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FRENCH SCHOOLS IN 
 WAR TIME 
 
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A souvenir of the visit to the schools of France presented by the Minister 
 of Pubhc Instruction 
 
REPORT 
 
 OF A VISIT TO 
 
 SCHOOLS OF FRANCE .99"^ 
 
 IN 
 
 WAR TIME 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN H. FINLEY 
 
 Commissioner of Education of the State of New York 
 and President of the University of the State of New York 
 
 WITH MESSAGES TO THE UNIVERSITIES. COLLEGES AND 
 SCHOOLS OF AMERICA FROM THOSE OF FRANCE 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 
 1917 
 

 "^ 
 
 h' 
 
 0. of B. 
 APR 29 t918 
 
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 ^ FRENCH SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME 
 
 ' I HERE are two armies for the defense of our civilization. 
 One is the Army of Present Defense; the other is the 
 Army of Future Defense. 
 
 We have for months that have run into years watched the 
 former, marveHng at its valors, sympathizing with its losses. We 
 are now mobilizing and training our own forces to join in that 
 defense on the crucial line, which civilization must hold. 
 
 But this side of that line is the other army, pictured by M. 
 Viviani, former Minister of Public Instruction in France, when he 
 said: " Unless the military authorities forbid, the schools must 
 everywhere be kept open. Thus it may be said that our ' scho- 
 lastic front ' follows everywhere the very line of the trenches, 
 being never more than ten kilometers distant, often less than two." 
 
 From the military front we have daily report. Hundreds of 
 correspondents watch its every movement. The whole world, 
 whatever its occupation, turns every morning to see what is 
 happening there. 
 
 But of the vast other army, in France alone twice or three 
 times the first army in size, there are but meager reports. It is 
 only when its teachers and pupils are mobilized into the first that 
 we are likely to hear of them, either fighting in the trenches or 
 helping in some specific way to give material aid or spirit to those 
 who are exposing their lives to make the world a safe place for 
 free human beings to live in. 
 
 It was this second army, this " scholastic front," that, represent- 
 ing a portion of our conscript Army of Future Defense — tens 
 of thousands of teachers and millions of children — I went to 
 France to see, in order that we might have some advice of those 
 under whose tuitions the immortal valors of the first army have 
 been nourished. 
 
 Of the military front I shall not speak, for hundreds of Amer- 
 icans permitted to visit that trenched strip (which I have called 
 
 \5] 
 
 D75r-0i7-2000 
 
" Everyman's Land " and which I hope is to give foundation for 
 many international institutions of the new world democracy) 
 have seen more than I of its heroisms and horrors, though I trav- 
 eled the length of it from where it touches the English line, near 
 St Quentin (whose spireless cathedral I could see) to St Die 
 under the German guns, not more than a half-dozen miles from 
 the *' blue line of the Vosges," which marks the border between 
 France and its lost Alsace — St Die, to which I made a pilgrim- 
 age (behind camouflage for many miles of the way) because it 
 was there that the name " America " is said first to have been put 
 on the printed page. 
 
 Tens, and I think hundreds, of thousands of men of that Army 
 of Present Defense I saw in ceaseless stream of blue, flowing to 
 and from the front under skies stained by the enemy's menace 
 and over fields planted with danger, or dotted with graves, but 
 there is nothing to say of them that the world does not and will 
 not know as long as history tells her story. My one envy in life 
 is of those who are permitted to take their places in that line. 
 
 And I must quote in passing from it to the other front the letter 
 of a girl in one of the lycees that I visited — the lycee where 
 General Gallieni had his quarters for a time early in the war — 
 a letter which in one paragraph graphically depicts the distance 
 by which the millions on either side of that narrow, trenched 
 strip are separated, and in the second intimates the closeness of the 
 sympathy between France and America : 
 
 L^cee Victor Duru}) 
 
 It was only a little river, almost a brook; it was called the Yser. One 
 could talk from one side to the other without raising one's voice, and the 
 birds could fly over it with one sweep of their wings. And on the two 
 banks there were millions of men, the one turned toward the other, eye to 
 eye. But the distance which separated them was greater than that of the 
 stars in the sky; it was the distance which separates right from injustice. 
 
 The ocean is so vast that the sea gulls do not dare to cross it. During 
 seven days and seven nights the great steamships of America, going at full 
 speed, drive through the deep waters, before the lighthouses of France come 
 into view ; but from one side to the other hearts are touching. 
 
 Odette Gast'mel (Classe: 3me Anne&Secondaire) 
 
Fac simile of a letter from a French school girl 
 
 Cc u el ait quVLiie h-etite rtVLere^ 
 hree>ciite tm rtiUsca^u ; on i afiriclaLl: 
 
 Ijscr ; oa sc jiarlait Avta Dord a 
 
 I autre 6aii5 elever la volx, cl lc6 
 
 OLSeaiu la TraiicaL^saLeixL d ua 
 
 WtteincRL d'ailc . ut sitr Ue, 
 clexa rives , lly avaCt dee irtLiUons 
 
 d'liommes ,lolunce les U)i6 vers 
 Ice dtilre^ , les ijeux dans les i(^u)c 
 Ma'i5 (a distaace cjiu Ics 5C|iaratl: 
 elall I1LU6 ^raadc que la ciUhiiice 
 des etolles daas le ciel ; c'etalt 
 
 ceile qttL sehare U CirOLC de 
 
 Vinju slice , 
 
L ocean est 5L vaele ,c|Lie lee 
 
 moiuttes no^ml pas \e l:ravcr5er 
 leridaal scjit loars cl seiit 
 
 Ktilte .lc5 rf^raads haqucoots 
 d'/lmcricjiie , lances a loule 
 vapeur , decliLrcnl: lean ^ro'ondc 
 
 avant d'ajiercevoir ie5 imare^ 
 Jectrancc ^ flaU d\ta l>orcl 
 a Vciiitre^te5 coeiirs se louclieiiu 
 
 OJcHc Sasluiel , 
 
But the other Army whose first lines are within sound and 
 range of the guns ! — One covets the eloquence of a Viviani 
 (such as that with which I heard him speak in the French Senate 
 of his journey to America) to tell of its no less heroic endurances 
 arid achievements and of its vital importance to the future of 
 France which the present valors of her people are revealing to the 
 world and defending against destruction. 
 
 When one hears that more than four thousand teachers of 
 those in France^ who have been called from the Army of Future 
 Defense to that of Present Defense have been cited for military 
 valor, one can believe that the same heroic spirit pervades the 
 entire teaching body of France and that the remark of the 
 Rector of the University of Nancy (to anticipate for a moment 
 my visit) was warranted. I had been looking at the broken walls 
 of an elementary school, wrecked by a shell which fell upon it in 
 the midst of a morning's session. The master of the school, when 
 the shells began to fall near the school building, timed the interval 
 between the first shells, got his children in line for marching and 
 then the moment a third or fourth shell fell, marched them to a 
 building seventy paces away that had a cellar with stout walls. 
 The next shell penetrated the school building and would doubtless 
 have killed or maimed all the children had they remained. I said 
 to the Rector that this teacher should have been given the Croix de 
 Guerre. " No," said the Rector (and this is the remark), " No, 
 any teacher in France would have done this ; " — which recalls a 
 sentence from the first report of the present Director of Elemen- 
 tary Education after the beginning of the war, to the effect that 
 the teachers having been accustomed before the war to think con- 
 tinuously of the good of their pupils were kept even in the 
 trenches from egotism and selfishness {^* sont facilement arraches 
 a Vegotisme "). 
 
 And I find better figure than my own in the tribute of this 
 gentle Director (M. Lapie) whom I found in his office in 
 
 ^ Thirty thousand men were called from the elementary schools alone at the beginning of the 
 war, and of course many thousands later. 
 
8 
 
 the Rue de Crenelle, but in daily touch with this " scholastic 
 
 front:" ''i'M 
 
 " We admire, not without reason, the serenity of the farmer 
 who, two steps from the battle line (a deux pas de la bataille) 
 is sowing for the future his grain on the bloody furrows. [And 
 many such farmers or farmers' wives I saw on those furrows, 
 while the little puffs of smoke showed that the enemy was in their 
 skies] . Let us admire none the less these teachers who, all along 
 the line of fire, hold their classes within sound of the cannon : they 
 also are sowing for the future." 
 
 Again and again in my journey there came to me the saying 
 of Voltaire: " The spirit of France is the candle of Europe." 
 Voltaire saw it glowing in peasants' huts, and he would see it 
 now in the trenches were he in France today ; but I saw its flame, 
 too, in the dim-cloistered places of learning, in the halls of the 
 lycees and even in little and meagerly furnished rooms of the 
 schools of France, which except for its light would have seemed 
 sad and somber places. 
 
 And one could but recall, too (one must add in this connection) 
 what Voltaire said further in speaking of this candle of Europe, 
 as if in divination of what has come to pass. " You English," 
 he said, "(nor all others) can not blow it out. . . And you 
 English will be its screen against the blowing out, though in 
 spasms of stupidity you flaunt the extinguisher." 
 
 The winds, savage in temper and fury beyond any that have 
 ever blown over the earth, have been driving across France from 
 the northeast, winds that have razed villages to dust, that have 
 felled trees by thousands in the fields, that have poisoned waters 
 with their breath, that have shown no respect for schools or hos- 
 pitals or churches, that have not only denuded the fertile earth in 
 their path, but have torn it so that it will not for years, if ever, 
 be able to support life. But despite all this, the spirit of France, 
 the candle of Europe, is unquenched. 
 
 France has restricted the use of food, fuel and light; she has 
 discouraged travel except for reasons of necessity ; she has mobil- 
 ized every able-bodied man for present defense; but she has not 
 
for one moment forgotten her future defense. She has even 
 opened schools in caves and occasionally provided teachers and 
 pupils with gas masks; she has put women by thousands in the 
 places of men teachers called to the front; she has received back 
 into service many men with marks of honor upon their breasts who 
 have been incapaciated by wounds, to teach again in the schools 
 they had left. Indeed I have seen many hundreds of children 
 from the occupied territory being taught in casernes (barracks) 
 by their women teachers who had fled with them. But she has 
 not except under compulsion of cannon and bombs tal^en from an}) 
 child that heritage in which alone is the prophecy of an enduring 
 nation. 
 
 The able-bodied men of France are fighting in the first army 
 to preserve the candle that holds the flame, but the teachers are 
 fighting as valiantly in the other to make the candle worth the grim 
 game — this candle of Europe which has become the candle 
 of civilization. 
 
 Lest the reader may not follow my journey through its more 
 than two thousand miles, by day and by night, by rail, by military 
 car and on foot, I give my conclusion before I begin — the advice 
 which France, out of her physical anguish but unabated aspiration 
 of spirit, sends to us from her *' scholastic front." It is this : " Do 
 not let the needs of the hour, however demanding, or its burdens 
 however heav^, or its perils however threatening, or its sorrows 
 however heart-breaking, make you unmindful of the defense of 
 tomorrow, of those disciplines through which the individual may 
 have freedom, through which an efficient democracy is possible, 
 through which the institutions of civilization can be perpetuated 
 and strengthened. Conserve, endure taxation and privation, 
 suffer and sacrifice, to assure to those whom you have brought 
 into the world that it shall be not only a safe but also a happy 
 place for them." 
 
 Not that France has put this advice into words. She would 
 consider that presuming. It is the advice of her doing that I have 
 attempted to translate. 
 
10 
 
 When she made plans for the care of the wounded in school 
 buildings at the beginning of the war, it was from sheer necessity ; 
 there were not enough hospitals. But as soon as the blesses could 
 be cared for elsewhere, the children were brought back to the 
 schools, the lycees were filled up again, as the statistics show. It 
 was only the universities whose men students and many of whose 
 professors were mobilized for the Army of Present Defense that 
 had decimated ranks. (In Nancy, for example, I found that 
 there were only ten students in the School of Medicine — four in 
 the first year, three in the second, two in the third, and one in the 
 fourth — and these were women, foreigners and ref ormes. ) 
 France has kept open her schools, even her universities (for her 
 professors have all found some war service in the lessened demand 
 of their classes) with the persistence of an intuitive devotion to 
 the things of the mind. It is as if the winning of the war 
 depended upon going on with the educational processes. 
 
 Here are a few incidents of my own observation or experience 
 which testify of that devotion : 
 
 The day after my arrival I was invited by the Minister of 
 Public Instruction to meet him at an early hour the following 
 morning — half past eight, which was really half past seven for 
 they had moved the clocks forward an hour — and to accompany 
 him and others in the special inspection of an exhibition which had 
 just been opened to show that which I went to France primarily 
 to see, namely, the work of the children in the schools during 
 war time. I did not understand fully the import of his invitation, 
 but when I arrived at the appointed place in the early morning, I 
 found that it was the President of the French Republic who was 
 to make the inspection, accompanied by the Minister of Public 
 Instruction and other educational officials. There were in this 
 exhibition photographs of unusual conditions under which schools 
 were conducted, as at Rheims. There were photographs showing 
 new activities, as physical training, medical inspection, sewing 
 and knitting for the soldiers and agricultural work. There were 
 samples of placards used throughout the schools in making appeals 
 
11 
 
 for subscriptions to loans (such as our Liberty Loans) or for 
 gold. There were memorials to teachers killed in the war; there 
 were scores of designs in expression or stimulation of patriotic 
 spirit; there were hundreds if not thousands of composition books 
 relating to the war, and almost all of them illustrated by the 
 pupils; and there were great charts showing programs of school 
 activities in war time. There were also copies of letters written by 
 children in the French schools to children in the United States, 
 and letters themselves sent in return by American school children. 
 (And I fear, from one or two examples at which I glanced in the 
 wake of the President that the latter were not as well composed or 
 written in English as those that I examined in French.) I shall 
 not forget with what solemn dignity and close examination 
 President Poincare and his official companions testified of their 
 deep concern for the schools and of their conviction as to the 
 supreme importance of education even in war time. 
 
 A second incident significant of this same attitude of the French 
 mind toward education happened a day or two afterward, in those 
 latter days of May when things were not the brightest for France. 
 This incident was a " seance " held in the amphitheater of the 
 Sorbonne in the presence of the President of the Republic. The 
 Minister of War, Painleve (later the Premier), formerly a 
 professor in the Sorbonne, was one of the speakers, and the meet- 
 ing was attended by thousands of men and women, some of whom 
 stood for two hours or more. One unfamiliar with the language 
 might have assumed that it was a great service to cheer on the 
 Army of Present Defense, but while no one could long keep one's 
 thought away from the trenches, whose cannon could almost be 
 heard, this great popular assemblage was held to pay homage not 
 to a soldier but to a great teacher and scientist, M. Berthelot; and 
 after the meeting in tribute to him had ended with a mighty 
 chorus of song, thousands of school boys marched in the street 
 past the monument unveiled in his honor, one troop carrying an 
 American flag. To certain minds outside of France, it may have 
 seemed a sign of inefficiency that the President of the Republic 
 
• 12 
 
 and the Minister of War should take hours, even of a holy day, 
 in war time to pay homage to a teacher; but it is, at any rate, 
 indicative of the intellectual habit of France. 
 
 There is another illustration. One June day among the somber 
 afiches upon the hundreds of official bulletin boards containing 
 official announcements and war appeals, there appeared a bright- 
 colored poster showing a French child on the way to school with 
 a drawing portfolio under her arm. It was an announcement of 
 an exhibition of the work in design (dessin) of the children of 
 the Seine, and except for the large-lettered words, " pendant la 
 guerre," one might think that the poster itself had been carried 
 over from the days of peace. I have been hoping to bring this 
 exhibit, or a part of it, to the United States^ as an intimation not 
 only of what the children of France normally do in design, but 
 also of what varied expression they find for their patriotic spirit. 
 And it is this attempt at individual expression that is the chief note 
 of all the training in France. It is not possession but expression. 
 Intellectual exercise, in the higher ranges at any rate, seems the 
 supreme joy of accomplishment, and in all ranges perfect expres- 
 sion seems the common aim. 
 
 One further illustration : a few days before General Pershing's 
 arrival (and as one of the great crowd that filled the streets I 
 saw with what genuine enthusiasm and instant admiration the 
 people welcomed him) , I was permitted to visit a museum of art 
 which even in those anxious days before his coming the men of 
 France were preparing with such help as they could find from 
 those who could not fight. Seventy-five miles away the trench 
 warfare was going on night and day. And, only a few miles 
 nearer. Carrel and others were mending bones and healing as by 
 magic the wounded. Here in the midst of Paris, this new museum 
 was being prepared for the gathering of Rodin's sculptures. 
 These men representing France had refused even in the face of 
 the world's most savage recrudescence to give up those arts in 
 which the race has found loftiest expression. 
 
 1 This collection is now on the way to America. 
 
The Grand Amphitheater of the Sorbonne 
 
13 
 
 In addition to the unspoken general advice which I have 
 extracted from France's doing if not from her Hps, there are these 
 specific suggestions that I have gathered from my rather hurried 
 visitation of the schools of various grades : 
 
 1 Emphasis upon the acquisition and accurate use of the lan- 
 guage of the nation. (France is a one-language country, but the 
 ability of all classes to use that language, in written form or in 
 speech, makes one feel that even we who have inherited in our 
 tongues the speech in which our laws and history are written, 
 have need to give more attention to its better common use.) I 
 was amazed by the composition and penmanship of the letters 
 that I saw, as for example, in the Bureau of the Fatherless Chil- 
 dren of France, where thousands are received, many of them from 
 peasant mothers of children to whom American children were 
 giving aid. And I think I may say in passing that this exchange 
 has more than any other agency, except President Wilson's mes- 
 sage, brought the children of France to know America. 
 
 2 The intensive teaching of the few elementary subjects in the 
 first six years. The great mass of children in France have only 
 these six years, but I should infer from what I saw and heard 
 that they were more thoroughly trained in the elementary subjects 
 than the mass of our children even in a longer period of years. 
 This is due perhaps to the fact that there is greater concentration 
 upon these few subjects and that education is taken very seriously 
 by the parents as well as by the teachers themselves. At present 
 there are about six million children in the elementary schools of 
 France, whereas the total number enrolled in what are known 
 as the higher primary schools and supplementary courses, is only 
 a little beyond one hundred thousand, and in the lycees about 
 the same number, that is, about two hundred thousand beyond 
 the ecole primaire. It should be said, however, that the percen- 
 tage of illiteracy is higher than in the United States. This is due, 
 I suppose, to the fact that there is no central and uniform enforce- 
 ment of attendance as in New York State. 
 
 3 The teaching of every child to express itself, to some extent, 
 at any rate, through drawing and singing. 
 
14 
 
 4 The building upon the six years of elementary training of a 
 three-year course in which the boy or girl may go toward his or 
 her particular life work, this course corresponding roughly to 
 what we have in mind under the name of " junior high school." 
 As intimated above under paragraph 2, comparatively few boys 
 and girls take this additional three-year course, known as the 
 ecole primaire superieure, the attendance in these schools being 
 only about 100,000 as compared with millions in the ecole 
 primaire. There are intimations, however, that after the war 
 there will be compulsory continuation schools. M. Viviani intro- 
 duced a bill in the Chamber of Deputies during his ministry, 
 carrying provisions similar to those embodied in England's new 
 education bill. 
 
 5 The most rigorous training of those who are selected or 
 permitted to go on into secondary or higher training, that is, into 
 the lycees and universities. 
 
 6 The emphasis upon intellectual training for the full expres- 
 sion of the individual rather than training for material possession, 
 a characteristic of the French people perhaps because a character- 
 istic of its teaching. 
 
 7 And the teaching everywhere and in all manner of ways of 
 the love of France. 
 
 But for the most part, these are suggestions that would have 
 been gathered before the war. There has been no outward change 
 in the curriculum ; everywhere this was asserted. 
 
 At the same time there have been'changes in the interpretation 
 and emphasis given to the old curriculum, and new activities have 
 claimed the thought of teacher and pupil in holiday and after- 
 school hours and even to some extent in the midst of their regular 
 studies, such, for example, as the cultivation of the fields and 
 gardens. There was, however, no nation-wide organization of 
 such effort, no mobilization for the immediate aid of the Army of 
 Present Defense except in the matters of helping by school chil- 
 dren's contribution to care for the orphans, or by school sewing 
 and cooking to send articles of need to the soldiers or of support- 
 ing the national loans, or of the gathering of gold from the places 
 of its hoarding. 
 
15 
 
 There is growing an interest in physical training. A general 
 physical training syllabus has been prepared for use in the schools, 
 but that use is not compulsory. Here and there I found medical 
 inspection and physical training going forward. 
 
 Here and there I saw, too, some evidences of pre-military 
 training under the patronage of a national organization but of 
 private support. Military training is, however, not to be made a 
 part of the public school training. The experiment which was 
 attempted some fifteen years ago proved not to be a successful 
 one, and now, as is known, every boy at 18 or 19 has to begin 
 intensive military training. It is likely that after the war there 
 will come universal compulsory physical training (such as New 
 York now has), for the French are beginning to appreciate the 
 value of giving attention to the health education of the child. 
 
 But in one cause the children of France were mobilized, as 
 intimated above and as the following statement concerning the 
 second loan will show: 
 
 In every lycee, college and school of France, during the second fortnight 
 of October, the work of the classes was directed to showing the importance 
 of the great duty that the country laid upon her children. Reading lessons, 
 compositions, Latin versions even were turned into means for explaining 
 the necessity of the loan, its mechanism, its advantages. All the masters 
 made their pupils learn " The appeal to the French," an ardent passage 
 from the speech pronounced in the Chamber of Deputies, on September 1 4, 
 1916, by M. Ribot, financial minister. 
 
 In certain departments, at the October session of the C. E. P. (certificat 
 d'etudes primaires), the primary inspectors set the young candidates ques- 
 tions relative to the loan, and thus assured thjemselves that the efforts of the 
 teachers had not been in vain. 
 
 The drawings of Rabier and more particularly of Hansi had been dis- 
 tributed by miUions and had rendered the lessons pleasant and easy. The 
 master commented the text and developed the idea. Thus through the 
 child he reached the family, to which the pupil carried the direct and full 
 echo of his master's sentiments and voice. 
 
 Artistic posters on the walls of the classrooms were an incessant appeal 
 to duty and a stimulative of energy and hope. 
 
 And a few days before the loan was closed, M. Paul Pain- 
 leve. Minister of Public Instruction, addressed the following 
 
16 
 
 eloquent and vigorous appeal to the members of the teaching 
 profession : 
 
 In a few days the subscriptions to the loan will be closed. The con- 
 fidence and patriotism of the country have fully responded to the appeal of 
 Government; but it is essential that the financial power of France should, 
 after two years of war, affirm itself as victoriously as the power of her arms. 
 
 It is on our schoolmasters and schoolmistresses, it is on the teachers in 
 all the grades of our education, it is on their moral authority, on their ever 
 persuasive and effective propaganda, that it is incumbent to urge the back- 
 ward to their duty. He who is capable of subscribing to the loan and does 
 not subscribe, is a deserter: he abandons his brothers at the front. Far 
 from shortening the war, as an infamous movement claims, he prolongs it: 
 if he does not rob us of victory, which can no longer escape us, he makes 
 her approach more slow and sanguinary. 
 
 In penetrating the souls and hearts of our youth with these truths, our 
 masters do not accomplish a merely educational task. Their influence 
 spreads far beyond the walls of their classrooms. Numerous as are the 
 schools which have agreed to contribute directly to the defense of the 
 country, it is not by the sums paid into the treasury that the magnitude of 
 the duty accomplished is to be measured, but rather by the value of the 
 example and its echo in all classes of the nation. 
 
 The National Assembly used to accord the honors of the sitting to the 
 deputations from schools bringing their money to the country in danger. 
 Such deputations would be innumerable today. 
 
 To establish a lasting souvenir of this patriotic effort, I have decided, 
 in agreement with the Minister of Finance, to give a diploma of honor to all 
 the educational establishments which have contributed to the national loan. 
 Each of the young subscribers will further receive a smaller diploma certify- 
 ing that, rich or poor, child or youth, he has made his offering to furnish the 
 arms of his seniors with still more powerful weapons for the decisive 
 victory. 
 
 Here is a direct precedent for the campaign which was carried 
 on by the schools of the United States in support of the second 
 Liberty Loan. 
 
 And it is reported that in response there was not a lycee, col- 
 lege, normal school, or higher primary school that did not sub- 
 scribe. Even the primary schools made general and generous 
 response. I have seen many letters from teachers and school 
 children which give intimation of what was done both inside 
 through direct subscription and outside of the schools in soliciting 
 subscriptions for the loans by the townspeople. One instance is 
 
17 
 
 especially appealing because of the commonplace detail of the 
 sacrifice which it reveals: 
 
 At Plemeleuc, a little village of Ille-et-Vilaine, a peasant addresses Mile. 
 
 D , the schoolmistress: " Mademoiselle, you tell me to invest, but do 
 
 you do so yourself? " " My friend," she answers, " since we have been 
 at war, you have not seen me spend a penny on a toilette, a hat, a dress, 
 anything. I am going to make my last year's hat do just as it is for this 
 winter, and you know I am not grasping. But I prefer to give a soldier a 
 gun than to buy myself a dress." And the peasant brought in all his 
 savings as a subscription to the national loan. 
 
 I have, however, brought back not only this general and 
 specific advice of France to us, but also eloquent messages, in 
 answer to those that I carried over, from every one of the univer- 
 sities of France that I visited — and I visited all save the smaller 
 universities of Besangon, Aix, Clermont, and the lamented Lille 
 which was still back of the German lines, though many of her 
 professors and students were scattered over other parts of France. 
 Some of them I met at Paris at a " tea " given late at night, 
 following an ancient custom ; and one I found in Poitiers — 
 shepherds who had found new flocks. One of her professors had 
 even gone to far-away Algiers; and Angellier, her great poet- 
 teacher who had clung to Lille in the days before the war rather 
 than go to a professorship in the University of Paris, had been 
 saved by death from even anticipating the fate of his beloved city 
 though he saw the " blackbirds homing to cathedral towers." 
 The Rector (M. Lion) was, however, still in Lille, so I was 
 told, ministering to the schools. 
 
 But I must first say a word concerning the messages which 
 I had the high honor to bear across the ocean to the Universities 
 and schools of France. I went by authorization of the Regents 
 of The University of the State of New York whose organization 
 and function most nearly of all our state systems of education in 
 this country where education is a state function, resemble the all- 
 embracing University of France, which was, however, established 
 nearly a quarter of a century after The University of the State of 
 New York. But it was my great privilege to be entrusted with 
 
18 
 
 messages of amity, greetings from more than one hundred twenty 
 colleges and universities, as well as from President Wilson, 
 Governor Whitman, and from others of our foremost representa- 
 tive American citizens. These were as the " prodrome " of 
 what the universities and colleges and schools of America have 
 since been sending or preparing to send from their campuses to give 
 glorious confirmation to the utterances of these letters from univer- 
 sity presidents, resolutions of faculties and student bodies, a collec- 
 tion to which I gave the title taken from President Butler's letter ; 
 " To the Flower of France and therefore to the Flower of 
 Modem Civilization," — a collection which the great French 
 philosopher best known in America called a " Golden Book," 
 and which I have recently been advised has been printed by the 
 French government and distributed throughout France.^ I was 
 but the courier for these messages, which I think were of distinct 
 moral aid to the people of France in the dark days before the 
 arrival of the first American troops. 
 
 The summary of this precious collection (and I am doubting 
 if one more eloquent or significant was ever carried between the 
 schools of the two republics), I presented at all the university 
 centers that I visited (Paris, Nancy, Dijon, Lyons, Grenoble, 
 Montpellier, Toulouse, Caen, Rennes, Poitiers and Bordeaux), 
 and found such a welcome awaiting them that I was prevented 
 from seeing as much of the routine work of the schools as I had 
 hoped, for America had but lately come into the consciousness of 
 the children of France and everywhere they were assembled with 
 the cry of " Vive TAmerique " upon their lips. 
 
 This summary, which I regret could not have included every 
 message in its full text, follows in the form which it was given 
 in translation. It is gratifying that the French government 
 through its Maison de la Presse has made it possible for these 
 greetings of America to be heard in every corner of France. 
 
 ■ Copies of the French version have just reached America. 
 
MESSAGES 
 
 DES 
 
 UNIVERSITES, COLLEGES & ECOLES 
 
 DES 
 
 ETATS-UNIS 
 D'AMERIQUE 
 
 AU 
 MINISTRE DE L'INSTRUCTION PUBLIQUE 
 
 ET AUX 
 
 UNIVERSITES, LYCEES & ECOLES 
 
 '. DE FRANCE 
 
 PRESENTES PAR LE 
 
 DocTEUR JOHN FINLEY 
 
 Directem de I' Enseignement ei 
 Prisident de VUnioersilt de I'Etat de New-York 
 
 191 7 
 
A la fleur de la FRANCE 
 c'est a dire a la fleur 
 de la Civilisation Moderne. 
 
 Quand je vins en France, il y aura bientot sept ans, c'etait dans le but 
 d'y rappeler une page d'histoire, momentanement oubliee peut-etre, je le 
 craignais du moins, Aujourd'hui, j'y viens prendre une legon. Je rap- 
 pelciis alors la valeur et les sacrifices de ces pionniers et de ces explorateurs 
 de France, pretres et soldats, qui donnerent a I'liumanite une nouvelle 
 nation: Timmense territoire s'etendant des monts Alleghany jusqu'au dela 
 du grand Mississippi, qui fut " La Nouvelle-France " et qui est aujourd- 
 'hui le " Heart of America ", le coeur meme de I'Amerique. J'evoquais 
 cette admirable epopee ecrite par la France comme une preface glorieuse 
 et dramatique aux chapitres de I'histoire de notre pays, evoquees aujourd- 
 'hui, chez vous comme chez nous, avec une emotion profonde et dans 
 lesquels les noms de La Fayette, de Rochambeau, de De Grasse et de 
 Beaumarchais, figurent aupres de ceux de Washington, de Franklin et de 
 Jefferson. Cette epopee splendide de Jacques Cartier de Saint-Malo, de 
 Samuel Champlain de Brouage, du Pere Marquette de Laon (dont la 
 mere etait de Reims), de M. de La Salle de Rouen, et de cent autres qui 
 avec eux donnerent leur vie pour la France et qui, en meme temps, 
 revelerent au monde et ouvrirent a la civilisation la plus vaste et la plus 
 fertile vallee de la terre. 
 
 Ces hommes dont j'evoquais le souvenir il y a sept ans, afin que voire 
 pays et le mien en gardassent un culte vivant, nous apparaissent maintenant 
 comme les precurseurs des Frangais d'aujourd'hui qui se sont reveles d'une 
 valeur incomparable, et c'est pourquoi je viens aujourd'hui visiter les ecoles 
 oil ces admirables qualites ont ete developpees, afin de savoir ce que nous 
 autres Americains devons f aire pour devenir des camarades dignes de vous 
 dans la lutte supreme pour la liberie humaine. Car, certaincment, le 
 systeme d'education qui a donne a la France la place que le monde entier 
 lui reconnait doit etre compris et imite. 
 
 Au cours de ma premiere visite, dans une conference a la Sorbonne, je 
 citais une invocation a la France faite par un de ses fils, Lescarbot, il y a 
 trois cents ans, quand il se trouvait la-bas dans les parages deserts et sau- 
 vages de I'Amerique du Nord. Les evenements actuels donnent a une partie 
 de ce message un interet tout particulier: 
 
 " Bel oeil de Tunivtrs, ancienne nourrice des Lettres et des 
 Armes. . . II vous faut, dis-je, (6 chere mere!) faire une alli- 
 
 [21] 
 
22 
 
 ance imitant le cours du Soleil, lequel comme il porte chaque 
 jour sa lumiere d'ici en la Nouvelle-France : ainsi, que continuelle- 
 ment votre civilite, votre justice, votre pitie, bref, votre lumiere, 
 se transporte la meme par vos enfants." 
 
 Je suis venu chercher cette lumiere et apprendre ici quel est le devoir de 
 la Nouvelle-France dans la lutte terrible que livre aujourd'hui la civilisation. 
 
 Si c'est la le but principal de ma mission, je suis charge en outre, 
 d'exprimer la profonde admiration que les professeurs et les etudiants 
 americains eprouvent pour la France, J'apporte avec moi un dossier 
 precieux, et en traversant I'ocean, j'avais pris mes dispositions pour I'assurer 
 solidement autour de mon corps si notre paquebot etait torpille. C'est une 
 collection de messages des universites et colleges qui fleurissent dans toutes 
 les regions de notre pays, depuis les cotes du Maine, explorees par Cham- 
 plain, jusqu'a ces cotes qui regardent la Chine et qu'il cherca a decouvrir, 
 et des Grands Lacs du Nord que les bateaux de La Salle ont les premiers 
 traverses, jusqu'a I'embouchure du grand fleuve dont il prit possession au 
 nom de Louis XIV. Ces messages sont I'expression de la pensee de toute 
 rAmerique qui embrasse la cause pour laquelle la France a souffert au dela 
 de toute imagination et a affermi sa place dans I'immortalite, 
 
 Je viens avec un mandat DE L'UNIVERSITE DE L'£TAT DE 
 NEW- YORK. Cette vaste organisation universitaire, fondee en 1 784, 
 ressemble par I'etendue de son enseignement a votre Universite de France, 
 et exerce son action sur plus de deux millions d'enfants et de jeunes gens. 
 L'enseignement aux £tats-Unis n'est pas une institution nationale, mais 
 il est particulier a chaque £tat. Si I'Etat de New- York a pris I'initative 
 de cette mission, c'est qu'il assume les plus lourdes responsabilites ayant le 
 plus grand nombre d'eleves a instruire et les problemes les plus difficiles a 
 resoudre, c'est que ses cotes sont plus voisines des votres, c'est que son 
 commerce et ses sympathies le rendent plus proche de vous, c'est enfin 
 qu'une ceuvre frangaise, la statue de la Liberte, salue a I'entree de son port 
 les navires qui reviennent de France. 
 
