Chapter I: Front Matter

OUR PART IN THE GREAT WAR

OUR PART IN
THE GREAT WAR

BY
ARTHUR GLEASON

AUTHOR OF "YOUNG HILDA AT THE WARS," "THE SPIRIT
OF CHRISTMAS," "LOVE, HOME AND THE INNER LIFE," ETC.

_WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS_

NEW YORK
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
PUBLISHERS

_Copyright, 1917, by_
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY

_All rights reserved, including that of translation_
_into foreign languages_

To
_FRANCE ON JULY 14TH_

_Three years of world war draw to a close, as France prepares to celebrate the birthday of her liberty. Never in the thousand years of her tumultuous history has she been so calm, so sure of the path she treads, red with the blood of her young men. She has never drunk any cup of joy so deeply as this cup of her agony. In the early months of the war, there were doubts and dismays, and the cheap talk of compromise. There were black days and black moods, and a swaying indecision. But under the immense pressure of crisis, France has lifted to a clear determination. This war will be fought to a finish. No feeble dreams of peace, entertained by loose thinkers and fluent phrase makers, no easy conciliations, will be tolerated. France has made her sacrifice. It remains now that it shall avail. She will fulfill her destiny. Time has ceased to matter, Death is only an incident in the ongoing of the nation. No tortures by mutilation, no horrors of shell fire, no massing of machine guns, can swerve the united will. The "Sacred Union" of Socialist and royalist, peasant and politician, is firm to endure. The egoisms and bickerings of easy untested years have been drowned in a tide that sets towards the Rhine. The premier race of the world goes forth to war. That war is only in its beginning. The toll of the dead and the wounded may be doubled before the gray lines are broken. But they will be broken. A menace is to be removed for all time. The German Empire is not to rule in Paris. Atrocities are not to be justified by success. Spying will be no longer the basis of international relationship. France faces in one direction. She waits in arms at Revigny and along the water courses of the North for the machine to crack. That consummation of the long watch may be nearer than we guess. It may be many months removed. It does not matter. France waits in unshattered line, reserve on reserve, ready to the call._

_Only once or twice in history has the world witnessed such a spectacle of greatness at tension. It is not that factories are busy on shells. It is that everything spiritual in a race touched with genius has been mobilized. Fineness of feeling, the graces of the intellect, clarity of thought, all the playful tender elements of worthy living are burning with a steady light._

AUTHOR'S NOTE

The author was enabled to visit Verdun and the peasant district, and to obtain access to the German diaries through J. J. Jusserand, Ambassador of France; Frank H. Simonds, editor of the New York _Tribune_, and Theodore Roosevelt, by whose courtesy the success of the three months' visit was assured. On arrival in France the courtesy was continued by Emile Hovelaque, Madame Saint-René Taillandier, Judge Walter Berry, Mrs. Charles Prince, Leon Mirman, Prefet de Meurthe-et-Moselle, the Foreign Office and the Ministry of War.

CONTENTS

PAGE

TO FRANCE ON JULY 14TH v

SECTION I

AMERICANS WHO HELPED

I. THE TWO AMERICAS 3

II. THE AMERICAN AMBULANCE HOSPITAL 14

III. THE FORD CAR AND ITS DRIVERS 34

IV. THE AMERICANS AT VERDUN 55

V. "FRIENDS OF FRANCE" 72

VI. THE SAVING REMNANT 83

SECTION II

WHY SOME AMERICANS ARE NEUTRAL

I. NEUTRALITY: AN INTERPRETATION OF THE MIDDLE WEST 93

II. SOCIAL WORKERS AND THE WAR 105

III. FORGETTING THE AMERICAN TRADITION 116

IV. COSMOPOLITANISM 129

V. THE HYPHENATES 142

VI. THE REMEDY 151

SECTION III

THE GERMANS THAT ROSE FROM THE DEAD

I. LORD BRYCE ON GERMAN METHODS 159

II. SOME GERMAN WAR DIARIES 170

III. MORE DIARIES 186

IV. THE BOOMERANG 196

SECTION IV

THE PEASANTS

I. THE LOST VILLAGES 211

II. THE HOMELESS 221

III. "MON GAMIN" 226

IV. THE MAYOR ON THE HILLTOP 228

V. THE LITTLE CORPORAL 240

VI. THE GOOD CURÉ 244

VII. THE THREE-YEAR-OLD WITNESS 257

VIII. MIRMAN AND "MES ENFANTS" 261

IX. AN APPEAL TO THE SMALLER AMERICAN COMMUNITIES 274

X. THE EVIDENCE 289

XI. SISTER JULIE 294

XII. SISTER JULIE--Continued 312

ADDENDUM 321

APPENDIX

I. TO THE READER 329

II. TO NEUTRAL CRITICS 333