AMERICANS
believe in the right to criticize
. We defen
d
our right to "beef
''
or "gripe" or "sound
off
"
.
We insis
t
upon
the right to express our own opinions
.
But we also believe in the right of others to express thei
r
opinions
. For the right to speak involves the duty to listen
.
The right to criticize involves the responsibility of givin
g
"the other side" a fair chance to make its point
. We kno
w
that the truth can only be found through open and hones
t
discussion, and that the common good is served throug
h
common attempts to reach common understanding, In on
e
way, Democracy is the long and sometimes
difficult
effor
t
which free men make to understand each other
.
This booklet tries to help some of us understand an ally
-
the French
. It is not meant either to "defend'' the Frenc
h
or to chastise those Americans who do not like the French
. It
CONTENTS
EA'
T
S
is
.
intended simply
t
o br
ing into reasonable
tations
, dissatisfactions
reasonable
andfocusthos
e
_
because zt z~
rri
°
s
~~n_de
.r~ta
.
t
~
.
often hard for the
p
co ple
which
c~rzs
e
tawd the people of
p
- of one cou7atry to aziclers
=
a-iaotla
e
The booklet zrses the Qz
,
.
estzon
,
t
~z
f
,
.
the
cr2tic~sms zr~iseo
7
z~
E
Sao
pt2o~2s
C192c1
o
.rtanart
It list
s
lrcazz
troops
i3a
Lzsro e er~~
9'
`apes
2~~hicl
Z
they ta7l' abc,?t
T
pre
.,s
mast freg2ae~?tl~ uliez
i
is
the
.French,
.Eac
h
~dlo,red by an gn,
c
o
;nment
;
or
04"crt,
or gUestzor
i
az2
.
~
r
sv'ers
~
siG~a
.
short
'
a,c
2 -
becrczrse
'50me of
t3?
;
Lnz ale
.
~, 1
rt
e
2"
Gme o1 the
Ur2,2
th
e
ce a a e
;, ~
: estz
:oi~ 2s dh'6ct an
d
questions
are
atE
lon q
. becaI_e th
e
contain
'not
"e9t""
4
"
at 6W
.
but
Wc
CtiY-~
.
it~>
>r
~
CG~r pl"GCCZ-tr'C~
and
.c
I2tC
h
.
.
F
S~~L7
i
Tj~n
9
p
;e
co~?cept
'000
,
°uro~e of th
e
ccts
re
;,,bl2e„
th
e
a
:?r~
ntt
.
ait~
N
err
1
tr
~a
i
s
r
f
nts il
.
.'t
(Cc
ev
e
n
r
to
P)•(,
1
02
t
tend to oz e~lcok
.
t1 9r c77_ ~
rF
~2tio~z-ecl Jcr
y
There
M
.
.ay
be ti
;ose t~
si
n
10 21 p
,~
FcC2lz~g ))
Ct1'
~
t
;
Ame
r
CO
~~
??
:
~
1
}aU1'6ef
r
r
2~Stf
r
J c
CItCC
-
o7aL~
be snarl that
the
fr2~th
f
cxrtioz2,c
tlae~
z
rr
not ~c~2ae~
it
ca
:2
a
t0i'y
lClr
1
.
fr2
"
L'
ii
(J
22
a
d
C
y'a
_
1
~
Tla
p
re
z~~<z~
be
Gt7atr•
.
'
2v
;a
2~'J?
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z '2ll ~z F 2Z )Oi2 t~iz
r
t~ i-,c~r2plL -
i
~raar•?`
;ag
the
z
.e
.
-
_
. 1•?-rd of
c12~c~~s
:sian
.c
q
~tio~2-
s
raqF,
zc~ll i
g
nor
e
tha
er
zt2re12
.
t%'t_tIa a~
J Tha
t
fo
;
.
)?z
it is
o/lered
.
rr ~un~~ tn
. el~iutezea
.
1lii booklet nay
?lGt Co)tc e92-CE
t
hos
e
~3i'8~ 1LhC rj~ ~2rt ZZ 1iZa j?
.1
iL'~2p We
ho
z
)
ekSSl1
~
1
by
th
esa~z?e lr
utale
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o ker
b
otlie,s
froz
;2
be
~s~y'z2ec
1 THE "FRENCH 41'
D
:i3
TH
E FRENCH
i
20
a
.
Characteris
tics
31
G
.
Customs
and
manners
.
,,9,j
-
n
s9
a
.
Work a
nd Laziness
Q
.
Morals
4S
A
,
?
o"A?ob,7eo as l Locomotives
-52 THE FRE "CH AND THE GER 1 A Y
S
6 PRICE
S
''h'E
.
BLACK X -
.REFl
'
.
S2 THOSE FRE\'CH SOLDIER
S
90 FRE-YCH COLLABORATIO
N
96 THEY GOT OTT PRE171 E-I,S
y
rV THIS WA
R
. 106 FRENCH POLITICS
H
T
.
Ve
came to Europe twice
.
in twenty-fee
years
to sav
e
the French
.
'
We didn't come to Europe to save the French
. eithe
r
in 1917 or in 1944
. We didn't
come
to Europe to d
o
anyone any favors
.
. We came
to
Europe because
we
i
n
America were threatened by a hostile, aggressive and ver
y
dangerous power
.
In this war, France fell in June of 1940, We didn'
t
invade
Europe until June of 1944
.
. We didn
'
t even thin
k
of
"saving the French" through military action until afte
r
Peary Harbor -- after the Germans declared war on us
.
We came to Europe, in two wars, because it was bette
r
to fight our enemy- in Europe than in America
. Woul
d
it have been smarter to fight the Battle of the Bulge i
n
Ohio? Would
it
have been smarter if D-Davhad
mean
t
a hop across the Atlantic Ocean, instead
of
the
Englis
h
Channel
.
in order to get at an enemy sending rocket bomb
s
crashing into our homes Would it have been
.smar
t
to wait in America until V bombs, buzz bombs, rocke
t
bombs, and - perhaps - atomic bombs had mad
e
shambles of
. our cities ? Even the kids
u
Germany san
g
this song
: "Today Germany, tomorrow the world
." W
e
were a part of that world
. We were marked for conquest
.
When France fell,
our
last defense on the Continen
t
was gone
. France
was
the "keystone of freedom
"
o
n
land from the Mediterranean to the North Sea
; it was •
.
a
bulwark against German aggression
. France guarded
the Atlantic, and the bases the Germans needed on th
e
Atlantic for submarine and air warfare
.
American security and American foreign policy hav
e
always rested on
this
hard fact we cannot permit a hos-
tile power on the Atlantic Ocean
. We cannot be secur
e
if we are threatened
on
the Atlantic
.
That's
why
w
e
went
to
war in 1917
; that
'
s
why
we had
to fight in
1944
.
And
that's
wh
y
,
as
a matter of common sense and th
e
national interest, President Roosevelt declared
(Novem-
ber 11
. 1941)
: "The defense of any territory under th
e
control of the "French Volunteer
Forces
(the
Free Trench
)
is vital
to the defense of the United States
:
"
fit first,
u'IiEi2-
we came into Normandy, andthen int
o
Pam's, the French gave us everything
wine
:
-
ches€
,
j
rm
.it,
everything
.
T7?ey thew 'their arms
around vs
an
d
kissed
us every time we turned
. around, They gave u
s
the
biggest welcome you
. ever ssaw
.
But
they
'
ve forgotten
.
Th-ey're
.
ungr•atetul,
"
-
Perhaps the French ran out of wine, cheese, fruit an
d
cognac to pass out free
. Perhaps the French deplete
d
'the stock they had hidden in their cellars from the Ger-
mans
.
Could not a French than who read the question above
.
ask, "Axe the Americans so ungrateful ? Have they s
o
soon forgotten how much we cave them from
-
what littl
e
we had
3
"<
sae French dontine,ae ~a
itito'tlzeir
3icritEs
.
"
They don't have the food
.
(The Germans took it
.
)
They don't ' speak English and we don't speak
.
French
.
It's hard to extend hospitality under those conditions
.
Ask those soldiers who have been invited into a Frenc
h
home what it was like
.
How many American
'
homes were you invited 'int
o
when you were stationed near a "soldier town" in th
e
State
s
4
:
4
'
he
ea
L'-1
'
i
. 7`%!
me the
wrong
way
.
It was inevitable that some Frenchmen would
rub som
e
Americans the wrong ray=
. City people often rub countr
y
folk the wrong
«ay the same goes for a Pittsburgher i
n
New Orleans
. or +
.Texan on Fifth Avenue
.
We Americans believe in the value of differences ----
z
r
:basic political beliefs and goals rest on a common founda-
tion
. (See question § 6'9
.
)
"Unless you bear with the faults of a friend you betray
-
your own
."
.
5
"
1
'
i1
never lore the Feeheh
.,"
,
''I
hate
:the French
:"'
You don't have
. to love the French
. You don't hav
e
to hate them either
. You might try to understand them
,
The more
important point is not to let your feeling
blin
d
you to the fact that they Were and
. are our
tallies,
The
y
were in 1917, toe
.
The most important questionnny people can
.
ask itsel
f
is this
. "Who fights with us 2
.
Who fights against us ?"
.
"
TT
e
'
re a?ways
pining the
..
.French out
of
a
.
jam
. Di
d
they
Ft'Er'°do
!ire?jtl?i)ig o
r
They did
. They helped us out of one of the greates
t
jams •e were ever in
. During the American revolution
,
when almost the entire world stood by
m
"non interven-
tion" or was against us, it was France who was our greates
t
ally
and
benefactor
. France loaned the thirteen state
s
56
.400,000 - and
score
us over S3,000,000 more
. (Tha
t
was a lot more money in those days than it is now
.
)
45,000 Frenchmen volunteered in the array of Georg
e
Washin
g
ton, They crossed the Atlantic Ocean in small
.
boats
that
took two months to make the voyage
.
Washington s
`army
had no military engineers
; it wa
s
French engineers
who
designed and built our 'fortifications
.
The name
. of Lafayette is one that Americans will neve
r
forget, and the French are as proud of that name 'as w
e
are
.
4
e
You can judge the measure and meaning of French ai
d
to our Revolution from the letter George Washington sen
t
on April 9, 1781 to our military envoy
. in Paris, askin
g
for help from Franc
e
"We are at this hour suspended in the balance no
t
from choice but from hard and absolute necessity
. .
. Ou
r
troops are fast approaching nakedness
. .
. our hospital
s
are without medicines and our sick without nutrition
_
in a word, we are at the end of our tether, and
.
.
. now o
r
never our
. deliverance must cone
.
"
It
was
France that came to our aid in our darkest hour
.
7
T'Ve
can't rely on these French
.
"
That depends on what you mean by "rely"
. If yo
u
expect the French to react like Americans, you will b
e
disappointed
. They are not Americans they are French
.
If you expect the French to hurry the way we do
. you
will be disappointed
the
French don't hurry ---neithe
r
do most of the people
i t
the world outside of America
.
But we
were
able to rely on the French for the mos
t
important thing France fought with is, not against us
,
twice in the past two decades
,
"W
E'ee had more
beE
d n i from the French than
from th
e
Germans
. We are always
quarreling
with them
. The
y
criticize
. eeerythin
.g
. They have to put
g
ent
taro cent
s
in
. Bat the Germans - they
/ fist
ddo wlmt you
tel
l
them to
. They're co-operative
; the
. 1',tench aren't
.
"
6
Two men
working together are more likely to tell
. eac
h
other oil than
a
prisoner is to tell off the warden
.
Of course we differ with the French
; of course we argue
with them
. Why ? Because we
have
a common goa
l
and
face common
problems
. Because we, like
the
French
,
have been taught to think for
.
. ourselves, to "put our
.
tw
o
cents in"
. Democracy is based on the -idea that everyon
e
has a basic right to pint his two cents in"
. In Americ
a
we
say, "I'm from Missouri" or "Sez who ?" The Frenc
h
have th
e
'
same attitude they say,
"Je
aie crois
q'ee
ce
p
qu
e
hois
"
.
("I only believe what I see
.
"
) Or
"Je
7zE
demard
e
pas rnae er Tue d'etre co-nramev
("I don't ask much
.
;
I
just want, to he convinced,"
)
There is a saying that in France everything is permitte
d
that is not strictly forbidden - but in Germany ever
y
thing is
verboten
.
that is
not
strictly permitted, W
e
are in the French, not the German
;
tradition
.
Yes, we quarrel with the French
. The members of
a
family
argue pretty freely inside the home
; We quarre
l
with our
allies,
We don't quarrel with our enemies --
-
we fight them
.
As for the Germans, they've
gat
to be
"co-operative"
.
They have no choice
. Theyre under military
law
.
Which is better a critical ally or a fawning enemy
?
Flatterers are the worst land of enemies,'' - Tacitus
.
9
"We
gave the French
. uniforms, jeeps, trucks, supplies
,
Jthing
,
'
am-munition
7
We didn't give the French these things
. Weileaat them
,
under Lend-Leaser a law passed by our Congress as "A
n
Act to Promote the Defense of the United States"
. W
e
lent military equipment and supplies to our ally
.
Where else could the French have gotten uniforms
,
guns, ammunition, supplies
From the German
s
A Frenchman armed with
. an 03 rifle could
kill
Germans
.
It was wiser for us to turn out weapons and uniforms t
o
arm the Trench than to turn
out
additional America
n
soldiers
.
Ws
,
'
ghee the ~
`
rcatclc
b
t
.lhloaas off
. dollars worth of-
stuff
.
They'll
never
pay it
back
. .
Under Lend-Lease we provided military supplies an
d
equipment to France worth
S1,0-1,000,000
.
Under reverse Lend-Lease, the French have alread
y
paid back about 5150,000,
000
- almost
half of the amoun
t
we lent them ua the way of military supplies
.