 Le Gouverneur de I'ttat de New-York m'a charge de remettre au 
 President de votre Republique un eloquent message qui comprend la proc- 
 lamation lancee pour celebrer dans tout I'Etat le " France Day " : la 
 " Journee de la France ". J'ai eu le privilege, en ma qualite de directeur 
 de I'Enseignement, d'adresser cette proclamation aux douze mille etablis- 
 sements scolaires de I'Etat et de designer comme date celle du 26 avril, qui 
 marque a la fois I'arrivee de la Mission frangaise aux £tats-Unis et 
 I'anniversaire de I'embarquement de La Fayette pour I'Amerique en 1777. 
 
23 
 
 JOURNEE DE LA FRANCE 
 (Proclamation du Gouveraeur de I'Etat de New-York) 
 
 II convient que le pays reconnaisse toute Timportance du jour 
 que marque un evenement si considerable dans I'histoire de notre 
 patrie bien-aimee. Les £tats-Unis font maintenant partie de 
 cette societe fraternelle de nations, unies et alliees pour assurer 
 le triomphe de la democratic dans le monde. La premiere mani- 
 festation de cette nouvelle union internationale est I'arrivee sur 
 nos rivages d'une delegation officielle de la Republique-sceur 
 composee d'eminentes personnalities civiles et militaires de France. 
 
 La statue de la Liberte dans le port de New- York, le 
 monument commemoratif erige en 1912 dans la vallee du lac 
 Champlain, symbolisent le sentiment de la France a I'egard de 
 I'Amerique; ce sentiment se manifeste aussi par la celebration de 
 nos grandes fetes nationales dans la capitale de la France et par 
 I'erection de statues aux glorieux fondateurs de la liberte ameri- 
 caine, Washington et Lincoln, et tout dernierement encore par 
 Taffichage du message du President Wilson et la presentation du 
 drapeau americain a toutes les ecoles de France. 
 
 New- York ne manquera pas de profiter de I'occasion qui lui 
 est offerte pour exprimer ses profonds sentiments de respect et 
 d'admiration au principal champion de la liberte, a I'amie histori- 
 que de I'Amerique, a la patrie de La Fayette. Le jour choisi 
 pour celebrer I'arrivee de ces delegues coincide heureusement 
 avec I'anniversaire de I'embarquement de La Fayette a Bordeaux, 
 lorsqu'il vint se donner tout entier a la cause de la liberte de 
 notre propre pays. 
 
 II est essentiel que nous concevions parfaitement les motifs 
 depourvus de toute pensee egoi'ste et de tout desir de conquete 
 qui nous ont pousses, en tant que peuple, a participer a cette 
 guerre. Le message du President des £tats-Unis est la noble 
 expression du sentiment intime de I'Amerique et des raisons aux- 
 quelles la France a sacrifie les precieuses vies de milliers de ses 
 fills, le travail de ses femmes et de ses enfants et les ressources de 
 sa terre. 
 
24 ' 
 
 Le but de cette mission speciale est d'etablir d'amicales rela- 
 tions entre les deux pays, ainsi que leur collaboration intime dans 
 leur lutte commune. Suivant les resolutions du senat de I'fitat 
 de New- York, je recommande que le 26 avril soit choisi comme 
 la " Journee de la France ", et qu'il soit considere dans tout 
 r£tat comme un jour de fete a I'occasion de Tarrivee de la mission 
 frangaise et en commemoration de I'amitie historique qui lie les 
 deux nations. 
 
 D'accord aussi avec le Commissaire special de I'fiducation, je 
 recommande que, ce jour-la, le message du President soit lu 
 dans toutes les ecoles de I'fitat, et qu'on y fasse solennellement 
 connaitre toute I'etendue de nos responsabilites et le privilege qui 
 nous est donne de pouvoir combattre aux cotes de la France et 
 des Allies pour la cause de la liberte, de I'humanite et de la 
 justice. 
 
 Cependant, bien que je tienne mon mandat d'un seul £tat, le plus riche, 
 il est vrai, en etablissements scolaires, les messages que j'apporte presentent 
 vraiment un caractere national. 
 
 Void le salut de celui qui fut d'abord mon professeur, et dont je devins 
 plus tard le collegue, comme professeur d' economic politique a i'Universite 
 de Princeton, WOODROW WILSON, President des £tats-Unis. 
 
 Au lendemain de mon debarquement, j'ai vu le President de votre 
 Republique qui, iaiss ant momentanement de cote les angoissantes questions 
 de rheure presente, a bien voulu, d'un esprit eclaire et bienveillant, me 
 parler de la situation des enfants des ecoles elementaires pendant la guerre. 
 De son cote, le President de la Republique de mon propre pays, dans 
 I'intense activite des premiers jours qui ont suivi notre entree en guerre, a 
 montre le sincere interet qu'il porte a cette mission, en me demandant 
 d'apporter son " salut le plus cordial aux universites et enfants des ecoles 
 de France et a leurs maitres." 
 
 Pareil interet de la part des Presidents des deux grandes Republiques 
 fait bien ressortir I'importance primordiale des ecoles, surtout en ces jours de 
 crise mondiale. 
 
 C'est un grand privilege de vous apporter aussi I'expression de vibrante 
 sympathie d'un de mes amis de longue date, I'ex-PRESIDENT ROOSE- 
 VELT, qui, comme vous le savez, a ete le champion loyal et ardent de la 
 grande cause pour laquelle vous combattez depuis bientot trois ans, Quand 
 je I'ai quitte a la veille de mon depart d'Amerique, il attendait avec impa- 
 
25 
 
 tience dans I'espoir de pouvoir venir lui-meme apporter son message a la 
 France, le lui apporter dans les tranchees et lui donner toute sa valeur en 
 faisant usage d'un langage qui en ce moment a une eloquence et une signifi- 
 cation infiniment plus hautes que celui des mots. Vous me permettrez done 
 de vous dire tout simplement que I'ex-President Roosevelt est avec vous de 
 ccEur et qu'il vous envoie son fraternel salut avec une foi profonde dans la 
 cause de la civilisation et la certitude absolue du triomphe de la democratic. 
 J'ai regu de notre ancien President de la Republique, William H. Taft, 
 le temoignage suivant de son admiration pour la France: 
 
 *' Je suis enchante d'apprendre que vous allez porter aux uni- 
 versites et aux ecoles de France un message des universites et 
 colleges des Etats-Unis., Rien, au cours de cette guerre, n'a 
 souleve une admiration aussi profonde et aussi emue que la ferme 
 et magnifique determination, le calme du peuple frangais dans la 
 lutte terrible qu'il soutient pour sauver la France et pour detruire 
 I'autocratie militaire qui continuerait a menacer la paix du monde 
 si on lui permettait de vivre. Les universites americaines ne pou- 
 vaient choisir pour une telle mission un meilleur representant que 
 vous, et je me felicite que nous ayons un aussi admirable inter- 
 prete de I'esprit fraternel que les universites et colleges de ce pays 
 doivent manif ester aux universites de France." 
 
 William H. Taft 
 
 Je vous apporte aussi le message d'un de nos grands hommes d'£tat: 
 " Dites, je vous prie, a vos amis des universites francais aux- 
 quelles vous allez rendre visite, que la cooperation de I'Amerique 
 avec la France n'est nulle part plus sincere que dans ses efforts 
 pour aider le nouveau gouvernement russe. Mais ce que nous 
 pouvons faire est peu de chose, en regard de ce que peut faire la 
 France. La longue et traditionnelle amitie entre la France et la 
 Russie, les etroites relations entre les gens de Lettres de France et 
 les intellectuels russes qui ont ete les precurseurs de la revolution, 
 la dette d'honneur de la Russie envers le pays qui a fait de si ter- 
 ribles sacrifices pour rester fidele a son alliance, tout cela doit 
 donner a la France une grande influence sur le peuple russe. 
 J'espere que cette influence va s'exercer activement et sans delai 
 
26 
 
 pour enseigner aux chefs de Topinion russe cette maitrise de soi, 
 cet esprit civique et desinteresse qui sont necessaires a I'etablisse- 
 ment et au maintien d'un gouvernement democratique." 
 
 Elihu Root 
 
 II me faut maintenant citer en entier le message du professeur Barrett 
 Wendell, de I'Universite Harvard, le premier des professeurs d'echange 
 americains venus dans votre beau pays ou il a laisse de si bons souvenirs : 
 
 " Le sens des evenements de ces dernieres annees devient si 
 clair que les mots n'ajoutent plus rien a sa clarte. Mise a I'epre- 
 uve comme jamais nation ne I'avait ete jusqu'ici, la France s'est 
 montree plus magnifique que jamais. Au cours de toute sa 
 grande histoire, aucune autre periode n'atteint a la supreme 
 grandeur de la periode actuelle. L'endurance courageuse, 
 patiente, inebranlable, que la France a montree, est la preuve 
 d'une valeur nationale que rien ne saura jamais ternir. Meme 
 si, ce qui semble maintenant impossible, la fortune des armes 
 devait tourner contre elle, la victoire que I'esprit fran^ais a rem- 
 portee dans le coeur du monde, resterait encore le plus haut geste 
 de sa noble tradition. Aussi, est-il impossible d'exagerer I'im- 
 portance de la joie solennelle avec laquelle nous, Americains, nous 
 trouvons enfin dresses aux cotes de la France contre I'ennemi 
 commun de I'ldeal de I'Humanite. 
 
 Quand notre prochaine victoire aura definitivement rendu la 
 paix au monde, c'est dans les universites frangaises que les etu- 
 diants americains trouveront la lumiere que trop souvent, dans le 
 passe, ils ont cherchee en vain dan's les tenebres des universites 
 allemandes, et cela sera un des plus heureux resultats de notre 
 victoire. Je salue done les universites frangaises. . . 
 
 Barrett Wendell 
 
 Des messages congus dans le meme sens auraient ete certainement envoyes 
 par des milliers de nos maitres de la Pensee et de I'Action en Amerique, si 
 tous avaient pu etre sollicites, mais le temps manquait car mon voyage avait 
 ete hate au dernier moment par d'imperatives raisons professionnelles. 
 
 Le jour ou je me suis embarque, les representants de six cents etablisse- 
 ments d'enseignement aux fitats-Unis, s'etaient reunis a Washington pour y 
 
27 
 
 deliberer sur ce que les professeurs et les eleves des universites, des colleges, 
 des ecoles techniques et professionnelles ainsi que I'elite du monde des arts 
 et des sciences pouvaient f aire en commun pour servir le pays dans cette crise, 
 Du president de cette conference, lequel siege egalement au Conseil con- 
 sultatif de la nation, j'ai recu le telegramme suivant, qui m'est parvenu 
 quand nous etions deja en mer. 
 
 " Nous, representants de 600 colleges et universites de la 
 Republique Americaine, reunis a Washington pour conferer sur 
 les devoirs qui nous incombent dans la situation presente, vous 
 prions d'abord d'assurer les colleges et universites de France de 
 notre profonde sympathie et de notre admiration pour les sacrifices 
 heroi'ques qu'ils ont faits a la cause de la liberte et de la civilisa- 
 tion, et de leur dire que nous nous engageons a travailler avec eux 
 au maintien des traditions de la science et de I'enseignement, 
 traditions que I'histoire de la France illustre d'une fagon si 
 frappante. Nous nourrissons le ferme et cher espoir que la cause 
 de I'education sortira victorieuse des horreurs presentes, que les 
 educateurs, guides par un ideal plus eleve encore, poursuivront 
 plus resolument que jamais, leur ceuvre de perfectionnement de 
 la vie morale et intellectuelle de la France, de I'Amerique et de 
 toutes les nations." 
 
 II ne m'est pas possible de vous donner en entier les resolutions, lettres 
 officielles et personnelles, telegrammes, cablogrammes qui me sont parvenus 
 de tout le territoire des Etats-Unis pendant les quelques jours qui ont pre- 
 cede mon depart ou que j'ai regus depuis mon arrivee en France. Avertis 
 de la mission qui m'amenait vers vous, la grande majorite des etablisse- 
 ments d'education de mon pays, parmi laquelle figurent les plus anciens 
 et les plus renommes de nos colleges et de nos universites, m'ont charge de 
 vous apporter I'expression de leurs sentiments. C'est pour moi un grand 
 honneur et une grande joie que de vous transmettre plus de cent messages 
 fraternels emanant de nos grands groupements d'etudiants, de membres les 
 plus eminents de notre corps enseignant, de Presidents de facultes et d'uni- 
 versites. Si elles different dans la forme, elles se rencontrent toutes dans 
 une manifestation unanime d'admiration pour la France. Dans leur 
 ensemble, elles constituent un temoignage emouvant d'amitie et d'admiration. 
 Malgre I'hostiHte sauvage et sans merci des sous-marins, ces fragiles feuillets 
 qui vous montrent le coeur de I'Amerique battant a I'unisson des votres, 
 ont pu aborder sur vos rives amies. 
 
28 
 
 De tous ces messages, je commencerai par citer celui du Dr Nicholas 
 Murray Butler, President de la grande Universite Columbia, a New- York, 
 ou depuis des annees, vos conferenciers et vos professeurs ont regu I'accueil 
 le plus chaleureux: 
 
 Je suis tres heureux que vous puissiez faire ce voyage, non 
 seulement pour observer les repercussions de la guerre sur I'en- 
 seignement dans la Republique Frangaise, mais aussi pour trans- 
 mettre en personne et de la maniere la plus intime, le salut affec- 
 tueux de nous tous a ce noble corps des savants et des educateurs 
 qui est la fleur meme de la France, et par consequent de la civili- 
 sation moderne. Vous ne sauriez aller trop loin, ni vous etendre 
 trop longuement, pour exprimer a nos amis et collegues de la-bas 
 la profonde admiration que nous avons pour I'esprit fran^ais et 
 pour la fagon dont il se manifeste dans cette terrible crise de 
 I'histoire universelle." 
 
 Autant que possible, je presenterai ces messages dans I'ordre geograph- 
 ique, en commengant par I'fitat du Maine, dont les cotes furent explorees 
 par Champlain bien avant le debarquement des premiers colons anglais sur 
 les rivages arides et semes de recifs de la Nouvelle-Angleterre. Le pre- 
 mier est celui du President de I'Universite de I'Etat, qui est aussi president 
 de la grande societe composee des membres du corps enseignant de tous les 
 £tats de rUnion: " L' Association Nationale d'Enseignement aux £tats- 
 Unis." 
 
 " Veuillez transmettre aux professeurs des universites de 
 France les salutations cordiales des etudiants, anciens eleves, pro- 
 fesseurs et membres du conseil d' administration de I'Universite du 
 Maine. Nous les glorifions pour les sacrifices qu'ils ont faits. 
 Nous sommes maintenant unis avec les universites frangaises pour 
 prendre notre part de tous les nouveaux sacrifices qui seront 
 necessaires pour assurer une paix glorieuse et permanente. 
 
 Les ecoliers et les instituteurs des £tats-Unis envoient a la 
 France I'expression de leur admiration et de leur foi profonde 
 dans I'avenir." 
 
 Robert J. Aley 
 President de V Association Nationale d'Enseignement, 
 Recteur de V Universite du Maine 
 
29 
 
 Void la lettre d'un college de cet £tat d'ou sont sortis des citoyens 
 eminents qui ont joue un grand role dans notre histoire: 
 
 " Nous, corps enseignant et eleves du College Bowdoin, nous 
 rejouissons de Toccasion qui nous est offerte, d'exprimer par vos 
 bons offices, a nos soeurs les ecoles et les universites de France, 
 notre reconnaissance et notre admiration constante pour les nobles 
 sacrifices qu'elles font pour la cause commune, celle de la demo- 
 cratic et de la liberte dans le monde entier. Ce matin meme, 
 dans notre chapelle, Mme la baronne Huart nous parlait de 
 rhero'isme de la France. 
 
 Les etudiants de notre college se preparent activement au 
 service militaire, et, avant longtemps, ils prendront place au front, 
 cote a cote, avec les jeunes gens des ecoles et des universites de 
 
 France." 
 
 Wm. Dewitt Hyde 
 
 Le corps enseignant et les eleves du Bates College ecnvent: 
 
 " Les professeurs et les eleves du Bates College n'ont cesse de 
 suivre avec le plus profond interet les diverses fortunes du vaillant 
 peuple de France au cours de la lutte terrible qui se livre en 
 Europe. La France a donne a tous les esprit eclaires, un 
 exemple si extraordinaire de sagesse, de patience, de sentiment du 
 devoir, de devouement, de patriotisme, d'heroisme et d'abnega- 
 tion, que les merveilleuses pages de son histoire en sont illuminees 
 d'un eclat nouveau, et que les aspirations et les ideals du monde 
 civilise en re^oivent une vie nouvelle. Nous savons que, malgre 
 leurs privations, leurs souffrances et leurs deuils, les Frangais, a 
 quelque classe ou condition qu'ils appartiennent, sont en train 
 d'acquerir pour eux-memes et pour toute I'Humanite eprise de 
 liberte, avec une independance plus complete, une realisation 
 plus belle de I'ideal democratique. Nos sympathies vont tout 
 droit aux professeurs, a la jeunesse et aux enfants de France. 
 Nous esperons qu'ils supporteront jusqu'au bout les lourdes 
 charges qui leur sont imposees, afin de trouver, a la fin de cette 
 terrible lutte, le champ libre a leur influence et a leur action sur 
 
30 
 
 la vie morale et intellectuelle du monde, et des conditions infini- 
 ment plus favorables a leur developpement que les plus braves et 
 les plus optimistes d'entre eux n'oseraient esperer." 
 
 George C. Chase 
 
 President 
 
 A cote du Maine s'etend un £tat dont la chaine de montagnes boisees 
 comprend, parmi ses sommets aux nobles et puissantes lignes, le mont Wash- 
 ington et le mont Lafayette. Le principal etablissement d'education de cet 
 Etat est un des etablissements historiques de la Nouvelle-Angleterre, le 
 College Dartmouth, ou notre grand Daniel Webster fut eleve. Voici le 
 message qui nous est envoye par son President: 
 
 *' Ce college, qui compte quinze cents etudiants, se prepare 
 activement a I'heure actuelle, a remplir ses obligations envers la 
 cause commune, c'est-a-dire, a maintenir I'ideal democratique, 
 par la force des armes, a n'importe quel prix, tant en hommes 
 qu'en argent. Dans le courant de la semaine, quarante-quatre 
 de nos eleves vont s'embarquer pour aller servir sur le front fran- 
 gais dans le corps des ambulanciers americains. 
 
 Presque sans exception tous nos jeunes gens subissent un 
 entrainement assidu pour faire face aux besoins de la cause a 
 laquelle les £tats-Unis ont donne toute leur adhesion. 
 
 Nous adressons I'expression de notre admiration a tous les 
 membres des universites frangaises, a la grande Republique soeur, 
 a tous ces hommes qui I'ont si vaillamment et si efficacement 
 def endue." 
 
 Ernest Martin Hopkins 
 
 President 
 
 De r£tat du Vermont, lequel porte fierement un nom d'origine frangaise, 
 me sont parvenus deux messages de ses deux principaux etablissements 
 d'education. Le President de I'Universite de I'Etat qui preside aussi la 
 " Federation des universites des £tats-Unis ", accompagne sa lettre d'lme 
 photographic de la statue de La Fayette, erigee devant le principal corps 
 de batiment de I'Universite: 
 
 *' Je vous prie de porter aux principaux educateurs de la 
 Republique soeur le salut des etablissements d'education de 
 
31 
 
 rAssociation Nationale de la Federation des universites. Je 
 serai egalement tres heureux que vous leur apportiez I'expression 
 des sentiments affectueux et de bonne camaraderie du President, 
 du corps enseignant des etudiants, ainsi que de tous les services de 
 rUniversite du Vermont et de I'ecole d'agriculture de I'Etat. 
 
 " La dette des £tats-Unis envers la France est une de celles 
 dont nous ne pourrons jamais nous acquitter entierement. Nous 
 sommes heureux d'etre les Allies de ce vaillant peuple dans la 
 lutte pour I'etablissement de la democratic universelle. L'Uni- 
 versite du Vermont a toujours entretenu des sentiments de par- 
 ticuliere affection a I'egard de la France, car ce fut un heros 
 fran^ais que nous considerons comme un des notres, le marquis 
 de La Fayette, qui posa la premiere pierre du principal corps de 
 batiment de I'universite, lequel fut malheureusement detruit par 
 un incendie a la suite de la guerre de 1812. La plus belle statue 
 du general La Fayette que nous ayons aux £tats-Unis, oeuvre 
 de J. Q. A. Ward, est le principal ornement de notre Universite. 
 Je joins a ma lettre une photographic de cette statue dediee a 
 M. le ministre de 1' Instruction publique. 
 
 Guy Potter Benton 
 
 President de VAssociation Nationale 
 
 des Universites d'Etat, 
 
 President de V Universite du Vermont, 
 
 Directeur de VEcole d' Agriculture de VEtai. 
 
 Le President du College de Middlebury servait I'ete dernier comme 
 aumonier deins I'un de nos regiments sur la frontiere mexicaine. J'aime a 
 penser qu'il pourra venir en France avec le contingent americain. Voici 
 son message: 
 
 " Le corps enseignant et les etudiants du college de Middlebury, 
 dans r£tat du Vermont, desirent envoyer leur salut le plus 
 cordial et le plus sympathique aux professeurs et aux eleves des 
 universites de la Republique Francaise. L'Etat du Vermont a 
 regu son nom du grand explorateur francais et pionnier du chris- 
 tianisme, Samuel Champlain, qui fut le premier homme blanc a 
 contempler nos belles collines verdoyantes. Notre capitale porte 
 
32 
 
 un nom egalement honore en France, Montpellier. Depuis le 
 premier et effrayant choc de cette guerre terrible, nos coeurs n'ont 
 cesse de battre avec une chaude sympathie pour la France. 
 Maintenant, nous nous rejouissons d'etre appeles a partager les 
 sacrifices des membres des universites. Nous attendons avec 
 impatience le jour ou nous serons trouves dignes de combattre a 
 cote d'eux, et nous participerons avec joie a leurs souffrances, 
 esperant ainsi partager la gloire dont les membres des universites 
 frangaises se sont couverts dans leur lutte hero'ique pour assurer 
 I'etablissement de la democratic dans le monde." 
 
 John M. Thomas 
 
 President 
 
 L'£tat du Massachusetts a magniBquement manifeste son amour poui la 
 France et il n'y a pas un etablissement d'education en Amerique qui ait 
 fait plus que I'Universite Harvard. Animee par I'ardente sympathie que 
 son President eprouve pour votre pays, elle envoie ses professeurs dans vos 
 universites et ses eleves et anciens eleves dans votre armee. Voici son 
 message : 
 
 " Veuillez porter aux universites de France, nos sceurs, les 
 salutations les plus chaleureuses de I'Universite Harvard. Nous 
 commencons seulement a faire ce qu'elles font depuis deja trois 
 ans : nous envoyons nos jeunes gens prendre part a la grande lutte 
 pour la cause de la civilisation et de I'humanite." 
 
 A. Lawrence Lowell 
 
 President 
 
 Les autres institutions d'education du Massachusetts se sont montrees 
 aussi empressees a manifester leur sympathie. Je ne puis citer que des 
 extraits des nombreuses adresses regues: 
 
 De rUniversite Clark: 
 
 " Non seulement I'Histoire americaine, mais aussi la Science 
 americaine ont contracte une dette immense vis-a-vis de la 
 France." 
 
 G. Stanley Hall 
 
 President 
 
33 
 
 Du College d' Amherst: 
 
 " Nous, qui dans les colleges americains, cherchons a demon- 
 trer d'une facon tangible et pratique a une democratic encore 
 naissante I'art de se conduire par les idees, nous rendons hom- 
 mage a la nation qui, plus que toute autre nation moderne, a su 
 garder intacte sa foi dans la suprematie de Tintelligence comme 
 guide de la vie." 
 
 Alexander Meiklejohn 
 
 President 
 
 Le corps enseignant, le conseil d'administration et les eleves de 
 YUniversite de Boston envoient un message officiel exprimant leur espoir de 
 voir se developper des relations plus etroites entre les deux peuples, et 
 rappellent le mouvement dirigedans ce sens par une centaine d'universitaires 
 sous la direction du Dr Wigmore, mouvement en faveur duquel le ministre 
 de rinstruction publique, M. Steeg, a deja manifeste son approbation. 
 (Dr Wigmore, doyen de la Nortvvestern Faculte de Droit et doyen de 
 YUniversite de Boston est aussi le President du comite des Cent pour 
 I'etablissement de bourses d'eleves americains dans les universites 
 franeaises.) 
 
 Le College Tufts s'exprime en ces termes; 
 
 " Un grand nombre des notres, ainsi que la plupart d'entre 
 "vous, ont offert leurs services a leur pays et se tiennent prets a 
 faire tout ce que leur gouvernement voudra leur demander. 
 Maintenant que les deux Republiques de France et des Etats- 
 Unis sont unies dans la cause commune pour la liberte, la fra- 
 ternite et I'etablissement dune paix durable entre toutes les 
 nations, nous sommes inspires non seulement par votre merveilleux 
 exemple, mais aussi par la reconnaissance pour les services que 
 nous a rendus autrefois votre pays, en aidant nos ancetres a con- 
 '^querir la liberte dont nous jouissons depuis si longtemps. 
 
 iToute votre jeunesse des Arts, des Lettres et des Sciences a 
 a^porte a la France le concours de son effort. Nulle nation ne 
 poavait offrir de plus riches qualites de courage, de force d'ame 
 et de puissance que la votre. C'est de grand coeur que nous 
 ^ous offrons aujourd'hui le concours de nos bras. Nous voulons 
 I 
 
34 
 
 prendre part a vos luttes et a vos sacrifices, et partager avec vous 
 la gloire du triomphe." 
 
 Le recteur du College Williams, M. H. A. Garfield, fils de I'un des 
 anciens Presidents des £tats-Unis, exprime " les sentiments de tous " en 
 adressant son cordial salut et en affirmant sa foi absolue dans la victoire. 
 II parle des deux freres Cru, etudiants de Williams, qui sont maintenant 
 sur le front. D'ailleurs, son propre fils vient de s'engager dans le service 
 des ambulances au front. 
 
 Le directeur de I'lnstitut Polytechnique de Worcester, M. Ira Hollis, 
 un grand savant, apres avoir declare que: 
 
 " Les Francais ont eu a supporter la plus lourde charge de la 
 lutte pour le triomphe de la civilisation et de la liberte du genre 
 humain ", adresse ses souhaits les plus chaleureux aux ecoles 
 frangaises, et en particulier aux etablissements " qui enseignent a 
 la jeunesse les sciences appliquees." 
 
 Des messages ont ete egalement envoyes par les colleges de jeunes filles 
 du Massachusetts. Voici celui du fameux College Wellesley: 
 
 "Au cours de cette terrible lutte, un profond sentiment de 
 camaraderie et d'amitie pour les Allies et en particulier pour la 
 France, s'est developpe dans nos coeurs. J'ai ete surprise et 
 heureuse de constater avec quelle spontaneite nos etudiantes ont 
 repondu a toutes les demandes de secours, et surtout a celles qui 
 venaient de France." 
 
 Ellen J. Pendleton 
 
 Directrice 
 
 Les professeurs du non moins connu College Smith se sont prononces 
 pour I'envoi d'un message de chaleuses felicitations, et le principal du 
 college ajoute: 
 
 " Permettez-moi de vous assurer qu'il s'agit la d'un geste dont 
 la valeur depasse celle d'une simple formalite. Dans ce college, 
 nous sommes tous parfaitement d'accord avec la France, nous 
 adherons a la cause qu'elle soutient et nous apprecions le service 
 que vous nous rendez en transmettant aux universites fran^aises 
 le message des eleves, du corps enseignant et du President de ce 
 
35 
 
 college, message qui exprimera avec notre amitie, notre enthousi- 
 asme pour les principes que la France represente et notre confiance 
 dans son triomphe." 
 
 M. L. Burton 
 
 President 
 
 Le College Simmons ecrit: 
 
 " Nous avons ete profondement emus de la valeur deployee 
 et des souffrances endurees par les soldats de France, dont beau- 
 coup sont des savants et des professeurs. L'entrain et la magna- 
 nimite avec lesquels tous les Francais, quelle que soit leur situa- 
 tion dems la vie, ont supporte le fardeau de la guerre, sont pour 
 nous un sujet de constante inspiration. Beaucoup d'entre nous 
 ont voyage en France, quelques-uns ont suivi des cours dans les 
 universites frangaises, et nous avons tous beneficie, de cent f aeons 
 differentes, de I'eruditiori francaise. Aucun Americain ne saurait 
 oublier les souvenirs qui, au cours de toute notre Histoire, unissent 
 notre pays au leur. Nous profitons du moment ou notre pays 
 entre en guerre aux cotes de la France et de ses Allies, pour la 
 cause de la liberte et de la democratic, pour transrnettre a nos 
 camarades francais, I'expression la plus sincere de notre bonne 
 amitie, de notre reconnaissance et de notre admiration. " 
 
 Henry Le favour 
 
 President 
 
 Les professeurs et les eleves du college du Mount Holyoke ont envoye 
 ce message, superbement grave: 
 
 " Nous, etudiants et professeurs du college du Mount 
 Holyoke, tendons fraternellement les mains vers les universites, 
 les lycees et les ecoles de France, a cette heure critique que la 
 Republique Frangaise et celle des Etats-Unis traversent en ce 
 moment. 
 
 Dans I'espoir que les relations amicales etablies jadis entre les 
 deux pays, ainsi que les relations d'amitie qui existent aujourd'hui, 
 pourront servir a developper a un degre inconnu jusqu'ici 1 esprit 
 democratique et les aspirations vers I'ideal, et, constatant encore 
 
36 
 
 une fois, a la suite de la recente revolution russe, I'importance des 
 ecoles dans I'orientation de la vie publique vers un ideal demo- 
 cratique, nous nous engageons a travailler d'accord avec les 
 etablissements d'education en France a I'avenement du regne de 
 fraternite qui devra recevoir la consecration du monde." 
 
 L'Universite Brown: 
 
 L'£tat de Rhode Island est represente par un eloquent message du 
 directeur de Brown, que je reproduis en partie: 
 
 " Notre universite, situee a Providence, Etat de Rhode Island, 
 a des raisons toutes particulieres d'etre profondement reconnais- 
 sante a I'liero'isme et a la culture de la 'France. C'est a trente 
 milles d'ici, que six mille soldats francais ont debarque sous la 
 conduite de Rochambeau, pour porter secours a notre pays pend- 
 ant notre guerre d'Independance; dans le voisinage de notre 
 universite, une avenue, I'avenue Rochambeau, nous rappelle 
 encore Templacement ou ces troupes ont campe ; la plus ancienne 
 partie des batiments de I'Universite a ete occupee, pendant six 
 ans, par les troupes francaises et americaines. 
 
 II y a presque deux ans, I'un de nos professeurs, le lieutenant 
 frangais Henri F. Micoleau, repondant a I'appel de son pays 
 natal, a trouve, dans quelque coin ignore de la terre de France, 
 une mort glorieuse. 
 
 Maintenant que nous sommes devenus vos compagnons d'armes 
 nous nous rendons compte que vos problemes sont aussi devenus 
 les notres. Nous devons aussi veiller a ce que le flambeau de 
 I'education ne s'eteigne pas dans la tourmente de cette guerre, et il 
 nous faut aussi entrainer ceux qui doivent prendre la place de vos 
 soldats tombes." 
 
 W. H. P. Faunce 
 
 President 
 
 Universite Yale: 
 
 Apres m'etre entendu avec les corps enseignants des differentes ecoles qui 
 composent cette florissante Universite, j'ai regu de son president le message 
 suivant, qui peut, pour le moment, etre considere comme I'expression des 
 
37 
 
 sentiments de I'Etat du Connecticut, les adresses des autres etablissements 
 d'instruction de cet £tat ne m'etant pas encore parvenues: 
 
 "Au nom des membres du corps enseignant, des etudiants et 
 des eleves diplomes de I'universite, je vous prie de transmettre 
 Texpression de notre attachement aux nombreuses universites et 
 aux colleges de France que vous pourrez visiter. Nous sommes 
 tres heureux de profiter de cette occasion pour leur exprimer notre 
 profonde sympathie pour les souffrances qu'ils ont endurees et de 
 les feliciter aussi pour ce qu'ils ont accompli." 
 
 Arthur Twining Hadley 
 
 President 
 
 L'ETAT DE NEW-YORK 
 
 Plus de trente etablissements superieurs d'education de I'Etat de New- 
 York, y compris toutes les universites et tous les colleges autant publics que 
 prives, ont envoye des messages pleins d'enthousiasme a la France, " porte- 
 flambeau de la lumiere intellectuelle, de la beaute, de la civilisation ", 
 ainsi que I'appelle le doyen du college de jeunes filles Barnard. Je ne 
 puis en citer que deux: voici d'abord le message specialement adresse par 
 le College de la ville de New- York au President Poincare, a I'occasion du 
 " France Day ", lequel a ete observe d'un bout a I'autre de I'Etat, comme 
 je I'ai dit plus haut. J'ai eu I'honneur d'assister a cette imposante reunion 
 de trois mille professeurs, anciens eleves et etudiants, et le plaisir de con- 
 stater I'unanimite, dans cette manifestation, de sympathie pour la France. 
 
 " Le College de la Ville de New- York, reuni en assemblee 
 generale a I'occasion du " France Day ", envoie son salut cordial 
 a la France, et s'engage a cooperer sans restrictions a la lutte 
 universelle pour le triomphe de la democratie, de I'humanite et du 
 droit." 
 
 Voici le message de I'Universite de I'Union: 
 
 " Notre amitie pour vous date deja de longtemps. II y a 
 plus d'un siecle, un de vos compatriotes, Joseph-Jacques Ramee, 
 dessina les plans de notre college. L'originai de ces plans est 
 maintenant expose dans le bureau du president. 
 
