FOURTH OF JULY IN FRANCE AND BASTILE DAY IN AMERICA
THE manifestation of the feeling of France and England for the United
States as shown to General Pershing was still further in evidence when
the national holiday of each nation was celebrated. In this celebration
all three nations united. "Never did I expect to see a day like the
Fourth of July this year in London," wrote an American stopping in that
city. "The flag of the United States was everywhere in evidence. I don't
think Great Britain ever saw so many American flags at one time. The
streets almost seemed to be lined with them. They were hanging from
windows, stretched across the streets and sidewalks, carried in the
hands of the passing people and everywhere were in evidence. Bands were
playing the Star Spangled Banner, public meetings were held, addresses
were made and dinners given--all showing that the new feeling between
the countries was not only friendly but also most intensely cordial.
From the King and Queen to the humblest newsboy the enthusiasm was
everywhere to be seen." And what was true in London was true also
throughout the kingdom.
From the front General Pershing received the following telegram:
"DEAR GEN. PERSHING: In behalf of myself and the
whole army in France and Flanders I beg you to
accept for yourself and the troops of your command
my warmest greetings on American Independence Day.
"Fourth of July this year soldiers of America,
France and Great Britain will spend side by side
for the first time in history in defense of the
great principle of liberty, which is the proudest
inheritance and the most cherished possession of
their several nations.
"That liberty which the British, Americans and
French won for themselves they will not fail to
hold not only for themselves but for the world.
With the heartiest good wishes for you and your
gallant army,
"Yours very sincerely,
"D. HAIG,
"Field Marshal."
To this hearty message of congratulation and good will General Pershing
sent the following response to the Commander in Chief of the British
Army in France and Flanders:
"MY DEAR SIR DOUGLAS: Independence Day greetings
from the British armies in France, extended by its
distinguished Commander in Chief, are most deeply
appreciated by all ranks of the American forces.
The firm unity of purpose that on the Fourth of
July this year so strongly binds the great allied
nations together stands as a new declaration and a
new guarantee that the sacred principles of
liberty shall not perish but shall be extended to
all peoples.
"With the most earnest good wishes from myself and
entire command to you and our brave British
brothers in arms, I remain, always in great
respect and high esteem,
"Yours very sincerely,
"JOHN J. PERSHING."
In Paris also the celebration was an evidence of the same or even
greater enthusiasm. Flags, bands, cheers, songs, public meetings and
addresses--these all were like a repetition of the scenes that had
greeted the arrival of the American commander on the soil of France.
Once more General Pershing was the idol of the day, because in this way
the French people best believed they could express their deep
appreciation of the part America was promptly taking in the fight for
freedom.
The response of America was equally strong when ten days later the great
country, more than 3,000 miles away, joined in a hearty celebration of
the French national holiday--Bastile Day. As Lafayette had brought to
and presented to the United States the key to the famous old prison so
it seemed almost as if the key had unlocked the doors of every American
heart. The French flag was flying from thousands of buildings. The
French national air was heard on every side.
In America, too, just as there had been a brief time before in France,
there were great assemblies quickly aroused to the highest pitch of
enthusiasm by the words of orators describing the marvelous heroism and
devotion of France in the present world war. As one famous, speaker
said, "France had not only found her soul and surprised the world by her
devotion; she had even surprised herself."
Perhaps the celebration in America reached its highest point in a vast
meeting in the Madison Square Garden in New York City on the evening of
July 14th. One newspaper glowingly described the vast concourse that
filled the Garden: "It isn't too much to say that perhaps the air
quivered no more violently around the Bastile on that great day in Paris
129 years ago, than it did in Madison Square Garden last night when at
the apex of a day of glorious tribute to France a tall young man wearing
the horizon blue of the French army and noted throughout the world for
his singing, sang with splendid fervor France's--and now in a way our
own--'La Marseillaise.'"
The Garden fairly rocked with the applause, as banners and flags were
waved in the hands of the excited, shouting throng. French soldiers with
the little marks upon their sleeves that showed the bravery on the
battlefield of the men privileged to wear them, soldiers and sailors of
many lands, war-nurses in their cool white costumes, men who had fought
in France, Belgium, Serbia, Italy, at Gallipoli, at the Marne and at
Verdun--and many more were there to assist in expressing the feelings of
America for her ally.