The French paid
this
450,0010,000
back in the sam
e
way that they got it from us -- with supplies, material
s
food, labor, services
.
Here are some of the things the French have provide
d
us
131,000 snow capes
for
the winter campaign of 1944
.
700 tons of
. rubber tires, made izr France
.
260,000 signs and
posters for
road markers
duffng
. th
e
Military campai
g
n
.
Millions of jerricans
.
Unite
d 150,000 French workmen and civilians
. working for th
e
UStates
Army and paid by the French government
.
These French men and women work at airfields, railwa
y
yards, ports, docks, in offices, etc
. They range from ste-
vedores to nurses
. mechanics to typists, in France,
Nort
h
Africa, and the
.French islands in the South Pacific, suc
h
as New
: Caledonia, where Americana troops ar
e
.
stationed
.
All French telephone and telegraph services were
pia-
eed
at
our disposal
.
Lumber, cement, gravel for construction purposes
.
Billets - all through France, from Brest to Strasbourg
,
from Paris to Nice or Biarritz
.
-Theaters such as the, the
Olympia,
the Empire, th
e
Marignan in Paris
.
Restaurants - for American mess halls
.
Food - though the French are very short of it them
-
selves
. The French supply us with such fresh fruit an
d
vegetables as can be spared
.
Beer - made in France, by the French, for America
n
troops, from ingredients shipped from the United States
.
.
Printing - Stars and Stripes, Yank, Army Talks
. Overs-
eas Woman, l and E pamphlets
.
i1
"'The
: Frcach are
2tsi72g
car gals, bet A-6y won
'
t give i
t
to
Americans
.
You can
'
t get gas in
the
. French vine
s
o/ OCCapation
4
.
f
2, 02CF
d-h2
i-ii
g through
."
Why should we be '% We are supposed to eat in
.
arm
y
messes
. Every meal we might eat
. in a French
.
restauran
t
would use up just that much food, from the Frenchmen'
s
limited supply-
,
s
s
12
O
ne Frenchman
. told me the French practically gave
-
vs the Statue
of
Liberty, Hone do non like that ?"
14
time
we
go into a
7
igu
t chd, ~~~e get soaked
b
tiaese F"en~chnwn
.
You are not supposed to
.
The French are given gasoline b U
. S
. Army authority
:
It is the only gasoline they get
. They are compelled
t
o
use it for themselves
.
The Reciprocal Aid Agreement, under Lend-Lease laws
,
states (Artic=le
III)
that the Government of France
wil
l
not
. without the consent of the President of the U
. S
. ,
transfer any articles provided the French, or permit thei
r
use, by anyone not an officer, employee, or agent of th
e
French government
.
Can an American gas pump give gasoline
to
a Frenc
h
army car which is
not
specifically authorized to obtain
gasoline from an American pump '? If
you
were on dut
y
would you give gasoline to unauthorized persons
statue,
(The United States raised $280,000
.)
In 1883
,
the President of the French Committee, Mr
. de Lesseps
,
officially presented
the
statue to the
American
people
.
Were you never soaked in a night club at home
?
Compare the prices in Paris night clubs to those in th
e
night clubs youve visited in Miami or
New
York, Chicag
o
or
Los
Angeles
.
A
. G
. I,
comes out of a ni
g
ht club in the States and says
,
"A buck and half for a Scotch and soda That place i
s
aclip
joint
l The sane G
. F comes out of a night clu
b
in Paris and says, "Ninety francs for a shot of cognac
!
That's
the French for you - they re all robbers !
'
The Statue of Liberty began as the idea of a group o
f
Frenchmen, shortly after the Civil \Var
. They commis-
sioned a French sculptor, Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, t
o
do the work
. A committee of Frenchmen was formed i
n
18
;4 to raise funds
. Bartholdi recommended the sit
e
for the statue -- Bedloe's Island in New York harbor
.
In
. France, 180 French cities, forty general councils
,
and thousands of anonymous Frenchmen contributed
a
{quarter of a million dollars {not francs) to7ards the
V1'
'
6
care not Welcome in French Rata?zrcrr
.t
., .
>
:
General Patton cabled General Koenig, the Frenc
h
commander of the TF1, that the spectacular advance o
f
his (Patton's) army across France would have been impos-
sible without the fighting aid of the FF1
. .
General Patch estimated
that
from the time of th
e
Mediterranean landings
to
the arrival of our troops at
.
Dijon, the help given to our operations by the FYI wa
s
equivalent, to four full divisions
.
The hiaquis who defended the Massif Central, in th
e
south-central part of France, had two Nazi division
s
stymied they kept those two divisions from fightin
g
against us
.
The magnificent fight the Free French put up at Bi
r
Hakeim, in the Libyan campaign, will he long remembere
d
in the _annals of heroism
.
Perhaps some of us don't like to pass out bouquets
.
-
to anyone but ourselves
. Perhaps we have short memories
.
6
"The
French welcomed ns at first
;°
now they want v
s
to get out
.
"
An American kI recently said, "We re like
people wh
o
were given a wonderful reception for a week-end
. Bu
t
we
'
ve stave
;-i
. in the house for a year
. No one wants a
.
house
guest that long
.'
'
Of course the French would prefer that American troop
s
1' leave France as soon as possible
. (So would you, if yo
u
were a Frenchman
.) As long as we are here, we Impos
e
an added strain
on
the already overtaxed French eco-
nomy
. The French need the billets and food andsupplie
s
and cervices which they are now supplying to us
.
(See question ~ 10
.)
18
"
The
.
french
: let-us down
. -when the fighting got tough
.
What di' they do - as fighters - to help us out ?
"
Here are a few of the things the French di
d
The French fought in Africa,-in Sicily, liberated Corsica
,
fought in Italy,
took
past in the invasion of Europe an
d
fought through the battles of France and Germany - fro
m
Normandy to Munich
.
17
"
The
Frericlt brag a lot about
tke fighting
they did, bu
t
you don't hear any Americans passing
out
bouquet
s
to t
1
aem
.
"
The
French are terrible scroungers
. They keep moo
-
clang candy, soap, e gazettes, food from the GI's
. They hav
e
no sell-respect
.
"
Some of the French are scroungers
.
Hungry people lose their pride
.
-
An empty stomach does not worry about losing face
.
Units from the French navy participated iri't
l the invasion
s
of Sicily, -Italy, Normandy and South France
.
Units of the French navy and merchant marine
too
k
part in convoying operations on
the
Atlantic and Mt
-
inansk routes
,
'
-
,,
7.
June 5 1
.944 the day° before D-Darr, over 5,000 Wren
.
:
clifnen
of
the
. resistance
d
'
ynami'ted railroads in more
tha
n
500 strategic places
.
They delayed strategic German troop movements fo
r
an average of 48 hours,
. according-to our-niilitaryexperts
.
Those 48
.
hours were tact-lea-11y priceless ° they saved a
n
untold number of American lives
.
French resistance
groups
hew up a series of
bridge
s
in southern France and delayed one of the Wehrmacht'
s
crack units Was Reich Panzer Division) for
tae
.7ze- day
s
in getting from Bordeaux to Normandy
.
About 30,000 FFI troups supported the Third Army'
s
VIII Corps in-Brittany
: they seized and
held
key spots
;
they conducted extensive •guerrilla operations behind th
e
German lines
.
25,000 FFI troops protected the south flank of
,
th
e
Third Army in
its
daring dash across France the EFT
'
wiped-out -Germanbridgeheads
.
north of the Loire Rive
r
they guarded vital lines of communication , they wipe
d
out pockets of German resistance , they held many town
s
and cities under orders from our command
.
When our Third Army was approaching the area be-
tween Dijon and Troyes from the west, and
while
th
e
Seventh Army was approaching this sector from the
South, it was the FFI who stubbornly
. blocked the German
s
from making a stand and prevented- a mass retirement o
f
.German troops
.
In Paris
. as our armies drew close, several hundred thous
-
and French men and women rose
.
up against the Germans
.
!50,000 armed men of the
. resistance fought and beat th
e
Nazi garrison
. and occupied the main buildings
and
ad-
ministrative offices of Paris
.
These are some of the things the French did
. For others
,
see question § 104
.
"They ride,
in
our deeps
and
waste our gas
.
They ride in the jeeps which are
officially
loaned to
the
m
by our government
.
How
do
you know they are wasting gas ? How do yo
u
-know their trips are not on
official
business ? Dirk n
o
_Americans waste gas on pleasure trips
?
The
F,erich artn pie/telly
.
"
Some Frenchmen are other Frenchmen are not
.
The French as a whole are not as "hail fellow
well
met
"
as we Americans are, Neither are the British, the Swedes
,
the
Greeks, the Mexicans
.
-
-
Frenchmen don't get
personal or
confidential quickly
.
leans are not in the habit of letting their friends (Io
g
;-n)
,
it is poor politics and worse diplomacy to "--rite off
"
a
nation of 40 million allies
. Yeti may need their hel
p
some da
z
France
still
stands as a bastion on ±1 A lautie
. fro
m
the IN'Ieditcrrznean to the North Sea
. France will stil
l
he a strong factor in world political- organization
. Th
e
island bases of France, and her colonies, will still be stra-
tegic
areas 'fi the world structure of peace
. And in th
e
aye of the atomic bomb, the
physical size
and
populatio
n
of a country may be no index of her strong
h
.
and poten
-
tialities
.
Why bother about France
.2
It is not our job to "bothe
r
about
"
France
. But it is our
job
to be
.seriously concerne
d
about the peace and the political problems of the world
.
France is very much a part of that world
.
.
David Low, the English
. cartoonist, once drew a famou
s
cartoon showing the nations in a lar
g
e rowboat
. Th
e
European nations war e at one end of the boat, which wa
s
foundering
in
the water Uncle
g
am sat m the other end
,
high and dry and out of the
water
. And
Uncle Sam wa
s
saying
. "Why
should I worry i The leak isn't
in
my en
d
of the boat !" We have paid a terrible price for believin
g
that a leak "at the other end of the boat
"
does not'
affec
t
our destiny
.
They don'tc`
;
open up" as quickly as
we
do in the States
.
The French are very polite they are also
more
formal tha
n
we are
. about personal relationships
. (So are the Chinese
.
)
The French respect
. another person
'
s privacy,
and
the
y
like to have their own privacy respected too
.
-
It is natur ri
tor
anyone to think the people of anothe
r
nation are note as friendly as' his own people
. It's har
d
to be friendly in a foreign language
. It's hard to 'b
e
friendly 'when you're hungry, cold,
and
have gone throug
h
six years of war - as the French have
. Yet- the Ameri-
cans who came into Normandy,
Or
who came into Pari
s
fight
after the liberation, still talk about the astonishing
-
outburst of
g
ratitude, generosity and friendliness whic
h
the French displayed toward us
.
-
Back in the States, many of our troops complained tha
t
the people in the towns near the training camps were no
t
friendly
. People from our South often complain tha
t
the
. people in the North are not friendly
.
A
Texan
i
n
Vermont 'finds New Englanders- cold"
and
"
snobbish'''
.
Do we then say that all Americans are unfriendl
y
Friendship, said a wise Man, lies in this
: "To desire the
.
same things and to reject the same things
.
"
On thi
s
basis, the United States has never hid
,
a better frien
d
than France
: (See question § 69
.)
'
21
"
Why
bother about the ,reach ? They cavil thro
w
any weight fit the post-cat
.'r world
.
"
Apart from reasons of honor and simple decency Amer
-
76
2
6
A
.
CHARACTERISTIC
S
22
The
.
Frcint
arc too CIarieard rr ~Cije l
.
; t
.
"
The French
a_re
independent, They
.
are proud
. The
y
are individualists
. So are we
.
.That's One reason ther
e
is friction between us
.
23
"
The French cue
Cid ?
`
d
nlvit they
they
ca
The
y
a
. Lair
UiJ !
the ror nei
.
'
They didn
'
t in 1939, when it
.
looked to aII the world a
s
though the Germans were sure winners
. The Frenc
h
and-British could have
let
the Germans rape
.
Poland with
-
out a protest
. The French and British declared war-o
n
Germany
,
Most of the French didn
'
t play the winner in 1940 either
.
When it looked even More that Germany was unbeatable
.
While some of their leaders in the Vichy governmen
t
played ball with the Germans
. the vast majority of th
e
people refined to they resisted in whatever Way they could
;
24 "
The
Freecib- are
mercenary
.
They'll ito
a
;~
nJth
.?'rag fo
r
a couple at h~r- atreri rrai
.ics
.
"
Where do you draw the line between a "smart business
-
man" and a "mercenary Frenchman I '
The French think that the American soldier who sell
s
cigarettes, soap or candy on the black market at fantasti
c
prices is mercenary
. Some Americans will "do anythin
g
for a couple of hundred francs'"
.
25
"
Th
e
Fi
.
.
-
tic7
are glippni
g
Some
Frenchmen have certainly gypped
some
Americans
.
We remember the times we were gypped
. We forge
t
the number of tinges we were not
. How many times wer
e
von treated fairly,
honest
y
°'
?
Were you never "gypped" back home
-in
towns nea
r
army camps ? (See question
4
83)
,
"The
Fretrch are
. cyraicrl
.
"
The French are disillusioned
.
.
. They are hitter
. The
y
have a
right
to be
. They have gone through six of th
e
most disastrous years of history
. They have experience
d
defeat,
. hunge
r
;
persecution, invasion, occupation
. despair
.
They have been humiliated before the eyes of the world
.
The cynical comments which many of us have heard i
n
France are a reflection of the profound shock and confusio
n
the French have surdered for the past six
years
.
Cynical talk, by the was is often considered "smart
"
and
y
"sophisticated
"
-
; in the United States no less tha
n
in France
. We Americans love to give the "low- down °
;
we
love to tell "the inside stor
y
'
. So do the Freneli
.
