is sublime. Even in the darkest days
their faith never wavered and they firmly believed they would be
victorious. As a monument of this faith there is in Paris today the most
wonderful painting perhaps that was ever put upon canvas. It is called
the "Pantheon de Guerre" and is a marvelous cycloramic painting of the
war. It was opened up to the public soon after the armistice was signed
and the writer saw it while attending the Peace Conference.
Many remember the wonderful representation of the Battle of Gettysburg
which used to be in Chicago. This Paris cyclorama is along the same
line, but ten times more wonderful. It is three hundred and
seventy-four feet in circumference and forty-five high. The actual
preparation of this began in October, 1914, and while the army of the
invaders was within thirty miles of Paris and the big guns were shaking
the city, more than twenty artists were working on the marvelous
production.
The central figure is a woman, mounted upon a high pedestal, which
stands in front of a huge temple, and she is holding aloft the laurel
wreath of victory. Upon the first step of a giant stairway which leads
to the temple is a group of French heroes which includes Joffre, Foch,
Petain and many others, while in front of them are guns and flags
bearing marks of conflict. The only allusion to Germany in the whole
painting is in the battle-scarred flags and guns which were used in the
first battle of the Marne. Upon this gigantic stairway are life-size
figures of more than five thousand people nearly everyone of which is a
life sketch of some French hero of the war. Among them are many women
whose heroic work and influence will live forever.
Just across on the opposite side of the painting from this scene is
depicted a gigantic tomb on the top of which is a group of soldiers
holding aloft a great coffin in which is a dead companion. At the base
and on the steps is a woman dressed in mourning, kneeling in the
attitude of prayer, while nearby is a wreath inscribed to the unknown
dead. Back of the tomb in the distance you can see the rays of the
setting sun and in some indescribable way they are lighting up the faces
of those on the temple stairway like a beautiful rainbow of promise,
while the tomb itself is left in the shadows of the declining day.
In the group representing Belgium it is only natural that Edith Cavil
should have a prominent place. To be sure King Albert and his queen and
others are there. As in Belgium the first casualties occurred it is
fitting that here alone is seen a wounded man and the Red Cross workers
are caring for him as he lies upon a stretcher. Here too, are seen the
broken pieces of a cathedral tower with a chalice and altar and Cardinal
Mercier in his priestly robes, while lying on the steps between him and
the king is the torn "scrap of paper."
But it would take pages of this book to give an adequate description of
the entire panorama. Of course, all the allies are represented. In a
group representing the United States, President Wilson is one of the
chief figures. I am told that the picture of General Pershing is a
life-sized painting, which he was kind enough to sit for, to be used in
this production. Here is also seen an American Indian, a cowboy, a
merchant and an artisan. An American flag is borne aloft while four West
Point cadets suggest training and leadership. Women relief workers of
all kinds are seen. Then extending entirely around the room above and
back of all these groups is a profile map of France from the Channel to
the Swiss border. Here can be seen the principal towns and cities
involved during the war. Here, too, can be seen all the modern
implements of war and everything is actual or life size.
As I stood gazing upon this wonderful production of artistic genius, my
own brain almost reeled and staggered at the immensity and vividness of
it. One moment the perspiration would break out and the next moment it
was hard to keep the tears back. Pride, beauty, indignation, mourning,
genius, art, science, invention, generalship, statesmanship, honor,
love, tenderness, devotion, heroism and glory are all intermingled in a
most marvelous way. The opportunity to behold and study this great
panorama of the war is almost worth a trip to Paris. Then to think of
the faith and courage it must have taken to work on and on while the
shells from the big guns were bursting at regular intervals during the
day and the bombs dropping from the aeroplanes above at night; all this
fills and thrills one's heart with admiration for the French people.