CHAPTER XV
Fourth of July in France and Bastile Day in America
The manifestation of the feeling of France and England for the United States as shown to General Pershing was still further in evidence when the national holiday of each nation was celebrated. In this celebration all three nations united. "Never did I expect to see a day like the Fourth of July this year in London," wrote an American stopping in that city. "The flag of the United States was everywhere in evidence. I don't think Great Britain ever saw so many American flags at one time. The streets almost seemed to be lined with them. They were hanging from windows, stretched across the streets and sidewalks, carried in the hands of the passing people and everywhere were in evidence. Bands were playing the Star Spangled Banner, public meetings were held, addresses were made and dinners given—all showing that the new feeling between the countries was not only friendly but also most intensely cordial. From the King and Queen to the humblest newsboy the enthusiasm was everywhere to be seen." And what was true in London was true also throughout the kingdom.
From the front General Pershing received the following telegram:
"Dear Gen. Pershing: In behalf of myself and the whole army in France and Flanders I beg you to accept for yourself and the troops of your command my warmest greetings on American Independence Day.
"Fourth of July this year soldiers of America, France and Great Britain will spend side by side for the first time in history in defense of the great principle of liberty, which is the proudest inheritance and the most cherished possession of their several nations.
"That liberty which the British, Americans and French won for themselves they will not fail to hold not only for themselves but for the world. With the heartiest good wishes for you and your gallant army,
"Yours very sincerely,
"D. Haig,
"Field Marshal."
To this hearty message of congratulation and good will General Pershing sent the following response to the Commander in Chief of the British Army in France and Flanders:
"My dear Sir Douglas: Independence Day greetings from the British armies in France, extended by its distinguished Commander in Chief, are most deeply appreciated by all ranks of the American forces. The firm unity of purpose that on the Fourth of July this year so strongly binds the great allied nations together stands as a new declaration and a new guarantee that the sacred principles of liberty shall not perish but shall be extended to all peoples.
"With the most earnest good wishes from myself and entire command to you and our brave British brothers in arms, I remain, always in great respect and high esteem,
"Yours very sincerely,
"John J. Pershing."
In Paris also the celebration was an evidence of the same or even greater enthusiasm. Flags, bands, cheers, songs, public meetings and addresses—these all were like a repetition of the scenes that had greeted the arrival of the American commander on the soil of France. Once more General Pershing was the idol of the day, because in this way the French people best believed they could express their deep appreciation of the part America was promptly taking in the fight for freedom.
The response of America was equally strong when ten days later the great country, more than 3,000 miles away, joined in a hearty celebration of the French national holiday—Bastile Day. As Lafayette had brought to and presented to the United States the key to the famous old prison so it seemed almost as if the key had unlocked the doors of every American heart. The French flag was flying from thousands of buildings. The French national air was heard on every side.
In America, too, just as there had been a brief time before in France, there were great assemblies quickly aroused to the highest pitch of enthusiasm by the words of orators describing the marvelous heroism and devotion of France in the present world war. As one famous, speaker said, "France had not only found her soul and surprised the world by her devotion; she had even surprised herself."
Perhaps the celebration in America reached its highest point in a vast meeting in the Madison Square Garden in New York City on the evening of July 14th. One newspaper glowingly described the vast concourse that filled the Garden: "It isn't too much to say that perhaps the air quivered no more violently around the Bastile on that great day in Paris 129 years ago, than it did in Madison Square Garden last night when at the apex of a day of glorious tribute to France a tall young man wearing the horizon blue of the French army and noted throughout the world for his singing, sang with splendid fervor France's—and now in a way our own—'La Marseillaise.'"
The Garden fairly rocked with the applause, as banners and flags were waved in the hands of the excited, shouting throng. French soldiers with the little marks upon their sleeves that showed the bravery on the battlefield of the men privileged to wear them, soldiers and sailors of many lands, war-nurses in their cool white costumes, men who had fought in France, Belgium, Serbia, Italy, at Gallipoli, at the Marne and at Verdun—and many more were there to assist in expressing the feelings of America for her ally.