 " Le College de I'Union a ete le premier college en Amerique 
 a permettre, dans le programme de ses cours, de remplacer . des 
 
38 
 
 langues anciennes par la langue frangaise; le vieux sceau du 
 college porte, avec la tete de Minerve, I'inscription en frangais: 
 ' Sous les lois de Minerve nous devenons tous freres.' " 
 
 " Cette devise merite d'etre prise comme texte de notre mes- 
 sage. Freres sous les lois de Minerve, nous sommes unis par des 
 liens encore plus etroits sous les lois de la liberie et de la fra- 
 ternite. Comme freres, nous vous saluons, comme freres, nous 
 accueillons avec joie I'occasion qui nous est offerte de lutter a 
 vos cotes, de nous sacrifier aussi a cette noble cause pour laquelle 
 vos meilleurs et vos plus braves fils sont deja tombes. Nous 
 voulons nous joindre a vous pour glorifier ceux qui ont paye de 
 leur vie leur dette a la patrie, et nous vous garantissons notre aide 
 jusqu'au bout. Nous enverrons nos fils combattre a cote des 
 votres, dans cette lutte supreme pour la liberte de la France, 
 de I'Amerique et du monde entier. Et le jour de la victoire 
 finale, qui surement viendra, nous verrons Hotter glorieusement 
 ensemble les trois couleurs de la France et la banniere etoilee de 
 I'Amerique." 
 
 Charles Alexander Richmond 
 
 President 
 
 Universite de Princeton: 
 
 Le message de I'Universite de Princeton, dans I'fitat de New-Jersey, 
 contient le programme de ce que compte faire cette universite sous la 
 direction de son president, le Docteur Hibben, non seulement pour assurer 
 un avenir plus liberal a I'enseignement superieur, mais encore pour 
 preparer ses eleves a servir leur pays d'une maniere plus efficace. 
 
 Le President Hibben est venu accompagner au bateau sur lequel je me 
 suis-embarque a New- York, une vingtaine de ses eleves qui venaient servir 
 de ce cote de I'ocean, et il adresse son cordial salut au monde de I'enseigne- 
 ment en France: 
 
 " Nous sommes profondement emus par la patience, le courage 
 et I'invincible esperance de votre grande nation et nous sommes 
 tres fiers que vous nous consideriez comme des Allies. C'est 
 notre grande esperance et notre fervente priere que les jeunes 
 gens et les jeunes fiUes de notre nouvelle generation puissent 
 s'inspirer des grandes actions du present pour un haut ideal de 
 
39 
 
 pensee et d'action de facon a ce qu'ils puissent faire noblement 
 face aux epreuves que la vie leur reserve, avec force et courage." 
 
 L'Institut Stevens et le College Rutgers, de se meme £.tat, vous envoient 
 leurs messages de felicitations. 
 
 ETAT DE PENNSYLVANIE 
 
 D'un bout a I'autre de I'ttat de Pensylvanie, aussi bien du cote de 
 I'Est, ou le College La Fayette perpetue le souvenir du grand ami de 
 Washington, que du cote oppose oil la ville de Pittsburg conserve intact 
 I'emplacement ou s'elevait le fort Duquesne, les universites et les colleges 
 les plus marquants ont, sans exception, envoye des messages de sympathie 
 et d'admiration: le College La Fayette, I'Universite de Pensylvanie, les 
 Colleges Wilson, Dickinson, Bryn-Mawr, I'Universite de Lehigh, I'lnstitut 
 Carnegie, I'Universite de Pittburg ainsi que le College d' Allegheny ou 
 Ton rencontrerait, si I'on remontait dans I'histoire, la figure de Celeron 
 allant du lac Erie a I'Ohio, et laissant au cours de sa longue route des 
 marques de son passage. Ce m'est un grand regret de n'avoir de place ici 
 que pour deux ou trois de ces messages. 
 
 College La Fayette: 
 
 " Les membres du corps enseignant et les etudiants du College 
 La Fayette s'empressent de profiter de I'occasion qui leur est 
 offerte par la visite de M. Finley aux universites et aux ecoles de 
 France pour envoyer un salut fraternel aux etudiants et aux pro- 
 fesseurs de la grande nation qui apporta a I'Amerique le precieux 
 secours de Timmortel La Fayette et qui donna a notre College, 
 fonde en I'honneur de ce dernier, I'inspiration imperissable et 
 I'autorite de ce grand nom. 
 
 " Nous avons suivi avec une admiration enthousiaste votre 
 heroique defense de la belle terre de France et de son glorieux 
 passe. Nous avons ete emerveilles a la vue de la manifestation 
 de cet esprit sublime avec lequel vou§ vous etes mis au service de 
 la nation, esprit bien digne de la tache qui vous etait imposee, et 
 qui, chaque jour, s'est manifeste de plus en plus confiant, de plus 
 en plus fecond en ressources. 
 
 " Nous nous estimons heureux de pouvoir entrer dans la lutte 
 pour la cause de la liberte, comme allies d'un peuple si vaillant 
 et doue d'un esprit si noble. Cette necessite de defendre nos 
 
40 
 
 droits contre un ennemi commun a resserre encore les liens qui 
 nous unissaient, et lorsque notre victoire aura retabli la paix, nous 
 esperons que les Americains chercheront de plus en plus a 
 s'instruire dans les universites frangaises, et que nous, membres 
 de I'enseignement et universitaires, resterons unis dans la grande 
 et eternelle lutte pour le triomphe de la liberte liberatrice." 
 
 John H. Mac Cracken 
 
 President 
 
 Le College Haverford a manifeste ainsi ses sentiments: 
 " Le President et les membres du corps enseignant du College 
 Haverford, etablissement fonde par les propres disciples de 
 William Penn, pres de la ville de 1' 'Amour fraternel ', envoient 
 aux universites et aux colleges de France leur plus cordial salut 
 ainsi que I'expression de leur sympathie pour les souffrances et 
 les privations qu'ils ont si noblement supportees pour ce commun 
 amour de la liberte et de la tolerance que nous partageons, salut 
 d'admiration pour le patriotisme heroi'que qu'ils ont partage avec 
 tous les autres enfants de la France, salut de gratitude pour cette 
 devotion dont le monde de I'enseignement en France a toujours 
 fait preuve pour la cause de la raison et de la verite." 
 
 J'ai recu de I'Universite de Pennsylvanie ce message: 
 " Nos etudiants, qui sont plus de neuf mille, nous viennent de 
 tous les Etats de notre pays. Tous sympathisent profondement 
 avec vous, et nous vous assurons que nous serons heureux de 
 cooperer avec vous par tous les moyens possibles. Nous sou- 
 haitons que la paix ne se fasse pas longtemps attendre et que la 
 France puisse de nouveau exercer son entiere activite dans toutes 
 les branches de I'education." 
 
 Edgar F. Smith 
 
 Provost 
 
 Void ce qu'a ecrit I'lnstitut Carnegie de Technologic: 
 " II est de circonstance que I'lnstitut de Technologic (fonde 
 par un homme qui, dans sa jeunesse, servit son pays en faisant la 
 guerre, et plus tard, fit beaucoup pour la cause de la paix),. 
 
41 
 
 envoie son salut a la France, qui fait de tels sacrifices pour la 
 cause de I'humanite. Pour nous autres, a Pittsburgh, la France 
 a une signification d'autant plus grande que nous vivons sur 
 Templacement du premier etablissement francais important de 
 Pensylvanie : le Fort Duquesne. Mais la dette de notre Institut 
 envers la France est particuliere et intime: I'Ecole des Beaux- 
 Arts de rinstitut Carnegie de Technologic a ete organisee par 
 un homme qui etudia a I'Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Paris, et c'est 
 a I'inspiration qu'il recut de vos ecoles nationales qu'est due une 
 bonne part du succes obtenu. Nous avons observe avec une 
 admiration sans cesse croissante qu'au milieu de votre lutte 
 gigantesque vous n'avez pas un instant neglige la cause de I'edu- 
 cation. Prives, depuis ces derniers temps, de I'inestimable privi- 
 lege accorde a notre jeunesse de pouvoir continuer ses etudes 
 dans vos etablissements scolaires, nous nous rendons mieux 
 compte, de nos besoins et de tout ce dont nous vous sommes 
 redevables, et nous attendons patiemment le jour, et nous sommes 
 convaincus qu'il est proche, oil nous pourrons de nouveau jouir de 
 la genereuse hospitalite que la nation francaise a toujours offerte 
 a nos etudiants. C'est avec un vif sentiment de satisfaction que 
 nous nous sentons aujourd'hui unis a vous dans cette lutte. 
 
 *' Pendant que nous redigeons ce message, sept cents de nos 
 etudiants, devancant I'appel sous les drapeaux apprennent leur 
 metier de soldats. Nos etudiants aussi se sont deja prepares a 
 accomplir la tache qui leur est reservee. 
 
 " De meme que nous suivons votre ideal en matiere d'instruc- 
 tion et de culture, nous nous efforcons aussi de suivre votre ideal 
 en matiere de patriotisme et de devouement au pays. Nous 
 saisissons avec empressement I'occasion qui nous est offerte de 
 vous adresser ce message." 
 
 REGION DU SUD 
 
 Si Ton descend vers le sud, suivant le chemin paicouru par La Fayette 
 pour se rendre a Philadelphie, apres son debarquement dans la Caroline 
 du Sud, on n'entend le long de cette longue route que des paroles d'affectioa 
 et d'admiration pour la France. 
 
42 
 
 A Baltimore, c'est I'Universite du Maryland et la fameuse Universite 
 Johns Hopkins dont le President, un savant double d'un grand adminis- 
 trateur, le Dr J. Goodnow, ecrit ce qui suit: 
 
 " Tous les membres des universites travaillent en commun pour 
 ravancement des sciences et pour la diffusion des connaissances. 
 Nous avons pourtant le sentiment dans ce pays-ci, en ce moment, 
 que nous autres, universitaires americains, nous sommes attaches 
 aux universites de France par des liens plus etroits que les liens 
 ordinaires, Ayant les memes sentiments que vous touchant 
 I'ideal democratique, nous ne pourrions faire autrement que 
 de reconnaitre la dette de gratitude que nous avons contractee 
 envers la France pour la resistance superbe qu'elle a su opposer 
 aux ennemis du gouvernement du peuple par luimeme. Nous 
 esperons, maintenant que nous sommes engages dans ce conflit 
 coude a coude avec la France, pouvoir 1' aider a remplir la lourde 
 tache dont elle a jusqu'ici supporte si vaillamment tout le poids." 
 
 A Washington, ou j'ai eu I'honneur, quelques jours avant mon depart, 
 de me rencontrer avec M. Viviani, le Marechal Joffre et les autres mem- 
 bres de cette remarquable mission, c'etait de tous cotes un debordement 
 d'enthousiasme pour la France. 
 
 De I'Etat de Virginie, des messages ont ete envoyes notamment par le 
 College de William et Mary, dont le President (qui est un fils de John 
 Tyler) me prie de declarer aux universites de France que: 
 
 " r esprit democratique qui s'est manifeste avec tant d'eclat 
 en la personne d'un ancien eieve du college, Thomas Jefferson, 
 nous fait sympathiser profondement avec la France dans la 
 grande lutte ou elle est maintenant engagee contre Tautocratie." 
 
 Des messages me sont egalement parvenus de I'Universite de Washington 
 et de Lee qui fut fondee par Georges Washington et qui au nombre de ses 
 tresors les plus precieux, possede un portrait de La Fayette, par Peale. 
 Ce n'est pas une grande institution, mais elle est animee d'un excellent 
 esprit et: 
 
 " les etudiants font tous les jours I'exercice pour se preparer a 
 remplir serieusement leur devoir comme freres d'armes des etu- 
 diants de France." 
 
43 
 
 Son president assure les universites de France que 
 
 " dans tous les centres d'education en Amerique, on vibre 
 d'enthousiasme en pensant a rheroi'sme des enfants de la France." 
 
 Le President de I'Universite de Virginie, M. Edwin A. Alderman, 
 vous envoie le message suivant: 
 
 " L'Universite de Virginie, fondee par Thomas Jefferson, 
 auteur de la Declaration de I'lndependance americaine, envoie 
 I'expression de sa sympathie et de sa confiance aux universites de 
 France ainsi qu'a toute la jeunesse des ecoles et colleges, Notre 
 universite se souvient avec fierte que La Fayette et Jefferson se 
 promenerent jadis dans ses jardins, revant ensemble au jour ou 
 la democratic et la f raternite regneraient sur la terre. En com- 
 battant avec tant de vaillance pour la realisation de ce reve, la 
 France a ajoute un nouveau fleuron a sa couronne de gloire; elle 
 a raffermi I'estime et I'amour des peuples en apprenant aux nations 
 libres comment il faut souffrir pour la liberte. Voila pourquoi le 
 drapeau tricolore frangais flotte aujourd'hui sur nos tours et 
 pourquoi au seul nom de la France, nos coeurs s'enflamment 
 d'une noble ardeur. 
 
 Un des fils de notre universite, James Rogers MacConnell, 
 dans un combat aerien ou il faisait seul face a trois ennemis, vient 
 de trouver en France une mort heroi'que. Ses compagnons 
 d'etudes sont liers de lui et de son sacrifice. II restera pour nous 
 comme un lien nouveau et sacre entre le pays de La Fayette et 
 la patrie de Jefferson." 
 
 De plus loin encore dans le sud, vous sont envoyes d'autres messages 
 pleins d'enthousiasme ; il nous en est venu de I'Universite de la Caroline du 
 Nord (dont le president exprime sa reconnaissance aux universites de 
 France pour avoir pleinement confirme, dans un style d'une puissance et 
 d'une beaute imperissables, les principes sur lesquels notre croyance est 
 fondee) , ainsi que du College de la Trinite dans le meme £tat ; il en est 
 venu de I'Universite de la Caroline du Sud et du College Rollins dans 
 r£tat de la Floride; de I'Universite de la Virginie occidentale, de 
 I'Universite Vanderbilt, de I'fitat de Tennessee, de I'Universite du Missis- 
 sippi, de I'Universite de Tulane dans la Louisiane, et de celle de la ville de 
 
44 
 
 la Nouvelle-Orleans ou se sont perpetuees les moeurs et les traditions 
 frangaises, de I'Universite de I'Etat du Texas, sur les confins de la fron- 
 tiere du Mexique, dont le President ecrit: 
 
 " Nous avons I'espoir que les universites de France, d'Angle- 
 terre et d'Amerique s'uniront dans un commun effort pour edifier 
 un genre de civilisation qui, a I'avenir, rendra impossible le retour 
 d'une situation semblable a celle qui pese a I'heure actuelle sur le 
 monde." 
 
 Robert E. Vinson 
 
 President 
 
 Ce qui doit surtout toucher le coeur des Francais, c'est de savoir que sur 
 toute I'etendue de Timmense bassin du Mississippi — bassin dont les grands, 
 cours d'eau ont ete suivis par les explorateurs francais et dont les grandes 
 villes se sont elevees sur les emplacements des forts et des portages 
 edifies par eux — I'amour de la France surgit pour ainsi dire du sol. 
 
 De nombreux messages ont ete envoyes par les universites et les colleges 
 de r£tat de I'Ohio (cet £tat tient son nom du fleuve que vos explorateurs 
 francais avaient appeles la " Belle Riviere ". Je ne puis citer que quelques 
 phrases de ces messages : 
 
 Universite de I'Etat de I'Ohio: 
 
 " Les membres de I'Universite s'unissent pour exprimer leur 
 
 admiration pour le courage et I'heroisme deployes par le peuple 
 
 francais, dans la lutte magnifique qu'il livre pour la defense de la 
 
 liberte." 
 
 Wm. O. Thompson 
 
 President 
 College Oberlin: 
 
 " Notre admiration pour la grandeur d'ame que la France a 
 manifestee dans cette crise mondiale augmente tous les jours et 
 nous sentons avec joie que I'influence de la France en Amerique 
 sera plus forte que jamais apres cette guerre." 
 
 Henri Churchill King 
 
 President 
 College Kenyon: . 
 
 " Un t^l patriotisme ne s'est pas acquis en un jour; c'est grace 
 aux legons et sous I'impulsion de leurs maitres, que les fils de la 
 Republique sont devenus des heros animes du plus vif patriotisme. 
 
45 
 
 Honneur et gloire a ceux qui ont enseigne cet esprit sublime de 
 devouement absolu a I'ideal national, et a ceux qui ont su 
 Tacquerir. L'Amerique est fiere de prendre place aux cotes de la 
 grande Republique son alliee. Citoyens d'une nation devouee a 
 I'ideal de la liberte et de la democratic, notre plus ambitieux 
 espoir est que notre patriotisme eclate aussi clair et aussi fort que 
 celui de nos freres bien-aimes de France." 
 
 William F. Peirce 
 
 President 
 College Hiram: 
 
 (Le College de Garfield, le President Martyr.) 
 " Dites aux universites de France que notre College est pro- 
 fondement reconnaissant a leurs membres du devouement qu'ils 
 ont manifeste dans cette lutte pour la cause de la liberte et du 
 droit, cause que nous sommes appeles aujourd'hui a defendre avec 
 eux. Pour nous encourager a entrer en lutte a leurs cotes, aux 
 preuves qu'ils nous ont donnees de ce devouement, ils ont ajoute 
 aussi I'exemple du sacrifice sans precedent qu'ils ont consenti a 
 cette noble cause. Leur ideal le plus eleve est aussi le notre, et 
 notre plus ardent desir est que notre communaute d' action dans 
 cette guerre soit le commencement d'une permanente et intime 
 collaboration dans les luttes futures que nous aurons encore a 
 soutenir pour le triomphe de I'intelligence." 
 
 Miner Lee Bates 
 
 President 
 
 Dans r£tat du Michigan, dont St. Lusson prit possession au nom de 
 la France, et dans lequel on a toujours tenu en honneur la memoire des 
 explorateurs francais, le President de la grande Universite de I'Etat ecrit 
 ce qui suit a M. le Ministre de I'lnstruction publique: 
 
 Universite du Michigan: 
 
 "Au nom des membres du conseil d'administration, des pro- 
 fesseurs et des etudiants de I'Universite du Michigan, je desire 
 que vous portiez aux membres des conseils d'administration, aux 
 professeurs et aux etudiants des universites francaises, le salut 
 cordial et les souhaits sinceres de I'Universite du Michigan. Vous 
 voudrez bien aussi les assurer de notre profonde sympathie dans 
 
46 
 
 la lutte actuelle. Nous sommes de tout cceur avec eux et avec 
 tout le peuple francais, dans leur effort pour bannir a jamais du 
 monde la domination autocratique. Esperons que nous appro- 
 chons du but; mais, que ce but soit proche ou encore eloigne, 
 rUniversite du Michigan, toutes les universites, tout le peuple 
 americain sont prets a offrir sans marchander tout I'appui qu'il 
 est en leur pouvoir de donner. Permettez-moi de vous assurer 
 que nous n'avons pas oublie la genereuse attitude de la France 
 et de son peuple en vers nous, a nos heures d'epreuves." 
 
 H. B. HUTCHINS 
 
 President 
 
 Les universites et colleges de-l'Indiana: 
 
 Le message de I'Universite de I'fitat a ete envoye mais n'est pas encore 
 parvenu en France. J'ai egalement re?u les messages de sept autres uni- 
 versites et colleges de I'lndiana avant men depart de New- York. L'un, 
 de I'Universite Purdue, situee dans une ville appelee Lafayette, nous 
 apporte en ces termes le salut de son President: 
 
 " Nous exprimons notre admiration pour le courage et la 
 grandeur d'ame du peuple francais. Jamais le flambeau de la 
 sciense ne s'eteindra tant qu'il restera confie a de si fideles mains. 
 
 " Nous saluons en vous les defenseurs de la civilisation et nous 
 vous assurerons de toute I'aide que nous pourrons vous donner." 
 
 W. E. Stone 
 
 President 
 
 Dans un message de I'universite Catholique de Notre-Dame, son 
 President est particulierement fier de rappeler que cette universite fut 
 fondee, il y a 75 ans, par un missionnaire francais, et que ses premiers 
 professeurs furent tous francais. 
 
 Le College Wabash exprime I'espoir qu'un certain nombre de ses eleves 
 iront, sous peu, rejoindre les troupes francaises sur le front occidental. 
 
 Mais le message le plus frappant est peut-etre le suivant, qu'un college 
 quaker, (Societe des Amis) envoie au Ministre de I'lnstruction publique: 
 
 College Earlham: 
 
 "A I'unanimite, les membres du corps enseignant et les eleves 
 de ce college, reunis a I'occasion de leurs prieres quotidiennes. 
 
47 
 
 demandant a leur President de vous charger de transmettre aux 
 professeurs et aux etudiants de France leur plus cordial salut et 
 I'expression de leur profonde sympathie dans ces terribles jours 
 d'epreuves. Leur courage nous a fait tressaillir d'emotion et leur 
 endurance a eleve nos cceurs. Nous prions pour que les nobles 
 qualites montrees par les hommes et les femmes de France, 
 qualites auxquelles nous, Americains, sommes tellement redev- 
 ables, persistent dans leurs ames et les conduisent, apres cette 
 guerre, a un monde meilleur et plus heureux." 
 
 Robert Lincoln Kelly 
 
 President 
 
 Les universites et colleges de rillinois: 
 
 De cet £tat ou La Salle esperait fonder la capitale de I'empire qu'il 
 desrinait a la France, I'Etat ou le Pere Marquette fonda une tribu d'Indiens 
 qui, s'appelant " Les Hommes ", donnerent leur nom a I'Etat, ou se trouve 
 la tombe d' Abraham Lincoln, de cet £tat ou la premiere maison de sa 
 grande capitale Chicago fut la hutte du Pere Marquette, vous sont envoyes 
 tant de messages qu'il est impossible de les citer tous. 
 
 Un president exprime la grande satisfaction qui nous est donnee de 
 " pouvoir nous aligner aux cotes de la France ". 
 
 La pensee de I'Universite du Nord-Ouest exprimee par M. le doyen 
 Wigmore dans son magnifique plaidoyer en faveur d'une cooperation intel- 
 lectuelle, est completee par un message du Dr Holgate, President de 
 I'Universite, et dont le fils est venu servir sur le front. 
 
 Mais je ne puis ici citer que la lettre du President de I'Universite de 
 Chicago qui exprime la pensee unanime des etablissements d'education de 
 rillinois: 
 
 " Notre corps enseignant et nos eleves sont entierement acquis 
 a la grande cause pour laquelle la France fait de si grands efforts 
 et sacrifice le meilleur de son sang, et sympathisant profondement 
 avec les universites soeurs dans la serieuse epreuve a laquelle elles 
 sont soumises, nous leur souhaitons plein succes dans Tavenir, et 
 nous sommes convaincus qu'elles ajoutent a leur histoire la plus 
 belle et plus glorieuses de ses pages." 
 
 Harry Pratt Judson 
 
 President 
 
48 
 
 Les sentiments de I'ttat du Wisconsin ont ete si generalement incompris 
 «et si mal interpretes, qu'aucun message parmi ceux qui composent cette col- 
 lection, n'est plus important et plus significatif que celui du president de la 
 ^rande Universite de cet Etat, dont le President est un de nos plus grands 
 savants et publicistes. 
 
 Universite du Wisconsin: 
 
 " Des le debut de la guerre, la sympathie des membres du 
 corps enseignant de I'Universite du Wisconsin est alle, aux Allies 
 et specialement, a la France et a I'Angleterre, les deux grands 
 pays representant la democratie en Europe; a ce groupe de 
 democraties s'est heureusement jointe une autre grande puissance, 
 Ja Russie. 
 
 Si personne en Amerique ne peut comprendre toute I'etendue 
 du sacrifice que la France a fait et fait encore pour la cause de 
 Ja civilisation, nous ne sommes pas sans reconnaitre I'irresistible 
 impulsion qui I'a conduite a donner tout le meilleur de son sang 
 et a contribuer de toutes ses ressources materielles a une fin 
 heureuse du conflit. 
 
 Durant les deux premieres annees de la guerre, les esprits 
 dirigeants en Amerique ont senti combien les allies pouvaient 
 difficilement comprendre la position dans laquelle nous nous 
 trouvions, et, cependant, il nous etait impossible d'obtenir I'unite 
 du sentiment public necessaire pour soutenir Taction du President 
 et du Congres. La barbaric de la guerre sous-marine a rallie 
 unanimement notre peuple aux principes pour lesquels combattent 
 les Allies, et, maintenant, les £tats-Unis, comme toute la France 
 I'a reconnu, ont pris au nom de la civilisation une position tres 
 nette dans ce conflit. 
 
 Nous nous trouvons tres soulages, en Amerique, d'etre sortis 
 de la position anormale qu'etait la notre jusqu'ici; c'est avec joie 
 que nous nous sentons completement unis aux Allies, dans une 
 determination absolue de mettre fin a la domination autocratique 
 qui a amene la presente catastrophe. 
 
 *' L' Amerique se sent toujours profondement reconnaissante de 
 I'immense service que la France rendit au peuple Americain 
 
49 
 
 dans notre guerre d'Independance. Et nous accueilions avec 
 allegresse I'occasion qui se presente, alors qu'elle traverse une 
 grave crise nationale, de payer a la France notre ancienne dette. 
 
 Je desire faire part aux recteurs des universites de France de 
 ma profonde appreciation des contributions que ces universites ont 
 apportees, et continuent d'apporter, a I'avancement de la science et 
 de la civilisation; je desire aussi leur exprimer ma profonde sym- 
 pathie pour les malheurs que certaines universites ont eprouves. 
 Je compte heureusement des amis et des collegues parmi les uni- 
 versitaires francais; certains d'entre eux appartenaient a cette 
 infortunee universite de Lille, aujourd'hui encore dans les lignes 
 allemandes, mais qui, nous I'esperons, sera bientot rendue a la 
 France. 
 
 "Avec ma profonde sympathie pour les epreuves presentes, 
 mais confiant dans un avenir radieux pour les universites 
 francaises, pour la France et pour la democratic, je suis sincere- 
 ment votre." 
 
 Charles R. Van Hise 
 
 President 
 
 Une lettre du Dr. Eaton, President du College Beloit, du meme £tat, 
 -confirme les sentiments exprimes dans ce magnifique message. 
 
 De chaleureux messages me sont egalement parvenus de I'Universite 
 •d'£tat de I'lowa, ainsi que des principaux colleges de cet £tat, de TUni- 
 versite d'£tat et des principaux etablissements d'enseignement du Missouri, 
 de I'Universite d'£tat du Kansas, de I'Universite d'£tat du Dakota du 
 Sud, de I'Universite d'£tat du Dakota du Nord, cette region lointaine du 
 des explorateurs francais, les Verendrye, arriverent en vue des montagnes 
 rocheuses. 
 
 LE FAR WEST 
 
 La resolution suivante a ete votee par les membres du corps enseignant et 
 les etudiants d'un college construit sur une haute montagne qui domine 
 I'immense plaine du Mississippi, le College du Colorado: 
 
 " Le College du Colorado, situe sur la rive gauche de cette 
 fameuse vallee du Mississippi qui fut exploree par d'intrepides 
 Francais et dont ils prirent possession au nom de la France, 
 adresse ses plus cordiales salutations aux instituteurs et eleves des 
 
50 
 
 ecoles, aux professeurs et etudiants des universites de France, ce 
 pays lointain dont la sympathie et I'assistance ont rendu possible 
 I'existence meme de notre nation. 
 
 A ces Allies, dont I'esprit ressemble tant au notre, nous envoy- 
 ons Fexpression de notre vive compassion pour les cruels ravages 
 exerces sur leur beau pays, ainsi que pour toutes les pertes et les 
 deuils qu'ils ont eprouves. Nous leur exprimons 1' assurance de 
 notre profonde admiration pour I'indomptable courage des soldats 
 francais et pour les merveilleux exploits accomplis par eux sur 
 les champs d'epouvante. Nous promettons a la France et a ses 
 Allies dans cette grande lutte, notre complete adhesion a I'ideal 
 de liberte qui les inspire. Nous sommes resolus nous aussi, quel 
 qu'en soit le prix, a ne pas deposer les armes avant que le jour 
 de la liberte, de la justice et de la fraternite se leve enfin sur le 
 monde tant eprouve par la guerre, Puisse cet heureux jour ne 
 pas se faire longtemps attendre." 
 
 Void deux telegrammes, I'un de 
 
 L'Universite du Colorado: 
 
 " En I'honneur de la France et en temoignage de notre grati- 
 tude pour les efforts qu'elle fait en vue de la realisation des 
 espoirs de la civilisation, pour son devouement inlassable et desin- 
 teresse a la cause des arts, des sciences, de la liberte et de 
 I'humanite, notre universite envoie son salut a tous les educateurs 
 de la grande Republique soeur. Nous sommes heureux que la 
 France immortelle et I'Amerique fraternisent aujourd'hui sur 
 les champs de bataille, comme elles n'ont cesse de fraterniser 
 jusqu'ici dans les arts et dans les sciences. Pour tout ce que la 
 France a fait, pour tout ce qu'elle fera encore nous la remercions 
 
 et nous I'aimons." 
 
 Livingston Farrand 
 
 President 
 I'autre de 
 
 L'Universite du Montana: 
 
 " Les etudiants, les membres du corps enseignant et tous les 
 fonctionnaires de I'universite vous seront toujours tres reconnais- 
 sants si vous pouvez faire comprendre aux universites de France 
 
51 
 
 toute I'etendue de notre admiration pour la perseverance, i'esprit 
 de sacrifice et rheroisme supreme dont le peuple frangais a fait 
 preuve pour la defense de la liberte humaine. 
 
 " Par la, les maitres de I'enseignement et les etudiants de 
 France ont apporte une contribution immortelle a la cause de 
 I'education de I'homme libre pour tous les temps a venir." 
 
 Edward C. Elliot 
 
 Chancelier 
 
 Tous les autres £tats auraient ete representes, et je crois pouvoir le dire 
 sans exageration, toutes les autres universites ainsi que tous les autres 
 colleges des £tats-Unis auraient exprime des sentiments semblatlee si 
 seulement ils avaient eu le temps de le faire. Aussitot ma mission decidee, 
 les choses se sent passees si rapidement qu'il a ete impossible d'aviser a 
 temps les £tat3 du Pacifique pour recevoir leurs reponses qui sont evidem- 
 ment en route. 
 
 LES COTES DU PACIFIQUE 
 Un seul message nous est parvenu de ces rivages lointains et ce sont des 
 paroles d'une grande envolee, Ce message emane du President de 
 rUniversite Leiand Standford, le Dr. Wilbur, et ii convient de remarquer 
 qu'il s'exprime au nom de tous les membres du corps enseignant et des 
 etudiants de ce vaste groupement, lequel est presque aussi loin de New- 
 York que New- York est eloigne de Pans. 
 
 "A Monsieur le Ministre de 1' Instruction publique en France: 
 
 Honore Monsieur, 
 
 " Puis-je me permettre de vous presenter ainsi qu'aux recteurs 
 des universites de France, le salut de tous les membres de I'uni- 
 versite Leiand Stanford. Nous tenons a ce que vous sachiez 
 quels sont nos sentiments de gratitude profonde et eternelle vis-a- 
 vis de la France pour ses nobles sacrifices a I'egard de la cause de 
 la civilisation. Nous tenons a accomplir notre part et a vous 
 venir en aide de toutes les manieres possibles aujourd'hui meme 
 et tout de suite, ainsi que dans I'avenir. Adressez-vous a nous 
 sans aucune contrainte, soit individuellement, soit collectivement, 
 si nous pouvons vous etre utiles." 
 
 Ray Lyman Wilbur 
 
 President 
 
52 
 
 Revenant aux cotes de I'Atlantique, j'ai I'honneur de vous transmettre 
 le salut cordial de nos deux ecoles nationales d'instruction de Tarmee et de 
 !a marine, I'Academie militaire des £tats-Unis a West-Point, notre Saint- 
 Cyr, et 1' Academic navale des £tats-Unis a Annapolis. 
 
 Les officiers qui en sent sortis prendront bientot euxmemes la parole au 
 nom de ces ecoles, et cela dans un langage qui, nous en sommes assures, 
 fera honneur a leurs maitres. 
 
 Le Directeur de I'Academie navale parle en termes emus de la visite 
 recente des officiers et des marins du vaisseau amiral francais, le " Jeanne- 
 d'Arc," ainsi que du bon souvenir qu'ils ont laisse. 
 
 Je ne puis mieux terminer se succinct rapport de ma mission que par 
 le poeme dedie aux femmes de France et qui a ete compose par les 
 eleves de I'un de nos principaux colleges de jeunes filles, le College Vassar, 
 de i'£tat de New- York. La traduction en a ete faite par une jeune fille 
 americaine, Miss Mary C. Lines, qui a passe son baccalaureat en France, 
 et est un symbole de I'Alliance que nous voudrions voir se developper de 
 plus en plus pour la cause de la liberte et de la justice sur la terre: 
 
 "A vous, jeunes filles de France, qui par votre attitude cour- 
 ageuse dans la souffrance, avez ennobli la jeunesse et la femme, 
 nous, jeunes filles du College Vassar, vous adressons notre salut, 
 fieres de pouvoir nous dire vos camarades et persuadees qu apres 
 avoir puise des forces dans le sacrifice, nous saurons, nous aussi, 
 nous montrer dignes du fardeau que nous avons, desormais, a 
 supporter en commun." 
 
 FRANCAISES 
 
 Ce n'est plus I'heure des paroles banales 
 
 Qui tombent de levres insouciantes. 
 
 A I'Atlantique perilleuse. 
 
 Nous confions ce message de bonne camaraderie. 
 
 Jeunes filles de la belle France, 
 
 II y a quatre ans nous vous cherchions 
 
 Dans nos reves, les yeux eblouis 
 
 Par la lumiere de celle qui mourut pour vous. 
 
 Cinq fois cent ans passes. 
 
 Alors les reves . , , et puis I'orage. 
 
 Votre destinee se grave 
 
 En lettres de feu et de sang. 
 
 L*-bas, dans nos foyers encore paisibles. 
 
 Nous fremissions devant le defi. 
 