"They shall not pass"--it was almost like the determination of the men
that doggedly stood before and blocked the Germans as they did their
utmost to drive through Verdun.
A message from General Foch was read by the chairman, Charles E. Hughes.
"After four years of struggle the plans of the enemy for domination are
stopped," began Judge Hughes, but he also was compelled to "stop" until
the deafening applause that interrupted the reading of the message from
the great French commander had quieted down sufficiently to enable him
to proceed. After several minutes passed he resumed. "He (the enemy)
sees the numbers of his adversaries increase each day and the young
American army bring into the battle a valor and a faith without equal;
is not this a sure pledge of the definite triumph of the just cause?"
If the true answer to the question of the commander of all the armies of
the allies was to be measured by the mighty roar that spontaneously
arose, then the General must have been convinced as well as satisfied.
"We are doing more to-night than paying tribute," declared the chairman.
"We are here to make our pledge. We make our pledge to the people of
France. We make our pledge and it is the pledge of a people able to
redeem it."
Secretary of the Navy Daniels read a message from President Wilson:
"America greets France on this day of stirring memories, with a heart
full of warm friendship and of devotion to the great cause in which the
two peoples are now so happily united. July 14th, like our own July 4th,
has taken on a new significance not only for France but for the world.
As France celebrated our Fourth of July, so do we celebrate her
Fourteenth, keenly conscious of a comradeship of arms and of purpose of
which we are deeply proud.
"The sea seems very narrow to-day, France is a neighbor to our hearts.
The war is being fought to save ourselves from intolerable things, but
it is also being fought to save mankind. We extend other hands to each
other, to the great peoples with whom we are associated and the peoples
everywhere who love right and prize justice as a thing beyond price, and
consecrate ourselves once more to the noble enterprise of peace and
justice, realizing the great conceptions that have lifted France and
America high among the free peoples of the earth.
"The French flag floats to-day from the staff of the White House and
America is happy to do honor to that flag."
A similar statement was made by Great Britain's ambassador, the Earl of
Reading, who declared that Bastile Day was also being celebrated
throughout the British Empire.
The climax came when Ambassador Jusserand spoke:
"Your national fete and ours have the same
meaning: Emancipation. The ideal they represent is
so truly the same, that it is no wonder, among the
inspiring events in which we live, that France
celebrated the other day your Fourth and you are
now celebrating our Fourteenth. We owe so much to
each other in our progress toward Freedom.
"Those enthusiastic French youths who served under
Washington, Rochambeau and Lafayette had seen
liberty and equality put into practice, and had
brought back to France the seed, which sown at an
opportune moment, sprang up and grew wonderfully.
"The two greatest events in our histories are
closely connected. Between the end of your
revolution and the beginning of ours, there
elapsed only six years. Our flag, devised the day
after the fall of the Bastile, combining the same
colors as your own, is just a little younger than
your Old Glory, born in revolutionary times. And
the two, floating for the first time together over
the trenches of distant France, defying the
barbaric enemy, have much to say to each other,
much about the past, much about the future.
"United as we are with the same firmness of
purpose, we shall advance our standards and cause
the enemy to understand that the best policy is
honesty, respect of others' freedom and respect of
the sworn pledge.
"That song of freedom, the 'Marseillaise' will
again be sung at the place of its birth, that
Alsatian song born in Strassburg, justifying its
original title, a 'War song of the Rhine.'
"The place where he shall stop is not, however,
written on the map, but in our hearts, a kind of
map the enemy has been unable to decipher. But
what is written is plain enough, and President
Wilson is even plainer in his memorable speech at
the Tomb of Washington on your own Fourth. It
comes to this: 'One more Bastile remains to be
taken, representing feudalism, autocracy,
despotism, the German one, and when it falls,
peace will reign again.'"
And over in France was an American--brave, kind of heart, dignified and
tremendously in earnest who stood before the people of the old world as
the very personification of the spirit that animated the new world.