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Show ht( N&? trM $ m F (I, r , V if "" S fJiff " By ELMO SCOTT WATSON KI'TK.M ISKIt (5, which "is ' lfirl "''Served wit If spech.l H ceremonies In many parts M of the United States, fil u double annlvers:i i - Mini Jh in hoth cases It has a sig lr nlficant meaning h Ann-i leans. It Is the miniver f sary of the birthday ol Manpiis de l.atayetie and It commemorates the first bailie ol t he Marne during the World war lusi how important these ci.inriding anni versaries are in our hltury wiis well expressed hy C. H. Kohbius. assislitni secretary of war, whose speech was broadcast from Washington on the occasion oc-casion of the Lafayelte-Marne day celebration last year. His speech, in part, follows: The Marne is a quiet, well behaved little river flowing peacefully through the picturesque countryside ot I'Vane Btid pant beautiful wooded hills yet this little rtver Is enshrined Iji the brave hearts of the French people as marking the line where many tlmec the foreign invader has been repulsed and where twice during thp World wa' the high tide of German advance whf awept back toward the frontier Fourteen Four-teen vears have passed since the first battle of the Marne. To attempt tc give a technical account of the military mili-tary operations by the French and British on one side and the Germans on the other would be to merely repeat re-peat what has been the subject of fc many learned books and treatises pub-shed pub-shed since the war. The battle of the Marne has rightly been classed as one of the decisive battles of history It was decisive ot the early stages of the war. The German Ger-man losses were not overwhelming Their armies were still in being and able to make a masterly retirement, but it was decisive In another sense for It marked the defeat of the fi'pt German plan of campaign and It utterly ut-terly transformed the strategical situation. situ-ation. The avalanche designed to crush French resistance in a month bad been fought and the morrow w;is come. Thereafter Germany was com pelled to accept a slow war of entrenchments en-trenchments which was repugnant tn all her theories, and every week brought her nearer to the position of a beleaguered city, while for the allies it marked the definite turn of the tide of defeat. The effect of the battle of the Marne in America was profound The tremendous tre-mendous success of the German armies during the first three weeks of the war. their organization and the magnificent lighting qualities of their soldiers, had seemed to render resistance futile America had waited with bated breath for the news of the capture of Paris and the overrunning of all France by the German army. When the news of the Marne was received and it became known that the hitherto invincible German army not only could he stopped but was actually in retreat the nation marveled. The ties of friendship with France turned our hearts toward the aUied cause One unacquainted with history might well ask whence came this almost al-most universal sympathy for France It Is both traditional and historical That young Frenchman whose birtn -"Tra also honor this day came to Amer lea In Its hour of need F.nthused by the Ideals for which the colonies wete fighting came Lafayette offering hi' services, his fortune and his life in the cause of freedom and equal rights It was more than a magnificent gesture. ges-ture. It came from the people of France, an expression of their sympathetic sympa-thetic understanding of the aspirations aspira-tions of the colonies to found a free nation based on the principle of the right of the people to rule. How well he fulfilled his mission is history, but the profound gratitude of that struggling strug-gling people has endured through the generations and with the establishment establish-ment of the republic of France, through bloodshed and agony, the friendship of the two great peoples has been cemented ce-mented until it has become a tradition through the generations that have come and gone since Lafayette served In the army of the Revolution To most Americans Lafayette Is a familiar name, ''rom their schoolbook histories they know that he was a gal the tomb of the great Frenchman and said "Lafayette, we are here!" Even though the fact is that that historic utterance was made by Colonel St-in-ton, a member of General Pershing's staff, it symbolizes so well the historic friendship between the two nations that we have incorporated it in the list of our favorite legends. I'erhaps the affectionate regard of a whole nation for a man who has been dead these hundred years should he enough of fnrne for him. But the greatness of Lafayette Is more than that suggested by the average Ameri can's Idea of him. It is revealed in the work of a well-known historian whose biography of Lafayette appeared within recent months. That is the book. "Lafayette," by Henry Dwight Sedgwick, published by the Bobbs-Mer rill company. From it we see that although, al-though, contrary to the popular idea of his Revolutionary war career. I.afay etle was never a great general; he was always a great gentleman. "Nature had bestowed upon him