But the French are not cynical about certain things
,
about ideas
like
"Liberty, Equality
. Fraternity"
. The
y
mean it, They have always fought" for it
.
20
27 "The, Trcnch are "n-ct up-to-date
.
They re ha
:mg
. in the past
.
"
Change comes slowly in France
. On the whole
. th
e
French are conservative
. If the average Frenchman ha
s
a secure living, he is satisfied
. His dream is not to becom
e
a millionaire, but to retire on a "little" fortune so that h
e
can have a "little" home and a "little" garden and rea
d
his paper
.
The French are certainly not highly industrialized a
s
we
are
. Compared to some other nations, however, the
y
are considered very up-to-date
. Tt depends on what stan-
dard you use
. The French are as far advanced as an
y
-nation in the world today in some
fields
:
art, literature,
music
. design, silk manufacture, textiles, etc
.
The World _Almanac for 1945 concludes that as far a
s
social legislation is concerned, "France is iif the vanguard"
. .
The French were certainly up-to-date in establishing ol
d
age pensions, compulsory insurance against illness,
disa-
bility and death
. maternity insurance, and so on
. I
t
was France that introduced the forty-hour work week
.
Aluminium (discovered simultaneously in U
. S
. an
d
France
)
Braille system of reading for the blin
d
Breech-loading shotgu
n
Cellophan
e
Commercial gas engin
e
Electric stee
l
Electric storage batter
y
Flying balloo
n
Gyroscop
e
Iron galvanizing proces
s
Laminated glas
s
Machine for making pape
r
Metallic cartridg
e
Pasteurizatio
n
Phosphorus
matc
h
Photograph
y
Rayo
n
Rayon nitrocellulos
e
Screw propelle
r
Sewin
g
machin
e
Smokeless powde
r
Steam automobil
e
Steam pressure gaug
e
Stethoscop
e
Synthesis of campho
r
Television 1000 line scree
n
28
"
The French w'on
'
t accept
72ew ideas
. They
'
re
.
9w
t
incentive
.
"
Here are some of the inventions and discoveries whic
h
have come from France
.
The Nobel Prize has been awarded since 1901 for contri-
butions in Physics, Chemistry-, Medicine and Physiology
,
Literature and the Advancement of Peace
. The prize
s
are awarded irrespective of nationality, race or creed
.
From 1901 to 1939
,
.the
Nobel Prize has been awarded t
o
2
.03 individuals
. The United States wen 25
. The Frenc
h
won 2S
.
The only person who has ever been awarded the Nobe
l
Prize twice was Hine Marie Curie
.
That sounds as though the French are like
us
.
W
e
Americans are always griping abort something
. Wer
e
never satisfied
. We
i
criticize
our allies, our government
,
our army, our police
. our politicians
. our business leaders
,
our union leaders
. our schools
. our taxes, etc
., etc
. W
e
are very
.
proud of our right to criticize
.
As people in a democracy, we demand tine right t
o
criticize whatever we want, at any time, on any issue
.
The French, too
. have a very strong
individualistic
,
democratic tradition
. Beware the people who do no
t
criticize
. Beware the country where criticism is
arboinn
. .
Beware the country where men obey like sheep
.
3
1
The
F"r"er'iC
j
?,
r1i'~ ri2b'dItGE1 r_
h
is
C1ri
. i']cbFJr fc teCl-if- 2C2t
h
3d
"
A
the
.
.I'
;
eY
s
h
as
a goo
. a,iir
.
0
7 7
th-ihr
.k
. Olsont
t
p
ce
Y
It you judg
e
.
the French h those, you see on the Champ
s
Elysees or In Montmartre, you are making the same mis-
take_ that, was made by the
. tourist who visited
.
the
. Hous
e
of
.
David and asked "Why don't rllerleans shav
e
Paris is not France
. any urine than 52nd Street is Ameri-
ca
. Paris has for several hlmdred years been one of th
e
great tourist attractions of the world
.
As a
.matter of fact, the French have much
1'-e•ss
of th
e
s
having a good time" habit than _we do
. The
. averag
e
French family ordinarily spends less on pleasure in a mont
h
than we do on a week-end
.
The
.French reputation for gaiety was built on the fam
e
of Paris as a gay city and on- the French way of doin
g
things
. The French, theater was always bright anet varied
.
Paris" cabarets and music-halls were famed throughout th
e
world
. But there are about 35 million Frenchmen
wh
o
do not live in Paris
.
There are no "inborn trans" which account for the socia
l
characteristics or customs of a people
. The entire bod
y
of scientific anthropology proves this
.
29
t
:
T/
!
.-
'
-~
C
P7 i
r
~~ +
t
7P F1
_
rich-
Gsr ,
‘?J
S
ererythcag
hots
$01''n
.
/nag
c!'i'co
j ?C
th
It
.
2
:
5
INFANTRY JOURNAL L b Ary
A French child, of French descent, will react like a
n
American if that child is raised in an-American home i
n
an American town
. The same goes for a
child
of an
d
other nationality, color or creed
.
To talk about
.
"
`
:
inborn traits" is talk just as the Nazi
s
did when they talked
.
about "good" or "bad" blood
. I
t
just does not jibe with fact
. or science
.
To say that the
French are insincere is no more sensibl
e
than to say that Bostonians have
an
"inborn trait" fo
r
baked beans, or that Brooklc-nites have an "inborn trait
"
for throwing pop bottles at the umpire
.
Are the French
: :
insincere
"
? The way to answer thi
s
intelligently is
to
define insincerity, analyze the numbe
r
of Frenchmen
who
show these characteristics, compar
e
this number to the number of Frenchmen who do
no
t
show
these characteristics, get the relative proportion
s
between the two `groups, then compare the proportion
s
to
a
similar anils-sis of the "insincerity" of otheai nations
,
including the Papuans
.
mental- interference or protection
.
.
The whole system we call capitalism, or free enterprise
,
rests on
the idea
. of laissez-faire
.
33
T e french haau no /tits
; t!
E
[Yfsdecadle`st,
"
From the editorial columns of the
Xeu
. Yorl Times
at
.
the time France fel
l
The reporters of the exodus of the French pay tribute
.
to the courage
. the patience, the dauntless spirit of th
e
people on the roads, They all agree that the peasan
t
refugee preserves under a terrible ordeal his characteristi
c
faith in himself
and
his country
. The peasant
Is
France
,
steady,
tou
g
h,
independent and brave
. .
. Nobody wh
o
knows the
g
rass roots of France can doubt that even unde
r
l~azi
occupation
the Republic
will survive, will be rein-
carnated, may in the long run be the force which
will
hel
p
to fashion the Fourth Republic
.
"
32 "Th_e
French,
but
don't care
about
anyh
.ing
.
T-hey'r'
e
even
. got a phrase for it -- 7ccr er-tame
. That mean
s
why bother ? Just let everything a
l
on
e
`'Laissez-faire-
"
is the name
for
a philosophy
of
econo-
rnies
. It means "let alone" -- let the economy run
b
y
itself,
.fay
the laws of supply and demand, without govern
-
r
34
hat did these frogs ever contribute to the 'world
any
-
t•
cry P
"
Apart from the fact that the basic conceptions of free-
dom,
liberty, human rights, and government by the peo-
ple received their greatest impetus from the French wri-
ters and thinkers of the period called the Enlightenment
,
26
"these frogs" have made contributions to history, lite-
rature, science, art,
philosophy
and political ideas whic
h
Mahe one of the proudest and most briilia
.At records i
n
the civilization of mankind
.
The record of France can stand beside that of any othe
r
nation
in
the world, and in many fields stands u-ell
-
abov
e
any other nation
. Here are some of the
. French names
.
which any literate person re-yards with respec
t
T Ale
n
Rabelai
s
Corneill
e
La Font ,]
m
e
Molier
e
Racine
Voltair
e
Roussea
u
Balza
c
Victor Hu
o
Duma
s
Georges San
d
de Masse
r
Merrme
e
Prevos
t
Ronsar
d
Sarc
.ou
Flauber
t
Zol
a
de Maupassan
t
Anatole Franc
e
Daude
t
P amour Rollan
d
Rostan
d
Jules Vern
e
Mane de
Stae
l
Stendha
l
Gautie
r
de Goncour
t
La marlin
e
Su
e
Lot
i
_Mme de
Sevi
g
n
e
Proust
Pasca
l
Pasteu
r
Curi
e
Bufto
n
Beaethelot
.
Amper
e
Daguerr°e
-
Laen
.ne
c
Cuvie
r
Levasso
r
Braill
e
Halle
r
Lavoisie
r
Montgoltier
Toucanta
.
Bourdo
n
Chardonnet
.
Henaul
t
Sauvag
e
Sauri
a
Le Blano
Cezann
e
Coro
t
Dega
s
Delaerol
s
Davi
d
Dor
e
Fora
m
CerOmne
.
Houdo
n
.m
a
re
s
Lebru
n
_Matisse
1[eissen e
r
Mi
l
le
t
Ponssi
n
Prudho
n
Renoi
r
Rodi
n
Rousseau, P
. E . T
.
P ouaul
t
Touionse-Lautre
c
Seurat
'
The
.
French do things different than, w
e
what I don
'
t bike
.
"
Descarte
s
.
Mozitaigri
e
Pasca
l
Comt
e
Bergso
n
Naritai
n
Poincar
e
R
ochefoucatrlc
l
Ptena
n
Roussea
u
Chateaubrian
d
Char-m
u
Calvi
n
Mont esciule
u
Abelar
d
La Btiryei'
e
Didero
t
Condoree
t
Cousin
It is always something of a shock when you ran int
o
different ways of talking, eating, doing things
. But wha
t
is different is not always inferior
. "different
"
does not
,
mean "worse"
. There is more than one way of skinnin
g
a cat
.
The story is told of an American soldier who saw som
e
Chinese
putting
rice on the graves in a Chungking ceme-
tery
. That doesn't make sense", said the American wit
h
a smile
. "When do you expect the dead to eat the ric
e
"When your dead return to smell your flowers", wa
s
the answer
.
36
A11 the French do is talk
.
No nation could exist for a week if all it did was talk
.
Frenchmen emoy conversation
. They consider
it
a
n
art
. They
,
are on the whole
. skillful at
. it
.
We
don't
prize "good conversation" as much as th
e
French do
,
it
was the brilliance
. charm and imagination of Frenc
h
talk that contributed niuich to the reputation of Paris a
s
a world center of gaiety
.
37
never heard people gab so
iii-`rJ
.CiL,
(ACC-U,
gab, gab
.
"
If you understood the
. language it might be interestin
g
and not just
"gale
'
An
. American writer, Ambrose Bierce, said
.
"A
bore i
s
a person who talks - when you want him to listen
.
"
38
"
TA
iqj do Fi'encknteit look so 8iza5b
y
Because they are
wearing
pre-war clothes -clothe
s
that are five and six years old
. New cloths axe for th
e
most part reserved for repatriated French PWs an
d
deportees
.
The average Frenchman haver looked as well dresse
d
,32
as the average American
. The average Frenchman_had-
a lot less money than the average American
.
39
"TV
/wit amazes mm is how
.
ah
-
th all their stoises abou
t
7
y0ca
uu
"
ee
cD ittCtrcy
well-do
F"rETtcl1'iit-Gm
.
"
The places
we frequent in Paris are comparable to
th
e
rich or "touristy
"
neighborhoods of any big America
n
city -- Fifth Avenue, idichigan Boulevard, Wilshire Bou-
levard, It is on the Champs Elysees, around l'Opera and
.
on the Boulevard Haussrnan that
. you see
those
Frenchme
n
who are well-dressed
. It is there, too, that you see thos
e
who profit from the inflation and the black market
.
Some of the Frenchmen who look so well dressed ar
e
well dressed only in the
. places you see
. Under a goo
d
collar and cu$s, there may be the oldest, most patched-u
p
shirt you ever saw
. Socks are made of pieces of ol
d
cloth
. Underwear is made of anything a person can la
y
his hands on
.
40
"Why
do the French parade
all
the the time ? Tak
e
the Champs Elysees
. tor
example
;
.every time, yoia tur
n
around there
is
a
.
1)Eaaude
.
'
t
They don
'
t parade all the time
.
They do parad
e
more than \ e do
. They have more holidays
. They hav
e
33
I
frail' a much
longer
and
more complicated
history,
Sinc
e
1769, France has had two empires,
two
monarchies,
an
d
three republics
.
In France, as in America, there are a great many orga-
nizations (like our American Legion, VF Ws, Masons
,
tsdcl
Fellows, etc
.) which hold annual meetings or conven-
tions or parades
.
In France, as
in
any counti],v which has been liberate
d
titter being
under the heel of a conqueror for four years
,
there
is an understandable upsurge of patriotism
=
.
an
d
It
desire to celebrate liberation, to honor theirmartyr
s
to commemorate their resistance
.
Al ''
At
the
Polies
.13crgere or the
Casino
de Paris,
e'en
th
e
rtshter-
girls demand tips! What a, racket!
"
lt
. isn
'
t a racket
. We don't think that tipping tax
i
([fivers, waitresses or red caps is a "racket
"
.
In some theaters in France, the ushers pay
for
their jo
b
(Ail>e our cheek-room concessions)
. In most theaters
th
e
ushers get little or no salary and depend for their
liv
e
liheod on tips
. Frenchmen always tip ushers at movi
e
l
.oirses, theaters, the Opera, symphony halls
. The ushe
r
wh, serves a dozen Americans who do not
tip
has lost th
e
nioiiey which a dozen Frenchmen would have given ilea'
.
CLEA
T
LINESS AND SANITATIO
N
42
Why
isn't there decent plumbing
211
French hollers
,
The
toilet
facilities are disgraceful
I
"
They are
. What should the French do about it ? It
,
takes money to have decent plumbing
. That's why s
o
zru
ny
people in France don't have it
. That's wily so marr
y
people iii our own United States don't have decent plumb
-
either
.