53 
 
 Defi inattendu et subit 
 
 Qui paralyse vos forces. 
 
 Mais, devant I'ennemi, sublimes, encore, 
 
 Vous tenez fermes 
 
 Avec toute I'ancienne vigueur de votre race, 
 
 Tandis que vos glorieuses figures nous eblouissent. 
 
 Maintenant, face a face avec le barbare 
 
 Nous connaissons votre agonie dans le triomphe 
 
 Et c'est avec de pieuses mains que nous cherchons a placer 
 
 Notre nom '^ cote du votre. 
 
 Comme vous, sans peur, nous voulons engager la bataille. 
 
 Et, abandonnant les plaisirs de la jeunesse 
 
 Lutter avec le courage de la femme. 
 
 Pourtant la Vie et la Paix sont bien douces 
 
 Quand les bourgeons du printemps eclosent; 
 
 Le son du clairon est rauque 
 
 Le pas cadence des soldats en marche 
 
 Resonne pour rien par les sentiers. 
 
 Avons-nous bien compris? 
 
 Ce sont les appels au combat qui nous convient, 
 
 Nous aussi, a confondre le destructeur. 
 
 Jeunes filles frangaises durant de longs mois 
 
 Nous avons vu votre jeunesse, 
 
 Votre bonheur, vos ambitions s'evanouir 
 
 Comme une etoile dans le ciel. 
 
 Nous avons vu surgir en vous 
 
 Un sentiment de vaillance qui vous rend fortes 
 
 Et sans crainte au milieu des ruines. 
 
 Puissions-nous montrer la meme ardeur que la Pucelle 
 
 Dont le courage resonne a travers les siecles. 
 
 Et suivre sans faiblir la voie qu'elle a tracee. 
 
 La vraie signification de ma mission ne reside pas seulement dans le 
 grand nombre de messages que j'ai le grand honneur de vous transmettre, 
 mais dans le fait que ces messages vous disent la pensee d'un peuple sincere- 
 ment et profondement imbu des principes democratiques. Et ils expriment 
 la meme idee a laquelle notre President Wilson a donne une si noble forme, 
 lis sollicitent votre alliance sur le terrain intellectuel aussi bien que sur le 
 terrain militaire. Si I'alliance militaire doit d'abord s'imposer, elle doit 
 etre envisagee comme le prelude de I'alliance intellectuelle. 
 
 Aux Etats-Unis, nous nous demandons comment nos ecoles, nos colleges 
 et nos universites pourront contribuer ensuite a la victoire de la cause pour 
 laquelle nous aurons ainsi combattu. Nous avons commence a nous ranger 
 
54 
 
 aux cotes du peuple frangais en combattant avec iui dans les airs, sur les 
 mers et dans les tranchees. 
 
 Les listes des braves tombes au Champ d'Honneur que j'ai vues dans 
 toutes les universites, les colleges et les ecoles de France que j'ai visites, 
 nous disent assez ce qu'il faut attendre des jeunes gens de nos universites, 
 et je crois que ces derniers feront leur devoir aussi heroiquement que leurs 
 camarades frangais. Mais, avec la France et I'Angleterre, nous devons 
 regarder encore plus loin, examiner I'avenir reserve a ces universites aux 
 portiques desquelles ces Tableaux d'Honneur sont si fierement exposes, et 
 determiner ce que, plus tard, nous pourrons faire pour reconstruire, ren- 
 forcer, elargir ces institutions vouees au developpement de I'humanite par 
 la liberte et la justice. 
 
 Quelques-unes de vos ecoles n'ont pu afficher ces tableaux d'honneur: 
 car elles ont ete detruites avec une joie malsaine, comme ces arbres des 
 districts devastes qui seraient maintenant en fleurs. Manifestation d'une 
 civilisation pervertie qui, frappant les institutions destinees a aider une 
 democratie a s'elever jusqu'a une vie plus noble, croit atteindre la demo- 
 cratic elle-meme; mais manifestation qui nous indique aussi quelles seront 
 les premieres restaurations a realiser lorsque nous aurons ensemble libere le 
 pays oii ces ecoles ont ete detruites. 
 
 Au dela de ce cote materiel de la question, nous devons aussi, et des 
 maintenant, elaborer un plan d'enseignement qui rendra plus feconds encore 
 les buts que nous nous proposons. 
 
 Nous devrons avoir, dans I'enseignement, comme il y en a a la guerre, 
 des " olficiers de liaison ", c'est-a-dire des professeurs d'echange entre la 
 France et I'Amerique, d'une part, entre la France et I'Angleterre, d'autre 
 part. Et les etudiants d'Arnerique et les etudiants de France doivent se 
 reunir dans ces ecoles oil i'on s'entraine pour les luttes que nous aurons 
 encore plus tard a soutenir sur le terrain de I'esprit. 
 
 II est essentiel que nous ayons deux langues a notre disposition : I'anglais 
 et le frangais, non seulement afin que les uns puissent suivre, comme c'est 
 maintenant le cas, la pensee generale des autres, mais aussi pour arriver a 
 une comprehension parfaite de nos moyens d' action et de nos methodes 
 reciproques. 
 
 II faut aussi que nous autres Americains nous assimilions les methodes 
 patientes et desinteressees de I'esprit frangais, ainsi que le courage calme, 
 modeste et invincible de votre cceur. 
 
 Nous devons encore etudier quelle est la meilleure contribution que nous 
 puissions apporter a Toeuvre commune, pour I'avenir. Les deux suggestions 
 que je viens de faire ont deja regu un commencement d'execution. Mais 
 pour le moment, les messages que j'ai eu I'honneur de vous apporter vous 
 revelent notre unanime sentiment et vous prouvent notre reconnaissance, 
 notre admiration et notre profonde affection. 
 
55 
 
 RECEPTION BY THE MINISTER OF PUBLIC 
 INSTRUCTION 
 
 I was received, in the late afternoon of the day after the night 
 of my arrival, by the Minister of Public Instruction, echoes of 
 whose proclamation to the schools of France on the occasion of 
 the entering of America into the war I heard in all parts of 
 France. I quote here a few paragraphs. (The full text in 
 translation was published in the Bulletin of the University of the 
 State of New York of May 15, 1917.) 
 
 TTie Republic of the United States has just entered the struggle which 
 in concert with our alHes we are carrying on for freedom of the nations, the 
 safeguarding of our civilization. 
 
 I expect very shortly to ask the teachers under your direction to devote 
 on the same day an hour to the celebration of this great event. I shall send 
 you, to be read to the pupils, an historic outline and a lesson drawn up by 
 eminent professors of our University. But immediately after the Easter 
 vacation and in accordance with the desire expressed by Parhament I beg 
 you to invite the teachers to make known to the children of all our institu- 
 tions and all our schools the message of President Wilson, the telegram 
 addressed by the President of the French Republic to the President of the 
 Republic of the United States and the addresses delivered by the Presidents 
 of both houses of our legislature and by the President of the cabinet of 
 ministers. You will invite the teachers to point out the civic and moral 
 significance of the tremendous step which we have witnessed. . . . 
 
 Certainly the Republic has known its difficulties and its mternal dis- 
 orders; it is not without crises that it has developed the radiant principles 
 which it bore in its bosom. It has nevertheless proceeded with its task. 
 Battered by many a storm, the French democracy has lived and grown. 
 Its consecration is at hand; a sohdarity which heretofore was unknown 
 binds France, the leader of nations, to all peoples that are lovers of beauty, 
 peace and liberty. Humanity bleeds from the wounds of France and the 
 world acclaims with shouts of joy the first signs of her coming victory. 
 
 The teachers of our schools will know, I am sure, how to exalt in the 
 hearts of their pupils the sentiments of confidence and pride which are 
 strengthened by the fraternal and magnificent action of the great Republic 
 of the United States. 
 
 His special message came later in the form of a reproduction, 
 in Sevres, of the figure of a young man of noble countenance, of 
 studious mien and lithe body, who has taken the implements of 
 war and donned the casque — a visualization of the French 
 
56 
 
 university man of whom the Recteur of the University of Bor- 
 deaux^ has written out of the sorrow and pride of his own loss. 
 The statistics of the university men killed, wounded and missing 
 were not exposed, in the thought perhaps that they would give 
 comfort to the enemy, but the percentages would have borne 
 high tribute to the heroism of those young men who have left 
 all and followed the colors into the gates of death. President 
 Butler's phrase is pertinent, " the flower of France and therefore 
 of modern civilization." The flower has indeed been stricken by 
 the red frosts which have blighted, too, the flower of England. 
 The letters of some of these youth published recently in " The 
 Atlantic " reveal their quality. One can only hope that the 
 trees will bear even richer fruit another decade and century 
 because of what has fallen upon the soil in which their roots lie. 
 
 But I saw in this figure the prototype of our college men, of 
 even sturdier form, who have responded to the call of the same 
 higher motives, but without the immediate appeal of an invaded 
 land, yet with a spirit and devotion unsurpassed in any country. 
 
 If any one has had question as to the spiritual soundness of 
 our universities and colleges, the question has been quieted by the 
 sublime offering of their teachers and students in this crisis. 
 
 AUDIENCE BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC 
 
 I was formally received by the President of the French 
 Republic at the Ely see Palace in the late afternoon of the Sat- 
 urday after my arrival, and was given the opportunity to present 
 the message from Governor Whitman (most artistically engrossed 
 and illuminated) embodying a copy of his proclamation of 
 *' French Day " for the State of New York. This presentation 
 brought a most cordial immediate response and a later message 
 in which the President said that he would be very grateful to 
 me if I " would interpret to the student youth of the great 
 Country, Friend and Ally, and to the teachers who guide their 
 spirit toward the ideas for which the civilized world battles 
 against barbarism, the deep sympathy which is shared by all the: 
 teachers and students of France." 
 
 ^ 'L'Universit6 et la Guerre" by R. Tharain, Recteur de 1' Academic de Bordeaux. 
 
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57 
 
 University of Paris 
 
 A formal welcome was given by the University of Paris, at a 
 meeting called to receive the messages which I bore. The mem- 
 bers of the four faculties — law, letters, science and medicine — 
 assembled in the lofty council hall of the Sorbonne, and after 
 an introduction by Dean Appel, in the absence of Vice Rector 
 Liard ^ — that great scholar and administrator, born in the same 
 village as William the Norman, being too ill to attend the 
 meetings — I presented the addresses of the Regents and the uni- 
 versities, with the distinguished assistance of Monsieur Legouis, 
 professor of English. 
 
 This address became the basis for a discussion as to practical 
 steps for a closer cooperation between the universities of the two 
 countries. (That which relates to degrees will be found in 
 descriptions of the several universities.) 
 
 Two noteworthy movements toward this end are now under 
 way: One has as its object the establishment of a hundred 
 American fellowships in French universities, the other the pro- 
 vision of a Maison that shall become a center where American 
 and French students in Paris can come into closer social relation. 
 Dean (now Major) Wigmore, of Northwestern University, is 
 the chairman of the first organization, and Professor Barrett 
 Wendell of the other. In connection with the former and pre- 
 liminary to it there has been published by the Committee of One 
 Hundred, sponsors for the movement, a volume entitled " Science 
 and Learning in France," which gives in attractive form informa- 
 tion concerning the history and present work of the University of 
 France. 
 
 It will be pertinent to speak of another in which only the 
 American universities and colleges are directly concerned: the 
 establishment of a center for American universit)'' aod college 
 men in France during the war. I was asked to represent the 
 American university men of Paris in organizing the American 
 committee to raise the necessary funds for this purpose, but I 
 
 ^ M. Liard has since died and France has lost her greatest university adrriinisfrator. 
 
58 
 
 found on arrival that such an organization was already under 
 way. I therefore urged the Paris committee to associate itself 
 with this American committee, which under the American Uni- 
 versity Union in Europe and under such trustees as Dr Anson 
 Phelps Stokes, President Goodnow and President Hutchins, 
 has already assurance of adequate initial support and competent 
 service. Its primary function is social but it is hoped that it will 
 later take on educational functions and establish extension courses 
 nearer the front. 
 
 But there is still another provision that should be had definitely 
 in mind, namely, systematic provision for the teaching of French, 
 particularly to college men, not only here but in France, and not 
 only for its immediate practical military utility, but also for its 
 later value in our cooperation with France in strengthening and 
 enlarging the institutions of freedom and justice in the earth. 
 Instruction in the French language, literature and history, during 
 the periods of leisure in the war, will give basis also for the 
 more thorough pursuit of these subjects after the war, in the 
 French universities, which in time will equip for teaching, par- 
 ticularly in our secondary schools, when the need for such teach- 
 ing is unquestionably to be greatly increased. 
 
 These objects are all worthy, as I believe, of the cooperating 
 interest of American universities and colleges, but while organiza- 
 tions are already under way for three of these purposes, it remains 
 to organize specifically the fourth. The Y. M. C. A. and the 
 Knights of Columbus are making plans for recreation and some 
 incidental instruction, but I think we should not let go by unim- 
 proved the opportunity which the physical presence of thousands 
 of young college, university and professional men in France and 
 near England gives, to bring them within the touch of the greatest 
 minds in Europe and to equip them with the language of French 
 thought. 
 
 The American University Union in Europe, as intimated 
 above, offers an ideal organization for beginning such work in 
 supplement of the Army interpreters and the elementary instruc- 
 tion undertaken by the Y. M. C. A. 
 
The faculty room in the Sorbonne in which the messages to the French 
 Universities were first dehvered, about one hundred representatives of the 
 four faculties being present 
 
59 
 
 ADDRESS BY DEAN APPEL 
 
 Mr Finley has greatly favored us; he has come to the Sorbonne to pre- 
 sent to us '^ * * the messages of more than a hundred universities 
 and schools. 
 
 He has had the thoughtfulness at the very friendly luncheon of last 
 Wednesday to present to us General Pershing, the great soldier whom 
 our colleague, Larnaude, has saluted with the title of new Lafayette. 
 
 Mr Finley has thus expressed in a striking way the double sentiment 
 which animates us : union and universal brotherhood, union in the struggle 
 against the enemy of Right. 
 
 The University of Paris has solemnly responded to him with an address 
 of thanks, a copy of which we present to him signed by the members of 
 the council. 
 
 But what we wish to bring out in this address are the sentiments of 
 affection and of deep sympathy * * * which we extend to all the 
 members of the American universities whom he represents. 
 
 These sentiments which have long existed on University ground have 
 taken a new intensity in this war, to which the United States comes witli 
 all their irresistible strength, all their resolute will to assure the triumph of 
 liberty and of justice. 
 
 Our enemies, the Germans, have formed the habit, in their frenzy of 
 narrow positivism, of denying the efficacy of the sentiments of humanity and 
 of justice, of affection and of sympathy among nations, and of treating 
 them as sentimentalities without value in the consideration of material 
 interests in the instruments of war. They have discovered, a little late, 
 that these sentiments have a reality as real as steel and explosives, that 
 they animate hearts, that they engender wills capable of creating arms, 
 the explosives and instruments of war which will assure the triumph of 
 justice and of right and will put an end to the reign of violence. 
 
 Gentlemen: I propose the health of Mr Finley as representing the 
 sister universities of the United States as symbolizing the union which will 
 give us victory, and I present to him in the name of all our colleagues. In 
 token of that union, the medal of the University of Paris. 
 
 MESSAGE TO AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES 
 
 UNIVERSITE DE PARIS 
 
 Pans, June 19, 19/7 
 
 The University of Paris expresses to the American universities its pro- 
 found gratitude for the eloquent addresses which they have sent to the 
 French universities on the occasion of the alliance of the two peoples in 
 the formidable conflict which fills the world. 
 
60 
 
 France has known for a long time that on both sides of the Atlantic 
 in the two sister republics, the universities are putting forth efforts toward 
 the same ideal — more truth, more justice. 
 
 But deeds have added to words their shining confirmation. In response 
 to the voice of a great university man, the illustrious President Wilson, 
 America has claimed as a glorious privilege her part in the sacrifice. In 
 the immense national movement which has carried the United States toward 
 the defense of Right and of Liberty, the American universities have been 
 in the first ranks. The flower of their youth are prepared to combat beside 
 ours. Their idealism, which is as disinterested as it is heroic, compels our 
 admiration. 
 
 Such bonds are indestructible. 
 
 The remembrance of the old alliance, personified in the names of 
 Lafayette and of Rochambeau, had created the germs of a durable friend- 
 ship. The new alliance which combines in a common amity the chivalrous 
 adversaries of former days, prepares the way amongst all for a closer and 
 more fruitful collaboration out of which there will arise for all humanity 
 a better future. 
 
 The University of Paris, in greeting the American universities as com- 
 rades-in-arms, greets in them the makers of future peace and expresses to 
 them its unalterable fraternity. 
 
 (Signed by L. LIARD, vice recteur of the University of Paris, and the 
 Deans of the several Faculties.) 
 
 Nancy 
 
 The visitation of the university centers outside of Paris began 
 with the journey to Nancy, a city of great charm but with much 
 of its beauty screened from sight for protection against bombs, 
 for it is still within range of the German " long gun " (over 
 twenty miles away) which, according to recent reports, has again 
 begun its operations. I have spoken of the School of Medicine. 
 The Faculties of Letters and of Law have also but a handful of 
 students. The Faculty of Science holds a greater number, prin- 
 cipally of young men preparing for engineering service. But the 
 recteur (M. Adam) and the professors are keeping alive the 
 institution, busying themselves with war tasks that have been 
 added to their accustomed ministrations in peace. This beautiful 
 city that was before the war of about the population of Albany, 
 has lost nearly half its inhabitants, but the people who remain go 
 on with their daily work, interrupting it only to run to shelter if 
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61 
 
 aircraft. (And the alarm came the night after I reached Nancy, 
 and I saw my first sky battle from Square Stanislas.) One ele- 
 mentary school building had been completely wrecked by a shell, 
 and the presence of mind of the master, as I have said, alone 
 saved the lives of the children. Some of the lycees were used in 
 part as hospitals, and two or three thousand children from the 
 invaded territory were being cared for in the casernes, or barracks, 
 a cheerless environment for these exiled little ones, who are given 
 such care as the hospitable hearts but meager means of their hosts 
 can afford in the midst of their own privations and anxieties. 
 Some of the older girls had been gathered into a little and well 
 conducted school outside of the barracks, where they were taught 
 the domestic arts. They sang, too, but their songs, which were of 
 Alsatian coloring, were as the songs of those in exile by the rivers 
 of Babylon. A few boys, too, were given hand training in 
 another school of like type. The other schools were not in session 
 on the day of my visit, for it was a holy day, and in the midst of 
 the somberness of the streets one saw girls in white, with their 
 veils, and boys with the great white bows upon their arms. But 
 the holiness of the day did not deter the aircraft raiders from their 
 expeditions. On the other hand the raiders did not deter the 
 kindly and ever courteous ministry of the Prefet and his wife 
 Madame Mirman. 
 
 From Nancy a journey was made, by military car, southward, 
 now through a great manufacturing center where young women, 
 donning men's attire, had taken their places in the mills; now 
 through a military rendezvous to and from which thousands of 
 soldiers were moving; now through village after village devas- 
 tated by fire and shell (including Gerbevieller, where I found the 
 famed Sister Julie still carrying on her hospital amid the ruins), 
 on to St Die, the village in the Vosges, where it is contended by 
 high authorities the name "America " was first printed and put 
 upon a map. It was still under the eye of German guns, though 
 not occupied by Germans, and people pass to and fro across the 
 stream, from one side of the village to the other, behind screens 
 that simulate trees. There the high school or college, used for a 
 
62 
 
 time as a hospital, is now restored in whole or part to its old uses, 
 and the people go their wonted ways in the streets free of the 
 German soldiers that for a little time filled and possessed them. 
 The mayor presented me with a copy of a resolution of the town 
 council which proposed to name one of these streets " rue 
 FAmerique." A teacher whom I saw there, nurse for a time, is 
 now teaching English again, amid the scars of war, and in a 
 village not far away American women are beginning to rebuild 
 the broken houses. 
 
 At Nancy again I met at a luncheon the Recteur and the 
 deans of the various faculties, many of whose professors spoke 
 with pride of their Alsatian origin. I presented the messages of 
 the American universities and colleges, in response to the address 
 of the distinguished Recteur (author of a classical treatise on 
 Descartes), which I have had the great honor to carry back to 
 America. 
 
 ADDRESS BY RECTOR ADAM 
 
 UNIVERSITE DE NANCY 
 
 In the name of the University of Nancy, which in 1871 received as 
 a precious trust the French faculties of Strasburg, so that you see before 
 you Alsatians as well as men of Lorrain, I thank you. 
 
 The universities of the United States could not choose for bearing to 
 France their messages one who would be more sympathetic. 
 
 You belong, in fact, to that elite of American professors who have every 
 winter for more than twelve years come to teach us in Paris and in our great 
 university cities to know America, its thinkers, its writers, its poets, and 
 above all its great place in the world. For years we have been welcom- 
 ing you to Nancy. What a happy institution and how fruitful in its resultsi! 
 All these guests of a few weeks have retained a faithful remembrance of 
 France. From the beginning of the hostilities, they have never ceased to 
 speak in America, in the newspapers, in magazines, and in their books, in 
 support of our country. 
 
 There existed between our two countries old ties of relationship which 
 had been lost. You have found them again. In the beginnings of your 
 history, you have shown what part the French played in the discovery and 
 colonization of the Mississippi, as well as the English on the Atlantic coast. 
 You have inscribed on the first page of your excellent book this simple 
 phrase which sums it up and which might be understood in every sense ol 
 its meaning, " The French in the Heart of America." 
 
63 
 
 We should henceforth also be able to write a book which would be 
 called, " The Americans in the Heart of France." From now on we shall 
 carry the Americans in our hearts. 
 
 And it is not only because of the vanguard of volunteers, the flower of 
 your youtli, which since the autumn of 1914, and without awaiting the ' 
 decision of their government, have come to serve in our ranks in aviation 
 and ambulance of the first line, eager to become our comrades in arms. 
 To the valor of these young men, all students of your universities, must be 
 added the good that has been done by your committees, in which so many 
 men and women with big hearts are devoting themselves to our cause 
 incessantly. Quite near by, in the invaded region an unfortunate people 
 owe them their being saved from famine, and in this very district, in 
 Meurthe-et-Moselle and in the Vosges, you have come to the assistance 
 of our war orphans as soon as you heard of them, no matter how large 
 their number. To enter our hearts you have found the surest way: you 
 have become the benefactors of our children and mothers. 
 
 You have come from a country, Mr Finley, where more than with us, I 
 believe, the Bible and the Gospel are read. Nevertheless, in thinking of 
 you I wanted to reread the parable of the vineyard; and I thought of the 
 workers of the first hour, then the third, the sixth, the ninth and finally 
 the eleventh. But it is impossible to apply it to you. The difference is 
 too great. In the first place, we who were the first to enter the war — and 
 you know it well — because we were threatened and attacked (and how 
 savage was the aggression), we do not murmur against those who were late 
 in joining us. Understanding their reasons, we were always grateful to 
 them for their s)nTipathy, and today we v/elcome them fraternally. On 
 the other hand, they, although convinced that their assistance will be deci- 
 sive, feel that it will cost them a long and hard effort. But, above all, we 
 who endured the heat of the day have not increased our pretensions as the 
 fight progressed. As the price for our blood, we claim only — as in the 
 first hour — what is due us, however, with the guarantee that it will never 
 again be taken from us or even menaced. As regards you Americans, 
 your President, who is a former university professor, has expressed it nobly: 
 you have no hidden selfish thought and your sole ambition in this war is to 
 see the triumph of justice and liberty. 
 
 It is this high ideal that we salute here unanimously, and which, more 
 even than the comradeship of arms, wall assure in our two great republics, 
 the union of the French and American universities. 
 
 Since my return there have come through the hands of M. le 
 Recteur Adam, messages from the lycees of the east of France, 
 so beautiful in expression and in illustration that I wish I had 
 space m which to reproduce them all. I show the reproduction 
 
64 
 
 of two of them on an insert, but I give here two others in transla- 
 tion: one from the Principal of the Lycee of Verdun (whose 
 pupils are all scattered) and one from a pupil in the College of 
 Neufchateau : 
 
 This message of springtime and of hope which has come to us from 
 across the Atlantic from Vassar College could not be delivered to the pupils 
 of the College of Verdun. It is to their Principal that M. le Recteur of 
 the Academy of Nancy has entrusted it. The scholars and their professors 
 are dispersed over the whole of France ; their beautiful college is in ruins ; 
 its terraces, only yesterday blooming with roses, are today armed with 
 cannon and criss-crossed with trenches. During the first days of the 
 invasion many of them were forced to fly from their flaming villages; some 
 of them have been carried off into captivity; one professor reentered France 
 only to die there ; one scholar, after a slow agony, is no more, — she too 
 a victim of this atrocious war. 
 
 But through you • — for your fraternal message brings us new con- 
 fidence — " our long agony will be changed into triumph " and the day 
 draws near " when that spirit will reign which has known how to hew its 
 "way across all obstacles." 
 
 When that day comes the message of the young girls of America to 
 the young girls of France will receive a place of honor in our reconstructed 
 college, there it will bear witness forever that you did not wait until our 
 country was completely destroyed to unite with us and to aid us in re- 
 tuilding it. 
 
 The Principal of the College of Verdun, 
 A. Stoltz 
 
 Neufchateau 
 
 Young girls of America, your message so full of sympathy warms our 
 hearts just as the aid of your great country renews our hopes. 
 
 I shall not know them again, those somber days of the outbreak of the 
 war, when the enemy drove his talons deeper every day into the beautiful 
 land of France. 
 
 Sept. 5th, 1914. The dusty road is obstructed with endless files of 
 peaceful citizens flying before the enemy. The earth trembles under their 
 heavy cannon. Then it is our turn to leave and as the last houses of 
 Revigny disappear from view we give ourselves up to weeping. 
 
 Twelve long days without news ... at last the glorious victory of 
 the Marne brings us back to our country. 
 
 The partly burned village is a desert. Heaps of blackened walls, streets 
 impassable with stones, our house still standing but empty, the doors open, 
 the windows without panes, our hearts are torn by the thought of the 
 familiar belongings profanated. 
 
 Today in the splendor of June, Revigny is reborn to life. The faithful 
 inhabitants have returned to the country. The houses arise from behind the 
 Carrier of our heroic defenders. Soon the enemy \vill be repulsed, since your 
 
65 
 
 great people came to unite themselves with the free peoples of Europe, and 
 the peace of reconstructed cities will not again be troubled, because you 
 intend with us to reduce the belligerent people to impotence and to make 
 of this war the last war. 
 
 Marie Therese Forest, 
 (Born at Charleville, Aug. 6th, 1899) 
 
 Through the valleys of the Meurthe, the Moselle and the 
 Marne, where one saw many graves in the fields, soldiers almost 
 every rod of the way, and observation balloons and aeroplanes 
 always in the skies (with now and then the smoke puffs of 
 exploding shells), I returned to Paris and then set out south- 
 ward and westward, visiting Dijon, Lyons, Grenoble, Nimes, 
 Montpellier, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Poitiers, Rennes and Caen, 
 as complete a tour as one could make, for Lille was still beyond 
 the trenches. 
 
 The details of these journeys and visits, covering nearly two 
 thousand miles and schools of every type, can not here be pre- 
 sented. I can do little else than give setting for some of the 
 messages which these visits evoked, notably the rectorial addresses 
 which were made through me to the universities and colleges of 
 America. 
 
 Dijon 
 
 At Dijon I visited first of all, in the environs, a village school, 
 the nearest approach to our rural school, and was favorably 
 impressed by the seriousness and thoroughness of the provision. 
 
 Here is a brief description of my visit to that school. 
 
 As it was a Sunday and there were no schools to be seen, I was driven 
 to see, on a hill a few miles distant, a monument, the tribute of a member 
 of Napoleon's staff to his chief. It represented the awakeping of the 
 Emperor from his long sleep, a fantastic bronze which must evoke the 
 thought in many .a visitor as to what the Emperor would say if only he could 
 actually wake and see what is going fiercely on near his old Waterloo. 
 
 But there proved to be something on the way to the hill-top grove that 
 was to me of greater interest than any memorial of Napoleon, and of more 
 promise to France than his awakening. It was a village school, the nearest 
 approach to our boasted and loved little red schoolhouse. For there are 
 no country schools in France. At any rate, in all my travels of twenty- 
 five hundred miles I did not see a counterpart of our little lone open-country 
 frame huts for which I am always looking when I travel in my own Slate. 
 The country schools in France are in hamlets or villages huddled against 
 a hill or by some stream, usually by a chateau or a towering church, wherft 
 3 
 
66 
 
 the peasants gathered for shelter and protection and sociability by night, in 
 earlier days, however far they traveled to cultivate their fields by day. 
 
 The schoolmaster was sitting in front of his schoolhouse, his wife 
 at his side, resting in the afternoon of his holiday, for the master lives 
 in his school, and the children are but his large family. So far as my 
 limited observation went the school was the schoolmaster's home, and his 
 business was quite as seriously important to him as that of the Minister of 
 Public Instruction or of the Prefect was to them. His one room was a 
 microcosm of France, and here her wealth was represented in specimens 
 and her history remembered in pictures and in legends upon the walls. 
 What impressed me most was the care with which the master had prepared 
 for his next week's work. There, in a book most scrupulously kept, was the 
 whole program, showing what he intended to cover during the next few 
 days in morals, in civics, in history, in arithmetic, etc. There is nominally 
 compulsory attendance up to the age of thirteen, but there is no such 
 central insistence as here. In looking over the records I noticed that some 
 days were clear of absent marks, while other columns were cloudy with 
 them. I asked the reasons and learned that the fair days in the books were 
 rainy days outside when all could be in the school, and that the cloudy 
 days in the book were fair days outside when some had to be in the fields. 
 Which reminds me of the observation of a Sister of Charity, who said 
 " We can not pray for God's beautiful moonlight nights since they are the 
 best nights for the raids of the air." 
 
 The school yard was planted in vegetables, but they had not completely 
 crowded out the roses, some of which called La Gloire de Dijon were paying 
 their fragrant summer homage to the women of France. And out some- 
 where in the edge of the village there was a large tract which the children 
 were cultivating as a school -for the use of the community, or the state, in 
 its hunger. 
 
 This village was not far from where some of the grapes are grown of 
 which the most famous wines of France have in the past been made, but in 
 the little school there was very conspicuous advice in posters concerning the 
 ill effects of alcohol. 
 
 It is such a schoolmaster as this sturdy man who had been at the front 
 and had come back to his duties again, who becomes, especially in such 
 times as these, a representative of the Government for giving official infor- 
 mation to the people about matters of common concern, such as the gather- 
 ing of gold, the subscriptions for such loans as our Liberty Loan, care of 
 fields, protection against pests, provision for orphans, and so on. And 
 sometimes, I suspect, he is also the Mayor of the little community; at 
 least I found one little school in the Mairie where I had gone to find the 
 parish records where the Mayor was teaching the little group of boys whose 
 pictures I here show. That was several years ago, and I suppose they are 
 all now on their way to the front if not actually there. 
 
 I visited next a large elementary school in the city of Dijon. 
 There again I was struck by the intense seriousness of teacher and 
 pupil in the work, and by the quietness and self-restraint of all. 
 
67 
 
 The teachers were nearly all women. I recall one lame man and 
 the sturdy master who was beyond fifty years of age. And I 
 recall seeing later in the day a wounded teacher who called him- 
 self an American in part because he had an American wooden 
 leg. But I saw here, as elsewhere, the portraits in the school- 
 rooms of young men teachers who had gone to the trenches and 
 had perished there. Flowers were daily brought to put beneath 
 them, and I saw in several rooms this motto : 
 
 
 
 Men of France : 
 
 Your soil is defiled ! 
 
 What 
 
 did 
 
 you do yesterday? 
 
 1 to help, 
 
 What 
 
 will 
 
 you do today and tomorrow ? j to liberate it 
 Answer the Dead who question you! 
 *' Peace through Victory only " 
 
 These visits were followed by a meeting with the faculties of 
 the university and by an assembly in the historic hall of the uni- 
 versity, where the Academy of Dijon had sat when it awarded 
 the prize to the discourse of Jean Jacques Rousseau on " The 
 Influence of Art and Science on Morals." Here were gathered 
 not only the professors of the university, but teachers from the 
 lycees and from the elementary schools, two hundred or more, 
 the schools having been dismissed that this expression might be 
 given of their appreciation of the messages brought from America. 
 Beneath the statues of Rousseau and Bossuet, the recteur of the 
 university. Monsieur Boirac, whose studies in psychology are 
 known in this country, presented in English an address which is 
 here reproduced: 
 
 ADDRESS OF RECTOR BOIRAC 
 
 UNIVERSITE DE DIJON 
 
 Dear Mr FiNLEY: 
 
 It is the second time that the University of Dijon has the honour of 
 receiving your visit. In the year 1911 she heard you, in an eloquent 
 lecture, on the history of the first relations of your country v^ith ours, when 
 the bold French pioneers explored and colonized the wide regions of North 
 America, thus preparing, many centuries beforehand, the ways for the 
 
68 
 
 future French-American alliance. Now, at this solemn hour when the 
 great Republic of the United States is going in its turn into a world's war 
 in order to defend by the side of the French Republic and her allies the 
 holy cause of justice and mankind, you come to bring to the universities 
 and schools of France the cordial greetings of the universities and schools 
 of America. With a deep emotion which causes our hearts to vibrate with 
 gratitude, admiration and most joyous enthusiasm, we accept the message 
 of friendship sent to us through your mouth, and we say to you, in the 
 name of our university and our schools: " Be welcome among us! " 
 After a few weeks, you'll return to your country. Tell your fellow citizens 
 that we are profoundly touched by the marks of sympathy with which 
 they overwhelm us; that we are proud also to have them for companions 
 of war in the present struggle for the triumph of our common ideal, and 
 that we hope, when war will yield to peace to continue to go with them 
 hand in hand on the path of science and civilization. Make them assured 
 that on its side the University of Dijon will do her best to entertain with 
 American universities the most brotherly relations and to ^ve your students, 
 if they will give us the honor of mingling wdth ours, the most affectionate 
 hospitality. We shall keep, dear Mr Finley, of your too brief visit an 
 unforgettable remembrance, and I dare express the hope that you also 
 will think sometimes with pleasure of the hours spent among us in our old 
 city of Burgundy. 
 