zeal, courage, energy, honesty, frankness, frank-ness, simplicity, perseverance, n flam ing enthusiasm for what he deemed high causes, a disposition so graced with charm thai his wife, his family, his friend adored him and a rare quality in ambitious men. a power of admiration, and what is perhaps rarer still, a hero to admire worthy of that admiration." That is the tribute which his biographer pays to him nfter studying the facts of his life. And he continues: "Lafayette ran a career that is without parallel in the historj of our Western World. His life divides itself into episodes. First, that of his adventurous youth in America; sec ond. during the French Revolution when for a time 1 am but quoting what others have said he was mas young nobleman was willing to give up his assured position In a country where nubility counted for everything, to go into a strange land and take part in a revolt against the very social order or-der to which he himself belonged. The story of his association with Washington is a particularly appealing appeal-ing one. "There are a number of celebrated cele-brated friendships in history in which hoth friends have mutually shown both constancy, tenderness and loyalty and sympathetic appreciation. But there is none which I have read of which sets off the character of both friends in so vivid and high-colored a man ner. When Lafayette was wounded. Washington, whose quarters were eight miles away, came every day to ask after him, with tears in his eyes, and hade the doctor care for him as if he were his own son." While Lafayette's career as a military mili-tary leader in this country was not especially noteworthy- ("he was the colonial army's mascc' . . . his forte was popularizing an enterprise which a wiser head directed") his career upon his return to France was more distinguished. He was first a member of the Assembly of Notables, then of the States-General. After the attack on the Bastile he was appointed appoint-ed commander in chief of the National Guard of Paris. When the angry worn en of Paris marched to Versailles and threatened the lives of the royal family. fam-ily. Lafayette, with remarkable sagacl ty and courage, led Marie Antoinette to a balcony of the palace in full view of the mob. And he saved her life, for a day at least, and this in spite of the fact that the queen hated him and declared once: "It Is hetter to perish than to be saved hy Lafayette and the Constitutionalists." But this was Lafayette, defender of the weak and the oppressed, the same Lafayette who renounced his titles, who tried to steer n middle course during the French Revolution between the cruelties of the royalty which had brought on the revolution, and the cruelties of the mob and he succeeded only In bringing bring-ing down upon himself the condemnation condemna-tion of the aristocracy and the rabble. So although Lafayette failed to rise to the heights of greatness and save his country from the horrors of the Reign of Terror, this new biography reveals him ns the great gentleman he was, a splendid Idealist and a true hero, a man worthy of all the honois thiti were heaped upon him when he came back to this country for his famous visit. And as Americans celebrate cele-brate the one hundred and seventy-second seventy-second anniversary of his birth this year, they can do so with the realiza tiou that ufter all that time his fair fame burns as brightly as ever before. ter of the fate of France; and, third, when in the Revolution of lx-io aftet a long eclipse a second time, he held that fate in his hands. And, besides this, font score years later his spirt rose from the grave and did more than any other Frenchman, living or dead, to bring America into the struggle that determined bis country's fate." Lafayette was horn in Anvergne, n son of the rural nobility, in a region where the natives "have been noted time out of mind, for their stubborn ness. their thrift, and their readiness of assume unthankful tasks." lie grew up as a simple country boy, "he lacked social graces, was gawky, red-hairr-d and a clumsy horseman. But the rie sire for glory always possessed him.' .lust how much this desire ot his "in exorable love of liberty" Influenced him to offer his services to the Amer lean colonists cannot he determined hut the important thing is that this lnnt young French soldier who burn Ing with zeal In the cause of freedom came to this country a (,ne of the darkest hours of the Revolution an : offered his services to the patriots They know that he became a valued friend of Washington and served with distinction through the remainder ot the Revolution. They may even re member that later in his life he re turned to this country and that everj one I'resident, congress and people-united people-united to do nonor t the man who had helped establish American Inde pendence. And because the recent World war is fresh In the memory ot most of them, they have some sort ol a hazy notion that out participation In that conflict was to "repay the debt to Lafayette," which Is made all the more rem! to them because of the fact that General Tershing, upon binding in France, is said to have stood before |