The Germans have much better plumbing than th
e
French - the Germans could afford it
.
Most French buildings are very old
:
its
harder and mor
e
expensive to install plumbing in an old house than in
'
new one
.
Incidentally, 9,400,000 homes in the
US
. do
not hav
e
electricity
. 80
o
f
. of the farmhouses do not have bath
-
rooms and running rater
. About 3,007,72 homes d
o
not
have private flushing toilets
.
"r
e
r€
:axclr,
cities are
filtlry
.
They are certainly dirtier today
than
they were
befor
e
the war
. The French haven't had paint for a long
time
.
In some cities and districts, the acute shortage o
f
gasoline prevents refuse trucks from making daily rounds
.
43
45
The French don't bathe
.
"
The French don't bathe often enough
. They can't
.
36
French cities and houses are a• great deal older tha
n
ours
; old cities axed old houses smell more than ne
w
ones
.
French public sanitation, health and toilet regulation
s
are certainly not on the same level as ours
.
But before the war
. the French washed their streets an
d
sidewalks more often than we do
. France does not hav
e
the untidy back yards
. the trash dumps in empty lots
,
the tin cans and refuse in public parks that are commo
n
in the - nited States
.
French ~j omen were always scrupulous house-keepers
.
But
few
of us eves- got
. rn to see French honie
.
44
. .
L
J e
french
are uns
.
a tory,
'
'
The
.
. French have a lower living standard than, we i
n
tho i nited States, (So do the Poles, the Russians,
. th
e
Greeks, the Yugoslavs
. the Chinese, the Mexicans, th
e
Hindus
. the Turks
. and most of the other peoples of th
e
world
.
)
Sanitary standards rise as the standard of living rises
.
France is not as prosperous as
.
we are
. It is not chea
p
to install modern ph
.uzaoing
.
They don't, have real soap
. They have had no soap worth
y
of the name since 1940
. The Germans took the seal)
,
for four years
. That
'
s a-long time
.
The ration for Frenchman today
. four months after th
e
war is over, is two cakes of poor ersatz soap per month --
20 grams every two months
. Most real soap can onl
y
be obtained on the black market, where it costs aroun
d
125 francs for 31+) grams
.
46
"
You
.
r2
.
dc'
_€hc s?
;
'
tway
and
the
8a
I'll
almost knocks
.
yo
u
out, Garlic,
.sweat- and perrz
:me
1
"
French subways today are overcrowded,
not,
untidy
,
and
smell had
. The subways
are ca
.rrymg all the traffi
c
too that used to be carried
V
on buses
.
You smell garlic because the French
. who are super
b
cooks
. use more of it than we do
.
You smell sweat because the French must use a ver
y
poor ersatz soap - and don
'
t get enough of that
.
You smell perfume because French women would rathe
r
smell of perfume than of an unwashedness-which the
y
dislike as much as you do
. When
you
have no soap
,
perfume comes in mighty handy
. In the eighteenth an
d
nineteenth centuries, in the United_ States as in othe
r
countries, perfumes and
eau de cologne
were used to giv
e
a pleasant scent
. where an unpleasant one might otherwise
Incidentally, the Chinese
will
confess to you, if you'r
e
a friend, that the scent of white people, no matter ho
w
well scrubbed they are, is unpleasant
to
the Chinese
.
Body odor is closely related to diet
. Change the foo
d
people eat and you change the way they smell
.
47
."
1
ii
.e Preheh vilideies are rag-,sties
. T
o i
pile thei
r
Yr at2
rl
1e
right in
front of the
hoc yes or in the eoait-yards
.
"
Some French villages are pig-sties
. Others are not
.
They do, on the whole
.
loot'
much dirtier than our smal
l
towns
; they are a Iot older
. too
.
The malodorous custom of piling manure in court
-
yards or in front of houses is practiced in many village
s
throughout Europe, including many German villages i
n
south and central Garman- (for example, Geislingen
,
Waadorff, etc
.)
.
48
"I'd
like the
,
French-
a lot better
if
they were
cleaner
.
"
That's perfectly understandable
.
D
. WORK AND LAZINESS
.
49
"Why
do they knock!
of tcori
c
for two to
three home ever
y
day
They keep their stores open two to three hours late
r
than we do
. (They did when there were
things
to sell
;
there
'
s no point in keeping a
store
open if the shelves ar
e
bate
.
)
The long lunch hour is a custom which is not confine
d
to France
.
It
is found in It-aly
=
, Spain, the Balkans
and
many parts of Germany
. It is a custom we find annoyin
g
because it interferes with our comfort (as tourists) an
d
because it differs from our way of doing things
.
The average Frenchman maintains that a lunch eate
n
at
leisure is
a
lot better than
a
chicken-salad-on-toas
t
gobbled down at a drugstore counter
. "‘I e take time t
o
live as well as work,
"
one Frenchman said
.
The,shortage of food, the high cost of restaurant meals
,
and the fact
. that only a few factories run messes make
s
it necessary for the average Frenchman today to go
hom
e
for his lunch
.
'50 "
The
French spend all their three
at_ these sates
. The
y
i fist sit around drinking instead of work
.ting
.
"
:1
The same people
don't sit at the
cafes all day
. Watc
h
them come and go
. They worked before they sat clow
n
and
they gy to wail
. after they leave
. Many busines
s
negotiations are carried on at a cafe
; and many busines
s
deals are concluded there
.
We Americans don't approve of the cafe custom
. W
e
don't approve of a
. leisurely lunch tour, All this mean
s
is
that the
French custom is different from ours
.
The cafe is something we just don't have inthe States
.
It isn't a
. bar
. It isn't• a saloon
.
Its
more like a club
.
It
'
s the place a man can get away from a erorcded
home
.
It
'
s the place he call meet his friends
.
Its
the place
a
man tames his
girl
or wife and
family --
to have coffe
e
(when they used to have coffee!
. beer, wine to read th
e
papers
. play checkers
. write letters
. To the French
,
the cafe is a place to relax
. not a place to
get
drunk
.
"Cafe", by the
we,
means coffee
. Before the wa
r
most of the drinking at the cafes was coffee thinking
.
There is no coffee now
. Blame the Germans for that
,
51
"They
.
aai
'
e lazy
.
"
Some
are some are not
. - o one works longer hours
,
works harder or
is
more thrifty than the French farmer
.
On the whole, the French take
life
and work at a mor
e
leisurely, unhurried pace
than we do
.
On the whol
e
the output of
an
average French
worker
is less than
tha
t
40
of an average American worker
. France has far less Indus-
trialization, mechanization
. and labor-saving devices tha
n
we do
. That is also true of nearly all other nations in th
e
world
.
The French claim they get
. more out of life than we do
.
They say they have better music, art, poetry, philosophy
,
literature
. They say they take time to enjoy living
.
They say they do not kill themselves iii the endless pursui
t
of money-
.
52
"
Yon
can
. rdin's
all i1uon
.j)), Paris a?td aasic'r' see cralcu-
e
uorhtiuj
.
'
It 'epends on where you drive and where you look
.
Incidentally, where did you get the gas and time t
o
drive all through Paris
"
53
"They're
pn's2it
ve
. Freheh tarmu's
wear woode
n
shoes
.
"
The French farmer is more sensible than
you
think
.
The French farmer wears wooden shoes because the
y
insulate his feet against mud and damp
much
better
than
.
leather can
.
France does not have the very hot summer
days an
d
nights we get in the Middle West
. ' The landscape o
f
41
France is not deforested because for centuries the Frenc
h
have been careful to re-plant the trees they
'
ve cut down
.
And so the rivers of France run deep all year round, an
d
the French soil is cool and moist, and wooden shoes com
e
in mighty handy
. The Frencilfarmer finds them mor
e
practical than leather-shoes
.
54'
.
.'
Ti
'
hp
don't
.the French
. wo ii, Thed' /Fells
.
? Yov_
.
.Se
e
fceiin after
.
-
Ruin without anyone woi'f'tng
.
'
he Frenc
h
are lazy
.
There were, until very recently, 2,230,000 Frenchme
n
in Oetnaar
as PM', slave la bor
. deportees
.
After World War I
. the young people of France streame
d
from the farms to the cities
. In 1930, whole villages
i
n
some areas
of
Trance were deserted
. Farm legislatio
n
made an effort
to
cheek the flow of population from th
e
country to the cities
. but it
was
not vein- effective
.
It
is,
how-ever, wrong to deduce from this that the French
,
are "lazy"
. Tile French farmer has always been regarde
d
as one of the most industrious and thrifty in the world
.
Perhaps another reason
that
more Frenchmen are no
t
in the fields is that French people have been hided b
y
mines _
laid by thE
. Germans
. In one month this yea
r
130
were billed or maimed in this manner
.
-F2e
.,r
Z
ab
;,
:'OM(
.-
.12
are ea
s
y
plait-ups
.
"
The French women who are easy pick-ups
,
are thos
e
who are easily picked up
.
It
i,s
as foolish to generalize about French-women fro
m
the few any American has met as it would be to generaliz
e
about
all
American women from the few a man migh
t
pick up near an rmy- camp
.
" Fiench- wo'mecc
Cn'~
.
ii'ri9ri
.oi' 1
.
Which FrenelY women
?
Most French girls before the war had far less freedom
.
than our girls back home
. A great many'-were not
.
,permit-
ted
to 'go
.
out without a chaperone
.
. France is dominantl
y
Catholic in religion and in morals, -
.
The immoral Frenchwomen are,
. of course,
. the
ea
s
ies
t
woie1i for us to Meet
. That's why we -meet so many o
f
them
.
.
.
57
"How'do the
r'enrh themselves feel
.
abort all
the
street
-
°calkers ? How cars they close their eyes to
all the imnw
-
'ality ?"
They don't close their eyes to it
. That's the first differ-
ence between French and American attitudes towar
d
;prostitution
. The French recognize that prostitutio
n
es
sts, and regulate it
. Before the war, all prostitute
s
were
ie
i
nected regularly
. licensed, and had their activitie
s
strictly limited to specific areas
. The French think tha
t
le
g
alized prostitiuon
g
ives health protection to the genera
l
public
and that the restriction of prostitution
to
know
n
areas protects decent women from being molested
.
Today there is undoubtedly an abnormal
.
number o
f
prostitutes in France
. 71ai
.ay girls who cannot
Iive
o
n
their
wages take to the street
. Thousands of Frenc
h
women have lost their sweethearts, husbands, homes
.
The same thing is happening all over Europe, It i
s
another of the appalling consequences of the war German
y
started
.
A Frenchmen who took a walk in Paris
:
recently, said
t
o
an American friend, "In forty years of living in Paris
,
T have never teen so many prostitutes
And in respectabl
e
neighborhoods
It's disgracefu
l
The French, by the wa
y
, are snacked by the rude way
iu which CPIs talk to a woman, and by the number o
f
unpleasant experiences decent French
.
women have ha
d
with intoxicated and amorous American soldier
s
5$
Rene/
women
. are too demo (ii
.epsasi
>
Prices are made by demand and supply
. If there weren'
t
44
so
many men after the same commodity, prices woul
d
come down
.
Tf you want to see-how much it costs a French woma
n
to
live, see question S0
.
-
.59
"
The French drink too mnth
.
"
The F
r
ench
think
we do
. You very rarely see a French
-
man drunk
. They don't go in for whiskey
. They hav
e
never liked cocktails
. They are a wine-drinking peopl
e
they have a
. right to be - French grapes and wines ar
e
among the beet in the world
.
In 1942,
.41,130,000
;
000 was spent in the L
.S
. in retai
l
liquor establishments
. In 1939, there were 135
.034 drank
_
ing places, doing an annual business of 81,385,032,000
.
The
Economic Almanac
of 1941
.-45 states that in 1937
,
5,1
O/
of
our per capita outlay was spent on alcoholi
c
beverages
.
"Every time
a Track
girl
sit
down site
mills
ibe
x
dress oe skirt up
.
"
She isn't trying to call your attention to her
legs
.
Sh
e
is
trying to save wear and tear on old clothes
. or on ne
w
clothes which are made of such shoddy material that the
y
won't take much wear
.
4
5
60
that mankind will be in its debt forever
.
:
. When
fre
e
men
look
back upon this Republic
. they will remember
.
. .
the artists and thinkers, the poets, musicians, and scientist
s
who made France a temple of the Western spirit
." (Yea
;
York Taanes
.
)
61 " The French are immoral
. They arc morally
decaled
.
"
u
That is a very broad and vague statement
.
How
ca
n
it be proved
i
The• French, like many other European peoples, are fa
r
less Puritanical than e are in their manner, love-making
,
conversation and conduct
. Europeans often say w
e
Americans are a young and "unsophisticated" nation
;
we retort that they are old and "immoral'"Their moralit
y
eli f
w
-
;s
from ours on certain matters
. Whether it is les
s
"moral
"
or more "uninhibited" depends on your poin
t
of view
.
Don't
fudge France by the Montmartre
. ' the Montmartr
e
catei
:s
to foreign tourists in search of the risque
.
France is a very devout 'nation
. It has a
religiou
s
Catholic population (only one million Frenchmen ,ar
e
Protestants)
. The French have a very strong fai-nil
y
system, a- rely low divorce rate, and a mach lower crim
e
rate than we
do
.
From the American point of view, what is mor
e
important than anyone~s manners or customs are the thing
s
he believes in and fights for
. In this sense, we agre
e
with theidea of Thomas Jefferson
: "Resistance to tyrant
s
is obedience to Cod
.
"
For over 000 years France has 1been one of the grea
t
civilizations of the world
. "Within the framework o
f
the Third Republic,
.
.there lived and flourished a civiliz-
ation so brilliant, so human, so
g
racious and beautiful,
62
"
They
Liss
rzqh-t in
Oefopen - - in
the,
.Str'Cets,
.