 BoiRAC 
 
 ' ^ Recteur 
 
 (The Rector who had lost his son in the war and whose wife 
 had died suddenly, has himself gone the way of Rousseau and 
 Bossuet, but before his going he caused to be sent me a 
 photograph of the famous " Salle des Actes," which is here 
 reproduced. ) 
 
 Many messages addressed Jo young women in America have 
 come from pupils of the several classes of one of the lycees, some 
 in French, some in English. One of these I quote in part : 
 
 " . . . We trust in your strength and devotion, you belong to a 
 race which carries courage to the point of heroism. And you, our sisters, 
 now enter a new life, one of intense but noble suffering, and you enter 
 it in spring, the loveliest season of the year, when our hearts open wide 
 to beautiful ideas and noble aims. We trust in the promises of the year. 
 We girls love this season because Nature is in keeping with our spirits. 
 But in these years of grim war, there is blood on the white spray; the 
 soft beauty of the twilight reminds us too much of the contrast between 
 ruins and blossoming trees. The calm of the purple evening speaks too 
 much of the great Silence of Death. But still spring is the season of hope, 
 
Salle des Actes " de 1' Academic de Dijon where Rousseau was awarded 
 the prize of the Academy for his first treatise on education 
 
69 
 
 the birth of a new life. And you, girls of America, and we, girls of 
 France, are waiting for the dawn of a new life, of a reign of peace, 
 and love among mankind. We, who have suffered before you, love you, 
 our sisters in suffering, 
 
 " Let us strive and hope together. Let us work and suffer for the same 
 lofty aims, for the same spring of a new and nobler life. 
 
 ISABELLE MenERET" 
 
 And I must quote also an unusual address by M. Bataillon, 
 the dean of the faculty of science: 
 
 We should like, Mr Finley, to greet you in a worthy manner and you 
 will excuse me if I attempt to do so without going out of a domain which 
 is familiar to me. In my way I shall say here, before you and before my 
 compatriots, that which bears upon the friendship of the people, who are 
 generously extending their hands to us by bearing witness to the marvelous 
 scientific progress achieved within the last twenty-five years by the United 
 States of America. 
 
 I have the honor of representing at Dijon experimental biology, a branch 
 in which your country excels. 
 
 Exactly thirteen years ago you published a new periodical destined to 
 have a billiant future: " Le Journal de Zoologie Experimentale." Its 
 first number appeared before the world of science under the patronage of 
 an international committee including three Frenchmen. I was a member 
 with Delage and the lamented Professor Giard. The publication created 
 a great stir, especially in Germany. 
 
 W. Roux, professor at the University of Halle, claimed and still claims 
 to treat this domain as a German monopoly. As for " Les Archives du 
 Mecanique du Developpement " which lately brought together the 
 researches of the world, to which I, together with my American and 
 ItaHan colleagues, have contributed, should they lose a preeminence pain- 
 fully won? 
 
 The concern of Roux showed itself at first by an insidious question: 
 
 " Why," he asked your Harrison, " does Le Journal de Zoologie 
 Experimentale " appear without an index? The admirable answer Harri- 
 son gave him was: "The index? Why, you have given it in your 
 Archives." 
 
 And in fact, Roux had elaborated and remade this large and bulky 
 index so encumbered with abstractions and so inaccessible to the common 
 people that it was necessary to explain it with a glossary of several hundred 
 pages. 
 
70 
 
 These were the obstacles that our American colleagues had to meet. 
 
 When a periodical makes its first appearance in the " Memoires sur Ic 
 Dentale el la Patelle "; when these " Memoires " bear the signature of the 
 same E. Wilson to whom we owe the valuable research work on the 
 Amphioxus and which illustrate today his great cytologic studies on sex: 
 this is progress ivhich asserts itself, it is the immediate conquest of the 
 dominant positions. I purposely underscore the results whose high import- 
 ance even among us has not always been understood. 
 
 And, by one concrete example alone, is defined the position of American 
 biology as opposed to German biology. 
 
 This position, Roux believed menacing for his country. And some 
 months before the great war, he uttered a cry of alarm. " We Germans," 
 he wrote, in substance, " in this domain which is ours, we are going to find 
 ourselves outstripped [by the United States] if we are not already." 
 
 He concluded, following the tradition by an appeal to the public powers. 
 He urgently requested the Imperial Government for the millions of marks 
 necessary for the creation of an immense mechanical institution of develop' 
 ment in which would be brought together all the technical resources for 
 pure scientific research and the study of its applications. 
 
 Gentlemen, I am not of those who believe in the omnipotence of the 
 ashlar, and when I think of our hecatombs, I have a very clear impression 
 that the only ashlars whose need v^ill be felt tomorrow — will be men. 
 
 These men whom we shall lack, your great republic has, and science 
 counts on them. 
 
 But why am I obsessed by an old proverb: " No man is a prophet in 
 his own country." Is this current coin in the United States as in France? 
 
 You surround with attentions and with honors the eminent strangers who 
 benefit by your generous hospitality. Such biological fame appears to us 
 from here, encircled by a shining aureole. This generosity honors you and 
 delights the men of science the world over. 
 
 But the impartial spectator finds in your schools, national products equal 
 in value to all your imported products. The country which, in an almost 
 new branch, possesses men Hke Wilson, Morgan, Harrison, Davenport, 
 Castle, Conklin, Whitman, Parker et al. (I do not attempt to enumerate 
 them — so numerous are they) ; the country in which a body of earnest 
 women unravels successfully the most delicate and the most intricate prob- 
 lems ; that country has no reason to envy the Old World. 
 
 Also hospitable France is profoundly touched by your fraternal manner. 
 With full heart, we accept the powerful collaboration which you offer us. 
 In certain domains we shall be perhaps your debtors; we shall attempt to 
 
71 
 
 make up for it in others. If we have the good fortune to draw your young 
 men to our laboratories, they will receive here the most cordial, the warmest 
 welcome. I add that even in Burgundy in our little Thebaide, they will 
 find all the resources needed for free and profitable research. 
 
 But why should I leave my role of bearing ivitness? 
 
 United to your democracy for progress, as for the defense of liberty, we 
 greet with affectionate recognition the eminent messenger from the co-workers 
 across the sea. 
 
 We offer our tribute of admiration and our most cordial good wishes to 
 American thought, and (since a biologist benefits by the word) to the 
 privileged country which has become and will remain " The Eden of the 
 Sciences of Life." 
 
 Lyons 
 
 At Lyons I was escorted by the committee of learned men 
 who met me at the station, to the city hall, where the mayor, 
 M. Herriot, a man of great ability and fame, offered every 
 courtesy within his reach. Of this I took advantage to visit, 
 first of all, the excellent school established by the city of Lyons 
 for the reeducation of the mutilated soldiers. It is a work to 
 which a small volume might be devoted (and concerning which 
 a volume^ received since my return has been written. I present an 
 illustration intimating the achievement of this notable educational 
 offspring of the war). Other schools of especial interest which 
 I visited, in company with the mayor's representative, M. Giourju, 
 a member of the conseil general, were those established, with 
 private aid, for the vocational training of boys and girls. Par- 
 ticularly striking was the work done by the boys in mathematics 
 and mechanical drawing far beyond that which is customary 
 with us. 
 
 Later a meeting of all the faculties of the University was held, 
 the dean of the Faculty of Law, M. Josserand, presiding in the 
 absence of the Recteur, M. Joubin. The American addresses 
 were presented, with the assistance of M. Thomas, the efficient 
 Professor of English. The Recteur later sent an address, which 
 follows that of Dean Josserand : 
 
 ^ Une Ecole de Reeducation Professionelle des Grands Blesses de la Guerre, Tourvielle 
 par Gustave Hirschfeld. 
 
72 
 
 ADDRESS BY DEAN JOSSERAND 
 Mr President, Gentlemen and dear Colleagues: 
 
 In the absence of the rector, who by reason of official duties has been 
 called away from Lyon, I have the great honor to receive today, in the 
 name of the university, the eminent Commissioner of Education of the 
 State of New York, who will devote to us a few brief moments in the 
 course of the pilgrimage which he is making in our principal university 
 centers. 
 
 While extending a welcome to our illustrious visitor I regret that no other 
 authorized voice but mine should be heard within these walls; you will all 
 believe me if I tell you that I am overcome wdth emotion. Like you, my 
 dear colleagues, I feel that President John Finley does not pay us a 
 common fraternal visit; what he brings us here, with all the weight of his 
 high office and all the buoyancy of his soul, is: the greeting of America, 
 the great republic, which has joined hands with her older sister and which 
 will not loosen this clasp, until at length our common aim shall be real- 
 ized — the destruction of an unjust force by the triumph of justice which 
 at last has become strong, by the triumph of right. 
 
 For, Mr Finley, the President of your great republic has said in 
 undying words, great as the cataclysm which has come upon humanity, 
 " Right is more precious than peace " ! Who then could, without emotion, 
 in the tragical hours in which we live and in this house of justice recollect 
 this admirable word which forever will refute the impious variations which 
 the philosophers beyond the Rhine amplify with an infernal delight, about 
 the theme of Force, Violence and Necessity. This work which you bring 
 to us, Mr President, will be a living commentary — It is vibrant in the 
 flags which mingle their colors at the front of this building; it will be the 
 light toward which we turn, as it will become the war cry of our brave 
 soldiers. And later it will be a rallying sign for both of our countries — 
 for I know you feel that our entente must not be limited to the duration of 
 the war; forged in the fire of action, our friendship will not cool off when 
 peace comes; it will only consolidate the two peoples and especially the 
 universities of the two countries will always draw more tightly the bonds 
 woven in the noise of cannons; we wdsh to enter into the soul of America 
 just as you seek to know the soul of France and infinitely profitable rela- 
 tions v^ll be established or intensified between our intellectual centers. We 
 like to think that your professors in ever increasing numbers will cross the 
 Atlantic, just as you welcome with your warm hospitality those of us who 
 v^rill carry the French word to the other side of the ocean, and the students, 
 
Illustration of what is being done to equip mutilated soldiers for useful 
 employment again 
 
73 
 
 following the example of their teachers, will without any doubt vie with 
 each other in the great intellectual contest which will vivify science for the 
 widest benefit in methods, applications and ideals. 
 
 Should I be accused of drawing a too optimistic sketch of what will be 
 after the war, my answer would be that the present suffices to caution the 
 future; has not a plan of exchange just been created by the initiative of a 
 great American, for the profit of our French students, and have not various 
 committees already been formed with the aim of intensifying the university 
 life of our two countries? Good wishes come to us from all over. When 
 men hke you, Mr Finley, take such a noble cause in hand, when they are 
 seconded in their efforts by a whole nation alert to intellectual pursuits, the 
 game is now in advance. No! the students of free America, the students 
 of all civilized peoples, will not wish to go and ask for lessons in culture 
 at universities where conventions are but scraps of paper, from philosophers 
 who teach that " Right is the politics of force," that necessity knows no 
 law. This terrible war will at least have had this advantage, that of 
 removing the masks and of offsetting civilization against " Kultur," the 
 fetish of Force against the worship of Right. It will suffice to draw the 
 logical conclusions of this situation, now in its clearness, and this will be 
 the privilege of Americans, such as you, Mr Finley, to have sown in greater 
 storm the harvest which will soon be gathered. 
 
 Therefore we bid you welcome, Mr President, and we beg you to accept 
 our gratitude for your faithful and devoted work, for the cordial sympathy 
 which you feel with our country and our universities, and we hope that 
 when you return to New York you v^ll kindly carry to your fellow country- 
 men what you have v^tnessed in France, especially in Lyon, of hearts 
 beating in unison with yours; we hope that you will also consent to carry 
 to the American universities the sincere greetings of the universities of 
 France, and we wish to express to the highest authority in your country our 
 admiration and devotion. 
 
 You have said, Mr President, that the French are in the heart of 
 America; be assured that the Americans are and will remain deep in the 
 bleeding heart, the heart of France — France forever grateful ! 
 
 ADDRESS BY RECTOR JOUBIN 
 
 UNIVERSITE DE LYON 
 
 L^on, June 9, 1917 
 The Umversity of L^on to the Universities of the United States: 
 
 The University of Lyon, met in general assembly on June 5 , 1917, to 
 welcome Mr John Finley, Commissioner of Education of the State of New 
 York, after having heard the messages coming from the highest authorities 
 
74 
 
 of the United States and especially its universities, expresses to them its 
 great gratitude; it sends to the universities of America its cordial and 
 affectionate greeting; it expresses the wish that the present trial, met and 
 overcome together, may contribute to make more intimate the intellectual 
 bonds which have traditionally existed between the two countries; it hopes 
 that the exchanges of professors and students between the universities of 
 the two sides of the Atlantic will become more numerous, to the great 
 advantage of science whose ideal, methods and application can only gain 
 by such reciprocal penetration; it addresses its thanks, stirred by this 
 expression, to the intellectual and great philanthropies of America whose 
 active sympathy and generosity contribute toward a realization of this pene- 
 tration; it sends especially its sympathetic remembrance to the distinguished 
 professors and the young instructors in English who during these last years 
 have brought the good American word to our city ; and finally — adopting 
 the admirable word of President Wilson that " Right is more precious than 
 peace " — confident in the efficiency of the inestimable aid brought to the 
 cause of justice by the United States, it expresses the hope that, thanks to 
 the awakening of the conscience of all civilized people, the allied nations 
 will continue unflinchingly the hard task before them until the peaceful 
 reign of right shall have been definitely established. 
 
 JoUBIN 
 
 Recteur 
 
 There has come to me since my return a little book of messages 
 in verse from women in the university addressed to the young 
 women of America. I reproduce one of these messages in the 
 original with the preface in translation. 
 
 The students of the University of Lyon are happy to respond to the 
 gracious message of the young girls of America with a message of warm 
 sympathy and common hope. 
 
 Why should we not love each other? Americans, in the dawn of their 
 history, have seen the French, under the leadership of Lafayette and of 
 Rochambeau, bleed and die for American liberty. Several years later, 
 the Constituent Assembly inscribed, in its famous Declaration, the great 
 principles which Washington had solemnly proclaimed to the Congress of 
 Philadelphia. 
 
 The people of your great country did not wait for the official entry of 
 America into the war to send to the Allies their gold and especially to give 
 their blood. We shall honor them as much as our own dead, these who 
 have voluntarily sacrificed all for France ; they can all pronounce the proud 
 words of Kenneth Weeks who said to his friends in enlisting: 
 
75 
 
 " I have always loved France with a great love; now that she is in 
 danger I can prove to her my fideUty." 
 
 And they who have fallen bravely are numerous, like Harold Chapin, 
 killed at the battle of Loos, like Alan Seeger killed at Belloy-en-Santerre, 
 July 4, 1916, after having written to his mother : 
 
 " Mother, if I do not return, be proud as a Spartan mother. Death, 
 after all, is not so terrible. It signifies, perhaps, something still more 
 beautiful than life." 
 
 On the second of last April, the union of America and of France was 
 sealed by the noble message of President Wilson who, in the name of your 
 people, consecrated America to the struggle of right and justice to bring 
 liberty to the world. And henceforth, following the word of M. Ribot: 
 
 " The starry flag will wave beside the tri-color, our hands and our 
 hearts will be joined to fight in unison." 
 
 A L'AMERIQUE EN ARMES 
 Salut! grande Amerique, 6 soeur de notre France! 
 Ton amitie loyale est pour nous I'esperance. . . 
 Du pays mutile tu vis couler les pleurs 
 Que sur le so sacre faisait repandre, infame. 
 La horde criminelle, insensible a tout blame, 
 
 Des ennemis devastateurs ! 
 Nos soldats sont tombes, fauches comme des herbes, 
 Tous courageux et fiers, heros nobles, superbes, 
 Courant pleins d'allegresse au devant du trepas. . . 
 Dans leur elan sublime ils ont I'ardeur du juste, 
 Et disent en ralant, mot supreme et auguste: 
 
 ^"^ La France ne perira pas ! ^^ 
 Maintenant, Amerique, au sang de ces victimes, 
 Le sang de tes Enfants s'unit, vengeur des crimes; 
 Heros aussi, puisqu'ils n'ont pas peur de souffrir. 
 La Gloire de ces preux sera le mausolee, 
 Car ils auront montre, dans la sainte melee, 
 
 Qu'ils savent, eux aussi, mourir! 
 Ce n'est pas seulement sur les champs de carnage 
 Qu'au monde tu fais voir ce que peut ton courage; 
 Les guerriers ne sont pas qu'au milieu des combats: 
 Par vos efforts hardis, hommes, enfants et femmes, 
 Qui ne connaissez pas les villages en flammes, 
 
 Vous devenez tous des soldats! 
 
 Therese Lion, 
 
 Licenciee es lettres (anglais) 
 
76 
 
 Grenoble 
 
 At Grenoble I was met at midnight by the hospitable com- 
 mittee with the most amiable recteur, M. Coulet, at its head. 
 The charm of this place is known throughout Europe and should 
 be throughout America. Its university has offered special induce- 
 ments to foreigners in language courses, and its environment of 
 mountains capped, some of them, with snow, continues to offer 
 physical inducements. In the early morning, at six o'clock, I 
 saw the young men of the 1918 class who had been called to 
 the colors, at their rigorous drill on the tree-encircled esplanade 
 along the Isere, beneath the towering cliffs, and strong sturdy 
 youth they seemed, and wonderfully alert. What I saw there 
 is doubtless typical of all departments of France. 
 
 There was opportunity to visit one of the schools for the train- 
 ing of teachers (and there every student takes English through 
 the course) before I attended the special assembly, which was 
 called to welcome an American with messages from the Presi- 
 dent and from the universities and colleges. The hall was filled 
 by university professors and students, by teachers and pupils from 
 the schools, and by citizens, all or most of whom seemed to under- 
 stand English, and with them were a few Americans in study 
 there. The girls from the teachers training school sang 
 "America " in English as well as their own " Marseillaise " in 
 French and the Recteur made an eloquent address, which, despite 
 the personal references, I present in translation to my American 
 audience : 
 
 ADDRESS BY RECTOR COULET 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen: 
 
 I have requested you to assemble here in order to receive Mr John 
 Finley, Commissioner of Education and President of The University of 
 the State of New York. Once before Mr Finley has been the guest at the 
 University of Grenoble and undoubtedly more than one among you remem- 
 bers the conferences which he gave there under the auspices of the Harvard 
 Foundation. 
 
 His visit today has another object. The day after the great American 
 republic had deliberately taken a stand by our side and by that of our 
 allies for the defense of right and the liberty of peoples, Mr Finley crossed 
 the Atlantic to bring us the greeting of the universities, colleges and schools 
 
77 
 
 of the United States, to tell us in what spirit they have received the decision 
 of the federal government, the faith which they also have in the victory, 
 and the hopes they set in the triumph of the common ideal, for the estab- 
 lishment of a new order for the benefit of a better humanity. 
 
 That you appreciate with me the nobility of the deed and the extent of 
 the action, I wish first of all to persuade our guest of today. 
 
 The Minister of Public Instruction on receiving Mr Finley took notice 
 of the speeches with which he was commissioned but as they ought to go to 
 all those for whom they are really intended — to all the schools of France, 
 to their teachers, to their students, to their pupils — Mr Finley brings them 
 to the universities of the provinces after having delivered them to the 
 University of Paris. 
 
 And that is also why our university does not wish to keep for herself 
 alone the honor which she has received. She begs you to join with her to 
 hear these voices which come from America so that in your turn you can 
 spread them and they can awake in all hearts the echo which should answer 
 them. 
 
 Thus is explained. Sir, the presence in this hall of personal represen- 
 tatives of the faculties, colleges and schools of Grenoble, of their students 
 and of their pupils, all united in the desire to thank you for having come 
 to us. 
 
 The welcome which I have the honor of wishing you in their name Is 
 full of admiration and gratitude: admiration for your country which has 
 so greatly done itself honor by showing its intentions as it has just done, 
 gratitude to those who have entrusted to you the mission which you fill so 
 worthily, gratitude also to yourself for the share which you have had in 
 the change of opinion which has come to pass in the United States from 
 the neutrality of recent times to the brotherhood of today. 
 
 In presenting my compliments to . . . Mr Finley ... in 
 in greeting him as the envoy of the universities, of the colleges and of the 
 schools of America, I invite you, ladies and gentlemen, to greet also one of 
 the best friends of France. 
 
 This friendship you had shown to us for a long time by asserting your 
 
 belief in the French method of teaching, by placing very high the spirit 
 
 which inspires it, the worth of its teachers, the importance of the French 
 
 contribution to the progress of human knowledge. 
 
 ***** 
 
 It is your great William James who said, " The excess of technicality 
 and the dryness resulting from it are appalling in the young students of 
 American universities. This technicality, this dryness influences them so 
 they follow too closely the models and methods of Germany." 
 
78 
 
 And he added: " What is rare is to find a particular point of view 
 joined to an extreme clearness in the power of bringing into play the whole 
 critical preparation necessary to show thoughts." 
 
 This ideal is that very one to which all our system of education tends, 
 that which, according to Mr James, our scholars and our thinkers have 
 reaHzed. 
 
 Another of your fellow countrymen while characterizing our teaching 
 methods, informs us of the reasons for the feeling which you have never 
 ceased to show for them. " French teaching," says Mr Barrett Wendell, 
 " combines in so admirable a way precision and breadth of view, it so 
 calls attention to detail yet endeavors to keep everything in accord with the 
 great underlying principles, that it seems more inspiring than any other 
 system of which we know." 
 
 It is in truth for that, that French science is noted. It is because of that 
 quality that you, as well as William James and Barrett Wendell, have 
 kept wishing for a closer union of the American point of view and the 
 French universities and sciences. 
 
 I have intentionally quoted from others, statements of the reasons for 
 our common sympathies in order to associate them with our gratitude to 
 you. But it is you only we thank for one thing — your personal effort to 
 bring about the intellectual union of France and America. 
 
 In the first place, you have been associated with that movement which, 
 each year, brings us one or more professors from the American universities. 
 One very precious result of this has been the increase of the bonds of per- 
 sonal relationship between the scholars of the two countries. It is as 
 exchange professor that the University of Grenoble had the honor of 
 receiving you some years ago. 
 
 You have again shown your active sympathy with French methods of 
 instruction in the management of that great institution of which you have 
 been until these last years, the president of the College of the City of 
 New York. 
 
 From the first day you have been with our great friends, with your 
 former ambassadors, Robert Bacon and Myron T. Herrick, with the 
 venerated Charles Eliot, president emeritus of Harvard University, with 
 President Nicholas Murray Butler, with President Lawrence Lowell, 
 with so many others whose names are graven on our hearts. Your friend- 
 ship without stopping has passed through halting places that others have 
 had to cross more slowly. 
 
 You had seen from the start where the right was and where lay the 
 duty of America. A certain impatience one might think must have animated 
 you. 
 
79 
 
 You who had reckoned so largely on the debt of the United States to 
 France, you at times must have feared that they would let pass the opportu- 
 nity to pay off this indebtedness. 
 
 You may, however, be assured. Long before America entered the 
 war we found what American neutrality for France was. Its debt your 
 country has paid by the assistance which it has given us from the first day 
 in the most various forms; assistance to our wounded, aid to the peoples 
 of the invaded districts, restoration of devastated regions, adoption of the 
 orphans of the war. On the other hand, many of your young men, not 
 awaiting the decision of their country, have come to us as doctors, aviators, 
 as fighters, and how many already have died for us ! 
 
 But now be wholly content. The declaration of President Wilson, 
 affirming the resolutions of America, frees you from all indebtedness and 
 forever. 
 
 A pride comes to us, you will pardon the expression, that on these lands 
 of which a part was formerly French you have been able to raise such a 
 harvest of generosity and noble idealism. 
 
 In your name, ladies and gentlemen, have I greeted Mr John Finley as 
 one of the best friends of our country. 
 
 To the universities, colleges and American schools from which he brings 
 us greetings, we can give assurance that they could not have chosen an 
 ambassador more agreeable to us nor nearer to our hearts. 
 
 To the Universities, Colleges and Schools of the United States: 
 
 For many days all France has followed with passionate admiration the 
 noble proceedings of the great American Republic in the midst of the 
 grave events which have led her to take freely her part of danger and of 
 honor in the immense world conflict. 
 
 Grenoble claims the honor of always having felt an ardent sympathy for 
 the American colleges and schools. For the last years numerous teachers 
 and students have crossed the ocean to come to us, have passed through or 
 remained in our Dauphiny University, learned men who have taught in 
 our chairs, young people who have sat under the instruction of our faculties 
 and who all, after they left us, have remained our friends. 
 
 We greet the great democracy of the United States, which has arisen 
 in a sublime rapture, to avenge the violated rights, the outraged human con- 
 science, the beauty of the world odiously profaned, and which will not 
 lay down its arms until the ideal of justice and of peace, so magnificently 
 proclaimed by President Wilson in his speech at the Capitol, is realized. 
 
80 
 
 We greet the teachers and the students who, from both sides of the 
 ocean offer the best they have — the genius of their race, their strength, 
 their thought, their heart and their blood — and who thus seal the holy- 
 union of the free and civilized peoples. 
 
 We greet the American universities, always the advance guard of 
 Knowledge and Duty! We greet all the colleges and all the schools of 
 the United States of America! 
 
 CoULET 
 
 Recteur 
 
 Montpellier 
 
 From Grenoble I went to Valence (where I had opportunity, 
 between trains only, for a conference with the inspector for that 
 district, who most courteously came to the station to spend the 
 brief time with me, and who has since sent a cordial message from 
 one of his lycees) , then by way of Tarascon to Nimes, where I 
 visited a very good lycee situated between the famous amphi- 
 theater and the no less famous Maison Carree. Here I found 
 fifty or more Serbians, all pursuing the same courses as the French 
 students but under their Serbian master. The boys occupied 
 dormitories in the lycee and also assisted in tilling the fields, for 
 the students were farming a large plot in the environs of the city. 
 Here I saw, too, for the first time, premilitary and physical train- 
 ing going forward, though I nowhere saw any such gymnasium 
 provision as is made in many places in the United States. And 
 I here saw also evidences of the undertaking of medical inspection, 
 which will doubtless be made general and compulsory though 
 now it seems to be left to the determination of the authorities of 
 each school. 
 
 Then on to Montpellier. There again, after hours of visi- 
 tation which included a hospital for the wounded soldiers and the 
 medical school of medieval fame (where I saw among other 
 interesting memorabilia the gown of Rabelais), I was received 
 by the faculties of the university, and was asked by the Recteur, 
 who is the dean of French rectors, and has served France with 
 special distinction in several posts, to carry back the following 
 message : 
 
81 
 
 ADDRESS BY RECTOR BENOIST 
 
 ACADEMIE DE MONTPELLIER 
 
 MontpelUer, June 8, 19 1 7 
 The Rector of the University of Montpellier to Mr John Finley, President 
 of The University of the Slate of New York 
 
 Dear Mr Finley: 
 
 At the moment of your leaving France to return to America, I wish to 
 express to you in the name of the University of Montpellier, our sympathy 
 with the great American Republic, from which you brought us a message 
 at our meeting of yesterday, June seventh. 
 
 Like all Frenchmen, the members of our university hailed with enthu- 
 siasm the entering of the United States in the great conflict which divides 
 the world. It has been a joy for them to think that as in the days of 
 Washington and Lafayette, Frenchmen and Americans will fight side by 
 side for the cause of liberty. 
 
 But it is not enough that our two countries should be united during the 
 war. It is necessary that they be united when, after the conclusion of 
 peace, the universities will devote themselves with new ardor to their 
 scientific tasks. We hope that, thanks to the establishment of fellowships, 
 it will be possible to create between our universities and yours, systematic 
 relations which will be profitable for our two countries, and no less profit- 
 able to science and civilization. 
 
 Our university will remember the visit with which you have honored it 
 and in which it sees the pledge of durable and fruitful understanding 
 between the two countries. 
 
 Antoine Benoist 
 
 Recteur 
 Toulouse 
 
 I traveled by night past Carcassonne (which I saw in the moon- 
 light), to Toulouse, and there spent a good part of the day in 
 visiting an ecole primaire superieure, that is, a school whose course 
 extends three years beyond the six years of the primary, cor- 
 responding in period and purpose to our so-called junior high 
 school (and there I found, by the way, such a course in general 
 science, admirably taught, as I have hoped we might initiate in 
 the same period here) ; an ecole normale, in the environs of the 
 city; and a school, the first of the sort that I had seen, for the 
 training of boys and girls for special war industries. Toulouse 
 
82 
 
 is swollen in population by such industries. Forty thousand men 
 and women are employed in the powder works alone, I am told. 
 In the late afternoon I was received by the officers and pro- 
 fessors of the university in the presence of the mayor, the prefet's 
 representative, and an audience of teachers and citizens that filled 
 to overflowing the university hall. In the absence of the Recteur, 
 who had been mobilized as an expert in explosives, and was 
 serving in Paris, I was welcomed by the Dean of the Faculty of 
 Letters, M. Dumas, whose particular message to the universities 
 and colleges following his more personal address was as follows : 
 
 ADDRESS BY ACTING RECTOR DUMAS 
 
 UNIVERSITE DE TOULOUSE 
 
 Toulouse, June 15, 1917 
 The university and the educational institutions of Toulouse are happy to 
 address their warm thanks to President Wilson, who will mark his place 
 in history beside Washington and Lincoln, to President Roosevelt, whose 
 energy France has always admired, to the American universities and schools, 
 for the very sympathetic and cordial messages which they have sent and 
 which their eminent representative, Mr John Finley, has known how to 
 interpret with so much feeling. They, in their turn, give assurance that 
 they have for the great American Republic, for its universities and educa- 
 tional institutions, high regard and sincere friendship. They hope that the 
 great fight which they are waging and which the two great republics will 
 wage to the end for the triumph of liberty, of justice and of humanity, will 
 draw still closer the bonds of friendship which have so long united them. 
 
 F. Dumas 
 
 From Toulouse a night's journey brought me again to Paris, 
 where I attended a Harvard dinner. Addresses were made in 
 both French and English, the Minister of Public Instruction and 
 our own Ambassador being the special guests. 
 
 I then went to see the western end of the French front, passing 
 through the region across which the Germans had retreated leav- 
 ing it in a devastated condition. The one school picture of that 
 schoolless region which I keep most vividly is of a school building 
 enough of whose blackened walls stood to show that it had once 
 been an ecole municipale; but I shall not attempt to speak of 
 these experiences here. 
 
83 
 
 St Cyr and Joinville 
 
 I then visited two notable schools: one at St Cyr, the West 
 Point of France, now a center for the intensive training of young 
 men who are aspirants for commissions. What interested me 
 especially was that their program included a very thorough pro- 
 vision for physical training. The other at Joinville, on the other 
 side of Paris, is a school for the special tuition of teachers who 
 are to teach in the military camps and, after the war, in the 
 schools, for it is anticipated that after the war there will be uni- 
 versal and compulsory physical training of the children and youth 
 of France. The thoroughness with which they are now training 
 their teachers gives promise of an effective realization of the hope. 
 
 In this connection mention should be made of an exhibition 
 which I witnessed a few days later in the Tuilleries, where thou- 
 sands were assembled to see such physical exercises and athletic 
 events, seemingly new in France, as we have for the most part 
 practised for years. This exhibition, called a '* Manifestation 
 Patriotique," was held under the patronage of the Minister of 
 War but was promoted by private societies which are develop- 
 ing public sentiment in support of such training. 
 
 Caen 
 
 From Paris I went next to Normandy, where I visited Caen, 
 the seat of the University of Caen. But after the reception by 
 the university authorities, in which the faculties and the students 
 participated, I found that there were lycees for boys and for girls 
 also worth the journey to Caen to see. If the schools of America 
 could have heard the singing by the girls assembled in the. hall of 
 the girls' lycee, and could have heard the address by the repre- 
 sentative of the teachers and of the students in the boys' lycee, 
 gathered in one of the stateliest halls I have seen in Europe, they 
 would know how cordial a feeling toward America has sprung 
 up in the hearts even of the children and youth of France. It was 
 evinced again at the ecole normale when the inspector spoke. 
 There is space, however, for only the address of the rector of 
 the university, Monsieur Moniez, made in the presence of the 
 
84 
 
 faculties, who, standing in their robes of learning, such as have 
 been worn there for centuries, were surrounded by the students, 
 whose numbers decimated by war were filled by women and 
 wounded. 
 
 ADDRESS BY RECTOR MONIEZ 
 
 UNIVERSITE DE CAEN 
 
 Caen, June 18, 19 1 7 
 Sir: 
 
 I beg to introduce to you the members of the council of the University 
 of Caen and the professors and students of its various faculties, all of 
 them happy to welcome in you one of the most eminent representatives of 
 the thought of America, 
 
 The professors are reduced in number, for, notwithstanding their age, 
 many of them, as you doubtless know, are serving in the field ; the students 
 are extremely few, for, except the physically unfit, all have joined the 
 army where they are doing their duty. Instead of the latter, you may see 
 here some women students who will try to fill up some of the gaps we shall 
 lament for a long time after the war ; but their studies do not prevent them 
 from giving themselves up to those various works of assistance, the import- 
 ance of which is so well known to you, and for this reason part of them 
 have found it impossible to come here and join their tribute to ours. 
 
 Both professors and students beg you, Sir, to forward to intellectual 
 America the expression of their gratitude and admiration. 
 
 Gratitude and admiration are indeed the feelings that prevail in all 
 French souls after the action of President Wilson and his intervention on 
 behalf of his country, in a conflict where the stakes are such that the world 
 has never seen and probably never will see the like. 
 
