Lafayette was the guest of the United States in 1822.

The visit was made by invitation. The French Mission reached Vice President Marshall's room shortly before 12:30 o'clock. The Vice President was notified, and he named Mr. Hitchcock of Nebraska, who has been the active leader of the Committee on Foreign Relations, and Mr. Lodge of Massachusetts, the ranking Republican of the committee, to usher the guests into the chamber.

The two Senators crossed the lobby to the Vice President's room and returned at once. M. Viviani entered with Mr. Hitchcock, Marshal Joffre with Mr. Lodge, and the French Ambassador with Admiral Chocheprat. The committee's return was not expected so soon, but grave salutes to Marshal Joffre by two bright-eyed little pages at the door, which the Marshal as gravely returned, gave the signal. The Senators clapped hands deafeningly and rose, the galleries shouted more deafeningly still and rose, leaning forward and waving, while members of the House standing at the back of the chamber surged forward.

The visitors shook hands with the Vice President and stood beside him, looking with evident pleasure at the wild scene before them. When the applause had lasted for several minutes Mr. Marshall tapped for order.

"The Senate of the United States," he said, "has had the pleasure and honor many times of receiving distinguished visitors to the Republic. It had the honor of receiving General Lafayette, and now, nearly a century later, it has the honor of welcoming the Vice Premier of the French Government and the Marshal of France."

"Mr. President," said Senator Martin of Virginia, the majority leader, "I move that the Senate now recess so that Senators may have the pleasure of greeting personally our distinguished guests."

The motion was carried by acclamation, and an informal reception began.

Viviani Addresses Senate

M. Viviani, during the reception, in which Representatives as well as Senators participated, was prevailed upon to make an address and spoke as follows:

Since I have been granted the supreme honor of speaking before the representatives of the American people, may I ask them first to allow me to thank this magnificent capital for the welcome it has accorded us? Accustomed as we are in our own free land to popular manifestations, and though we had been warned by your fellow-countrymen who live in Paris of the enthusiastic burning in your hearts, we are still full of the emotion raised by the sights that awaited us. I shall never cease to see the proud and stalwart men who saluted our passage; your women, whose grace adds fresh beauty to your city, their arms outstretched full of flowers, and your children hurrying to meet us at the call of their schoolmasters, as if our coming were looked upon as a lesson for them, all with one accord acclaiming, in our perishable persons, immortal France. And yet I predict there will be a yet grander manifestation the day when your illustrious President, relieved from the burden of power, will come among us bearing the salute of the Republic of the United States to a free Europe, whose foundations from end to end shall be based on right. It is with unspeakable emotion that we cross the threshold of this legislative palace where prudence and boldness meet, and that I, for the first time in the annals of America, though a foreigner, speak in this hall, which only a few days since resounded with the words of virile force.

You have set all the democracies of the world the most magnificent example. So soon as the common peril was made manifest to you, with simplicity and within a few short days you voted a formidable credit and proclaimed that a formidable army was to be raised. The commentary on his acts which President Wilson gave before acting, and which you made yours, remains in the history of free peoples the weightiest of lessons.

Doubtless you were resolved to avenge the Insult offered your flag, which the whole world respected; doubtless through the thickness of these massive walls the mournful cry of all the victims which criminal hands hurled into the depths of the sea, has reached and stirred your souls; but it will be your honor in history that you also heard the cry of humanity, and invoked against autocracy the rights of democracies. And I can only wonder as I speak what, if they still have any power to think, are the thoughts of the autocrats who three years ago against us, three months ago against you, unchained this conflict.

Ah! doubtless they said among themselves that a democracy is an ideal Government, that it showers reforms on mankind, that it can in the domain of labor quicken all economic activities. And yet now we see the French Republic fighting in defense of its territory and the liberty of nations and opposing to the avalanche let loose by Prussian militarism the union of all its children who are still capable of striking many a weighty blow. And now we see England, far removed

like you from conscription, who has also, by virtue of a discipline all accept, raised from her soil millions of fighting men. And we see other nations accomplishing the same act; and that liberty not only inflames all hearts but co-ordinates and brings into being all needed efforts. And now we see all America rise and sharpen her weapons in the midst of peace for the common struggle.

Together we will carry on that struggle; and when by force we have at last imposed military victory, our labors will not be concluded. Our task will be-I quote the noble words of President Wilson-to organize the society of nations. I well know that our enemies, who have never seen before them anything but horizons of carnage, will never cease to jeer at so noble a dream. Such has always been the fate of ideas at their birth; and if thinkers and men of action had allowed themselves to be discouraged by skeptics mankind would still be in its infancy and we should still be slaves. After material victory we will win this moral victory. We will shatter the ponderous sword of militarism; we will establish guarantees for peace; and then we can disappear from the world's stage, since we shall leave at the cost of our common immolation the noblest heritage future generations can possess.

When he concluded, shouts of "Joffre!" "Joffre!" filled the Chamber, and the Marshal turned and said with a smile: "I do not speak English." Then raising his right hand, he called out, "Vivent les Etats-Unis!" With a military salute, he was gone.

Reception in the House

M. Viviani and Marshal Joffre visited the House of Representatives by invita tion on May 3. Practically the entire mem bership of the House and the crowded galleries rose and applauded as the visitors were announced. Several chil dren of members received kisses from the Marshal of France and the Vice Premier. When Miss Jeannette Rankin, woman member of the House, approached, M Viviani and Admiral Chocheprat kissed her hand.