This always startles Americans - at first
.
Kissing on both cheeks is the traditional French greetin
g
between old friends
.
For their' love-ma-lun
g
. the French prefer privacy, i
f
available ---- just as we do
.
63
v
oic eon
lhwi pot -op with the ensto7n of haeozg wome
n
attendant's
In
the
men
._ room
s
Because it is an old custom and it does not
. embarras
s
there
. -
Tf you lived in France-
=
long enough, it woul
d
probably cease embarrassing
you
.
65
"The
French
. d, ire h
:
.e ionu tics! They don't obey tic'
)
rules
; they dcc
'
t area ase common sense
.
64
TVhy
clothe
French
dive
so
g-ci-
fast?"
A rate is the highest in the
world
-
The French ask the same question about the American
s
French traffic has speeded up with the introduction o
f
thousands of American jeeps, command ears, and trucks
.
It is not generally believed that American jeep and truc
k
drivers are distinguished for
their
caution or their regar
d
for pedestrians
. French drivers are as terrified
of
ou
r
driving as we are indignant about theirs
,
Most Frenchmen are probably not as skillful driver
s
as most Americans
.
Their traffic rules
and
system are inferior to ours
.
But foreigners who drive
in
America are astonishe
d
by the speed
. daring and recklessness of American driving
.
The statistics on automobile accidents and deaths i
n
the United States are nothing for us to be proud of
. Eve
n
allowmg
for the greater amount of cars we have
and
th
e
g
reater amount of driving we do, our automobile accident
foreigner in Paris,
like
a
foreigner
in
New
York, migh
t
Ni
ell
feel like the farmer who
spent
most of his vacatio
n
in a big city jumping out of the way of
ears, "Lham
thes
e
furriners
'
.
'
`
'
he
cried
: Then° even put spot-lights
on thei
r
automobiles so's they can find the pedestrians to an do n
.
at night'
"
67
"
French
. rc ilroads are a
mess,
The,,
?L2
r
e
a
t
terrible
.
"
They are
.
.
The state of t
.he
. French railroads can be traced to thes
e
facts (1) the Nazis took away
most
of the best Frenc
h
rolling
stock
: (2)
we
shot
rep
a
good deal of the Frenc
h
railway system before and after D-Day
.
The
French
. can't rlrzvn ,c? r_crr
They can
'
t heap
at
0
.
They
'vin
vehicles
.
"
The French, on the whole. certainly do not chive as well
,
keep a car up as well, or protect their vehicles weil a
s
we do
. Neither do women
. compared to men
.
We have had more mechanical training, more technica
l
experience
. And at the present time we ha
,Ye
incA
g
npa
-
rahi better maintenance facilities
.
After liberation, the French found only 35
0,'
0
of thei
r
locomotives, 37
0!
0
of their freight cars, and 34
0
, ,
o
of thei
r
passenger coaches
.
Before the
.>,ar France had some of the finest trains i
n
the world, and some of the fastest short-distance runs i
n
the world
.
As in all European countries, France had three
classe
s
of accommodations
. Their third-class coaches were les
s
c u
uufortaf)le
than ours but their first-class accommoc]
.t-
tions were in many respects better than anyth
i
ng we ha
d
in America
,
"'Ye
gim
U em locamoti
a
es and they on even ran
,
the7r
. .
"
Then who -'oes
2
The locomotives which the Fi
.--re
h
have
are
running
.
`'Forsake not an
old
friend, for the new is not comparabl
e
unto him"
.
Eeciesiasticus, IX, 10
-
69
The
French aren
'
t our 7
:i-ad of people
.
The
Gerunds are
.'
>
What makes a nation "our kind of people" ? Th
e
w=-ay they look The clothes they wear ? The kin
d
of plumbing they have ? Or the things they believ
e
in - the things they fight
: for
; the things they figh
t
against
?
The French believe that
all
men are born and create
d
equal
. They believe
. in freedom of speech, freedom o
f
religion, freedom of the press, the rights of minorities
,
government of the people, by the people, and for th
e
people
. What do the Germans believe a
n
The French were our allies during the American Revolu-
tion
. They were our allies in I917-191S
.
They
were ou
r
allies in 1941-1945
. What were the German
s
The French proved, by their acts, that they are "ou
r
kind of people
"
. The Germans proved
. by their acts
,
"
than
. they are
not
.
oar kind of people"
. Look at th
e
record
. It's a record of facts, not assumptions it's
a
record of deeds
. not pretense
.
You can't tell what Germany is really like, because yo
u
are not seeing
Germany
:
you
. are seeing a Germany
tha
t
has been beaten, conquered, and occupied
.
You
ar
e
seeing a Germany that has had the arrogance and insolenc
e
knocked out of her
. You can
'
t tell what "the Germans
"
are really like, because you are seeing Germans who ar
e
being forced to obey themselves - under military govern
-
ment
.
"The
French are not as clean as the Ger mans
.
Perhaps not
.
If the Germans had
had no
soap for five years the
y
wouldn't be a clean
as
they
might like to be
.
A learned man once said, "An untidy friend is bette
r
than
an
immaculate enemy
.
"The
Germans are easier to set along with than
th
e
71
French, because the Germans are loo abiding
.
The Germans obey the
law ---
even if the laws ar
e
barbaric laws
. The Germans obey their leaders - eve
n
if their leaders use savage
. corrupt and obscene
. Th
e
Germans obeyed Bismarck they obeyed Kaiser Wilhelm
;
they
obeyed
Hitler
.
.
Would the French have obeyed such men and suc
h
policies ?
Would
we American
s
"The
F1each are rot as efficient as the Gerrua-ns i
u
72
large scale, mass production
. .
' '
The French are not as efficient as the Germans in build
-
-
Poland and
Czechoslovakia
iii I939
r
.
hree
ware ! airte
d
by the same nation an sevent
y
years
. This is strang
e
conduct for
a
"peaceful"
peop
h
Incidentally,
one
of the most efteetive
prapiigaanil
a
weapons the
Nazis
used,
from
1933 to 1939,
and on
e
which
pulled
the
.
w
.
.,901
over
the
eyes
of
a lot of gullibl
e
ceeple, n as the constant cry "We Germans want peace
.
V e will ne eta go to war
. Our aims in Europe ai r
r
eatjelled
. `
'
The
Jamie said
they wanted peace in
1931 --- and the
y
iia~,
.ic
.tc rI Marnclruria
. The Germans
: said they , wante
d
peace in 193$ -- and they grabbed Austria
. Mussolin
i
said Italy wanted peace in l035 and invaded Ethiopia
.
Germany promised the world peace again in 1938, afte
r
the Munich agreement -- and then invaded
(r ''h
o
elo vakia,
.
all reminiscent of the story of the two drunks
. Th
e
hr•st, kept
; beating his friend on the head with a club
,
wailing all the while
: "You're my pal, my buddy, m
y
best friend, and I love you
.
"
And the second replied
tearfully,
. "I believe
.
you but you have such a funn
y
way of showing it
.
ing tanks, guns, PIane,s, flaaral( J-tlhrowcrs, cone€ntratie
n
cams and torture chambers
.
The French are not
efficient
in starting wars
. Th
e
mane are
;
. German
efficiency is used
against peaceful
,
dec"azt people
.
\1' hat
does "e
flciency
"
really mean Is it only-
a
natter
of output and
production charts
and impressiv
e
statistics ?
Arc
the
Germans
more "efficient" in
provid-
mg haiiiaines
s or peace to their people ?
Are t he t
!
erman
s
more
"
ellivi
e
nt"
in
building cis
-Cf
IICy
:
klrldness, resl)ec
t
fer human
life ? Has German "eficicucy" led to greete
r
r, isdom,
. better art, deeper morals, finer philosophies
z
A prison is
one
of the most "efficient" institutions teaaa
i
e ver
e
reaatc c1 - but who
wants to
Inc in i
t
Who started the afar anyway ? Who still teit th
e
"trouble-making"
?
The facts prove beyond any shadow of a doubt that th
e
French
wanted peace
. From 1918 to 1939, they pleade
d
for
peace, argued for peace, built for peace
.
Their
arm
y
their equipment, their fortifications, their entire militar
y
strategy was devoted to a war
of defense
.
The
Germans invaded France in 1870
; the German
s
invaded
'
Belgium and
France
in
1914
; the Germans
invacicil
74
VVt'd be a lot smarter tai
. be ctIiirs of the e'er^mans an
d
ji 0h t the .h'rench
.
"
1 bait in the •orltl would we fight the
. Fret eh trboc
t
73
"The-
F1'f'rrf'h,(ry'e
ten?
IdC
.
9i2flkfi'sr
he
.Gr=lrrtcr
.7Le'
led
:
!'!(f/1g
76
What ideas, principles or goals would we have in commo
n
with the Germans
?
"What boots it at one gate to make defence
.
: and
a
t
another to let
in
the foe ?"
- John Milto
n
75
"The
riench aren
.
are
.
"
This is true
. Perhaps
it
would have been a lot bette
r
for all of us if the Germans weren't so industrious
. I
t
was German industriousness in six short years, 1933-1939
,
that built the most terrible army, air force, tank force
,
bombs and submarine Warfare the world had ever seen
.
No one ever accused Al Capone of not being industrious
.
%e french hass(, no courage
. TJ7iy can
'
t they defend
theirsseise
S
agobust the Geri uasus ?
"
Maybe it
. would be better to ask, "Why don't th
e
Germans pick on someone their own size ?
"
Modern warfare is not simply a matter of courage
.
A
great lightweight can't lick a great heavyweight - eve
n
if he has courage to spare
.
Hitler threw the manpower and industrial resource
s
of over 80,000
;
000 Germans against 40,000,000 Frenchmen
.
58
The 'French 'did not have, and
could
not have had, th
e
military and industrial power tc beat Germany
; (Fo
r
iiistanee, for the past hundred years France has not ha
d
enough coal, especially coking coal
. to supply her peace
-
time needs
. French iron ore normally flows co Germany
'
s
Ruhr valley for smelting, just as the ore of Minnesota goe
s
to the coal and limestone area of Pittsbur
g
h
.
)
France was beaten by Germany
.
because Germany wa
s
enormously superior to Fc" nee in manpower, equipment
,
resat
-
trees
. armament, and strategy
. Germany had th
e
incalculable advantage of having planned an ofiezisiti°e
.
Blitzkri
e
g
.
war -- while ranee, which wanted peac
e
desperately, devoted its energies and training entirel
y
to
detcu
si
e
measures
. (That why they built the Magino
t
Line
.) The few advocates of modern mechanized armie
s
(such as General
: de Gaulle) were like voices crying out i
n
the wilderness
. German propaganda
. and "fifth column
"
activities financed from Berlin, helped to demoralize an
d
confuse a nation that didn't want war in the fast place
.
The French lost 1,115,O00 men and women, militar
y
and civilian
. in dead, wounded and , disabled
. That i
s
an enormous loss for a nation of 40 million
. (The Unite
d
States military casualties
. up to V-d Day, were abou
t
1,060,000 in dead and wounded
.
77
'
:
~
'The
French-don
'
t z~_-n
tart-~e er
:e,
_
i
+
.
-
g
.z
~r~erto torn
up
against
the
Cerrtiar
is
5,
9
Ralf
strhYts, the
. way the Germans
True
. That, in
fact,
is one of the things the
.
German
s
counted on in 1870, in 1914 and
in
1939
.
France never fully recovered from the results of Worl
d
War L Here is what the French loam from 1914
to 191
8
Killed or died
1
.337S0
9
Wounded
4,266
.00
0
Prisoners and missing
537,00
0
Total
6,1 60
.840
The
French had mobilized 8,410,000 men
. They
los
t
6,160
.800- or 73
.3
0
;
0
.
No nation had ever suffere
d
such a staggering
. loss
. No nation had shown a greate
r
record of sheer courage and tenacity
. There was scarcel
y
a family in France that did not number one or more o
f
its members among the dead
. World War I
. left Franc
e
weak and exhausted - for the seoond war German
y
launched against her within a generation
.
The catastrophic effects of the first World War hi
t
France particularly hard because they were added to th
e
serious problem of a declining birth-rate
. By
1939
,
largely because of the losses of World War I, the pr
o
portion of
the French population under 20
. years of age
.
was
small ---
and
growing smaller
; the proportion o
f
Frenchmen over 60 years of age was large = and growin
g
larger
.
In 1940
. after occupation, the Germans tried to cripple
i
France permanently by a
policy of deliberate starvatio
n
and the segre
g
ation of the
.° sexes
. The Germans
. hel
d
60
nearly 2,000
.000 French men in German prison and wor
k
camps - away from French women
. The Gerirsan polic
y
of
.malnutrition worked
so
well that in 1945, when th
e
French government was drafting men to re--create
a
.French army, it was found that 40
a
!a
of all Frenchme
n
called up
for
physical duty
were
physically unfit
.
I
n
1942,
at
the height of German occupation, there wer
e
500
.000 more deaths than births in France
.
7
$
T
c
reach
:
c7kia t yc
•lp
iI
.
i
-
caL
~LC~kf
ogount
the
Ge9`ii
oa
s
.
/
ii
mcaL
itt
t!!°_ I eilt
.hec walk en
. .
''
No one --- least of all the French themselves -- wil
l
try do deny the enormity of the defeat and the humiliatio
n
France suffered
. ur 1940
. French military leadership an
d
strategy was tragically inadequate
. But this does no
t
mean that the French did not put up a
. `
:
real figh
t
In the six week Bathe of France
. from May 10 to June 22
,
1940, the French lost
;
rn military personnel alone
. 260,00
0
wounded and 108,064i killed
. A total
of 368
;
000
casualtie
s
in six weeks
is
not something to pass off lightly
.
Yes, the Germans gave the French a terrible beating
.
