Excerpt from France and the War

Mr. President, ladies, and gentlemen, your meeting has been turned into a memorial. There is nothing so common as death, and yet, when it comes in all its suddenness, there is nothing so surprising and so appalling. In view of the tragedy which is being enacted on the fields of France there is a strange significance given to the words of Bryant, that all who walk the earth are but a handful to those who sleep within its bosom.

Verdun, the Marne, and now Chateau Thierry are a graveyard. Men there are giving up their lives every moment for a great cause, while we pause in wonderment at death. It cometh as a thief in the night we are told. And, perhaps, it is because of the sudden and unexpected character of the death of the great statesman, whose loss we mourn, that we are making account of it. Perhaps it is because, as a guest of our city, he came in the fullness of his vigor to render important service to his country that we feel the shock of his taking off. It has come home to us. We read of casualties but we see the grim image of death stalking in the streets of a peaceful city and striking down men not engaged in warfare, not engaged in actual fighting or needlessly exposing themselves, but men following the even and orderly pursuits of life.

The loss of M. Metin will be a great one to his country. He was distinguished in the sciences. He was a student of public affairs and economics.

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