| Show FRANCE AND GERMANY The announcement that France is occupying occu-pying with her army strategetic positions on the German frontier and training her soldiers at night is followed by the announcement an-nouncement of renewed activity in German Ger-man military circles There is no intelli gent person who does not believe that these old enemies will in the near future indulge in another brush They would have been at it before this had it not been for the restraining re-straining complications with other powers While everybody believes the two countries coun-tries will soon try conclusions on the field of battle almost everybody seems to think that France will again get the worst of it and bo severely punished I you will ask the reason for this belief not one in ten will be able to explain why ho thinks the Germans can whip the French I II the nine were to search for justification for their belief very few of them would be able to find what they looked for The French are good fighters and there are no more patriotic people in the world With the present generation of Frenchmen it is the height of patriotism to hate the Germans Ger-mans and the evidence of extreme loyalty to want to fight the latter The Frenchman who was in his cradle when the kaiser overran over-ran the land and placed the nation under heavy tribute hates the Germans quit as vigorously as did his father who helped pay the war indemnity and would fight more desperately than did his overmatched parent par-ent We believe that a war today between I these two great nations would be a much nearer even affair than was the contest twentyone years ago France has a population of 38000000 while her colonies increase the number of people claiming citizenship to 66000000 She has an active army of 26888 officers and 1188462 noncommissioned non-commissioned officers and men the entire force being admirably armed In addition there are the reserves which may be called in case of necessity bringing the total up to 65319 officers 41G4507 noncommissioned noncommis-sioned officers and men and 10584 guns Germanys active army comprises 22364 officers and 786357 noncommissioned officers cers and men the total strength on a war footing being 55912 officers 2961337 noncommissioned I non-commissioned officers and men and 4312 guns There is even greater disparity be tween the navies of the two nations that of France being fully three times that of Germany in all respects I will thus be seen that France is by no means in a weak and effeminate condition and would engage in a contest with cer tainity of defeat as so many believe The republic is in a much better position to war with Germany than was the empire and in a contest today would not handicapped by cowardly and incompetent incompe-tent officers There is also this to be said in favor of France that her sons stay at home and grow up patriotic Frenchmen I ready and eager to avenge the disaster of two decades ago On the other hand the Germans and especially the young men leave the fatherland by thousands and tens of thousands They arc found everywhere every-where putting themselves to much better use than wasting their years in military service In the United States thero aro perhaps ten Germans to one Frenchman and those Germans would be good fighters i they were at home Their presence hero is weakness to the German army and there is no corresponding weakness in the French forces Of course we aont believe that France r in vhin rjprmmiv Vmf twa ilft IViinlr thnt in the contest that is certain to v come the I I Germans will not have a walkover |