But it took the combined strength of the United States
,
Great Britain, Soviet Russia, Canada, etc
., to beat th
e
Germans
. It's asking rather a great deal of France t
o
match such strength against hers
. (See question § 76
.)
6
1
79
The French aren
'
t clew ing
2rp
their
boni
.bed cities
.
Just eoir
.pure
.
them
to the Germane
. (ities
. In llun
:ich
an
d
,
'
tuItgart tlhe Germans- got
busy
and o7e
g
.
iced
up
their
streets
:
"
and manpower
.
80
lip? French cleaned out Stuttgart, we snc long convoy
s
of stuff
going
bank
. to France-machinery
. goods, cattle
,
svuppliea, horses, ---- long convoys of ,stuff looted fron
t
the
Germans
.
"
Where had the
. Germans gotten the stuff t Fro
m
France, The long convoys you saw were not
.
:
"loot"
:
they were authorized reparations, approved by the -Unite
d
States, Great Britain and Russia
. The
-
French had
a
right, under international law, to take back some of th
e
commodities the Germans had stolen from them
.
Here are sample figures on what the Germans
took
ou
t
of Franc
e
Wheat ,
2
.310
.000 metric ton
s
Oat,7
2
.360
.00
0
Hai
1
.
.330
.00
0
Strays
.
. . .
1
.870
.000
-
Potatoes
7
)
.00
0
Fresh fruits
2
,
1
x
.00
0
Cider apples
210
.002
0
Sugar
180
.00
0
Horses
650
.00
0
Eggs
. .
.
150,000,000 doze
n
Wine
,
100
.000,000 gal
s
-Beer
83
.000
.00
0
Champagne
16
.000,00
0
Cognac
3
.458
.00
0
(1 metric ton equals 2,205 pounds, approximately equa
l
to 1 long
ton
of 2,240 lbs
.
)
The
Germans also " requisitioned " or damage
d
668,253,000,000
Francs worth of agricultural products
;
.
448,474
.000,000 Francs worth of industrial and commercia
l
product
s
246,301,000,000 Francs worth of war material
.
(See also question § 100
.)
.
The Germans started cleaning up their cities (befor
e
we invaded Germany) with PWs - French, Polish
. ,
Russian, etc
. The Germans had 2
.230
.000 abi
.e-bodie
d
French men
and
women inside Germany as PWs, slav
e
laborers, etc
.
Today, it is not the Germans alone
who
are cleanin
g
up their cities
. It is our _\Elitarv Government whic
h
supervises reconstruction and assigns German civilian
s
and PWs to the job
. Germany is an occupied country
;
France
is
not
. Apart from these qualifications
.
.
.h
e
Germans
would
p
robably do a quicker and better job of
.
cleaning up their cities than the French
. So what
?
The French lack materials,
. 'racks, gasol?ne,
-
.bulldozers
. .
63
81
The
French -troops in German' had, the yeomen terrorized
. .
"
The French army, as any other, had to cope with disor-
dely conduct, looting
.
,
rape, and other acts of violence b
y
their soldiers against enemy populations
.
If you think French troops misbehac'ed hi Germany
.
you might ask now
German troops behaved in Poland
.
Russia
;
Greece, Holland
.
If you were a French soldier, whose land had bee
n
invaded, whose wife or sister or mother had been take
n
into a German concentration camp and raped or
killed
,
you might have found it difficult to control Your emotions
.
Lastly,
a good many French women have been in terro
r
of American troops, especially in Paris
. Our SIP record
s
testify to a deplorable amount of drunkenness, molestin
g
of women and street fights -- by americans
.
82 "The
French soldiers were- suppoeFci to
Irate
the Genrucras
,
but they didn't waste any time,
8h2t9Z
,
Cf
up
with
German
.
r~t
.rls
.
"
That is as deplorable as the same conduct on the par
t
of
ii- 2ericans
.
-
64
83
"Forty
francs to a dollar is blackmoil
The dollar i
s
,north, at Inlet
100-200
francs
.
"
84
"The
high prices and - inflation
. era France are
a
disgrace
.
"
Inflation is more than a disgrace - it is a tragedy
. Th
e
French are hit by it much harder than we are
.
The basic reason for inflation, for very high prices, is th
e
great shortage of food and goods and things which peopl
e
need and have the money to buy
. When there is no
t
enough of anything (except money), prices go up
. Whe
n
there is too much
. prices go down
; when supply an
d
demand operate in a healthy, normal fashion, prices ar
e
reasonable
.
Inflation in France will end when there are enoug
h
goods for all the people who want to buy= them
. As lon
g
as there are severe shortages
. prices
will
be high
.
The rate of 50
.
francs to the dollar was established i
n
1942 at the Casablanca conference
. France didn
'
t se
t
the rate the rate was agreed upon
.by the go
i
rernment
s
of
France and the United States
.
-Why was the -rate set at such a disadv-anta-ge to
.th
e
American dolla
r
First, to keep American soldiers from buying-
. up Man
y
of the articles which the French themselves -desperatel
y
needed
. The American soldier gets his lodging, food
,
clothes free - and his Psi
. rations at extremely low- prices
;
-
The French people do not get their lodging, food
. clothe
s
free - and the prices they pay for the things we get a
t
our PXs (if they can even get those things)
.
are eery high
.
Secondly
. -i
.he dollar was kept low in order to keep price
s
from going even higher than they are now
.
If the dollar had had more purchasing power in France
,
American purchasers could have cleaned out the shop
s
of, say. Paris
. Prices would
.be much higher than they
85
"T
.-Vhera
.
we
bzry -nice
'presents
to send home,
loc
.
.
pa
y
through- the nos
e
It's the
. same nose you pay through when you buy nic
e
presents in the States
. At home, most of us did not
.bu
y
Iuxury articles
. Here we do
. How often, back home
,
did you
buy line French perfume for your girl How muc
h
did you
pay
?
The French government has taken the luxury tax of
f
articles purchased by American soldiers
. The Frenc
h
pay it we don't
. Who is paying through the nose
?
already are
.
(Incidentally
.
if
the dollar had been pegged at 100 francs
.
say, the French private would have been getting 88
a
month pay at the wartime pay rate of 800 francs pe
r
month
. He would now begetting 81
.80
per month
at th
e
peacetime pay rate of ii francs per day
.)
Bread 1 hg
. (2
.21bs
.)
.
Beef 1 kg-
Butter 1 kg
Eggs 1 dz
.
. .
_
Soap 1kg
Electricity,
1
in
c w
Gas, m 3
Cotton Socks
-
bracelets can the average Frenchman buy - after h
e
gets done paying for
food
and rent ? How much can th
e
French GI buy
-
.on
pay
of 6 cents a da
y
86
"The
prices we are gctti,tg soaked• is a
. scoe1al
.
"
Prices in France are certainly -very high
. But hig
h
prices hit the French much harder than 'hey hit -any o
f
us
. Most of the things we buy in France are luxuries
.
A shot of cognac is definitely a luxury for most Frenchmen
.
Examine
the
followin
g
prices, which the French ar
e
paying - if and when they can get the articles
87
"What
dirt the French
. ever do
.to ioal
.e up for the
ridi-
-
culous exchange late ?'
'
The French government has made an effort to reduc
e
the low purchasing power of the American dollar by
:
1
.
Giymg
each US soldier in France a gift of 850 franc
s
a month (this is over four months
pay
for a Frenc
h
private
)
Reducing the cost of gifts purchased at
Piles b
y
9-42
0
r
0
. Making luxury tax rebates of 11-47
0
;
'
o
on gift
s
purchased at retail stores and sent home via Re
d
Cross wra
p
-rung centers
.
4 Giving free conducted tours to Americans al
l
through France
.
Opening s
p
ecial night-clubs and entertainmen
t
facilities for American soldiers
.
88
ining
„
21s
850
francs a
^iontia
is
~fst
a way
for th
e
Fre
fch
to
,
qet
ofl
the fool
.
: tar all
the
Lend-Lease stu
f we
'
v
e
given them
.
"
Undersht
r
Suit
<
7
.4
0
0
;
.0
0
113
.0
0
4
.5
.6
0
31
.0
0
4
.6
4
3
.2
0
150
.00
-
(when you can ge
t
them
)
350
.00
-
(plus 8 points
)
1,500-1
.000 franc
s
(but try
to
an
d
one
)
The average
skilled
worker in France gets 1
.200-1
.300 f
r
.
.
(824-26) a week
. How much cognac, perfume, kerchiefs,
The, 850 francs are in no way connected with
. Lend
-
Lease
. The gift is not
to
be
deducted from the Frenc
h
government debt or commitments under Lend-Lease
.
It has no reciprocal basis of any kind
. It is an outrigh
t
gift
. It will ultimately cost
the
French around 8 40
.290,00
0
89
T/
550
rrafcs
a
1 12o?
t)i
. O'r/t to
s )%
;'(8 4om
binc
,
f_s/ty
o
tiot?t it
.
'
?
There s nothing fishy about it
.
"All Iooks yellow to the jaundiced eye
"
-Alexander Po
p
e
.
90
"The
black ma et in France
is
di
.sg,acetz,21
"
It
. is
. Most Frenchmen think it, is
. too
. The Frenc
h
newspapers are full of daily criticism_ of the black market
.
Why did the black market arise in France ? The basi
c
reason for any black market, in France or in any countr
y
at war,
is
that there is a great shortage of certain goods
,
which people need
.
Why were (and are) there great shortages in Franc
e
Largely because during four years of occupation
.
. th
e
Germans stripped France bare
. picked her clean
as
a
bone
. (In
. Marseille, the food depot for the whole south
.
of France, the Germans
took 60
D Q
of the food that wa
s
being shipped in
.) And when theGei'mans left the
y
took along everything they could lay their hands on
.
There was another important reason for the
blac
k
market
.
. Daring four fears of occupation, thousand
s
of French men and
women
who were fugitives from th
e
Gestapo or' members of the resistance, had no identiii-
cation cards and no ration cards
. They could only liv
e
through false papers
. They could only live illegally
.
They could only live by getting food and supplies - fro
m
the black market
. So the black market
took
on a quality
which we never had in the United States it becam
e
patriotic
for many people to patronize the black market
.
It was one way of continuing to fight German rule, Qn
e
way
of getting supplies with which to carry on resistance
.
weapon
a
.r
;Xz%
y
>
.
g
i
tie
.
-
_
Lek
market
in
France is,not-, as it was in Mme rica
.
math
for relati
.
oe luxuries (gasoline, whiskey
. steaks
,
!,yutteeh
.
In France, no cite family could `et enoug
h
food
m the rations doled out by the Germans
. (Fro
m
-
i0
.
1
.
the liberation of
.Paris in 1944, the Parisians wer
e
ge'
.r
:_ _ aer-
p
reen 1
.067 and3
.?,t calories of food per day
.
.- calories a day is considered the necessary minimu
m
fo_r ,
;its not engaged
In
heavy
work
. (The averag
e
consumption in the United States is 3,307 calories daily
:
Otis
omit
ration provides 4
;000 to 3
.000 calories a day
.
t -
_th black market purchases
.
most Frenchme
n
have _
had enough
-
to
eat
for four years
. Hence the
.
story of
.two
Frenchmen
.
discussing
the
.
black market
,
L4_y„
Would you hx
.
:,-rsilliing to stop biting anything
.
on the black market for a week ?" "Certainly
. not,
"
w
a
;~ i e reply
. "Do you want
my
children to go hungry
.
?"
.
-
The
;_,fiatk
market
in
France will disappear when ther
e
is enou
g
h food and supplies in the ordinary stores,
i
n
sufficient
. quantity to
. be sold
at
reasonable prices
. i
f
the French had more transportation to bring the crop
s
irate
. the cities, the
.
black -market would do less business
.
'was drmans, incidentally
.
.were notorious traders o
n
Vito
market
e
s
,
-
for personal profit
.
e
uan authorities did riot
. 'try to stamp out th
e
.I '
.','c
.
ma
1
_yet ---
bec
a-use
. they knew it, would increas
e
;-i
.
f"i
:
-
oess
of
t -Le
._ __n,oh neopte Coward their go>'ernr-
91
.
"T
Y
ley !h`rL
'
t
the Feetieh
.
Mdse
8ti'ougu' /r alJwh5 to
&top
I
the bla-eI
. market ?
"
me
.nt and leaders
: The
. Germans
used
every trick i
n
the
. hag
. to disrupt the French
economy
and demoraliz
e
French people
.
.
Lastly, where did the French black market get America
n
cigarettes, soap, candy, chocolate, razor blades
. shoe
s
From
. American soldiers, who sold them - on the blac
k
market
.
.
The French people ash that question every
day
.
It is not our job to appraise the energy or Vie method
s
of the French government
. It is
not
:
inplace for American
s
to tell the French how to run their affairs
. This much
,
however
. can be
said
France is
pulling
herself up b
y
the bootstraps
. It
'
s very easy
to
stand to one side an
d
say
. "
:Pull harder
. It's a cinch
. just pull harder
.
"
Lkance' is still "punch-drunk", uncertain,
. demoralize
d
from the war and the effects of the war
. It is hard fo
r
us to realize
.
the appalling toil which the war took fro
m
France
. It is hard for us to realize how profoundly th
e
entire economic and political structure of France
hra
.
.'bee
n
shaken by the events from 1940-1945
.
France is tired, hungry
. discouraged, poor, weak
. Th
e
French saw their country
. defeated
. They saw some
. o
f
their leaders and
.i c
.i ces sell
them
down the
. river-
:
. They
"7
'
he leaders
. of rh
.e
.French
e
reeist
r,?ee
b
e
.
h
.u
-
d
thE black market
. They all got rich on
.
it
.`
'
This is the exact argument used by Dr
. Gcehbcis an
d
the German propaganda machine
. The Germans wante
d
to smash the resistance movement they constantl
y
smeared the leaders of that movement
. Gcebbels kep
t
hammering at the idea that those who resisted Germa
n
rule were simply criminals
.
