this struggle shortened, and a new spirit of liberty grow greater and stronger, pervade all countries and indeed fill the world."

Since then I read in the papers that when General Pershing landed at Boulogne, General Dumas, who is not a diplomat nor a theorician, but the commander of our Northern region, said to him:

"Your coming opens a new era in the history of the world. The United States of America is now taking its part with the United States of Europe. Together they are about to found the United States of the World, which will definitely and finally end the war and give a peace which will be enduring and fruitful for humanity."

This expresses, I think, the belief of our average Frenchman. And why should that hope prove to be vain? It is reasonable, on the contrary, since it expresses the will of the overwhelming majority, in a matter where the majority will have to decide.

And if the result is attained once for all, then the huge, untold sacrifice will not have been made in vain.

III

PROMISES OF CONCRETE CO-OPERATION

New conditions of work in Europe, nearer to the American conditions, because of the scarcity of men and the necessity of rapid reconstruction. American methods to be brought. The new spirit of economic activity in France. A writer on French labor. An instance of common task: co-operation in the countries which are economically backward, but jealous of national independence, and will welcome the Franco-American enterprises.

FIRST of all we must squarely face the facts. At the finish of the war France is going to find herself placed in a new and complex economic situation, as will also be the case with those nations bound to her by definite ties. Practicable suggestions for meeting this coming situation can be supplied only by men able to see and point out with equal frankness both its most encouraging and its most alarming aspects. Nothing will be accomplished by those who are too easily satisfied by cut-and-dried formulæ, who allow themselves to be hypnotized by fixed optimistic or pessimistic theories. The future is neither easy nor desperate. Only, more

than at any previous period, the future will depend upon ourselves.

The situation as it exists today contains the germ of a brilliant tomorrow; it holds also the seeds of ruin. It contains possibilities that make one's heart leap as before the dawn of certain victory. But before us, too, may lie the abyss. Still, there is a bridge by which we may cross it.

How shall we set to work-now, we and our friends? For from the day that peace is declared, all those energies that are now diverted to the work of death and destruction will be clamouring to take up life's work in full measure, without losing a moment. We shall merit small thanks from those who are fighting if we have made ready nothing against their return save shouts of joy. It is their right to expect more than that of our foresight.

Never before has man been faced with a future so pregnant with possibilities. Now, possibilities entail responsibilities. And what is first and foremost plain and inescapable before our eyes is the great responsibility that will rest upon France and her true friends. It is no new responsibility. We recognized and assumed it long ago, at whatever cost to us. It will continue. Who wants to share it with us?

Our prestige has been restored. Frenchmen of today will have a far easier task than those of before the war, whose mission was to carry on France's work somehow or other, throughout a world rendered indifferent and sceptical by our defeats of 1870. They succeeded, at that; but they were few. Those of tomorrow will be legion. Like the sturdy workers that they are, resourceful lads, keen for their jobs, they will go forth to the four corners of the earth, after playing their partand what a part!-in freeing the world through force of arms, to sow the good seed of their labours. And reaping the harvest to follow, France will arise, rich.

For this too we must say, frankly and simply: "France must be rich." Therein lies the remedy for all her dangers and her ills-infant mortality, tuberculosis, and kindred scourges. Our valiant little family groups, endowed with all the virtues though they be, are frequently crushed beneath material difficulties, which, being excessive and overwhelming, go not at all to develop character.

Similarly, it is for lack of money to buy better milk, for lack of money to instal bathrooms, to live more out of doors, to buy sports, technical education, recreation-for all these things are to be had for money—it is for lack of this money that too

many of our children die, too many of our gifted young people have to stop midway in their education, too many of our families go downhill, too many of our intellectual and moral resources wither away before they have bloomed. We must tell things as they are. Pierre Hamp writes: "We are face to face with this moral necessity: France must be rich."

Now the world has everything to gain by seeing to it that the fruit in France's garden does not dry up, and the world is well aware of it. France is no greedy power, undertaking to dominate through numbers, through intrusion and invasion, and against whom the world must ever be on its guard. France is a well-spring of creative power, a land of spiritual, scientific, and social experiments and experiences. All mankind suffers a little by her distress, and profits by her prosperity. Let her emerge rich from the great effort she is about to put forth, and those who go to her will find her happier. Those who have been wont to look to her for inspiration will find an even more abundant treasure within her gates. Those who trade with her will have a chance both to give and receive more.

What are the obstacles in the way of this prosperity? Our small population? Certainly not.