M. Viviani mounted the Speaker's rostrum and said:

Gentlemen: Once more my fellow-countrymen and I are admitted to the honor of being present at a sitting in a legislative chamber. May I be permitted to express our emotion at this solemn derogation against rules more than a century old, and, so far as I am concerned, may I say that as a Member of Parliament accustomed for twenty years to the passions and storms which sweep through political assemblies I appre

ciate more than any one at this moment the supreme joy of being near this chair, which is in such a commanding position that, however feeble may be the voice that speaks thence, it is heard over the whole world?

Gentlemen, I will not thank you, not because Our gratitude fails, but because words to express it fail. We feel that your sympathy and enthusiasm come not only

from your hearts but from the jealousy which you have for your own honor. We have all felt that you were not merely fulfilling the obligation of international courtesy. Suddenly, in all its charming intimacy, the complexity of the American soul has been revealed to us. When one meets an American one is supposed to meet a practical man, merely a practical man, caring only for business, only interested in business. But when at certain hours in private life one studies the American soul one discovers at the same time how fresh and delicate it is; and when at certain moments of public life one considers the soul of the nation, then one sees all the force of the ideals that rise from it is so that this American people, in its perfect balance, is at once practical and sentimental, a realizer and a dreamer, and is always ready to place its practical qualities at the disposal of its puissant thoughts.

Intrusted with a mandate from a free people, we come among freemen to compare our ideas, exchange our views, to measure the whole extent of the problems raised by this war, and all the allied nations, simply because they repose on democratic institutions, through their Governments, meet in the same lofty region on equal terms, in full liberty.

I well know that at this very hour in the Central Empires there is an absolute monarchy which binds other peoples to its will by vassal links of steel. It has been said that this was a sign of strength; it is only an appearance of strength. In truth, only a few weeks ago, on the eve of the day when outraged America was about to rise in its force, on the morrow of the day when the Russian revolution, faithful to its alliance, called at once its soldiers to arms and its people to independence, this absolute monarch was seen to totter on the steps of his throne as he felt the first breath of the tempest pass over his crown. He bent toward his people in humiliation, and, in order to win their sympathy, borrowed from free peoples their highest institutions and promised his subjects universal suffrage.

The day before yesterday, in a public meeting at which I was present, I heard one of your greatest orators say with deep emotion: "It has been sworn on the tomb of Washington." And then I understood the full import of those words. If Washington could rise from his tomb, if from his sacred mound he could view the world as it now isshrunk to smaller proportions by the lessening of material and moral distances and the mingling of every kind of communication be

tween men-he would feel his labors were not yet concluded; and that, just as a man of superior and powerful mind owes a debt to all other men, so a superior and powerful nation owes a debt to other nations, and after establishing its own independence must aid others to maintain their independence or to conquer it. It is the mysterious logic of history which President Wilson so marvelously understood, thanks to a mind as vigorous as it is subtle, as capable of analysis as it is of synthesis, of minute observation followed by swift action.

It has been sworn on the tomb of Washington. It has been sworn on the tomb of our allied soldiers, fallen in a sacred cause. It has been sworn by the bedside of our wounded men. It has been sworn on the heads of our orphan children. It has been sworn on cradles and on tombs. It has been sworn!

Marshal Joffre in Chicago

The French Mission left Washington by special train on the 3d for a tour of the Middle Western States, and reached Chicago on the 4th. At a public reception Marshal Joffre delivered his first address, as follows:

My friends, I am proud to have in my hand the American flag, which is to the American people what the French flag is to the people of France, a symbol of liberty. I hold in my other hand the flag of France, who has given of her best, her stanchest, and her bravest, and which also stands for liberty. I had the honor to carry the French flag on the field of battle, and I am glad to join the flag of many battles to the flag that has never known defeat. With this flag I bring to you the salute of the French Army to the American people, our stanch ally in the common

cause.

As he joined the two flags of red, white, and blue with the closing words, the whole assembly mounted the seats and cheered.

The mission was enthusiastically welcomed and hospitably entertained at Chicago, and thence proceeded to St. Louis. On May 6 at St. Louis 20,000 persons crowded into the Coliseum to welcome the visitors, and as many more stood outside, unable to obtain admission. From there they proceeded to Kansas City, where they were received with tumultuous enthusiasm. They returned to the East via Springfield, Ill., where they visited the tomb of Lincoln; a wreath was placed upon the sarcophagus by Marshal Joffre; here the Legislature was also addressed. At all towns through which they passed

large crowds assembled and greeted the visitors with shouts of welcome.

At Philadelphia they were elaborately entertained. Independence Hall was visited. General Joffre, receiving a Marshal's baton made from a piece of one of the Independence Hall rafters, said he held " a piece of real liberty, and wished to convey to the American people the greetings of the French Army and an expression of happiness in having the co-operation of Americans."

At Independence Hall M. Viviani said: "We do not feel in America as if we The ideals and were far from home. aims of America and of France are the same. It was in this holy place that freedom was first breathed from the mouths of men for the inspiration of every nation."

French Envoys in New York

The visitors reached New York City on the afternoon of May 9. The reception tendered them on their arrival was the most enthusiastic ever granted any man or group of men in the city's history. For two days and nights enormous crowds filled Fifth Avenue and Broadway and overflowed far back into adjoining streets. Flags, bunting, and illuminations appeared from one end of the city to the other, and the visitors passed for miles along Fifth Avenue amid a wonderful vista of the French tricolor, the British union jack and the American Stars and Stripes.

The New York Public Library and the Court of Honor in front of it were remarkable for the beauty of the decorations. The columns of plaster, surmounted by the American eagle standing on globes with wings outstretched, supported streamers of the dark blue of France and poles from which hung the flags of the three allies. In front of the library many pine trees gave a touch of color to the great marble building. Along the terrace and on either side of the entrance way were five great poles supporting streaming banners alternately displaying the rooster of France, the lion of Britain, and the American eagle. At night the scene was far more beautiful, with the great lines of the library out