GERMAN MATERIALISM AT FAULT

Speaking on "The Spirit of France Today," M. Hugues LeRoux, editor of the Paris "Matin" and special envoy from France to President Wilson, declared in the Union last night that 500,000 young Frenchmen were in their graves because of German materialism. He illustrated his talk with graphic descriptions of the heroic efforts of the French to save their country. France does not believe in war and the leaders would willingly stop fighting but the Germans feel that they are striving for liberty and have turned the war into a kind of revolution with the annexing of Belgium and France as their ultimate goal, because those countries are better suited to the needs of the Germans than Germany itself.

France, on the other hand, has a great ideal, the "blue sky limit" as M. LeRoux phrased it, which looks toward the uplift of humanity and the altruism of man, not the "objects on the ground" of the Germans. France is not seeking aggrandizement but rather the protection of her women and children, the preservation of her homes.