The French resistance used the black market
durin
g
the four years of German occupation
. They had to us
e
it,
in
order to survive
. (See question § 90
.
)
-hate
all this
more
than we
do
.
They have
to live with it
.
No Frenchman -i>l deny
the
mistakes France has made
.
the blows France has suffered, the long and difficult, roa
d
that France must now take
. But the way in wh=ich Franc
e
will
recover, the way in which theFrench will meet pro-
blems as grave and difficult as any she has ever known
.
is something which the French people, acting democrati-
cally
. ill-decide for themselves
.
- If there is a
. moral for the world in all this
. it is
: don'
t
ever let the Germans or any other Fascist power bea
t
you
.
If there is a lesson for
. Americans
. it is
: we
don
'
t
kic
k
a friend when h
e
r
s down
e-
especial
l
y
when he was knocked
,'t,'nce the liberation of
'ranee,
no group in France ha
s
--
:„o
:') ' igor°ouslj fought• the black market and demande
d
-1_a« e government stop it than the resistance o~g n
i
s,z~r
ons uid the resistance leaders
.
9
n
7L''ItLli
]
;s
rui
"
i
.one
R
.
loot-n
tin
p
ij
to sto
p
n
.
`
The latest check-up on pleasure driving by the Frenc
h
too'
:
: place one Septembei
.
25, 1945 when
. French MP
s
stopped hundreds of French military vehicles in the greate
r
Paris area in a surprise cheek-up
.
for official credentials
.
_eneh vehicles were stopped and each driver had t
o
:n
h ucc papers showing
the car was being used for officia
l
0
.1s
:
,
n
o
.
Preneb civilians or military
p
ersonnel wh
o
pr'o
i??'
papcra
.weere
''_1~plieO
±az
:
:hurt act
:o?]_
t
~Sdiife~
nm
v p
F'reldChieia
a
:34
.
W
.t would burn you up more i they
were
ill
(4-ma
n
f
rhh
:
.
`
efoi'e we invaded North Afhica, in 1942, our go-vein
-
-
tame arranged to equip eleven French divisions
. Wh
y
.Because
. every French soldier took a place that might
. hav
e
haci
to be filled by- an American
.
The
11
:
000 French soldiers who were killed in actio
n
aasre
.r
)-lDayr
were entitled to the uniforms
in
which
the
n
died
.
uestiun Where else could the French have gotte
n
uniforms ? - From
the
Germans '
2
France was occupie
d
by the Germans when we
. were
. equipping the French Army
.
Question
; Why
.
didn
'
t- the French dye their unifonn
;s
;
to
-
distinguish them 'from ours ? Because they did not
.
?ha
-e the
d
es
. Why didn't we dye the uniforms befor
e
turning
them
over to the French % Because we wer
e
hrairig
.our dyes for more important
.
war production
_pur-
f
:osre
. didn't
We
or the French provide
.
. mor
e
--isil
.
.r recognised French insignia ? That -wa.s a mistake
.
_t
.
:
j
ar
i2
.
:
f
c
95
r1
~~
rYilf'T-
7
it-"2t
i~-
3
)i
the tear
<
.t
`
iff
~~-!
t)
!
Those
. -
-ti
do ore damned fools
. The French did
;lot
.
1
.4s ii _ single-handed,
. Neither did we,
.
i
.i _e?
:
Mitt
th
Ru
.e
.uttis or the British or the Chine3t,
;
gC
:)Oa
Want to form
y
our Own opinion about how lintel
.
die
French
did to help win the war, ask yourself thes
e
uuessions
: Suppose the French army and navy ha
d
joinei no with
the
Germans
m
1940 as Hitler tried
t
o
get
them
to do) Suppose
. the French armies whic
h
wetsting
the Germans or the Itahails had been fightin
g
3thppo
there had been
no
French' nnderg ound
,
eneli resistance, no French sabotage of Gernna
n
it
z
:en
.-
pi
eduction
no
French espionage for
SHAFF
,
French guerrillas behind the German lines, no Frenc
h
in
a
i
trtl France, no FT'z inc de France as w
e
fought ur
way
through ? How many more America
n
hdcas do you think we would have los
t
ieet
:
J
,
so(,'T)ri'3 scee deep their uaiiooiits ?
"
TThe '
F
rench soldier got oahiti• o
p
: full uniform issued t
o
ni
fit,
is impossible for him to draw another
: it i
s
utmost mpossible for him to jnireha e another
.
(e'leazing takes three to four weeks in France
:
Why don
'
t
: they use cleaning fluid ? Because they don'
t
Lave cleaning flun
k
Pie dont they wash their uniforms ? They do - bu
t
very poor ersatz soap, it
. is the only soap the
y
2rench soldier got paid Sit} &hxles a rrto-ol'h ($16)
until
September,
1945,
when
this
sum was cut `
v
a month (
:3
.60)
.
(This cut in
pay
came at a
: al
sanc
s
time
9
8
97
the French government
announced
it
woul
d
American
soldier
in France 850 francs a mont
h
The French soldier gets a
total
pay of about
.
day
:
How well
could you keep up you
r
12 cents a day
?
"Iii
.
Paris you see huin7 eds
of
yoang
Frd
,
e
zA
,t
.
cr
y
na
:
)
'-'
c(tts
a
o'canil
on
age
; in cddiian clothes,
tt
'
],y ai
.
e
d
t i/n
.
y ail
ut
On
.
.,
_
L
.
.
Many of them are, even though they are _'n c_rti i iar
i
the Paris area),
enlisted
men are
permitted to
;
s
:_
;•
; ilia
n
clothes when they are on pass or oil duty
.
Fze
_t
; ft
.
.cer
s
all
commands are
pernutted
to wear civ_ aas n the
s
ff
physically unfit for military duty
(and
the ? u
.- a cl a
Because they were underfed by the
Germaalth
e
4
h
clothes
. Reason
Tin'
most French
.com
.mauas a 'ta
:s
;n
;
the
French
had to reject 40
°
;
'
o
of the men ti~ G~ rc
a
s
en
uty
.
it is also worth remembering that in
tle
4t
:
tft
,
used were
lower
than those used in our ar
l
Why
-
were so many young Frenchmen unlit Iu -_-=r
:_?
t
occupationBecause
.
tuberculosis and other bsaase
s
Because
the
best Fre
ich
youth were kiileJ
: t
.
noised
.
Because of the effects of World War I
. (See
71
.
)
disabled, or taken as slave laborers into Gerrrn
:_
n
spread, during
the four years of German
.
tQn
:
"The
' e
.
.n
.
are sloppr~
1aol
:~izg ao~rlr~r,~
.
:
.
.
.
.
l
r
um
.
g
ip
:
.
y i
knaic
lbe
.on
.
'riot
grand fi,~~lfus ,
.
You
.dont
tell
.
how an army
fi
g
hts
b t_
r
_e
lochs
.
The Greek
.
soldiers
wore funny white skirts
.
tie
r
licked the pants off the dashingly dressed
;
:
.
.-s, an
d
they
put
'up an amazing fight against the
:
.
of th
e
Wellrnrachi,_nhe
Pa-nzers, and the Luftws
.ffv
-
Gerin 'n officers called
metu
arl
GT
.=lophy
;
-
"eareless
;"
.
"undisciplined"
soldiers --
but
._ -'as th
e
Germans
who got the shellacking
.
Tlie"
,
arrnnv of George Washington often i
:
:_
e
ragged`mof3
. Tl eii fighting
.
record is anc_
h
a story
. .
The
.
French under General Le Cleve fought
. __
:err war
.
from the
. .
heart- of Africa to Lake
.
Chad
and -
North
-
.n
a
frica in an
.
astonishing
eainpaian
., No <ace sneered
a
t
their
. uniforms then
,
It
might
.
be helpful to remember -that
.
. - Trenc
h
soldiers had
been
guerrilla fighters
. (in the
FFL
ac
-
the resistance)
. They
still
dress
: n'et and- cart
i
-
cls
.
s
like
guerrillas
.
.
7
99
/ -
(7n To
'
'it C]1
Cg1r7sis look !
.clof
p
foiia s
I
J
Qnm
e
around
.
o(- some don't
:
Cheek
.
this
-i
;
,
i
i
gool t/,itsi
ull
the 2iii6
;eaty
the f enelt
.
e,ie,s
go!! 3V
:6 the
l
-
ri
.ipri's ,-
.titti
the,
Fri
th-e pwt
.
t
;
.1~~tttrr
ih
the wel'
wets- eaYto'ejeirtte
g
the pres',s
.
.'
'
T,
:ocat papers always play up local news, Local papet
s
are pond of the deeds of local boys
. It was as natura
l
for the Freneh to praise the fighting of the French as i
t
t,-,-
.
:Is for the Botsford Bitget to give front-page space t
o
the return of Pfc Elmer Glutz on the
clay
we droppe
d
tile
atomic bomb on ,fapan
,
it's publicity m
the American press
iv-i
.
hieh you'i
e
-ol)y
.i
.
etirig to, then criticize American news judgment
;
not French vanity, The story of the maquis and FF
1
was "natitra!" news story
. It's the kind of
.
:
story tha
t
ins
hit
the front pages ever since there were wars - an
d
newspapels to report on them
.
AA
for the role the FFI and the Maquis played _in th
e
against Gei many, see the statements of Genera
l
Patton and General Patch, under question 77
,
101 "
-
k
:e)tch
6-tol
g
ere
.
t
.
y
.toty
thte,v
cottid g
.
Li
t
tt,i-pid
,stole
OVi
:,,ecps
. trits/c,s
.
, tett
;o'tes
,
rJ
`
S itott
to
-post
etietw
vehtcle,
"
6orae Freneh
. soldiers certainly did steal
.
Ir
e
lik
e
Se
&era
.? Aii-tericaas, Th
.e Frenelt didn't like that
.
Zrench 'isci
:i
.o
.
:nionoo'iy
.
.ou "moonliht
4
as
. .
. .
.
is
worth reraen,bei
.g that the French a
:rnues ha
d
i
/ery
:
-
Ialnbei
.
Of
MeaWliO
had been trayic1 under
.
.
gro
.ur
.a fighting, ni guerrilla warfare, in the ietlidso
f
sa'otage
i
.
.esistance
.
.
. Such soldiers
.
live of th
e
ia
:
.
:
.
.i
.
:-
.
.-i
.
ight to
. Tliere trained to, Our ow
n
u s
a
.
i
.so
t
uietl
.o,*
:,
.
.'
. .
were
%lid i?lff
:-
~
a/io,m!5
3
:
ali
.s
0
.e line
: ceb/mcls used
.
. The
6en-t111
3
'
ropa ancla effort to amake sis think
there
was
no
l•e
.mist nee in France
azi
cenohi! N
a
.
srsp a
.xez
i
_ s
.quarhs tried to stop out hearing a
.hont the resistance
,
C,1c
ic'eer
nee
questio
l
1 S
f
t
ns
.4
.
!c i
erllrt?71
Tc'ot
!rl
c
l)
.augr'ee
with
that
.
. The Germal?
s
:ecl for four years to get mor
F
hll
b
erencmen t
o coaorate
:
by they killed so many hosta
g
es
. Thaes wh
y
t'i
. destroyed
comin,
.inities for • crinmes'
. not connecte
d
:
military operations
.
:
The Germans overran France in 194b
. Fdr two years
.
red a ez s- promise
; trick and pressure to induce th
e
- itcs
. peopleto work in
,
Gerrnanr
. for the Gernian w
a
.
r
= tci ine _lie
,
- offered
: workers better food clothe
s
,
._
:
.
i
'ec'e,S and protection nenied them in
. Trance under
.
<occtu aa
.tion rules
.
'
An ! In all of
g
1
T
.c•~~,rlce
; <lurirl
tha
t
ll
periot
about
~
.r~r7aj French we hems e,,
.fisted
.
err7i ans admitted thi
f
-e cazlcnagn was, aailure
.
The L1 F iLegion
. T'alontaice
'
rancaise j, the Frenc
h
hola
.meer ,rnay
.
rhat the Germans tried to organize, wa
s
b
?1Ztic dop
;
the facts on how the French fought the e '
.aa
s
. is' r
?
.
ttt the Baer i
,
rlo 1 see c7i st,iou5 I w
. ', S} IAA
104
f
F'
.
`'race
fell
.
the
.PicrccJ' laid down
. and /c do
t
.
Fianc
e
u='n/P
all over
them
. .
They
7-yst
tt
'
astwd taw
7r
.
t f_
it
^
to
them
.
. Il
'
tzf dirt
ii t
they p
.lt up i fcih
.t '
"
t
.`'1C
.
. 4
Yl
:iliio s of French men
.
.women and children pu
t
a f
.eh that took immense guts, skill and patience
.
i_e Fightin
g
French never stopped
fighting
e-
in th
e
IFd
. North Africa, Italy
.
a
i
d
up through
x
ra lmce " wit
h
the S th Army
.
:Here is how the French
. people inside France fough
t
the _
:eT
mans after the fall of France
:
They sabotaged production in
war
plants
.
'_Chef
,
estroyecl parts, damaged machinery, siowed down pro
-
'changed blue-prints
.
Ti c - dynamited power
. plants, warehouses, trans
-
mission line
. They wreaked trains
. Vor 'destroye
d
1, r
d
s
. They damaged locomotives
.
organized armed groups which fought the Germa
n
p I
the Csemta
:po, the Vichy militia
.
s3 av executed French collaborationist
s
great spy army for SH -1FI=
r
London
.
acted
`1
a
They
transmitted
. amany
as
00 report
: a day to Sil A
.L
F
Oct
German troops movements, military
.
lilt
,ll
n
ons
;
and -tl e nature and move
p
ent of military supplie
s
z
aa
.
and
c
upl_
r
They got- 7ariple o
f ~ new C
;ern
.~
.