"They shall not pass"—it was almost like the determination of the men that doggedly stood before and blocked the Germans as they did their utmost to drive through Verdun.
A message from General Foch was read by the chairman, Charles E. Hughes. "After four years of struggle the plans of the enemy for domination are stopped," began Judge Hughes, but he also was compelled to "stop" until the deafening applause that interrupted the reading of the message from the great French commander had quieted down sufficiently to enable him to proceed. After several minutes passed he resumed. "He (the enemy) sees the numbers of his adversaries increase each day and the young American army bring into the battle a valor and a faith without equal; is not this a sure pledge of the definite triumph of the just cause?"
If the true answer to the question of the commander of all the armies of the allies was to be measured by the mighty roar that spontaneously arose, then the General must have been convinced as well as satisfied.
"We are doing more to-night than paying tribute," declared the chairman. "We are here to make our pledge. We make our pledge to the people of France. We make our pledge and it is the pledge of a people able to redeem it."
Secretary of the Navy Daniels read a message from President Wilson: "America greets France on this day of stirring memories, with a heart full of warm friendship and of devotion to the great cause in which the two peoples are now so happily united. July 14th, like our own July 4th, has taken on a new significance not only for France but for the world. As France celebrated our Fourth of July, so do we celebrate her Fourteenth, keenly conscious of a comradeship of arms and of purpose of which we are deeply proud.
"The sea seems very narrow to-day, France is a neighbor to our hearts. The war is being fought to save ourselves from intolerable things, but it is also being fought to save mankind. We extend other hands to each other, to the great peoples with whom we are associated and the peoples everywhere who love right and prize justice as a thing beyond price, and consecrate ourselves once more to the noble enterprise of peace and justice, realizing the great conceptions that have lifted France and America high among the free peoples of the earth.
"The French flag floats to-day from the staff of the White House and America is happy to do honor to that flag."
A similar statement was made by Great Britain's ambassador, the Earl of Reading, who declared that Bastile Day was also being celebrated throughout the British Empire.
The climax came when Ambassador Jusserand spoke:
"Your national fete and ours have the same meaning: Emancipation. The ideal they represent is so truly the same, that it is no wonder, among the inspiring events in which we live, that France celebrated the other day your Fourth and you are now celebrating our Fourteenth. We owe so much to each other in our progress toward Freedom.
"Those enthusiastic French youths who served under Washington, Rochambeau and Lafayette had seen liberty and equality put into practice, and had brought back to France the seed, which sown at an opportune moment, sprang up and grew wonderfully.
"The two greatest events in our histories are closely connected. Between the end of your revolution and the beginning of ours, there elapsed only six years. Our flag, devised the day after the fall of the Bastile, combining the same colors as your own, is just a little younger than your Old Glory, born in revolutionary times. And the two, floating for the first time together over the trenches of distant France, defying the barbaric enemy, have much to say to each other, much about the past, much about the future.
"United as we are with the same firmness of purpose, we shall advance our standards and cause the enemy to understand that the best policy is honesty, respect of others' freedom and respect of the sworn pledge.
"That song of freedom, the 'Marseillaise' will again be sung at the place of its birth, that Alsatian song born in Strassburg, justifying its original title, a 'War song of the Rhine.'
"The place where he shall stop is not, however, written on the map, but in our hearts, a kind of map the enemy has been unable to decipher. But what is written is plain enough, and President Wilson is even plainer in his memorable speech at the Tomb of Washington on your own Fourth. It comes to this: 'One more Bastile remains to be taken, representing feudalism, autocracy, despotism, the German one, and when it falls, peace will reign again.'"
And over in France was an American—brave, kind of heart, dignified and tremendously in earnest who stood before the people of the old world as the very personification of the spirit that animated the new world.