 Though official Germany has unceasingly quibbled to make the debate 
 an obscure one before that tribunal of the civilized world where she had 
 been summoned by America ; though atrocious outrages, in the true German 
 spirit, have been resorted to in order to frighten you, President Wilson's 
 conscience, the reflection of your nation's collective conscience, has not 
 known for one instant either hesitation or even uncertainty. 
 
 With a clear insight into facts, first among the neutrals, President 
 Wilson has declared where justice was. He has said it openly with the 
 strength, calmness and dignity which become such great decisions; he has 
 said it without any illusion as to the possible consequences of the step he 
 took or rather of the verdict which he passed before the attentive world. 
 
85 
 
 As Germany showed nothing but contempt for the solemn sentence by 
 which she stood condemned, America resolved to be more than a spectator 
 in the great drama. She deliberately entered the struggle for the defense 
 of liberty and justice, throwing- her immense power into the scale, ready 
 for any sacrifices, in quest of nothing but honor, without any interest beside 
 the protection of the high ideal which, in spite of the barbarians, remains 
 the guiding star of mankind. 
 
 Admirable indeed is the virtue of that nation rising in its thousands for 
 the preservation of civilization and the punishment of crime. For after all 
 there, was no lack of pretexts, and even good reason, for standing aside, 
 away from the conflict, and the messengers of the enemy had dinned all 
 those pretexts and reasons into all American ears. 
 
 Allow me. Sir, to tell you now one of the things which moved our 
 hearts most deeply and which struck us as singularly beautiful and noble. 
 It is the charming delicacy of feeling which made you ascribe to pure 
 gratefulness that chivalrous decision of yours. You often tell us that you 
 are but paying an old debt, the debt you have owed us ever since we 
 helped you in your struggle for independence. You thus show, quite 
 unwittingly, that one of the rarest of virtues, the virtue of gratefulness, is 
 to be found in America, and that gratefulness there is of longer duration 
 than anywhere else. We know how faithfully you keep the memory of 
 our great men, and you yourself. Sir, who have trusted this country with 
 the education of your sons, wrote the following words a long time before 
 America's intervention in the war: 
 
 " La France . . . bien qu'elle n'ait plus aucun droit de propriete sur 
 ces territoires (americains) conserve du moins le droit de toucher encore 
 une sorte d'arriere de fermage, de partager les fruits des vertus humaines 
 que elle y'a semee jadis. De droit la, jamais le temps ne pourra ni le lui 
 enlever ni I'obscurcir; il ne saurait qu'augmenter." 
 
 It was indeed impossible to state in a more ingenious and more charming 
 way your love for our country, but while we are deeply grateful to you 
 for that love, we will not allow ourselves to be deluded by your amiable 
 ascription. The old debt has long been extinct and you well know besides 
 that France has never thought that she had any claim upon you. You 
 have the full honor of one of the most important acts in the history of the 
 world, of a decision that will be attended with incalculable consequences 
 far beyond the present times and the limited range of our vision. 
 
 A few years ago. Sir, you wrote a very fine book with this title: " The 
 French in the Heart of America.'' I will not presume to praise the book 
 after the French Academy has awarded it one of its prizes, but I like to 
 
86 
 
 think that later on some historian may give a kind of counterpart to it and 
 show that America is, forever and ever, in the hearts of all French people. 
 
 MONIEZ 
 
 Recieur 
 Rennes 
 
 From Normandy I went to Brittany, pausing for the night in 
 Laval, where I received courtesies from the inspecteur of that 
 district and one of the teachers in the boys' lycee. Brittany, 
 which is closest physically to America, seemed to be most widely 
 and deeply cordial in its welcome. The girls' lycee gave the 
 initial welcome, the girls being assembled in the beautiful garden 
 under characteristic French skies that wept one moment and 
 smiled the next. This charming picture has beside it another that 
 has no brightness in it, save that which the patriotic spirit of the 
 workers may give — the memory of the interior of the arsenal 
 where nearly five thousand women, young and old, are making 
 munitions. The war seems more real in this place, where millions 
 of cartridges are made every week, than it does even at the front 
 except in the active periods. And it was a fit sequel that I visited 
 next a boys' lycee where at a most stirring assembly of masters 
 and students — very like an assembly of American boys — the 
 wounded soldiers who were occupying a part of the lycee, looked 
 on with their nurses from a court at the side of the hall. And 
 one must mention, as of educational interest, the mayor's potato 
 patch in the midst of the public park, supplanting lawn and flower 
 beds, though only in part, for the flowers can not be wholly ban- 
 ished by the French from their gardens, their windows, and their 
 streets. Out under the trees of the garden of the ecole normale 
 there was another welcome, with singing not only of the " Star 
 Spangled Banner " but of "America," and with addresses which 
 should be heard by teachers in America, and which I hope may 
 yet be reproduced. There was awaiting, however, a further wel- 
 come. The university hall, in which I had spoken several years 
 before, being in war use, I was received in the City Hall, the able 
 and popular mayor, M. Janvier, appearing at the stately entrance 
 with resolutions of the town council (in response to President 
 Wilson's message) in his hand for presentation in the presence of 
 the people gathered in the square. Escorted to the hall of state. 
 
87 
 
 which for the few minutes of the seance was briUiantly lighted, I 
 was welcomed by an audience in which the national and munic- 
 ipal governments, the civil and the military authorities, the uni- 
 versity, and the schools were represented. The eloquent recteur, 
 M. Gerard Varet, made a moving address and was followed by 
 the president of the student council, a young man who had lost 
 one of his eyes in battle and who wore upon his breast the croix 
 de guerre. 
 
 The address of the Recteur is presented in translation, but one 
 who did not hear it in the French as pronounced by him can not 
 know its real eloquence. 
 
 ADDRESS BY RECTOR GERARD VARET 
 
 UNIVERSITE DE RENNES 
 
 For the second time the University of Rennes has the pleasure of your 
 visit. 
 
 The first was in March 1911. We then received you and heard you 
 in the lecture room of the Faculty of Letters. Then we had peace. Our 
 students cheered you in their youthful enthusiasm, flushed with fresh visions 
 and joyful hopes. Six years have passed; those are today absent; war, 
 terrible war, worse than the wildest dreams, has seized them and taken 
 them away. How many among them, with their young teachers, with 
 many others of all ranks and all ages sleep there the heroic sleep to which 
 human civilization owes the fact that it is still standing. On this solemn 
 occasion, our first thought belongs to them. 
 
 This thought does not remove us from you, but brings us nearer to you. 
 It is to them that we owe your presence here among us today, to greet in you 
 a great friend who comes in the name of a great people. 
 
 First of all, you are bringing your work; at your first visit we had the 
 " primeur "; since then you have put it in writing; it has become a book, 
 a fine book, " The French in the Heart of America." 
 
 The United States have the rare " coquetterie " of gratitude; for 
 nearly one hundred fifty years they have been cultivating with love their 
 gratitude to France, the friend of their first hours, the companion who 
 helped them in the painful travail of their young independence. Such a 
 band of our common affection seems to you too narrow; you wanted for 
 it a wider horizon. You went further back, through the eighteenth, through 
 the seventeenth, back to the sixteenth century, to seek the magnificent 
 explorers for France: Cartier de Saint-Malo, Champlain, Nicolet, Lale- 
 
88 
 
 mant, Marquette, La Salle, and many others. You returned with them 
 up the St Lawrence, up the Great Lakes. You descended with them the 
 great rivers, Ohio, Missouri, Mississippi; you have watched them pitch 
 their tents ; erect their forts in solitudes which later were to become immense 
 cities, Pittsburgh, Chicago, New Orleans; you have related their epic, 
 their immovable loyal valor, without perfidy, without baseness, without cor- 
 ruption, without a blot. You did better still; within the limits of modern 
 America in those vast regions where their traces seemed effaced, you have 
 rediscovered their soul which is still present and active. You have shown 
 in those regions of vast industry their generous idealism, their heroic cheer- 
 fulness, which today still shines like a light from above. This book is a 
 hymn to France; France has heard it with proud and solemn joy; it has 
 given it the welcome it deserved; it has given it in its libraries a place of 
 honor beside such others as Michelet, who loved it so. 
 
 Besides your work, you bring something else, the wishes of your univer- 
 sities and schools, teachers, students and children. In the autumn of 1914, 
 in the dark winter which followed, before the Marne, after the Yser, 
 later still, for months, France, as if bending over the ocean, strained her 
 ear toward distant voices, expecting to hear words of comfort. The first 
 came from the universities of America. Two years ago, one of your own 
 men, one of your most prominent young teachers, spoke in this very place, 
 in words of intimacy which touched us all, of the concern which at that 
 time of neutrality filled the disturbed hearts in your highest educational 
 institutions, the attachment to the Allies, the admiration for France, the 
 sturdy faith in an approaching entente with France. And then we never 
 forgot the first and the most severe condemnation hurled at the German 
 crimes in the midst of the silence of the States, the avenging word of the 
 illustrious Eliot, president of Harvard University. 
 
 Your students — their families were worthy of their teachers. From the 
 first year many among them joined our troops, many have paid with their 
 lives their worship of right. One of them, an aviator, fell gloriously; when 
 the sad news was conveyed to the father, his only reply was: " It is well, 
 he died for a great cause." 
 
 And finally, you bring the voice of the whole of America: school chil- 
 dren who first had the delicate thought of helping our little war orphans; 
 the boys and men, who by hundreds of thousands, by millions, are pre- 
 paring for the battle and sacrifices of tomorrow. The whole nation at last 
 standing behind the President, who after a long self-imposed silence, has 
 in imperishable words declared war on the empire of rapine, decided the 
 reparations and guarantees, and outlined in a general way, the Society of 
 Nations. 
 
89 
 
 By these resounding manifestations all France has been thrilled. She 
 has recognized in them her most profound instincts. She has found in her 
 new ally her dearest sentiments which combine to make a perfect antithesis 
 to Prussia, such as a Victor Hugo would have never dared to conceive: the 
 democracy of peace against the monarchy of war ; the state without military 
 service against the state which invented universal conscription; a people 
 whose life is in broad daylight against a government of mysteries, lies and 
 espionage; the ambition of idealism against the covetousness of a ferocious 
 egotism; in the past as in the present, the holy wars of liberty against the 
 savage wars of extermination. 
 
 Mr Director, those who welcome you today are friends moved by the 
 ardent conviction of the victory of right: the teaching force of Rennes who 
 miss several of their teachers who fell on the field of honor, whose other 
 friends also have joined, especially the principal administrators and military 
 officials of the city, more particularly the mayor, to whom, being deprived 
 of our buildings turned over to the wounded, we are obliged for your 
 reception in this beautiful hall of the Hotel de Ville, which was restored 
 under his care; facing the elders, the students, the youth — or rather those 
 who are left of the young men — those who are beginning and those who 
 are awaiting their turn to depart ; others who have returned, as, for example, 
 their president, he and those no longer in active service because of wounds, 
 decorated with the croix de guerre; and then our young pupils who cast 
 upon our sadness the smile of their charm, and finally, our great, doubly 
 dear — a new colleague, with us since yesterday, M. Celestin Demblon, 
 professor of the University of Brussels, deputy of Liege, one of the most 
 authoritative teachers and one of the most eloquent orators of his country; 
 among the first a solid group of young Serbians who asked to add their 
 cheers to ours ; so that you have gathered before your eyes in this corner of 
 Brittany the appealing representatives of the two noblest victims of this 
 atrocious war — Belgium and Serbia, whom France, herself murdered, 
 presses to her bleeding bosom. 
 
 In the name of all present and absent, I greet you, Mr Director, and in 
 you all the schools of America, with a fraternal salute of welcome. 
 
 Gerard -Varet 
 
 Recteur 
 
 Another night journey to Paris gave me an early morning 
 picture of the city whose charm has been but heightened by the 
 more serious expression which she wears. The stream of gray- 
 blue is always moving by night and by day, yet as quietly as 
 France's placid rivers. 
 
90 
 
 Early in the morning I went to visit the place in Paris where 
 those who can no longer see the physical charm of Paris or the 
 faces of their friends — the soldiers blinded in battle — are 
 reeducated that they may begin life again. Visits to other institu- 
 tions for relief or reeducation and receptions by the American 
 Club, a body of American business and professional men in Paris, 
 by the professors of the Sorbonne, and by the Comite France- 
 Amerique, filled most of the two closing days in Paris. 
 
 This last night will be for me forever memorable because of 
 the presence of so many friends of America in the heart of France. 
 But also because of the utterance of those notable friends, M. 
 Hanotaux, M. Boutroux and M. Bergson who presided. I 
 am able to reproduce here but a portion of the notable address 
 by Professor Bergson which I am proud to have had a part in 
 evoking. It was worth a journey through peril to bring back to 
 America : 
 
 " Everywhere in the universities, in the colleges, in the schools, he 
 [Mr Finley] has gathered tokens of sympathy and of admiration for us. 
 . . . We have them before our eyes. There are, from the President of 
 the Republic of the United States, the great and noble Wilson, to the 
 humblest scholar, the most touching of messages. President Finley, you 
 are going in a few hours. . . . Tell everyone over there of our deep 
 emotions and allow us to express to you in person all our gratitude and to 
 tell you (recalling a figure which will truly serve, of one of those whose 
 messages you brought. President Butler) that you have just joined several 
 links — I will call them links of gold — in the chain which binds France 
 to America. We will express, too, our gratitude toward other American 
 delegates here present. Major Murphy, Chief of the Red Cross Mission. 
 M. Murphy organized here help not only for wounded Americans but also 
 for wounded French, and at the same time help for the inhabitants of our 
 invaded and devastated regions. To Professor Woods who has spent 
 several months among us and who fortunately is going to remain next 
 year. He represents among us in an eminent way American science, learn- 
 ing and philosophy. . . . 
 
 For my part, I have never doubted that America would intervene 
 sooner or later in this war, and I was sure, as I kept saying, that it would 
 not be through selfish interests, through material purposes or gain that she 
 would intervene ; it would be by reason of some great principle. 
 
 I said here to the Franco-American Committee on returning from a 
 
91 
 
 voyage some years ago, "America is a country of idealism, it is the land 
 of the ideal." Because Americans have had to clear a new continent, to 
 struggle for their existence, we have come to believe that they were men 
 with selfish interests, occupied before all with material interests. What a 
 mistake! He who has lived in America realizes that there is no country 
 in the world where money means less. It is only necessary to see how they 
 spend it, how they give it, and for what they earn it. They earn it and 
 they seek for it only that they may give proof that they have made every 
 effort possible. Money over there, I said, was a certificate of efficiency. 
 
 Whoever has lived in America knows that high ideals, moral and 
 religious, have the first place over there. Whoever has studied American 
 literature and philosophy knows that the American soul is impregnated with 
 idealism and even with mysticism. Whoever has studied American his- 
 tory knows that abstract and general thoughts of morality and justice 
 have always held first place. It is upon pure ideals and pure thoughts that 
 the American nation was built, and it is, perhaps, the only nationality in 
 the world, which was thus built consciously and freely. For elsewhere, it 
 was by force of circumstances, by tradition and by a series of events that 
 the constitution of this and that nation was determined. Once only in the 
 history of the world was a nation built upon considerations purely ideal — 
 that was the day when the nation was founded which was to become the 
 American nation and the American nationality. Those who left England 
 to come to colonize America were not drawn over there as colonists gen- 
 erally are by the ultimate thought of material interests ; it was not to enrich 
 themselves; it was not in order to find ease; it was only to find liberty of 
 thought and conscience. So then, it was upon an ideal of liberty and 
 justice that the states which were to become the United States were 
 founded. This ideal of justice and of liberty they sum up over there in 
 the words, " democratic ideal." 
 
 What is the meaning of the word democracy as used in the United 
 States? I believe that it is necessary, to give a true definition of it, that 
 one comprehend the esteem for democracy and democracy's future that 
 we have received for some time from over there. 
 
 The word democracy in America is very profound in its meaning. 
 Democratic rule is reason, pure reason substituted for force, for instinct 
 and even for tradition. It concerns the relations between citizens within 
 the state. The relations between citizens as they have been ordered little 
 by little by historical incident and tradition are not the relations governed 
 by justice and equality before the law. But what reason reclaims is 
 equality before the law. Democratic rule is that which considers, force 
 and tradition and all historical contingencies eliminated, man the equal of 
 
92 
 
 man because all men have a share in a certain superior infinite nature, and 
 thus the dignity of each man is preeminent and the value of each man is 
 absolute. These are the relations between citizens of the same state. 
 
 This conception of democracy is further the conception of the relations 
 between states. In regard to these, what is it that tradition and force and 
 instinct have done? They have brought about the oppression of the feeble 
 by the strong. If we start with a clean slate and get the point of view 
 from pure reason, whether the states are little or great, it matters nothing; 
 they are no more than moral persons equal one to the other, equal before 
 the law. 
 
 If we accept this conception of the state and of the relation of states 
 one to the other, without violence, the reign of force is done away with. 
 To the reign of force succeeds among nations the rule of right. That is 
 why Americans believe and say that democracy is the essence of peace. 
 Thus all durable and definitive peace is the essence of democracy; it is 
 this very profound idea which dominates, it seems to me, the history of 
 the United States. It is because the present war presents with an acuteness 
 that has never before been, the question of knowing whether the rule of 
 right or the rule of force is to be established so in the world. It is for that 
 reason that it was absolutely sure that if the war was prolonged, prolonged 
 fully enough, America would enter this war. 
 
 That is the decisive reason, but there is yet another. This last one I 
 saw and I comprehended better and better the longer I remained in 
 America. 
 
 I arrived in America at a most critical time and I followed from day to 
 day, I might say from hour to hour, American thought. Diplomatic rela- 
 tions had been broken — broken under such conditions, after what Presi- 
 dent Wilson said, it was in fact a declaration of war, if American shipping 
 was torpedoed. Therefore war appeared inevitable. But what sort of a 
 war? Was it to be a war concerning torpedoing only, a defensive war 
 and consequently one that would end upon the day when the Germans gave 
 sufficient assurances relative to the torpedoing of American shipping? 
 Would this be a partial and defensive war, or was it to be a " whole " 
 war, a war into which America would throw herself with all her forces and 
 resources, with the resolution taken to put an end to German militarism? 
 
 In other words the question presented was this: was it proposed to 
 repress the aggression of the submarine as such, or would they see in that 
 aggression a sign, an index of a certain state of soul of a certain nation, 
 and the proof that there existed in the world a nation with which it was 
 impossible henceforth to live? That was the question presented. 
 
 I said that I could follow the gradual evolution of American sentiment 
 
93 
 
 that was drawing, little by little, America to the question that whatever 
 befell, it was to be a " whole " war in which America would throw her- 
 self with the purpose of stamping out or stifling German militarism. For 
 two months, February and March, there was amongst my friends over there 
 the greatest anxiety. It was by his address of the second of April, his 
 admirable, immortal address of the second of April, that President Wilson 
 put an end to this anxiety. The war which he decided to wage, conform- 
 ing to the thought and sentiment of the Americans was to be a " whole " 
 war which they would conduct to the finish — he said : to the end of 
 Prussian militarism. 
 
 I myself never doubted that that would be the answer, because I knew 
 that was the ideal of America. Since I have been in America I have been 
 in the closest contact with the American soul, and what impressed me 
 deeply was the regard and admiration which they have for France. 
 
 This sentiment does not date from yesterday. From the earliest times 
 in America they have felt for France a certain great gratitude for that which 
 she did in the time of the War of Independence. But since the beginning 
 of the present war, since the Marne especially, the Americans have 
 followed the events of the war with profound admiration — an admiration 
 which has gone on increasing from the Marne to Verdun — and admira- 
 tion for our army, for our civil population in furnishing this army and in 
 maintaining it. It would be very difficult for those who have not lived in 
 America during these last months to form an idea of this regard. It is 
 admiration, it is respect, it is reverence, it is regard which one has for a 
 moral person who has made a great, immense effect in the interest of 
 humanity and above all one who has performed it in silence, without com- 
 plaint and without boasting. It is admiration for that which one might 
 call simplicity in sacrifice, admiration for a nation which has been given 
 or which has received a mission, and which is accomplishing it with 
 childlike candor and simplicity. 
 
 The other day at the Academy of Moral Sciences while in search of a 
 means of making this settlement understood, I spoke of Joan of Arc and I 
 said that the Americans feel toward France what France feels toward 
 Joan of Arc. The mission which Joan of Arc accomplished for us, it 
 seems to Americans — it is thus that I interpret their feelings — is what 
 France has accomplished for the nations. I do not think that I am mis- 
 taken, but I constantly had this feeling when I was in America that they 
 had this sentiment — I might almost say this sensation. This great love, 
 this great admiration for France remained for a long time peaceful and 
 silent in America; then one fine day there was a revelation. It was when 
 our French Viviani-Joffre Mission arrived in America. I was in Wash- 
 
94 
 
 ington at first when they were there; I was in New York when they went 
 to New York. The enthusiasm beggars description; thousands upon 
 thousands of men quivered, doubtless without knowing why, at the burning 
 eloquence of our minister, Viviani. They were shown from afar off Mar- 
 shal JofFre, and I have seen mothers raise their little children in their arms 
 afar off above an ocean of heads — there were fifty thousand people 
 perhaps — to show them Joffre, in order that his features might be 
 engraved upon their minds, Joffre, the hero of the Marne, the impassible 
 Joffre, who, in spite of his impassibility at that moment, despite his efforts, 
 was unable to restrain his emotions. That is what I saw. That day 
 America gave to the light, and clamorously, a sentiment which had for a 
 long time been left hidden deep in its heart, and it is that feeling and that 
 ideal of which I spoke just nov^r, which made America enter into this war. 
 
 These are the two reasons for her entering the war, and perhaps they 
 are one in effect after all and this love of France and this worship of an 
 ideal of justice and liberty is perhaps the same thing. America has always 
 had this worship of liberty which she calls the idea of democracy, the idea 
 of liberty and the idea of justice. But all the history of France is the 
 constant development of this same idea and this same worship, with the 
 difference that we had slowly to bring tradition to the understanding of 
 pure reason, in place of which the Americans were able, and of necessity 
 had to come to the ideal of reason at one stroke. We have had to slowly 
 and painfully, too, reform the ancient; but they at one stroke set up the 
 modern. Which has the greater merit? Which was the more difficult? 
 I do not know, and it matters little. This is certain that in this common 
 ideal for which some have set out and where others have arrived you must 
 look to find the secret of the underlying sentiments which unites America 
 to France. 
 
 And now America has come into the war and she has come into it 
 " wholly," with all her resources and with an immovable will to push it 
 to the finish. It is a resolution taken once for all, a decision implacable. 
 President Wilson expressed it back in those days in these words: " We 
 have made our choice, we have taken our decision, and woe to those who 
 stand in our way." 
 
 America is throwing herself into the war w^th all of her soul and with 
 all of her resources — and these are inexhaustible. They are the resources 
 of a country of more than a million inhabitants, resources in men, resources 
 industrial, resources of every description. Never since the beginning of 
 the war have we been more sure of victory than we are today. America 
 brings not only considerable material resources, unchangeable resolve to 
 conquer, but she is bringing methods of work. For the American has his 
 own method of working, and that is a very rapid method. You must not 
 
95 
 
 think that because she has much to do to prepare an army and to train it, 
 that it is going to take a long time. Rapidity in working is a characteristic 
 of the American, once he has decided to do something. And he throws 
 himself into it with all his soul, according to the need, without regrets for 
 the past — if there are any — and also without illusions for the future. 
 
 It is Longfellow who put into this stanza the motto of America in which 
 he says that America does not run after hope for the future nor concern 
 itself with the past, but throws its entire soul into the present: 
 
 Trust no future, howe'er pleasemt! 
 
 Let the dead Past bury its dead! 
 Act, act in the living present! 
 
 Heart within, and God o'erhead ! 
 
 We can be sure that America will remain faithful to this motto. Let 
 us work together, let us have patience to wait a few months, perhaps only 
 a few weeks, and let us hold on even to the end and something wonderful 
 is going to be brought forth in the world. For all that there has been until 
 now in the world of barbarism, whether real or seeming, all that has flowed 
 toward and into the center of Europe and has established a monstrous 
 thing. The monster is giving forth a vile miasma with which our entire 
 civilization is half poisoned. Let us hold out until this monster is 
 smothered — that will be the end of the miasmas which have poisoned us 
 and will be the restoration of breath to all humanity. That will be a 
 true liberation. 
 
 We owe that to our allies, and we owe that particularly to America 
 who is going to join us. Let us give our thanks. 
 
 Poitiers 
 
 Another journey was then made out through the fertile valley 
 of the Loire — in whose fields, as throughout France, the women 
 are carrying on their patient and heroic labors for the support of 
 her armies — to Poitiers, where, in addition to the schools of the 
 usual types, I visited a place where the prominent women of the 
 city furnish certain articles of food and drink at a nominal price 
 to the soldiers, en repos, or in training, and also a hospital in 
 what were, before the war, the dormitories of the ecole normale. 
 The girls go forward with their training, but they have given their 
 rooms high on the cliff looking across the narrow valley, to their 
 wounded fathers and brothers, and their capable directrice gives 
 •attention to both school and hospital. The faculties of the uni- 
 versity were called in special council, and after an address by the 
 
96 
 
 Recteur, approved by their signatures the following message 
 which was supplemented by other and most cordial addresses 
 made by the rector and mayor and others at a banquet given 
 before my departure upon a night journey to Bordeaux. The 
 formal message, signed by all the professors, including a profes- 
 sor in exile from Lille, was as follows: 
 
 UNIVERSITE DE POITIERS 
 
 Poitiers, June 22, 1917 
 
 The council of the University of Poitiers, in its special meeting of June 
 22, 1917, to which had been exceptionally invited the professors of the 
 faculties at present in Poitiers, thank Mr John H. Finley, present at the 
 meeting, for the honor he has done to the university in visiting it. 
 
 It requests him to be its spokesman to the American universites and to 
 transmit to them with its sentiments of brotherliness the wish 
 
 That after the common victory, complete victory, which has become 
 more certain than ever by the noble adhesion of the United States to the 
 cause of the Allies, the cause of right and of liberty, the students of the 
 two nations having learned to know each other on the field of battle, to 
 appreciate and to love each other, may remain united in peace as they 
 are in war, and that to this end there be established between the universities 
 of the two sides of the Atlantic more and more close relations; and 
 especially that there be established a regular exchange of teachers and 
 students. 
 
 The University of Poitiers already now assures those who will come to 
 it, its most cordial hospitality. 
 
 PiNEAU 
 
 President du Conseil de VUniversite 
 
 Bordeaux 
 
 At Bordeaux, the day being Saturday, there was no oppor- 
 tunity to see the schools in session, but an assembly was held in 
 the hall of the university, attended in such numbers by officials, 
 professors, teachers and students that many were unable to find 
 seats or even standing room in the hall. The meeting was pre- 
 sided over by the recteur, M. Thamin, author of the notable book 
 on " The University and the War " dedicated to the memory of 
 his own son who had died in the war (as had the son of many 
 another recteur and university professor). After his stirring 
 
97 
 
 address, which was enthusiastically received by the large audi- 
 ence, he presented the message that had been accepted by 
 the faculties of the university for transmission to America. This 
 was supplemented by Professor Cestre, the beloved professor 
 of English in the university, who not only interpreted the mes- 
 sages sent from America but added something out of the*records 
 of Bordeaux, a transcript of Lafayette's sailing orders from that 
 port. There was cheering by the students who put "Amerique " 
 by the side of " France," and I found subsequently that hundreds 
 of them had attached their signatures, with those of their teachers, 
 to the greetings of the university faculties. 
 
 ADDRESS BY RECTOR THAMIN 
 
 UNIVERSITE DE BORDEAUX 
 
 To the Professors and Teachers of the Universities and Schools of the 
 United States, our FelioW'tvorkers in the Furtherance of Truth and 
 of the Ideal: 
 
 France has never doubted America. She was deeply sensitive to the 
 numerous proofs of friendship and the moving tokens of esteem — indeed 
 beyond her deserts — which came to her from so many men of note, and 
 prominent seats of learning, and earnest groups of citizens, even before the 
 dire enmity of the Central Empires had been directed at the peaceful 
 republic beyond the ocean. 
 
 When America's hour had struck, and she so nobly responded to the 
 call of her conscience, we felt suddenly uplifted by buoyant gladness, 
 not merely because of the powerful help thereby vouched for, but chiefly 
 because of the m^oral strength which accrued to our cause and of the 
 decisive moral weight thrown in the scale of right and fair-dealing for 
 ages to come. 
 
 America has set the living example of a peace-loving democracy taking 
 up arms in indignation at the injustice of conquest, the vileness of guile, 
 the shamefulness of perjury and the ruthless insolence of " might above 
 right." 
 
 France entered the conflict constrained, feeling that submissive accept- 
 ance of the supreme insult offered to a small nation would entail the final 
 dominion of the " mailed fist " over the world. Ill prepared, she stepped 
 forward to battle against overwhelming odds, opposing the breasts of her 
 brave to the onrush of lawless violence and murderous despotism. 
 4 
 
98 
 
 Never since the " levee en masse " of the volunteers of the Revolution 
 had the w^orld seen such devotion of a whole people for the defense of right. 
 But it was reserved to the world to witness this glorious spectacle: the 
 great republic of the New World uprising in the name of the same eternal 
 principles, and, without any desire for conquest, without any idea of self- 
 profit, out of mere sacrifice, marshaling her legions to fight for civiHzation 
 and the future of mankind. 
 
 It is through no fortuitous coincidence that the clear-headed and noble- 
 souled statesman who gave articulate utterance to the conscience of 
 America, was for many years a professor, then a president, of a university. 
 The professors and teachers of American universities and schools, as the 
 professors and teachers of the universities of France, have taught the 
 generations to reverence right as the firm foundation of all free common- 
 wealths, and, in an uncertain future eagerly to be wished, as the unshak- 
 able basis of the league of nations for durable peace. 
 
 The masters and scholars of the university and schools of Bordeaux, 
 in the names of their dead, whose record already fills so many pages of 
 the roll of honor, respectfully and cordially greet the masters and scholars 
 of the universities and schools of the United States, about to enter, in their 
 turn, the career of danger and of glory. 
 
 It is from Bordeaux that Lafayette, in 1777, put off westward on 
 board " The Victory," with the purpose of offering to the insurgents of 
 /•nerica the help of his sword and of his enthusiasm. The University 
 Oi Tdeaux is proud to revive this memory and to express to the American 
 universities and schools her sincere and eager wishes, under the aegis of 
 Lafayette sailing on " The Victory." Thamin 
 
 Recteur 
 
 I visited, before the delayed sailing of the returning ship, the 
 excellent school for the training of the mutilated soldiers (similar 
 to that of Lyons, but with a special laboratory for studying and 
 testing various movements, under the direction of Doctor Gour- 
 don) and then the institution particularly for the reeducation of 
 those mutilated who have lost their eyes, a class in whose train- 
 ing I have been for many years especially interested. 
 
 Then after a journey on foot to the lonely chateau of Montes- 
 quieu, at La Brede (twelve miles distant), for the last sunset; 
 and back in the darkness to the ship, I began the homeward 
 voyage thinking, as those who saw Helen pass, that France 
 has in the beauteous valors of her soul in this great struggle 
 justified all our venturing with her for human liberty. 
 
99 
 
 L'ENVOI 
 
 That which rises most clearly and significantly in my memory 
 of all that I heard and saw in this hurried visit to France is not 
 the sound of the guns along the trenches (though one can never 
 lose that from one's ears, however loud the nearer voices) nor 
 the sound of the battles in the skies by day and night; not the 
 sight of the ceaseless stream of soldiers in blue or the wounded 
 in the hospitals or in the schools for their reeducation, appeal- 
 ing as these were, nor the sight of the ruins of villages or of the 
 graves out in the fields; it is the memory of the voices of school 
 children crying " vrVe UAmerique''; it is the memory of their 
 faces from Brittany to the Vosges and from Paris to the 
 Pyrenees. Sometimes above their myriad voices one voice is 
 heard carrying some clear motif of love for France, of sorrow in 
 exile from devastated homes, or of hope for victory; sometimes 
 it is a group of voices, as of that class in the Lycee Victor Duruy, 
 singing the " Star Spangled Banner " in French, or of that 
 assembly in Caen, in Normandy, where the cL'ldren sang 
 " America " with flowers in their hands symbolizing our colors. 
 Again it is the allocution of a priest in the great Cathedral of 
 Notre Dame speaking in tribute to his martyred brother<?S Jr the 
 glowing word of Viviani in the Senate, or the roar of the multi- 
 tude in the Place de la Concorde welcoming the American 
 general, that overpowers with its volume even the treble of the 
 children's voices. And, again, it is the appeal of that university 
 student, who, losing one eye in battle, had come back to con- 
 tinue his studies in the university from which so many of his com- 
 rades had gone forth to die in the " vales of the blue shrouds.' 
 
 But all these voices were as the expectant overture of a new 
 symphony, for emerging from the black sorrow of the spring of 
 1917 when a hundred thousand men had perished in a few days, 
 France, repeating in her every school the message of President 
 Wilson, found her hope still springing in the hearts of her 
 children. And their songs were heard even in the trenches. It 
 was an overture of expectancy, for the first American troops 
 were approaching. They were nearing the coast of France on 
 
100 
 
 the very day that its last headland disappeared from my view. 
 And others were following far out on the sea. I saw one evening 
 in the du^k still other ships with their cargoes of Americans who 
 were to carry on the symphony with harsh and thunderous voices 
 but with the same theme as that which found expression in the 
 messages of the A^merican universities, colleges and schools and in 
 the responses which are here echoed. 
 
 To these responding messages one more must be added, one 
 that was running beneath the waters, far below our keel, when 
 I was on the ocean returning — far even below any waiting sub- 
 marines — a message of which I was permitted to bear to our 
 President an original copy in the hand of that great friend of 
 America, M. Emile Boutroux, the President of that renowned 
 body that sent it, the Institut de France. 
 