. .
i
save -powder to London
.
They ran an elaborate "underground railway" fo
r
ratting shot -down American and Brit
.
flyers baPi tc
a
f
11\~
:
=
ANTRY
JOURNAL
Library
r
.i
glend
. They hid
. clothed
. fed and smuggled out o
f
France over 4
.000 American airmen and parachutists
.
`(Getting
'
food and clothes isn
'
t easy when you
'
re on
a
starvation ration yourself
.
Its
risky to forge identifica-
tion Tapers
:) Every American airman rescued mean
t
half a dozer_ r'rench lives were risked
. On an average
.
one Frenchman was shot
crsi y two io~?rs
.
from 1040 to 194
4
by the Germans in an effort to stop French sabota
g
e an
d
assistance to the Allies
.
The Germans destroyed 344 communities comple-
tely) for "crimes"
not
connected with military operations
.
Perhaps the Germans realized better than we do the relent
-
less fight against them which the French people waged
.
An official German report, quoted in the
C'hristia,a
.
.`cieace 31onitot
on December 26, 1942
. stated sadl
y
"For systematic inefficiency and criminal carelessness the
y
(the French) are unsurpassed in the history
of
-moder
n
industrial labor
."
X
147
.9 "
,
o'
t!"021
.
1!f'idt PIl'LJ2},'
. they
'
d
cten
+1~s1t
i
._n the { ar
.
O! e
w c i the way a
'
city l e
: Paris looks
.
"
uo you call "pretty ease ("
Here is
what, th
n-e
r
Cost Franc
e
No, you wouldn
'
t
.
You can
'
t tell what the war cost
.
France by a stroll down the Champs Elysees, just as you
.
.
couldn
'
t tell what the war cost
. America by a walk dow
n
the
Atlantic City boardwalk
.
You can't
.
:in Paris
. see the
1
.1
5
.000 French men an
d
women and children who died, were wounded, were in
-
-
concentration camps, or were shot as hostages
: Yo
u
can't see the food and supplies that were taken fro
m
France, You can't
. see the 12
.551
.039
.000 man-horn'
s
- of labor that the dermans took for themselves
. Yo
u
can't see the meagre rations that the French were fed
.
Yon
can't see the malnutrition that the Germans caused
.
{
0
',a
of the men and 55 of the women in France lost
-
an average of 12
°,c,
of
then_' weight
.
You cant see the increase
.
(300-400 °-)
in
tuberculosis
-
dl
.ptoeria
., typhoid fever, infantile paralysis
. You can
t
see the number of babies who were born dead
.
because
:
of the food and mill, shortages
. You don
'
t see
.
ricket
s
on the Champs
Lly,ens
.
If you want more facts
. read the answer to the nex
t
question,
.Killed
.-
.-
-
. .
.-
200
.£x
:
0
Y',°ou
.cded
230
.00
0
l~ tal
430
.00
0
Killed in bombings
.
.'
.
60
.000
.
illed ii_
Battle
ofi' Frano?
30
.00
0
fii'-l
.ed
In
other 'militar
y
'o- erations
20,00
0
r -
or 'mas
.s_
.or°ed i
n
Total civilians -Lilte
d
in France
150
.1)0
0
Deportees
.
oi iiieii i
n
Cei'ma
it'
y
.Colit
.
ical prisoner
.j
. . .
130,00
0
Laborers
20,00
0
Prisoners of War
30,000
Total
7
t
r t- r,2~l
g
%LiLS CI'i~(! ~
-
(P
. ,
~,Oi'te
,es
?,
:
.
i
lie
d died
-
_
--
2a,,z,
.
'
?
y
Disabled ctt'i
.l
.
ia
.4?
s
In
France
.
.
Deportees-(returned fro
m
Germany)
:
. .
:
. .
.
:
. . .
228,00
0
Total
'iiiChral
and
c+3Ziliian Iii
./,le)
.
Total
inikkfr'y
ar
c!
rL2*2Z2Crii
.S
I lled
.
WOOO2ded
.
dz
.cnhled
.
'
Deportees
. . .
Forced workers i
n
Franc
e
Industrial
wGa h
.erS i
n
French
plants
(ras'
-
Ding for Germany)
.
Agricultural worker
s
grow
.ing crops fo
r
Geaiman conscrip-
tion
. .
These
. figures represent a loss to France of
. '?
he
r
natibxnal_wealth --- or the total earnings of al
r_
,
for two years
.
Imo
.
sTxE"„T
; I
.aL
S
1
.785,000 buildings were destroyed
.
5
;
000 bridges were blown
:--up
.
Three-fifths of all French railroad stoe'= --t<s ethe
r
destroyed or taken to
t
erim nv by Gerar
the
y
treated in
104
.5
.
Half of
all
the livestock
in
France was lost c- -- -e
: r
.
Three-fourths of all the
.
agricultural ecyarn_ t wa
s
lost
.
12
.500,000,000
man-hour's of labor,
which--
.s
o
f
Frenchmen were forced to perform for tbe
ails
,
were lost to France
.
The national debt
zio
.,'cc
:
c
snd
:32 billion
. dollars
.
Hours of work lost t
c
France due to mas
s
deportation
s
Hours of work lost t
o
France because o
f
forced labor in Franc
e
for the Germans
. .
i'
:
i
`
J^IL~1
r
1iti,tnuction of
'eniilcii' rs,
agricultur
e
.
S
:-,Iu tr
;', ,-,'ai' material etc
E
.
:°'ar'-
.'
.iaa exchange extortion
{
:
:et
.
t3
.1
m
the franc at
20
hams to the -
.trial
L
.
instead
of a
the real
value
-
francs to. the mark,)
.
. . .
eoszons to military and civilian dea
d
and
cNsabled
. .
Cash payy
r
i ente to 'maintain Gorma
n
aicnZ'
Oi
oc
c
upation
. <
.
ri v
.ct itiiral p
.u'ociucta taken
by
i ec
a
.
Man
.
:
.
Or
daillaae
.ci
Yn
`
__'-_' nsport and Celo
11unrea
.ti+o
:1
damar
-
.,
.'ndust?" and Comrneiy'l
. r(' uisition
.e
d
or
damaged
. -
.
.
.
Cieariiig and removal costs
.
. _
. <
.
.
'
What
material
taken by
.
Germans
o
r
ClaMa
erl
charges imposed
.
. on
.
1
'
,
ranc
e
to the direct-costs of Germa
n
.
.occupation
.
.
:Franc
ll
:
2,3 2 `)OP,000,30
0
1,53 0D0
.C00
.O0t
>
35o
.000,00
0
2
.3 33,450,000,00
0
065
.2
.33
.0OO
.00
n
'
1,
;'527
.222
.000
.00
0
448
.E
t
4,1 00,00(
5
5 (I
.5s0,000,00
0
'240,36
t,0v0,00
0
102,000,000
.030
r
`
'
C =ated total
. money cost to Franc
e
e t_'e
rar
98 billion
dollars
.
Ei ti
. zated total cost to'U
.S
. - 309 billion dollars
.
France is
. about one fonrteeiith the size of the Unite
d
St-= es
.
ear
p
ut nearly all of France into Utah and
Nevada
. .
107
Corot
e y
IIO
to
if'oi' '
erns? r•e&'lido
'
(liar rr
r
.iitiJ ?
"
i tench Minister of Finance
recently
reported tha
t
zee
iaeins ind stries a
r
e beginning to operate at
70
o
f
Th
e
t v
. 1he rebuilding of Franc
e
{s a trecilenclou
s
which
-fill
take a long time
. Sicortag'e of coal
,
line, electricity, power, transport-,
. and Inanpo
t
o'e
r
a
_ made a more rapid recovery imuossibie
.
R
t
~f after liberation
. France
p
ound that of its
.we
-
i _,
a ~
.'
.Jl1Cli
t<
.
_UjIl
.
the
tOil0-win
`r
-were left
i
of
the
1
.0C'o217
.0i1','G•3,
'
of the fr ei ht e rs
.
of
the taneks and automobiles
,
of
:the
mer0ant
marine
.
___ most
important
single
factor'
which
.
is -holding
.
tench
. production is the shortage of coal
. O
n
3, 1043, oar Office of War Information 'a alyzed
economic conditions in France and pointed ou
t coal crisis has plunged France into a vicious circle, 'dilte
s
could not operate without timber pit props to
u
p
the ceilings of tunnels in coal veins as they were -
:red
.
But the transportation needed to bring in
~r,_
cbe7
_
also
needed
coal with which to o
p
erate
.
Coal shortages have caused
as
many
shut-,-
.
.o7-
.1-
_ _ o
f
French factories as have the grave shortages
-or
othe
r
essential raw Materials
.
And never f
'
org'et the loss to France of
-
:tal
c
(killed,
.wour
:ded or disabled) out of a populatio
n
at around forty million in 1940
. This is
rin
g
blow
to
the manpower needed for rebuilding
.
That's as silly as saving that all American politician
s
g
et graft
. Son3e French politicians are corrupt
. S
o
are some American politicians
.
. Incidentally, the German propaganda
. line
for
Frenc
h
polities was, "All French politicians are corrupt
.' Th
e
Germans wanted the French people to lose confidenc
e
in their leaders
. in their government
. and - iiiost o
f
all
-in
democracy itself
. The Germans ran a giganti
c
smear campaign before the war
. during the war
. an
d
during the occupation
. The only French politicians o
f
importance whom the Germans
a
did
,i
.oe
smear were -
-
Detain and Laval
. They, said the Nazis, were not corr
.
rent
.
Odd, isn't i
t
The French political system
Is
a
.
democrac--y
. It i
s
like ours in its basic principles
: freedom of speech . freedon
i
of religion,
-
freedom of the press, freedom of the vote
,
minority rights, protection under the law, trial by
.
jury, etc
.
The system differs from ours as far as parties are eon-
cernea
:
we have a "two-nasty ' form of administration
,
the French have many parties
.
The French
have a political party
for
.
allnast ever-
;
.
conceivable political position
. They don t believe tha
t
there are two was of looking, at
things
"
:
the Frenc
h
think there are dozens of ways
. and that if enough peopl
e
hold to
any
one way
they
have a right to be represented
_
in the
I
overnm
.ent
.
French electoral practice has not encouraged pant
;
organisation such
. as ours. The elections to the Chem ber
:
of Deputies are more like our municipal (city)
. election
s
than our national elections
. In our city elections, peopl
e
frec
i
uently
vote for
their friends
.
anti
. neighbors, - fo
r
men rather than parties
. This is true in France,
too
:
The French mutiple-party system has this advantag
e
it gives even- pro-up of any size a voice in government
.
a chance to get
. its program considerec
. a chance to ge
t
certain lams passed
.
The
multiple-party system
has
this grave dis advantag
e
1n
France
. no one patty controls a majority of the vote
s
in the Chamber
of
Deputies
: Cabinets are always com-
b
i
nation or coalition cabinets
. The Frew-ter has
to rel
y
on
persuasion
. It is easy for such cabinets to
be over
-
thrown
. It is relate ely
r
hard for such 'cabinetsto
worm
.
together, on common program
. for many years wits
.
each her
p
r
oblem or each
new crisis, the cabinet can easil
y
be
?L•r,
.
i ein up
.
The French today are verm
.m
.uch aware of the angel
s
and disadvanta
g
es
of a multiple-party system
:
H
O
they
1T
i l solve
It
.
how they will translate wide represent
-
QQ
"The F
eiIC,
ifoir
'
t
pace
e
.
ri •ce
;
7tt
ro0lttica
.l
C
yre,rir
.
T/
p
:y
'
r
e
7ot
.too
7}2
. ii'tJ
pai'tica
.
.They
ti-
:i'fie
l
et tocyaf7i
.c,, "
et
.
ea
into simpler
edministration Is their problem
. Thei
s
are
.
trying
;
i o u
'
t
he
fools
t
"
b y the names of the French parties
. Th
e
Rttical Socialist -party for example, i5 neither tarLiez
i
. 1
z a eom
.list
. It i the party of small farmers and th
e
iowe' Middle-class it is
a
middle-of-the-road
party
.
{It, name is a carry-over from the past
.
)
For the ast twenty years, the great majority
. of Trench
-
i ee have
'
voted for men and parties that were neithe
r
-ettr°eme Left nor extreme Right
,
in the last pre-war elections of 1930
; the par ties
of
the
.
Poplar Frhnt (Radical Socialist, 'Socia'li t
.
-
and
Col l-
mualat), which
.
stood for a sort of _ ew Deal program
.
got 382 seats in the Chamber of
Deputies
out of a tota
l
of 30S
. The parties of the Right, which opposed th
e
Popular Front
. got
. 222 seats
.
Since the liberation
. the French have held miuiicipa
l
elections in May 1945
and
cantonal elections in Sep
-
ter_? e
.e 1943
. The voting strength of the main
. partie
s
in
g
oose elections was approximately as follows
rote cast
c
•
:
,
rote cast
.
May 1945 Sept
. 194
5
Communist Party
: :
.
1
:
2
1
Socialist Part`
15
24
Radical Socialist Parts
32
2
4
Popular Republican Movement
9
111
he
.Fie/tat
are
G'oirlr,1?r,rF-
et
.
The Commtmist
: Party got 10 seats in the Chamber o
f
Deputies in the
1932
elections, and 2 out of 60S seat
s
in the 1936 elections
. For their vote in 1945, see questio
n
110
. .
112
"France
is a
. dccode
;at notice
.'
'
How does one measure decadence
?
The Germans said, "Demoeraties are decadent
.
.
"
d
i
.
Frea_ft
. rre
7t~ r
o'
:cal
,`7t
potWe,
.5,
"
>r
r
r
r n
,
r
z
