an art that is the envy and despair of the Saxon. They are and always have been a military race and march to battle with an intrepidity that has repeatedly swept over all Europe. If Germany in the recent war had annihilated them as intended, the loss to the world would have been irreparable. They have their faults, like other nations. Their code of business ethics is not the code of the Saxon. They revel in the spice of an intrigue, business or social, even if they do not partake of the spice themselves. If they can evade an uncomfortable contract, they consider it clever, while the Saxon considers it a reproach. The Frenchman considers this diplomacy, not dishonesty, and cannot understand why the American gets angry.

America cherishes, and should cherish, and always will cherish, the memory of Lafayette and the little band of French who voluntarily and contrary to the orders of the French government came to America and took part wholeheartedly in the American Revolution. But since then the French record has not been so good. In 1782 Vergennes, the French Minister of State, in the treaty of peace tried to confine the Americans to the Allegheny mountain line.1 In 1793 Citizen Genet, the French ambassador to America, tried to overrule President Washington and drag America into the French wars until Washington had him recalled. In the same year when both the French and English governments violated international law and seized American cargoes and ships, both governments promised to pay. England did pay but France did not.3 In 1798 French seizures of American ships and cargoes again became so bad that Congress authorized merchant ships to arm and resist and capture any ship attempting search and seizure. Washington was made commander-in-chief and accepted. Then France drew back. As to payment for the seizures, Adams says of Napoleon, "He followed an invariable rule to repudiate debts and claims wherever repudiation was possible. For such demands he had one formula: 'Give them a very civil answer that I will exam

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ine the claim, etc.; but of course one never pays that sort of thing."" In 1809-10 Napoleon seized $8,400,000 worth of American ships and cargoes. He did not act until "more than a hundred American vessels and cargoes had been drawn within his clutches." By treaty in 1831 France agreed to pay twenty-five million francs indemnity for all this, but she did not pay. Hence President Jackson asked Congress to authorize reprisals. France declared this an insult and declined to pay unless an apology was made. No apology was made, but in 1835 France paid. In the Rebellion of 1861 France sympathized with the South and wished England to join in recognizing its independence. During that war France invaded Mexico and put Maximilian on the throne in defiance of the Monroe Doctrine. During the war between Spain and the United States in 1898 France sympathized with Spain. Today France seeks to avoid payment of the debt it incurred to the United States after the armistice.

As against this long record France certainly rendered invaluable aid in our Revolutionary War and it is doubtful whether the Americans would have won without them, and yet the unaided victories over Burgoyne and Ferguson in the Revolution and later over Pakenham at New Orleans, showed the tremendous resiliency and resisting power of the American people. Even if the Revolution had failed, another and successful revolt would probably have come during the Napoleonic wars when England was crippled but stubbornly would have continued the restrictive colonial policy which lasted until 1840 when Canada was about to revolt.

Another act of France remembered by America is the sale of the Louisiana territory to America by Napoleon on May 2, 1803, for $15,000,000. That included the present states of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, and parts of five other states. Adams says of it : "The annexation of Louisiana was an event so portentous as to

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defy measurement; it gave a new face to politics, and ranked in historical importance next to the Declaration of Independence." It included New Orleans and almost the entire west bank of the Mississippi River. Napoleon knew what he was doing. He had had dreams of a new colonial empire along the Mississippi 2 but when his army in Santo Domingo dwindled away from yellow fever,3 and the peace with England of 1801 was about to end with a renewal of the war in May, 1803, and Napoleon knew that England could and would seize Louisiana as French territory, and knew also that he needed money, he sold that magnificent domain for a pittance. He then expended fruitlessly the French part ($11,250,000) of the price in preparing to invade England. Napoleon said: "I know the full value of Louisiana and I have been desirous of repairing the fault of the French negotiators who abandoned it in 1763. But, if it escapes from me, it shall one day cost dearer to those who oblige me to strip myself of it than to those to whom I wish to deliver it. The English have successively taken from France Canada, Cape Breton, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and the richest portions of Asia. They shall not have the Mississippi, which they covet... I already consider the colony as entirely lost; and it appears to me that, in the hands of this growing power, it will be more useful to the policy and even to the commerce of France than if I should attempt to keep it." "I have given to England," he said afterward, "a maritime rival that will, sooner or later, humble her pride." Napoleon disliked republics, but he hated England more. His first proposition to the American diplomats was that the territory "shall become part of the American Union, and shall form successively one or more States on the terms of the Federal Constitution." This was modified so as to read that the inhabitants should be given the rights of American citizens, but the purpose of Napoleon that America should keep the territory and build up a powerful nation has been fulfilled. That nation exists today. In the World War

when France and England were being beaten down, America threw its sword in the scale and imperial Germany ceased to exist. France did much for America; America has done much for France. France today thinks America grew rich from the World War, but that is a mistake. The Census Bureau shows that in 1912 our total national wealth was $189,715,000,000, in 1913 dollars, and in 1922 was only $194,309,000,000, in 1913 dollars, though the nominal value was $320,804,000,000, in inflated dollars.1

The French are saving and even parsimonious but have a positive genius for inducing other people to spend. They despise us as half or three-quarters barbarians in our manners, customs, ambitions, pursuits in life, tastes, and results. To a certain extent they are right, but we saved their nationality and are beginning to look upon them as irresponsible children.

All this is one reason why we look upon the Huguenots in America as American rather than French, and, in fact, are surprised to learn that they are French at all. But when we consider what a remarkable leaven they have been to the lump and what brilliant and unexpected things they have done in America, our only regret is that there had not been more of them.

CHAPTER XI

THE SCANDINAVIAN

SCANDINAVIANS came to America between 1820 and 1923 to the number of 2,219,522. They include the Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes. They went chiefly to the middle West. There were in 1920 nearly three millions of them in the United States, whose mother tongue is Scandinavian. Of these about a million and a half were Swedes; about a million Norwegians and about a half million Danes. These Scandinavians are not noted for high intellectual achievements or leadership and yet they are among the most valued citizens of the United States. They understand and appreciate American institutions; they steadily support good government and are not stampeded by theorists nor misled by emotion. When they are placed in public office, they guard public interests conscientiously and fearlessly. They are found chiefly in the Northwest, in Minnesota and the Dakotas. They prefer farming and the simple life and are industrious, saving, and honest. They have a high aptitude for self-government, and while open to experiments in governmental activities are intelligent enough not to go too far and to draw back when they find that they have made a mistake. Professor Ross says: "Scandinavian immigration flowed strong for the half-century after the close of the Civil War and brought in altogether two million souls. A quarter of all the Scandinavian blood in the world is over here. The Scandinavian immigrants have been attracted most by the climate and nature of the Northwest, stretching from Lake Michigan to Puget Sound. They are found on farms and in the outdoor occupations characteristic of the old country. They assimilate readily, for no immigrants respond more heartily than they to the American gospel of personal independence, good