 INSTITUTE OF FRANCE 
 
 The Institute of France to President Wilson on the occasion of Inde- 
 pendence Day, July 4, 1917: 
 
 On this day when the United States of America celebrates the anni- 
 versary of those high achievements of valor through which they have become 
 a free and independent country, the Institute of France, meeting in full 
 assembly, offers fitting homage to the great President who has unceasingly 
 sought to receive from the soul of the American people his inspiration, and 
 who has realized in the fullest sense for the welfare of the United States 
 the sublime aims set forth in the Declaration of 1 776. 
 
 Against a power as formidable as insolent, a power that, violating all 
 human rights and principles, meant to organize for its own profit the whole 
 moral and material world, the United States of America, considering the 
 principle in whose name they had made their revolution, a principle 
 recognizing the sacred character of human rights, have come to know that 
 a policy of isolation is no longer possible, and the organization of the 
 world as Germany sought to bring about must have its foundation in 
 liberty and not in despotism. 
 
 The time has come for a confession of its faith and a fulfillment of its 
 duty. A voice has been heard, "Thou must " ; and Young America has 
 answered, " I can." 
 
 Already the American soldiers are on French soil and have joined the 
 Allies. The Atlantic is no more. 
 
tot 
 
 Honor to the Nation that does not want to enjoy Hberty any longer, 
 unless all nations, large and small, can have it. 
 
 Brothers of America, glory to you who rejoice in mingling — as 
 formerly — your colors with ours for the defense of our common ideal ! 
 If those can be strong who fight for the slavery of the world and of them- 
 selves, why should not those who are ready to bring all sacrifices for right 
 and liberty be invincible? 
 
 [Signed] EmiLE BoUTROUX, 
 President 
 
 A. Thomas, 
 A. d'Arsonval, 
 Th. Dubois, 
 E. d'Eichthal, 
 
 Vice Presidents 
 Etienne Lamy, 
 
 Secretary 
 
 These messages in exchange between America and France, 
 written, spoken, sung, are but the intimatioo of the new intellec- 
 tual alliance which is ordained out of the mouths and hearts of 
 the children, as well as prophesied out of the immortal valors 
 of the soldiers and the counsels of the wisest men of France. It 
 is through the children that the prophecy of the world freedom 
 is to be realized. Into the union sacree of the trenches our men 
 have been admitted, but it is for these children of those v/ho 
 fight side by side to keep the spirit of this union of purpose after 
 the inhuman warfare is over. And that is £o be promoted first of 
 all by such interchange of messages between the children of 
 America and France and Britain and Italy as has been begun 
 — such messages, for example, as that which has come from the 
 fourteen-year-old girl in a Paris school and has already reached 
 tens if not hundreds of thousands in the country. 
 
 Upon this better acquaintance of our children, one with 
 another, and upon the companionship of those in common peril, 
 the new intellectual alliance will fill the earth. It must have 
 guidance, however, of the noblest minds, and it must have 
 visualization in something which all can see. It is under com- 
 
102 
 
 pulsion of this thought that one sees rising in that strip of barren 
 land, extending from the North Sea to the Vosges, the land 
 which is called by those who fight on its edges " No-man's 
 Land " but is to the millions who look in upon it daily " Every- 
 man's Land " — that one sees rising there not only the memorials 
 of the struggle for world liberty in monuments and Pantheons, 
 but also institutions in which the full achievement of what was 
 there defended and secured for all mankind shall in fact be 
 realized. In this strip must lie the campus of Democracy's 
 World University or Academy. Here must its walls rise in 
 soil, forever that of France, but sacred to the nations that have 
 fought to redeem it to the uses of freedom. Here where the 
 highest human valor has had its epiphany, the wisest will come 
 into counsel to keep and advance what that valor has won. Here 
 the select youth of these nations will come to study in the valiant 
 air those principles for which their ancestors died, in order most 
 nobly to illustrate them each in his own country. 
 
 It will be necessary that laboratories and libraries and clinics 
 and museums be located in the populous centers in France, Eng- 
 land, Italy, Belgium or in other countries, but the students who 
 enter this University must matriculate in the halls that stand in 
 " Everyman's Land," must there find the masters, intellectual, 
 who are to give them their cosmic conception of service and 
 assign them to their several places of study in the planetary cur- 
 riculum of Democracy — the University or Academy of the 
 United World States. 
 
 But while that university is some day to rise upon the horizon 
 of nations, I would have the men and women of America know 
 more of what is in France today. (I do not speak of England 
 for her advantages are better known.) I therefore append a 
 brief description, prepared by representatives of the several insti- 
 tutions, of the universities which I visited and to which especially 
 I carried the messages of the American universities and colleges. 
 (A fuller account is to be found in Dean Wigmore's " Science 
 and Learning in France," with richer historical background.) 
 
103 
 
 I have caused to be put into italics mention of the special 
 provisions in each institution for the reception of American 
 students. 
 
 But no dissemination of information here is of value com- 
 parable with that which should reach our men yonder. 
 
 Today the most effective measure of intellectual exchange is 
 to be found in the persons of our young men in France, the 
 flower of America's young manhood which is or will be there in 
 a few months — there within physical reach of the greatest minds 
 of western Europe, and of the institutions, political, social, indus- 
 trial, intellectual, through which Europe has wrought and with 
 which America must cooperate in rebuilding, strengthening and 
 extending those broken instruments of civilization. Our educa- 
 tional interests must follow these men whose studies or profes- 
 sions have been interrupted, with such provision as we can make 
 to see that they who have ventured all for us, shall have, not 
 only for their own sakes but for the sake of this rebuilding, every 
 benefit of the best that these countries have to give out of their 
 longer experience. Some advantage of this tuition can be had 
 in periods of furlough or convalescence during the war; but the 
 greater opportunity is to come in the weeks or months of armistice 
 or demobilization. For that our preparations must be made 
 now. This is the duty then of the moment: to see that our men 
 have, in France, and England, and Italy, and elsewhere in 
 Europe, every educational advantage that our prevision and pro- 
 vision can secure — till they come back to build again in their 
 own land. 
 
 I have a rare medal, designed by a Frenchman, struck in 
 memory of Washington. It bears the legend " Hostibus primo 
 fugatis." The enemy must indeed be put to flight. That must 
 of course be the first concern of our alliance, and nothing must 
 stand in the way of that; but with that and after that must come 
 this new alliance of which glorious augury is given in the messages 
 that flew between America and France on the eve of our actual 
 alliance in arms. 
 
" Hostibus primo fugatis " 
 
FRENCH UNIVERSITIES 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF PARIS 
 
 The University of Paris is the oldest in the world, for the schools of 
 Bologna, organized a littlq before its own, taught only law. From the 
 middle of the twelfth century its reputation was known throughout Christen- 
 dom and it attracted students from all the civilized countries of Europe. It 
 embraced in its courses of study all the sciences known at that time. It 
 was like a little state in the Capetian capital — a privileged state, and 
 jealous of remaining so, under the protection of the pope and of the king; 
 a state troubled, at times clamorously, agitated always, but ever progressive 
 and devoted to knowledge. It justified the favors that it received by its 
 universal renown and by the fame which it spread outside upon the intellec- 
 tual activities of France. 
 
 To its misfortune the University of Paris, instituted at a time when all 
 the studies were subordinated to theology, did not understand how to keep 
 up an intimate contact with actual life or how to assume or to continue 
 the highest intellectual expression. 
 
 The Sorbonne, which was, in the beginning, only the house where Robert 
 of Sorbon, confessor of the King St Louis, lodged some students in theol- 
 ogy, gradually became the Faculty of Theology, and this faculty finished 
 by dominating all the others, even though the name was often somewhat 
 uncertainly applied. At the time of the great humanistic movement of the 
 Renaissance in the sixteenth century, the university did not seem to take 
 any interest in it; life passed it by. Several attempts at reform made in 
 the seventeenth century touched only the surface of things and when at 
 the end of the eighteenth century the Revolution made over the titles in 
 existence for all the institutions of the old regime, those of the university 
 seemed to fall into disuse and it was suppressed. 
 
 Napoleon did not delay in reorganizing pubHc instruction in France. 
 He revived the glorious name of the university, but it was to the entire body 
 of teaching in the state that he applied it. Paris was no more than one of 
 the faculties, too closely regulated by the government, too subordinate to 
 its ends, to be at first very ardent centers in that productive scientific life 
 which asks, above all, independence and liberty; that is why it was reserved 
 to a republican democracy, taking up again the work scarcely launched by 
 the National Convention and completing it according to the spirit of the illus- 
 trious Assembly, to bring into existence a common life for the faculties 
 which had been separated one from the other, and to assign to them their 
 true place in the intellectual life of the nation. The foundation of the 
 
 [105] 
 
106 
 
 council of faculties in 1885, its elevation in 1893 to the dignity of the 
 civil person, and at last the restoration of the name and the autonomy of the 
 university in 1896-97, have reestablished, adapting it to the needs of 
 the day, the ancient "Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensium," 
 a corporation of masters and students of Paris. 
 
 The new university was no longer at all theological in character, the 
 Faculty of Catholic Theology having been suppressed since 1885, and the 
 Faculty of Protestant Theology having become a separate school since the 
 separation of the church and state in 1906. It comprises then the four 
 faculties of Law, Medicine, Sciences, and Letters, the School of Pharmacy, 
 whose general character is that of a faculty, and finally a higher Normal 
 School, which was made a part of the university in 1904, and which is, 
 for the Faculties of Sciences and of Letters, a sort of pedagogic seminary 
 for the use of exceptional young people, who are candidates for the pro- 
 fession of teaching. 
 
 Note: It should be explained that in France the degrees of " Doctor of 
 Law," " Doctor of Letters," and many others are state degrees. They 
 demand certain requirements because they confer special privileges for 
 teaching and practising in France. As the fulfilment of these requirements 
 was of no interest to foreigners, after 1895 the various universities estab- 
 lished the " doctoral universitaire " and there were eliminated from its 
 requirements those conditions which were of interest only to those who wished 
 to get special privileges within the state. So the " Doctor of Letters of the 
 University of Dijon," for example, is generally like the ordinary " Doctor 
 of Letters " except that the student working for the former does not have 
 to meet certain conditions appHcable only to those who desire to teach and 
 practise in France. The " Doctor of Letters of the University " corres- 
 ponds to our Doctor of Philosophy. 
 
 Further information about this may be obtained in Wigmore, John 
 Henry, Science and learning in France, and in a manual entitled Les 
 universites et les ecoles franqaises, published by the Office National des 
 universites et ecoles frangaises at Paris. In addition there is published in 
 connection with almost every one of the universities a little manual entitled 
 Livret de Veludiant containing full information for students and costing 
 about twenty cents. 
 
 The minister of pubHc instruction is ex-officio rector, that is to say, chief 
 of the general administration of the university, but he does not exercise 
 this function; he delegates it to a vice-rector, on whom it confers con- 
 siderable importance in the scholastic life of France. Each faculty is 
 presided over by its dean (for the School of Pharmacy he is called 
 
107 
 
 director), chosen by the professors; he represents them before the rector 
 and the minister. A council, composed of the rector (chairman) the 
 deans, the director, the assistant director of the Normal School, the director 
 of the School of Pharmacy and two professors chosen by their colleagues 
 in each faculty and in the School of Pharmacy, conducts all the affairs 
 of the university and decides questions on its own initiative in a great 
 number of cases, and in others lays before the minister the solutions that it 
 thinks best. The minister generally ratifies them. (The same is true for all 
 French universities. Everywhere the council has the same rights.) 
 
 Instruction is given at the university by masters who bear a great variety 
 of titles: full professors, associate professors, instructors, lecturers and, in 
 the Faculties of Law and Medicine, tutors. This multiplicity at times sur- 
 prises foreigners, who suppose that it means considerable differences in grades 
 and functions. This is not true ; it is not even peculiar to the University of 
 Paris. This university hierarchy, survival of an organization today which 
 has nearly disappeared, has only an administrative and financial interest. 
 The full professors and the associate enjoy certain honorary and material 
 advantages, but the same scientific standards are exacted from all, and the 
 particular authority of each one depends only upon his owti knowledge and 
 his own talent. 
 
 In 1914 the University of Paris had more than 350 mem'-^ers in its 
 teaching force: 49 for law, 1 1 7 for medicine, 76 for sciences, 87 for letters 
 and 22 for the School of Pharmacy. Although this imposing number per- 
 mitted the establishment of one or several kinds of courses in all important 
 specialties in scientific activity, and in all branches of study, the un^'ver«itv 
 did not feel itself entirely satisfied as yet, and each one of it"; facnltie-: 
 studied its announcement carefully every year for the purpo^^e of deter-min- 
 ing the defects that experience had shown, and of finding; the means of 
 remedying them. Each one has prepared its program of additional courses 
 which \v\\\ be undertaken after the war. 
 
 In addition, it ought to be stated that higher instruction has at Paris 
 auxiliary institutions of the first importance in the various establishments of 
 the state, without taking account of those which proceed from private initia- 
 tive. For example, the instruction given at the College of France, founded 
 in the sixteenth century by Francis I, for the purpose of supplying the lack 
 of activity in science in the university of that time, embraces today an almost 
 complete course of study in all the great branches of science and learning. 
 The Museum of Natural History, the five sections of the School of High 
 Studies, the School of Charters, the School of Living Oriental Languages, 
 the School of the Louvre, the School of Fine Arts, offer to all research 
 workers and all students, whatever their degree of attainment in their subject. 
 
108 
 
 inexhaustible resources in their courses, their collections, their laboratories, 
 their seminaries. Poor is the student of one of the faculties who does not 
 find in these institutions valuable additional resources of information and of 
 profitable instruction. There are in addition numerous technical schools 
 where students can go to get the necessary training for the practical applica- 
 tion of their knowledge. All these organs of scientific life complement one 
 another and are unified in the great body of higher education at Paris. 
 
 On January 15, 1914, the University of Paris had on its rolls 1 7,308 
 students: 7569 in the Faculty of Law, 4397 in the Faculty of Medicine, 
 1718 in the Faculty of Sciences, 3000 in the Faculty of Letters and 606 
 in the School of Pharmacy; of this total, foreigners represented more than 
 3200 members. 
 
 To those foreigners who come for the purpose of getting a general educa- 
 tion, the university opens wide all its doors without other formaHties than 
 the registration upon its books, called matriculation, which is permitted 
 upon proof of identity as a student and payment of an annual fee of 30 
 francs ($6). For those who seek degrees the university asks certificates 
 concerning their previous studies, diplomas which are to be compared to 
 those which it exacts from French students, or the passing of admission 
 examinations. Besides and from nori> on it gives credit to strangers for the 
 time which the^ have spent in college stud^ in their own country, as it seeks 
 to credit them with the results of college study accomplished in their own 
 lands. All these facilities are at this time subject to revision and readjust- 
 ment which must give still greater efficiency and flexibility. 
 
 The university offers to its students public courses where the professor 
 seeks to expound the results accomplished by science in general lectures 
 easily understood by everyone ; closed courses reserved for students, properly 
 speaking; practical courses, varied according to the study to which they 
 relate, and where there is given pedagogical instruction, material apprentice- 
 ship for the future professor, the future scholar and the future technician. 
 Besides the laboratories and lecture halls and workrooms, well stocked 
 libraries are open to the students. All these means of work were to receive, 
 in more than one respect, notable additional improvements, when the war 
 forced the interruption of these realizations and the postponement of the 
 projects planned. 
 
 Two of the faculties of the university, that of sciences and that of letters, 
 are housed in the Sorbonne, a vast modern edifice which surrounds the 
 church built by Cardinal Richelieu, and which harmonizes with it. Scarcely 
 had the construction of this building been completed when the rapid develop- 
 ment of university life rendered it insufficient; it is for this reason that the 
 erection of other buildings has been undertaken as near as possible to the 
 
109 
 
 Sorbonne for the purpose of providing workrooms and laboratories which 
 demand more space. The university has acquired at the top of Montagne 
 Ste Genevieve, a large tract of land where it has already erected the Radium 
 Institute as a sort of associate to the Institute of Ocean Geography of the 
 Prince of Monaco. It had also begun there the construction of a large 
 Chemical Institute and of a Geographical Institute, and had planned for 
 the building of an Institute for the History of Art, when the war came 
 and stopped the work. 
 
 The Faculty of Lav/, the Faculty of Medicine, the Normal School and 
 the School of Pharmacy have their own buildings, all of which have been 
 made the objects of considerable improvements and additions under the 
 Third Republic. 
 
 The University of Paris Tvishes verjj much to revive the old traditions 
 of its past and it ivould he happy and anxious to see foreign students taJ^e up 
 again the roads Xehich lead them to it. It is conscious of perhaps not having 
 alrvays done that which was necessary to attract and aid them so as to maf^e 
 them acquainted with and make them love it; it has decided to turn its atten- 
 tion along these lines in the future. Interesting projects are being elaborated 
 in its council and in the assemblies of its facilities in order to provide for 
 foreign students an efficient system of guidance from the time of their arrival 
 at Paris, for the purpose of making easy to students the taking up of their 
 residence in the great city, all of which things will certainly be realized 
 from the time that the normal life of peace shall be established. 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF NANCY 
 
 Lorraine has not only iron mines which are regarded as among the richest 
 in the world; coal mines, which need only to be worked, have been dis- 
 covered there; it is rich in mines of salt; and the works of Dombasle- 
 Meurthe are among the first in the world in the production of soda. 
 Lorraine is moreover an agricultural region. It cultivates hops ; the Vosges 
 pastures are famous; and a large part of the soil is covered with forests. 
 
 For all these reasons, the University of Nancy for nearly a quarter of a 
 century has been engaged in establishing and organizing technical branches 
 suited to the needs of the region. 
 
 First was the Chemical Institute, from which have gone out since 1 890, 
 525 chemical engineers. Next the Institute of Electro-technology with 422 
 electrical engineers since 1 90 1 ; then the Institute of Applied Mechanics, 
 127 mechanical engineers since 1907. A School of Brewing and a School 
 of Dairying were plainly indicated in this region; and the Faculty of 
 Sciences and the university have not failed to make them realities. The 
 same is true of an Agricultural Institute and an Institute of Geology. One 
 
no 
 
 of the great state schools, the National School of Waters and Forests, like- 
 wise has its seat at Nancy. 
 
 Nancy is not only the capital of Lorraine but of eastern France: it is 
 a center for industry, commerce and finance for the banks of that region. 
 A Higher School of Commerce and a Commercial Institute of the Univer- 
 sity are maintained under the auspices of the Nancy Chamber of Com- 
 merce and the Industrial Society of the East. 
 
 Outside of these specialized branches the university has remained faithful 
 to pure science. Lorraine is in fact the country of mathematicians like 
 Hermite, born at Dieuze (Lorraine annexed), and Henri Poincare, born 
 at Nancy. 
 
 The Faculty of Medicine of Strassburg, transferred to Nancy after the 
 unfortunate war of 1870-71, has become Lorraine, vsdthout ceasing to be 
 Alsatian, through its professors and its teachers. The Higher School of 
 Pharmacy of Strassburg has likewise been hospitably received in our city. 
 Nancy is then an important center of medical and pharmaceutical studies. 
 
 The Faculty of Letters has added to its courses in literature, philosophy, 
 history and living languages (English and German), a course in French 
 for the benefit of young foreigners. Up to 1914 special courses for the last 
 named were carried on through the year, vacations included, particularly 
 from 1 903 ; an average of 1 75 male and female students pursued them 
 (without counting the numerous foreigners attracted by the technical insti- 
 tutes, an aggregate rising to seven or eight hundred a year) . This patronage 
 came particularly from Russia and the Balkan countries. 
 
 The Faculty of Law, which is first in the university hierarchy, has 
 always regarded it as an honor to have its share of foreign students seeking 
 at Nancy the completion of their advanced legal studies. 
 
 The University of Nancy, which counted in 1914 as many as 2248 
 students, awaits the end of the war to resume its work under altogether new 
 conditions. After the victorious peace which will restore Alsace and 
 Lorraine, it will no longer be a frontier university but the center of a region 
 whose industry and commerce are to receive a most vigorous impetus. It 
 will continue then to unite with its advanced instruction in the theoretical 
 sciences the different courses of its technical institutes. 
 
 More than this, it will always be one of the universities of France which 
 will attract, on account of, geographical situation, the greatest number of 
 foreigners. They are sure to meet here again the welcome which for a 
 quarter of a century has made this city one of the principal centers of 
 France for students from abroad. 
 
 Let us add that Lorraine, besides its natural attractions (its mines, its 
 workshops, its rivers, its forests and the Vosges) will henceforth be a shrine 
 
of patriotic pilgrimage, with its souvenirs of the Grand Couronne de Nancy, 
 its burned villages, its cities which have suffered from the war, and not far 
 from Nancy, Verdun, whose sublime resistance in 1916 saved France and 
 humanity. 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF DIJON 
 
 The University of Dijon has a Faculty of Law, a Faculty of Sciences, 
 a Faculty of Letters and a School of Medicine and of Pharmacy. 
 
 The Faculty of Law was founded at the opening of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury. They teach there not only the same subjects as in the other French 
 faculties of law, but there is also given a course in the history of Burgun- 
 dian law. With the Faculty of Law are closely associated a Practical 
 Institute of Law and a School of Notaries. 
 
 The Faculty of Sciences, in which natural history and biology are made 
 a specialty, has two important annexes: (1) the Institute of Oenology of 
 Burgundy, the first in time if not the only one known in France, where the 
 principles of the manufacture of wine are studied and taught, and which 
 comprises three sections, namely, oenological station, agronomical station and 
 Pasteur station; (2) Aquicultural Grimaldi station, established at Saint 
 Jean de Losne (30 kilometers from Dijon) where the fauna and the flora 
 of the fresh waters of the Saone and of the neighboring ponds and canals are 
 studied. The natural history museum and botanical garden of Dijon are in 
 close relation with the Faculty of Sciences. 
 
 The Faculty of Letters has as particular characteristics a chair in the 
 history of Burgundy and of Burgundian art, and a chair in the dialects and 
 literature of Burgundy. 
 
 The School of Medicine and of Pharmacy gives instruction to students 
 in a four-year course. 
 
 The library of the university has about 70,000 volumes without counting 
 the foreign theses. 
 
 The library of the city of Dijon places at the disposition of the students 
 about 1 20,000 volumes and pamphlets, 2 1 1 incunabula and I 726 manu- 
 scripts. There is scarcely a work of importance on Burgundy that it does 
 not possess and in some cases it has the only one in existence. The archives 
 of the department of Cote d'Or and the municipal archives are very rich in 
 material. 
 
 Lastly, besides the university, Dijon possesses a flourishing high school 
 of commerce. 
 
 Foreigners can, upon registration, attend all the ordinary^ courses and 
 conferences in the university. Besides there have been created for their 
 exclusive benefit special courses: first, during the whole academic year (first 
 
112 
 
 semester, from the 10th of November to the 28th of February; second 
 semester from the 1 st of March to the 20th of June) ; then during the 
 vacation (from the 1st of July to the 30th of October). These are given 
 in the Faculty of Letters. The^ comprise practical exercises (conversation, 
 reading and explanation of literary texts and of neTi^spapers, rvritten exer- 
 cises); courses in phonetics (with exercises in pronunciation) ; French litera- 
 ture, and linguistics, courses in French history, geography and the develop- 
 ment of French life and thought. During the vacation, commercial courses 
 are given in addition to these. 
 
 Besides the degrees of the state, which are given under certain conditions, 
 foreign students can obtain the following degrees: 
 
 Faculty of Law 
 
 1 Degree of doctor of law of the University of Dijon 
 
 2 Degree of bachelor of law of the University of Dijon 
 
 3 Certificate of studies in legal, political or economic sciences 
 
 4 Certificate of practical studies in law 
 
 Faculty of Sciences 
 
 1 Degree of doctor of sciences of the University of Dijon 
 
 2 Degree of superior studies in oenology 
 
 Faculty of Letters 
 \ Degree of doctor of letters of the University of Dijon 
 
 2 Degree of bachelor in French 
 
 3 Degree in French studies 
 
 4 Certificate in the French language 
 
 Vacation Courses 
 
 1 Diploma in French, first grade 
 
 2 Diploma in French, second grade 
 
 The committee of patronage watches over the material and moral well- 
 being of the foreign students. It furnishes them by correspondence with the 
 information which they may need; it places itself at their service, from the 
 time of their arrival, in matters of lodging and board; it helps them in the 
 difficulties which may be encountered. In addition, meetings and excur- 
 sions are provided, especially during the season of fine weather. 
 
 The General Society of the Students of Dijon receives as members 
 foreign students as well as French students. 
 
 Dijon is situated in a very healthful and very airy region on the lowest 
 
113 
 
 foothills of the Plateau de Langres, at the beginning of the plain of the 
 Saone, and at the commencement of the chain of vine-covered hills which 
 the Burgundians call the Cote, but which has given to the entire department 
 the significant name of Cote d'Or. 
 
 Dijon is above all a historical city, as one perceives quite at the start, 
 by its narrow streets, its numerous old houses, its mansions (great private 
 residences) of serene and artistic aspect, which formerly sheltered the 
 families of the members of the Burgundian Parliament. 
 
 Many monuments recall its illustrious past : the cathedral of Saint Benigne 
 and the church of Notre Dame, two jewels of Burgundian Gothic art (the 
 crypt of Saint Benigne is late Romanesque), the church of Saint Michel, 
 which dates in the main from the Renaissance; the immense Palace of the 
 Dukes, where one visits the Hall of the Estates of Burgundy, the Tour de 
 la Terrasse, the Tour de Bar (both of the fourteenth century) and the 
 huge kitchens of the dukes of Burgundy, etc. At the gates of Dijon is 
 found the Chartreuse de Champmol, which was for the great dukes of 
 Burgundy what Saint Denis was for the kings of France; there we admire 
 above all the Puits de Moise, a sculptural masterpiece of the fifteenth 
 century. 
 
 The Museum of Dijon is one of the richest museums of the French 
 provinces, particularly on account of its picture galleries. The archeological 
 museum is joined to it. 
 
 Besides its great historical interest, Dijon is a very lively town, with its 
 population of nearly 80,000 inhabitants, its highly flourishing trade and 
 its girdle of workshops and factories. 
 
 The region of Burgundy supplies easy and pleasant excursions. Le 
 Morvan (name applied to the Burgundy district) owes its particular char- 
 acter to its granitic soil ; along the Cote extends the splendor of the vineyards 
 so renowned ; the valley of the Saone is a wide plain rich and smiling ; the 
 more narrow valleys of the Ouche, the Suzon, the Cure, the Cousin, the 
 upper Seine and of many other rivers are attractive and often even truly 
 beautiful. 
 
 Numerous localities preserve landmarks and aspects representing all the 
 epochs: Alise, the Alesia of Caesar, where scientific excavations have, so 
 to speak, made a Gallo-Roman city live again ; Autun, with its Roman ruins ; 
 Flavigny, the old town of medieval aspect; Vezelay, with its Romanesque 
 church everywhere famous; the Abbey of Cluny; Auxerre, Semur, which 
 possess a very pronounced historical appearance ; Beaune, the city of wines, 
 remarkable by reason of its magnificent hospital and its famous reredos, 
 attributed to Van der Weyden, etc. ; and, belonging to a wholly different 
 order of things, Creusot, whose formidable workshops have not their equal 
 in France. 
 
14 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF LYONS 
 
 The University of Lyons is the most important of the French universi- 
 ties after that of Paris. It; is situated in an industrial and commercial 
 center of the first rank, celebrated for some hundreds of years for its manu- 
 factures of silk, one to which the demands of the war have given an expan- 
 sion still more remarkable. The population of the city is 521,000, 
 increased to 700,000 ith the immediate surroundings. 
 
 In addition to the considerable resources offered by the university itself, 
 the learned societies, the museums, the libraries, famous philanthropic insti- 
 tutions, numerous schools of applied science, commercial and industrial, 
 make Lyons an intellectual center rivaling the most renowned. 
 
 Finally, the beauty and the vivacity of the city, which was formerly the 
 capital of Celtic Gaul and never ceased to play an important role, and 
 the magnificence of the surrounding country (Monts du Lyonnais, the Alps 
 of Dauphiny) recommend L^ons to foreigners as an agreeable cit^ and 
 center of tourist travel, as well as a source of instruction. 
 
 Living here is easy and not expensive, boreigners find it easy to obtain 
 lodging at hotels or in famihes. 
 
 The University of Lyons possesses a Faculty of Law, a Faculty of 
 Medicine and of Pharmacy, a Faculty of Sciences, and a Faculty of 
 Letters, commanding the services of 1 60 professors, to whom is joined an 
 auxiliary corps of 1 00 teachers. In this city, essentially industrious and 
 serious, students are used to assiduous labor; their successes in the great 
 competitive examinations are beyond reckoning. 
 
 The new university, inaugurated in 1 896, cost more than ten million 
 francs, and from that time considerable sums have been expended for 
 buildings and supplementary improvements. 
 
 A preparatory course and vacation courses have been organized for the 
 foreign students. 
 
 Faculty of Law 
 Besides the ordinary teaching, the Faculty of Law has established an 
 Institute of Sociology and Social Sciences, which gives to foreigners valuable 
 facilities for their initiation into the organization of French social life. Let 
 us emphasize the fact that by the side of the university exists a Free Semi- 
 nary of Oriental Juridical and Social Studies, which completes the instruc- 
 tion of the same nature given at the university, designed for students who 
 wish to explore Asiatic civilizations. The University of Lyons has in fact 
 made a specialty in France of oriental studies and intellectual relations vdth 
 the Levant and Asia. 
 
115 
 
 Faculty) of Medicine and Pharmacyf 
 
 The great reputation of its professors has made this facuhy one of the 
 most famous in the world. It is necessary, moreover, especially to indicate 
 the opportunities offered to students by the hospitals of Lyons, which receive 
 cases from about fifteen departments. The entire southeast of France is 
 tributary to the hospitals of Lyons for the cure of difficult diseases and for 
 delicate surgical operations. The clinical lectures, which are very 
 numerous, are not overwhelmed with students, and the students of the 
 faculty can freely examine the patients and receive very profitable practical 
 teaching. The resources for dissection are also considerable. 
 
 (Its best recommendation to us in America is that Dr Carrel had his 
 medical training there. J. H. F.). 
 
 Independent of the university, there are found at Lyons a Bacteriological 
 Institute, or Pasteur Institute, and a School of Military Sanitation, which 
 receives specially authorized students of foreign nationaHty. 
 
 Faculty of Sciences 
 
 In addition to the courses which are found in all the French faculties, 
 the Faculty of Sciences of Lyons possesses an Institute of Chemistry and a 
 School of Tannery. 
 
 The Institute of Chemistry trains heads of industries, directors, chemical 
 engineers, technical and commercial employees for the different industries 
 which are attached to chemistry. 
 
 The School of Tannery, established under the patronage of the Genera! 
 Syndicate of Leathers and Hides of France, trains young persons who will 
 devote themselves to trade, to manufacture in leathers and hides and to the 
 associated industries. 
 
 Faculty of Letters 
 
 The instruction supplied by the Faculty of Letters is very rich and 
 embraces subjects which are not treated in the majority of the other provin- 
 cial faculties ; for example, Sanscrit and the literature of India, Egyptology, 
 Arabic, Chinese and school hygiene. The historical disciplines form a 
 very complete group. Many professors, fellows in history at the French 
 lycees, have prepared themselves at Lyons. The antiquities of Lyonnais, 
 the history of Lyons and of the region, are especially studied. There are 
 two chairs of the history of art and a course in the history of music. 
 
 Lyons possesses a great number of professional and technical schools and 
 schools of art outside of the university, and celebrated museums as well as 
 rich libraries. The university itself possesses an assembly of museums of 
 which no other, even that of Paris, has the equal : Museum of Casts (900 
 
116 
 
 Stjecimens of Egyptian, Greek and Roman art). Geographical Museunt 
 rich museums of the Faculty of Medicine, and Museum of Pedagogy. 
 
 There are at Lyons several theaters, and a Society of Grand Concerts, 
 which gives performances of high reputation. 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF GRENOBLE 
 
 Among the university cities of France, Grenoble holds a place apart 
 and merits special mention. Its situation in the heart of the Alps of 
 Dauphiny and the beauty of the country which surrounds it have made 
 it one of the most important centers for touring. It is partly this, too, that 
 explains the attraction which it exercises for foreign students, but their 
 preference arises especially from the educational creations which char- 
 acterize its university, responding admirably to the needs of this special 
 student patronage. 
 
 Its Faculties of Law, of Sciences, and of Letters, its preparatory 
 School of Medicine and of Pharmacy, are, Hke all similar establishments, 
 organized and equipped with the view as much to preparation for the state 
 degrees as to scientific research. But new institutes, departments and 
 courses have just been added, which favor particular studies crowned by 
 special diplomas, and it is this group of original creations that gives the 
 University of Grenoble its distinguishing character. 
 
 The Faculty of Law possesses an Institute of Commercial Instruction 
 which gives to the students who will devote themselves to commercial 
 careers, suitable instruction embracing all useful theoretical and practical 
 branches. 
 
 To the Faculty of Sciences is attached a whole group of schools of 
 equal reputation in the scientific world and in the centers of industry. One 
 of them is the Institute of Geology, which is especially organized for the 
 study of questions concerning the region of the French Alps, and which 
 has already brought together a great number of scientific men and foreign 
 students. Equal favor has been manifested toward its Institute of Zoology 
 and Pisciculture, which has made a specialty of the study of the fauna 
 of the fresh waters of the Alpine regions. 
 
 In addition, the notev/orthy development of certain local industries has 
 brought about a cooperation more close from day to day between the 
 Faculty of Sciences and the industrial world, whether in the direction of 
 research and technical application, in the conduct of assays, measurements 
 and analyses, or finaily in the formation of the necessary professional char- 
 acter. Out of these spring three creations now in full prosperity and which 
 the circumstances born of the war will continue to favor: the department 
 
117 
 
 of electro-chemistry and electro-metallurgy, the French School of Paper- 
 making, and lastly the Polytechnic Institute, which, as regards the £cole 
 Superieure of the electrical industries, is one of the first French technical 
 establishments. 
 
 On its side, the Faculty of Letters, which has created the French Insti- 
 tute of Florence, possesses at Grenoble itself several institutions already 
 very well linoton lo American students. Its Institute of Alpine Geography 
 has had a brilliant rise to a place beside the Institute of Geology, and 
 the two offer for the study of the French Alps an assembly, altogether 
 unique, of courses, collections, libraries etc. A creation not less original 
 is its Institute of Phonics, especially designed and equipped for the 
 theoretical and experimental study of the spoken word. Finally, side by 
 side with these regular courses, the Faculty of Letters of Grenoble first 
 in France constructed a course intended for foreigners Tvho desire to perfect 
 themselves in the knowledge of our country, of its language, of its literature, 
 of its history, etc. This instruction, given h^ professors of the university 
 and the l^cee and fcp lecturers from outside whom the university invites, 
 comprises special courses which are given during the entire scholastic ^ear 
 and vacation courses maintained during the summer from the 1st of July to 
 the 31st of October. It attracted everij year before the war 1 500 students 
 from all parts of the world. 
 
 Another characteristic of the University of Grenoble is the variety of 
 the degrees which it has created for most of the official grades and titles 
 to support the particular studies which it has established. The chief of 
 these university degrees are the following: doctor of law of the University 
 of Grenoble, doctor of sciences of the University of Grenoble, doctor of 
 letters of the University of Grenoble, degree of the Institute of Commercial 
 Education, degree of electrical engineer, degree of ingenieur-papetier 
 (engineer in paper-making), degree of advanced French studies, certifi- 
 cate of French studies, degree of higher studies in French phonics, etc. 
 
 Lastly, one of the organs of the University of Crenoble most appreciated 
 by foreign students is its committee of patronage, which by every means 
 in its power facilitates their coming to Grenoble and their residence. The 
 committee has a permanent bureau, perfectly organized, furnished with 
 a special room in the hall of the University. It supplies them with the 
 information particularly related to their studies; it procures them facihties 
 for travel; it assists them in matters of board and residence, pointing out 
 the families and boarding places which are able to accommodate them 
 and furnish guarantees of character; it manages for their benefit magnifi- 
 cent excursions in the Alps and even to the shores of the Mediterranean. 
 
 The committee of patronage of foreign students has gone to considerable 
 
118 
 
 expense in their behalf. It has bestowed on them a hbrary and a newspaper 
 and magazine room, rooms for special courses and a laboratory of phonics. 
 Buildings, embellished with gardens and a court planted with old trees, have 
 been provided for their special use. Nowhere do foreign students find 
 themselves surrounded by more effective and more paternal care. 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF MONTPELLIER 
 
 ■ From the twelfth century Montpellier has been a center of higher studies: 
 what the University of Paris was in the middle ages for theology, the 
 University of Bologna for law, that of Montpellier was for medicine. 
 
 Time has passed and institutions have been transformed. But the worship 
 of science has continued to be a beloved tradition to the people of Mont- 
 pellier; and several families which have numbered among their ancestors, 
 professors, particularly professors of medicine, constitute a living tie between 
 the present and the past. 
 
 MontpelHer is a complete university center : it has its four faculties — 
 Law, Medicine, Sciences, and Letters, completed by a Higher School of 
 Pharmacy. 
 
 Outside its university foundations for higher education, Montpellier 
 possesses a Higher School of Agriculture, in which questions relating to 
 viticulture are, as one would naturally think, the object of exhaustive 
 studies. 
 
 The Faculty of Medicine has in the way of annexes : ( 1 ) two great 
 hospitals, the Suburban Hospital and the General Hospital; (2) Maternity 
 Hospital; (3) CHnic of Ophthalmology; (4) The Bouisson-Bertrand 
 Institute, founded in 1890, thanks to the generosity of Mme Bouisson, 
 widow of a former dean, for the treatment of rabies and preparation of 
 different serums. 
 
 The Jardin des Plantes, the oldest in France, where all the illustrious 
 botanists have taught or studied from the time of Rondelet, friend of 
 Rabelais, to that of Aug. Pyramus de Candolle, is situated a few steps from 
 the Faculty of Medicine and incloses the Institute of Botany with its justly 
 celebrated herbariums. This near association of different scientific institutions 
 one with another is one of the characteristic features of Montpellier. 
 
 Montpellier contains two important libraries, namely, that of the uni- 
 versity and that of the city. By happy chance they supplement each other. 
 Each contains more than 1 30,000 volumes. We must join to them that 
 of the Academy of Sciences and Letters, which, by reason of exchanges 
 with the learned societies of the whole world, possesses a valuable collection 
 of periodicals. 
 
119 
 
 We have spoken only of institutions situated in the city itself or in the 
 suburbs of Montpellier. We must add to these the zoological station of 
 Cette (30 kilometers from Montpellier, half an hour by railroad), estab- 
 lished thirty years ago by the well-known zoologist Armand Sabatier, and 
 the botanical laboratory of Aigoual (half a day's journey from Mont- 
 pellier), founded some years ago by Professor Flahault on the slopes of 
 the mountain. Aigoual furnishes excursions which tourists in love with the 
 picturesque, and not botanists alone, can take with interest. 
 
 Other excursions, possessing the liveliest attractions, can be undertaken 
 at Montpellier. It requires but half a day to go to Nimes and return, 
 a day for the Pont du Gard, for Aigues-Mortes, a day or two for Avignon, 
 Aries, Les Baux, and a day and a half for Carcassonne. Under the 
 auspices of the Association of the Friends of the University and of the 
 committee of patronage of foreign students, excursions are taken from time 
 to time at an expense which makes them available even to modest purses. 
 
 Much more might be said about Montpellier, but it is necessary to observe 
 limitations. Besides, at this verij time, under the auspices of the University 
 Council, a volume is in preparation ivhich in a concise form and at a mod- 
 erate price will supply all the information desirable touching the past and 
 present of the University of Montpellier. 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF TOULOUSE 
 
 The University of Toulouse is one of the oldest French universities. It 
 goes back to the thirteenth century and has not ceased to prosper. It 
 possesses four faculties: Law, Medicine and Pharmacy, Sciences, and Let- 
 ters; six institutes: agricultural, chemical, electro-technological, hydrologi- 
 cal, hydrobiological, and one of southern studies: also two observatories and 
 a rich library. 
 
 These different institutions were attended before the war by 3500 
 students, of whom 600 were foreign. 
 
 At Toulouse foreign students find residence agreeable and living easy, 
 under a mild sky, in the midst of a picturesque region. The streets of the 
 city reserve numerous surprises for the pedestrian. At every step he dis- 
 covers an old tower, an ancient stairway, a window with cross-bars, a 
 column, a precious relic of elegant or graceful outline. Romanesque 
 architecture, Gothic art and the Renaissance have bequeathed to Toulouse 
 numerous masterpieces which command the admiration of all visitors. More- 
 over, Toulouse, situated at the foot of the Pyrenean region, is a center 
 of travel. Numerous railroad lines carry tourists to the different sites 
 which extend from Ax-les-Thermes to Cauterets by the way of Luchon and 
 
120 
 
 Bagneres-de-Bigorre. The Alpine Club (for the central Pyrenees section) 
 arranges regular excursions to the most picturesque parts of the region. 
 Students can be registered in this society and share in the advantages 
 granted to its members by the railroad companies. 
 
 Arriving at Toulouse, foreign students are informed of all that con- 
 cerns their home life or their school life b^ a bureau of information located 
 at the Faculty of Letters, which is open everp da^ except Sunday during 
 the school ^ear. The university also possesses a committee of patronage, 
 of which the rector is the head, made up of consuls, prominent residents 
 of Toulouse, and professors of the university. This committee exerts itself 
 in smoothing the difficulties which every young man, while ignorant of the 
 language and French manners, is likely to meet with in the city. This 
 committee assumes the duty of corresponding with families which seek infor- 
 mation regarding the work and conduct of the students ; it receives any sums 
 which the families wish to entrust to it in paying the tuition of students or 
 meeting their expenses. And in a general way the committee serves as inter- 
 mediary between the students, their families and the university 
 administration. 
 
 It is not solely by its situation or the material advantages offered to 
 foreign students that the University of Toulouse is distinguished, since there 
 are few which have organizations so thoroughly scientific. To the Faculty of 
 Law is joined a Practical School of Law ; to the Faculty of Medicine, an 
 Institute of Hydrology, in which the composition and uses of all the thermal 
 riches of the Pyrenees region are subjects of study. The Faculty of 
 Sciences possesses perfecdy equipped technical institutes, well administered, 
 in which the courses are given by professors of the Faculty of Sciences, and 
 by competent engineers (railway, mail and telegraph engineers, foresters, 
 professors of the Veterinary School, etc.). Lastly, the Faculty of Letters 
 possesses an Institute of Southern Studies, in which more particularly the 
 language, the literature, the art and the ancient institutions of southern 
 France are pursued. 
 
 Foreign students are thus assured that f/iep n>iZZ find at the University 
 of Toulouse all that they can desire, whether from the material or ffte^ 
 educational point of view. 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CAEN 
 
 The University of Caen, already nearly five centuries old, was founded 
 in 1432 in the time of Henry VI, King of England, then in control of 
 Normandy. It was recognized legally by Charles VII, King of France, in 
 1 452. Suppressed at the time of the Revolution, and restored in a different 
 
121 
 
 form by Napoleon I, it actually comprises three faculties (Law, Sciences 
 and Letters) and a School of Medicine and of Pharmacy, 
 
 The city of Caen, a city of moderate size (48,000 inhabitants) is to 
 be counted, because of the beauty of its monuments and the abundance of 
 its historical remains, among the most interesting of France and among those 
 which have best kept their ancient character, Wilham the Conqueror and 
 his wife the Duchess Matilda founded there two celebrated abbeys, which 
 contain their tombs ; besides these two churches one can name several 
 others, of a later period, which are scarcely less remarkable. The charming 
 river, the Orne, cuts through Caen, and the active port, the eighth in impor- 
 tance in France, gives an air of activity to this old city. The sea is close 
 by (only ten miles) with a number of well-knowTi beaches. Near Caen 
 are to be found the old cities of Bayeux (with its cathedral and its cele- 
 brated tapestry) , Falaise (with the chateau where William the Conqueror 
 was born). Dives (from which the Norman fleet departed for the conquest 
 of England), Lisieux (cathedral), Honfleur (which dominates the beauti- 
 ful mouth of the Seine) . At a short distance, some of the most beautiful 
 regions of Normandy are to be found, among others the valley of the Orne 
 known by the name of Norman Switzerland, the Vaux de Vire and the 
 Bocage, 
 
 The climate of Caen is very mild. The city is on the main line from 
 Cherbourg to Paris (two and one-half hours from Cherbourg, four hours 
 from Paris) ; one can equally well come from Havre by steamboat in 
 two and one-half hours. 
 
 Faculty of Law 
 
 The Faculty of Law of Caen has always been considered one of the first 
 rank among French faculties of law and enjoys a reputation all its own. 
 Several of the most eminent lawyers of modern France have been its pro- 
 fessors or its students. 
 
 This faculty gives instruction in all branches of public and private law 
 and of political economy, and prepares for all the examinations of a legal 
 kind. Among these examinations there is one which is intended for foreign 
 students and which can be obtained by them without having passed through 
 the lower grades: that is the doctor of laws of the University of Caen. 
 
 Faculty of Sciences 
 The professors of the Faculty of Sciences of Caen prepare their students 
 for various university degrees, and after original research in its laboratories, 
 for the degree of higher studies (for which no previous degree is demanded) , 
 and for the doctorate of sciences. 
 
122 
 
 The Technical Institute of Normandy prepares for the degrees of 
 engineer of the University of Caen (of a class designated electro-technical, 
 mechanical and chemical). 
 
 Among the laboratories of the faculty there is the laboratory of marine 
 zoology, established at Luc-Sur-Mer, ten miles from Caen. 
 
 The collections of natural history are especially complete (the her- 
 barium of the botanical garden being the most important in France after 
 that of the museum of Paris), because of the variety and the richness of 
 the terrestrial and marine fauna and flora, and because of the interest of 
 the local geology, w^hich make the region of the University of Caen one 
 of the most interesting of France. 
 
 Faculty of Letters 
 
 In addition to the courses which are to be found in all of the faculties 
 of letters in France, that of Caen has the chair of the history of Normandy. 
 
 The faculty prepares for various French examinations and competitions 
 (bachelor of letters, various certificates, degrees of higher studies, agrege, 
 doctor of the university, doctor of letters, etc.). Among these examinations, 
 foreign students can obtain, Tvithout the condition of a previous degree, 
 the degree of higher studies, or, conditional upon preparation in certain 
 previous studies, the doctor of the University of Caen rvith special mention 
 of letters. Two other examinations less difficult in character have been 
 designed especially for them; certificate in French studies and a diploma 
 in elementary French. 
 
 There is also given in the faculty, besides the regular courses, instruc- 
 tion designed for foreigners alone. These special courses, which have 
 been suspended during the War, will be again undertaken if foreign students, 
 even only a small number, express a wish for them. The program is as 
 follows: modern French literature, French composition, French literature 
 of the sixteenth century, exercises in reading and editing French phonetics, 
 written and oral translation from English and German into French and 
 vice versa. 
 
 School of Medicine and Pharmacy 
 
 In the School of Medicine the value of the instruction given, because 
 of the perfect equipment for services, has permitted certain of its students to 
 take eminent rank among modern practitioners. The collections of the 
 school are remarkable. 
 
!23 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF RENNES 
 Faculty of Larv 
 
 Transferred from Nantes to Rennes in 1 735, strong in its situation near 
 the Parliament, itself one of the most important of provincial rank, it quickly 
 attained a high degree of prosperity; suppressed in the Revolution, it was 
 reborn in 1 806 ; in the course of the nineteenth century, it renewed its 
 relations with its old teachers, a Lanjuinais, a Toullier, a Loysel, a fine 
 tradition which is preserved even to our time. 
 
 In I 9 ] it counted 980 enrolled students. At this date public authority 
 transferred it to the ancient archbishop's palace, whose pride is its wain- 
 scots, its furnishings and its park. From August 1914 the buildings have 
 been yielded to our glorious wounded. On the restoration of peace it will 
 have recovered its normal character. 
 
 Faculty of Sciences 
 
 The Faculty of Sciences actually affords instruction in the following 
 branches: (I ) theoretical sciences: mathematics, physics, chemistry, zoology, 
 botany, geology, mineralogy; (2) applied sciences: physics, zoology, 
 botany, applied geology, industrial chemistry, agricultural chemistry. 
 
 The courses of applied sciences are sanctioned by the degrees of chemist 
 and engineer-chemist and by the degree of chemical and natural sciences in 
 agriculture. These courses are open to foreign students without the require' 
 ment of a preliminary degree. 
 
 The faculty possesses well-equipped laboratories for physics, chemistry 
 and the natural sciences. The geological collections are especially rich in 
 specimens of the Breton soil. The faculty possesses also a laboratory for 
 agricultural analysis and an entomological station. All the laboratories 
 are open to the foreign students. 
 
 Faculty of Letters 
 Since 1910 it has been lodged, beside the University Library and the 
 Municipal Library, in an immense building in the midst of great gardens 
 on the Place Hoche. There we especially observe six rooms for study 
 supplied with special libraries for the use of the students, comprising the 
 following: classical languages, French literature, history, Celtic languages, 
 English literature, German literature, three laboratories attached to rooms 
 for study, geography, experimental psychology and linguistics; on the 
 second floor a hall for student meetings and recreation. Among the 
 studies of the faculty which are not found universally, mention may 
 be made of the general bibliography and the paleography of documents. 
 
124 
 
 the paleography of Latin authors, and especially the language and litera- 
 ture of the Celtic peoples (Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall and 
 Armorica), and also experimental psychology. The collections of phono- 
 grams comprise numerous Breton songs and dialogues in different Celtic 
 dialects. Since 1886 the Faculty of Letters has published a trimonthly 
 review dedicated to the history of Brittany and the Celtic languages. 
 The professors, instructors, lecturers and readers number 1 7. 
 
 Besides the state degrees (baccalaureate, licentiate, degree of higher 
 studies, and doctorate) the Faculty of Letters of Rennes confers five diplo- 
 mas belonging to the University) of Rennes, tvhich can he obtained without 
 condition of nationality, age or preliminary degrees. They are: degree of 
 French language, degree of the French language and literature, degree of 
 Celtic studies, higher degree of Celtic studies, doctorate of the University 
 of Rennes with special mention of letters. 
 
 During the month of August the Faculty of Letters maintains vacation 
 courses at St Malo. These courses are given at the School of Rocabey, 
 situated at equal distance from St Servan, St Malo and Parame. They 
 comprise: a higher course (French composition, literary analysis, criticism 
 of texts, study of the French vocabulary, diction, institutions of France, 
 exercises in translation) ; and an elementary course (pronunciation, orthog- 
 raphy, phonetics, reading, conversation, vocabulary, diction, history and 
 geography). Literary lectures, common to the two courses, have for their 
 subject matter modern literature, the contemporary theater, the political 
 and economic condition of France. 
 
 Examinations at the end of the courses open to students the opportunity 
 to gain an elementary degree or a superior degree, conferred in the name 
 of the University of Rennes and that of the French Alliance. 
 
 These courses, instituted a short time before the war, were already in 
 full operation. The war interrupted them; on the restoration of peace 
 they will receive a new impulse. 
 
 School of Medicine and Pharmacy 
 
 The School of Medicine and Pharmacy of Rennes, entirely new-built 
 in accordance with the latest requirements of science, occupies a site on the 
 banks of the Vilaine. 
 
 It dates from the eighteenth century. Throughout the century following 
 it gradually grew till 1896, the year in which it became a school of full 
 practice, the only one except Nantes and Marseilles where medical studies 
 are pursued and examinations taken to the end of the entire cycle of studies, 
 the doctorate alone being reserved to a faculty. 
 
125 
 
 As a matter of fact, its laboratories, notably that of bacteriology, bear 
 comparison with the best equipped. The delegates from the foreign uni- 
 versities to the beautiful celebrations of 1911 could testify to this. 
 
 University Library of Rennes 
 
 The University Library of Rennes possessed on the first day of July, 
 1917, 180,654 volumes, 68,266 pamphlets, 250 manuscripts, 12 incunab- 
 ula. 
 
 The Celtic section is one of the most important in existence. It com- 
 prises 33 Breton mysteries, papers of M. Henri d' Arbois de Jubainville 
 and some Breton dictionaries, in the way of manuscripts; facsimiles of 
 the principal manuscripts of the Irish, Welsh or Scotch Gaelic language, 
 numerous texts of these literatures and tLe most important works of criti- 
 cism published in relation to them, in the way of printed treasures. 
 
 Besides the Celtic section, the library is particularly rich in works con- 
 cerning Jansenism, experimental psychology, oceanography, ichthyology, 
 entomology and the history of the middle ages. 
 
 The Municipal Library, very well furnished with Breton works or 
 those concerning Brittany, completes in this respect the Celtic collections 
 of the University Library. 
 
 The Future 
 
 A vigorous effort is being planned to associate closely the University of 
 Brittany and Brittany herself. Everything points in this old province, rich 
 with its glorious traditions, to a powerful industrial movement. Leaders 
 of industry and commerce as well as public authorities are engaged in 
 schemes for enlarging the appHed science studies already instituted. 
 
 The University of Britian'^ thus proclaims a triple character, as the 
 center of Celtic research; the center of French culture for foreigners, 
 gathered together according to the season at Rennes or fcp the emerald sea; 
 the center of preparation for commercial and industrial studies. 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF POITIERS 
 
 The University of Poitiers dates from the epoch in which this city, 
 Paris finding itself in the hands of the English, had become the real capital 
 of France. 
 
 Founded, by virtue of a bull of Pope Eugenius IV (May 28, 1431) 
 through letters of King Charles VII, of the 16th of March 1432, granted 
 at Chinon and registered at the Parliament sitting at Poitiers April 8th, it 
 was intended, according to the terms of the bull, to comprehend, like the 
 
126 
 
 University of Toulouse, five faculties. In fact, it counted only four, the- 
 ology and canon law, civil \a.-w, medicine, and arts (sciences and letters). 
 
 It soon acquired European fame. In the sixteenth century the cele- 
 brated geographer, Sebastian Munster (about 1550), pronounced it the 
 second university of France, immediately following Paris. More than four 
 thousand students thronged annually to its chairs; future great parlia- 
 mentarians such as Brisson, Achille de Harlay, de Thou, Cheverny; poets 
 and writers like Rabelais, Ronsard, du Bellay. While the Faculty of Law 
 contributed in the most brilliant fashion to the extension of Roman law, 
 the Faculty of Arts, which furnished scientific and literary instruction, 
 became the home of an ardent humanism with the celebrated Marc Antoine 
 Muretus and Peletier du Mans. 
 
 With the seventeenth century the decline commenced, not unattended 
 with splendor during the first half, when the famous Barclay, Balzac, 
 Descartes, La Quintinie followed its courses; the fall became more and 
 more pronounced during the second part and in the eighteenth century. 
 In 1 789 most of the colleges disappeared and the number of students was 
 reduced by nine-tenths. The University of Poitiers was only the shadow 
 of itself. 
 
 It resumed its life at the beginning of the nineteenth century. One 
 after another in 1804, 1806, 1845, 1854, its different faculties were 
 restored. In 1 896 it was finally reorganized on foundations entirely 
 modern and acquired an official teaching character. The number of its 
 chairs increased; it courses were developed; its material establishment was 
 improved; its collections were enriched; its library, united with that of 
 the city, became, with nearly 500,000 volumes, one of the most important 
 of provincial rank. In 1 9 1 4, at the moment of the declaration of war, it 
 counted more than 1 300 students ; and its Faculty of Law again holds 
 today the third rank among such faculties in France. 
 
 Besides offering the ordinary courses, the faculties of the University of 
 Poitiers possess complementary practical institutions. 
 
 In law, a system for the direction of work is organized in each of the 
 study years. It places young students from their entrance and during the 
 entire school year under the direct control of a teacher. The Practical 
 Institute of Law initiates students and persons regularly matriculated in 
 actual affairs and prepares them more especially for examinations which 
 conduct to the magistracy, public administration and great financial, indus- 
 trial and commercial institutions. A School of Notaries prepares practical 
 exercises and the different special courses indispensable to future notaries. 
 
 Under the Faculty of Sciences young persons who intend to enter schools 
 
127 
 
 of electro-technology and those who will be called later to direct agri- 
 cultural work can obtain either the degree of agricultural chemistry or a 
 certificate in electricity. 
 
 The Faculty of Letters delivers a certificate of fitness for the teaching 
 of French to foreign students, available to the French as well as to 
 foreigners, and a certificate of literary) studies reserved for foreigners. 
 
 Those were the studies before the war. The university has elaborated 
 a plan for an Institute of Economic Sciences, of which the three depart- 
 ments — agricultural, commercial and industrial — are nearly ready to 
 be put in operation, and are called to render the most real services to the 
 youthful working population. On its side, the Faculty of Letters offers 
 to give, when it next reopens, with regard to France, her geography, her 
 political and literary history, her social and artistic life, an assembly of 
 courses and lectures which will open to everyone, foreigners in a notable 
 degree, an adequate and just acquaintance with our civilization. 
 
 Situated on the great Paris-Madrid line, at the junction of the roads 
 that lead on the west toward the ocean, on the east toward the central 
 plateau, in the center of magnificent regions, Touraine, with its Renaissance 
 castles, the Vendee, Aunis, Saintonge, with their groves, their salt marshes, 
 their vineyards, their superb beaches from Sables d'Olonne to Royan, Lim- 
 ousin, vsath its meadows and its chestnut woods. Berry, so delightfully 
 described by George Sand, on whatever side one turns, it offers to our 
 choice within a radius of from 100 to 150 kilometers the most varied 
 excursions. With its neighboring forests and its river, where such good boat- 
 ing is provided, with environs furrowed with wonderful roads running 
 across the most varied regions, where at each step emerge to view a thou- 
 sand rehcs of the past, Poitiers itself is one of the most picturesque cities 
 in existence and one of the richest in old monuments, possessing several 
 which are universally known. Living here is simple and easy. The student 
 can find residence under the best conditions, either in families or in board- 
 ing houses. A committee of patronage welcomes him and gives him all 
 needed advice. In the Association of Students he enters on the first day 
 into relations with his comrades. Everywhere he is certain of meeting the 
 freest and most cordial reception. 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF BORDEAUX 
 
 The University of Bordeaux, because of jhe four faculties of which it 
 
 is composed as well as on account of the mildness of the climate, flatters 
 
 itself it will be able to attract some of the students who, following the 
 
 heroic example of the sailors of the " Orleans " and of the " Rochester," 
 
128 
 
 will brave the dangers of the .Atlantic in order to come to pursue their 
 studies in France. The rich variety of its courses, the devotion and fame 
 of its masters, put the University of Bordeaux in a position to offer to our 
 guests from over the sea, from the time of their arrival, the intellectual 
 resources that they come to seek in our country. 
 
 In the Faculty of Law they will find courses in Roman, French, civil, 
 commercial, maritime, administrative, and criminal law, courses in civil 
 procedure, in international law, both public and private, political economy, 
 legislation financial, colonial and industrial. They will be able in this 
 faculty to obtain the degree of doctor of law of the University of Bordeaux. 
 There is a Practical Institution of Law where is to be found, in the briefs 
 put in the hands of the students, the application of the principles expounded 
 in the courts, which will permit them to pass from theory to practice. 
 
 The combined Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy will put at their 
 disposition theoretical and practical courses in anatomy, physiology, general 
 anatomy and histology, physical biology, medical electricity, biological 
 chemistry, operative medicine, experimental medicine, pathology and general 
 therapeutics, pathological anatomy, therapeutics and pharmacology, 
 hygiene, legal medicine and exotic pathology. To these courses of the 
 medical kind are added complementary courses and conferences, which 
 would be too many to enumerate in detail, as well as numerous clinics where 
 there is shown upon patients practical application of the rules taught in the 
 courses. (Clinics are as follows: medical, surgical, ophthalmic, infantile, 
 orthopedic, obstetrical, gynecological, stomatological, mental maladies, skin 
 and syphihtic diseases, diseases of the urinary organs, diseases of the larynx, 
 diseases of the ears and oi the nose, diseases of warm countries, etc.) Of 
 the pharmaceutical kind are given courses in chemistry, general and special 
 chemical analysis, toxicology, biological chemistry, physical pharmaceutics, 
 natural history, pharmacy and materia medica. There are also given prac- 
 tical exercises, complementary courses and conferences. Our guests from 
 over the sea can attain a degree of doctor of the University of Bordeaux 
 (mention in medicine or in pharmacy) or degrees of pharmacist or of 
 surgeon dentist, or of colonial physician of the University of Bordeaux. 
 
 The Faculty of Medicine of Bordeaux has, because of the scientific 
 attainments and the fame of some of its professors, been able to organize 
 advanced courses in branches of medical science which these professors 
 teach (medical electricity, oto-rhino-laryngology, for example). These 
 courses attract not only students, but also teachers from other universities. 
 
 In the Faculty of Sciences the American students will find courses in 
 general mathematics, in infinitesimal calculus, mechanics, astronomy, general 
 physics, experimental physics, physics (P. C. N.), applied physics, min- 
 
129 
 
 eralogy, organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry, physical chemistry, indus- 
 trial chemistry, physiological chemistry, agricultural chemistry, zoology, 
 animal physiology, comparative anatomy, embryology, botany, vegetable 
 physiology and geology. There are laboratories for the purposes of each 
 one of these courses. The students will be able to obtain degrees from 
 the state (certificate P. C. N., bachelor, degree in higher studies, doc- 
 torate) , or of the university : doctorate of the University of Bordeaux with 
 mention in sciences, the degree of chemical engineer for the preparation of 
 which there is annexed to the Faculty of Sciences a school of chemistry 
 as applied to industry and to agriculture. 
 
 The industries of the locality and the needs of local commerce have in 
 addition determined the creation of special laboratories which give to the 
 Faculty of Sciences of Bordeaux its particular character: for example, 
 the laboratory of chemistry as applied to the industry of resins, the labora- 
 tory for experiment with colonial products. An agronomical and oeno- 
 logical station is, after the same fashion, attached to the faculty. 
 
 In the Faculty of Letters, the guests from beyond the sea will find 
 courses in the Greek language and literature, in the Latin language and 
 literature, grammar, comparative grammar, French literature, language and 
 literature of the southwest of France, German language and literature, 
 English language and literature, studies in Spanish, Italian language 
 and literature, geography, colonial geography, archeology, history of art, 
 ancient history, history of the middle ages, modern history, history of 
 Bordeaux and of the southwest of France, sciences auxiliary to history, 
 paleography, philosophy, history of philosophy, social science. They will 
 be able to obtain the degrees of the state (bachelor, degree in higher 
 studies, doctorate), or of the university (doctorate of the University of 
 Bordeaux with mention in letters). 
 
 The certificate in French studies and the degree of university studies 
 are especially designed for foreigners who wish to obteiin evidence of their 
 French studies and certification of their aptitude to teach French in their 
 own country. 
 
 The well-stocked library and museums (Museum of Anatomy and of 
 Anthropology, Museum of Ethnography and of Colonial Studies of the 
 Faculty of Medicine, Museum of Archeology in the Faculty of Letters) 
 complete the resources placed by the University of Bordeaux at the dis- 
 position of its guests. They will also be able to use in addition the other 
 libraries and museums of the city of Bordeaux. 
 
 Lastly, special courses in French and French literature, organized under 
 the patronage of the university by a committee of reception for foreign 
 students, will permit the American students rvho do not have, on their 
 5 
 
130 
 
 arrival in France, sufficient acquaintance fvith the French language to 
 prepare themselves to pursue better the courses which we have enumerated. 
 The Franco-American committee is prepared to give information to 
 Americans concerning lodging at different prices and to furnish for them 
 recreations such as excursions and various sports. A general association 
 of men students and general association of women students are prepared 
 to receive their comrades from over the sea whose hearts the^ f^now already 
 heat in unison with theirs. 
 
 (I was not able to visit the Universities of Besancon, Mar- 
 seilles-Aix and Clermont-Ferrand. This alone accounts for the 
 omission of special mention of them here. The University of 
 Lille was behind the German lines and one does not know what 
 to say of her, save to express the hope that she will emerge with 
 a face as fair and placid as her cherished Tete de Cire. 
 
 There are many of whose courtesy and assistance I should 
 like to speak in detail, but I must at least mention the names of 
 a few who have been most helpful, beside our American 
 Ambassador and others of the Embassy, the French officials and 
 University Recteurs. These are Mr. James H. Hyde, Mr. 
 August F. Jaccaci, the men of the Maison de la Presse, and the 
 young American, Mr. William Gorham Rice, who accompanied 
 me in the early part of my visit and who has recently won the 
 croix de guerre. And I must acknowledge, with special grati- 
 tude, my indebtedness to Monsieur Petit-Dutaillis, the Inspector 
 General of Public Instruction, the agreeable companion in some 
 of my journeys, and a special liason officer between the 
 universities and schools of France and those of America. 
 
 The last word must be in thanks to those who gave the first 
 assistance: the Secretary of the Interior, the Flonorable Franklin 
 K. Lane, and the French Ambassador, Monsieur Jusserand, 
 whose letters opened all official doors in France at my coming.) 
 
THIS brief report of a 
 very brief visit in 
 France in the early 
 summer of 1917 depicts 
 the spirit that pervades 
 the schools and univer- 
 sities of France, rather 
 than the methods of their 
 teaching, partly for the 
 reason that this seems 
 more important to us en- 
 tering the war than the 
 pedagogical details, and 
 partly because the unex- 
 pected welcome which was 
 everywhere given pre- 
 vented one from seeing 
 much of the daily routine 
 of the schools. In one 
 place, indeed (the birth- 
 place of Jean Jacques 
 Rousseau), a holiday was 
 declared for the children 
 after the early morning 
 classes, that I might meet 
 all the teachers of that 
 city. Two rather dim 
 pictures which have come 
 since this report was sent 
 to the press, and which are herewith reproduced, tell of a recep- 
 tion in Normandy, but they also give intimation of the reception 
 in other places, to one who was only an American visiting the 
 schools of France in the period between President Wilson's 
 famous message of April 2d, which was everywhere read in the 
 schools, and the coming of the first American troops. 
 
 The reader will find the general summary of the report in the 
 first nine pages, but the teacher will, by reading a little farther, 
 find some special suggestions. The most valuable part of the 
 
 At the right, school girls in a lyce'e ; at the left, 
 a procession of the faculties of the University of 
 Caen 
 
 D8or-Mri8-2000 
 
report, however, is to be found in the messages which were 
 carried to France and those which they evoked — messages 
 which together in themselves justified putting into permanent 
 form the report of this journey, and which will make a unique 
 document in our educational literature. I am particularly 
 glad they can be published by The University of the 
 State of New York, whose representative I was, for it is the 
 institution of all in America most closely related in purpose 
 and organization to the University of France, which embraces 
 in its concern and control the institutions which I ^jvisited. 
 
 But I would ask the 
 reader, both teacher and 
 layman, to take the time 
 before putting the book 
 down, to glance through 
 the epitomizing pages from 
 99 to 103, for while they 
 carry the title "L' Envoi, " 
 they are but the preface of 
 what I hope is to be writ- 
 ten of our intellectual com- 
 munion with France and 
 other nations, both during 
 the war and after, culmi- 
 nating in a world uni- 
 versity or academy, out 
 on that strip where our 
 men are fighting side by 
 side. 
 
 I append photographs 
 of two or three messages 
 that have come from 
 lycees in the east of 
 France, as an illustration 
 of the exchange which is 
 to bring closer together 
 the children of the world 
 who are to rebuild it. c i , • i • ^ m j ■ • l 
 
 bchool girls in Caen, INormandy, receiving the 
 J. H. r . Commissioner of Education of New York 
 

 '■'^f ^vor 
 
 ^(|i^iiiifl»f'«l"'P"!» 
 
A letter from a French school girl in Epinal