A FABLE

LEON J. RICHARDSON

King Croesus, mounted on a snowy steed,

By chance drew rein where round a mountain mead
Of asphodel the cool Meander flow'd.

"My realm" he briefly said, as on he rode.

Presently came a minstrel by-a look!
And straight he fell to marveling nor took
His homeward way till evening's crimson light
Had sunder'd golden day from sable night.

The king that eve, surrounded by his guard,
Was ruler of the feast. The aged bard
Had sung of life-down went the royal gage:
"Pray tell me, ye who turn the labor'd page

Of lore, what boon of life the poor possess." At last outspoke the sage in bold address: "This truth, great king, the poor man's smart doth salve: To see, to know, to be, are greater than to have."

EXPERIENCES WITH THE FORD PEACE
EXPEDITION

PAUL L. FUSSELL '16

So much newspaper and magazine publicity has been given to the Ford expedition that it may seem wholly unnecessary to add to what has already been said. And yet, when I returned to America, after the expedition was over, it seemed that the expedition which I read about in the press was a very different one from the expedition which I accompanied. So much was being said about squirrels and squirrel-food, and Ford cranks, and reverend gentlemen playing leap-frog, that it seemed to me that the essential features of the expedition were being neglected. So it may not be wholly without purpose, if I speak very briefly on what seemed to me to be the essentials of the trip.

I remember that when we sailed from New York many misconceptions were current about the expedition's plans. Nearly everyone thought that the expedition expected to bring the war to an immediate conclusion. The public took that unfortunate slogan, "Out of the trenches by Christmas, as the literal expectation of the party. As to just how we intended to accomplish this impossible task, opinion was divided. Some thought that Ford expected to call a strike of the soldiers in the trenches. Others thought that there was no plan at all, but that we would do as the Pilgrims did on the Mayflower: draw up a scheme of action before reaching the farther shore.

None of these conceptions had any basis in fact. The party did not expect to bring the war to an immediate close; no strike of the soldiers was ever dreamed of; and far from having no plan at all, the scheme of action, though hastily and imperfectly executed, was the result of long planning and careful thought.

The plan, in brief, was as follows. We were to travel through the four accessible neutral nations of EuropeNorway, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands-enlisting the support of prominent citizens from each country, and adding them to our party. When the conclusion of the "peace pilgrimage" was reached at The Hague, the delegates from each nation were to elect five representatives of their own nationality to sit as an unofficial neutral conference until the close of the war. The establishment of this unofficial, permanent, neutral conference was the sole purpose and the end of the expedition. In spite of ridicule and mistakes, in spite of dissension and desertion, in spite of disease and death, the expedition traveled from Norway to Sweden, from Sweden to Denmark, from Denmark through Germany to Holland, and before the party disbanded at The Hague it fulfilled its sole purpose by the creation of this permanent, unofficial, neutral conference.

This neutral conference, made up of twenty-five wellknown citizens of the five most prominent neutral states, is now meeting in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. The conference is being advised by experts in international law and current European conditions from the belligerent states. When the members of this conference have studied the problems of the war, they expect to frame and to submit simultaneously to all belligerents a possible basis for peace. It is the hope of the conference that a solution may be proposed which will recognize international justice, and which will at the same time prove acceptable to the belligerent states.

Personally, it seems incredible to me that twenty-five private individuals, unknown in international affairs, should

bring to an end so tremendous a conflict. Yet I realize that there were men and women accompanying the expedition far better versed in European affairs than I-men and women who have talked, since the war began, with the foreign and prime ministers of every belligerent country, who believe that this unofficial neutral conference can accomplish a great work. They believe that after nineteen months of fighting the belligerent governments are coming to realize that neither side can win a sweeping military victory. They believe that every nation is tired of fighting and would welcome peace, if peace could be thought of without implying defeat and impossible treaty terms. It is the hope of the conference that when the way is pointed to peace without dishonor or disaster it will prove acceptable.

So much for the work of the Ford expedition as a peace expedition. I would like to relate a few details of our trip through Germany, for since I have returned to the campus no phase of the expedition has appeared to excite so much interest as our brief trip through Germany. I believe that the American newspapers reported that we made the trip behind barred windows and locked doors, but such was not the case. It is true that we made the trip at night, but wherever it was light enough to see, as at the stations, we had a view as unimpeded as from an American train.

Some of the most interesting incidents of that trip occurred in the dining car, for there we saw some suggestive circumstances in connection with the German food situation. The first thing which I noticed as I entered the diner was the extreme youth of the waiters. None were more than seventeen, and most seemed two or even three years younger. Apparently, Germany has more important work for her able-bodied adult males than to serve food to wandering pacificists.

The next thing which caught my attention was a large sign, printed in two colors and posted in a conspicuous position. I learned afterwards that this sign appears not only in all dining cars, but in all other public dining-places

as well. It bears Germany's "Ten Commandments" on the use of food. I can't remember all of them, but two which I remember seem typical. One read( I give the English approximation) "Don't peel your potatoes before boiling them: boiling with the skins on saves the nourishment." Another read, "Save old crusts of bread and make soup of them." Germany, you see, is neglecting no opportunity to prevent a food-famine.

The meal seemed typical of the German food situation. It was Friday, one of the two days in the week when no flesh can be sold, and so we had no meat. Butter tickets are required in Germany now, and as we had made no application for tickets, we had no butter. Germany is short of wheat flour, and so we had no wheat bread, but instead. three slices of potato bread were doled out to us-slices as thick as a wafer and as large as a gentleman's calling card. Potatoes were not only much in evidence in the bread, but in the rest of the meal as well. The first course was potato soup; the second, potato salad; the third, potatoes and fish; and the fourth, potatoes and omelette. Perhaps since that evening some German scientist has discovered a desert made of potatoes, and they may serve desert in German dining cars now. But at any rate a desert was unknown then, and we passed it by for that meal.

About a week after this, I was talking to a British marine at Dover, and he told me with what valor the Irish soldiers had fought for King and Empire. I thought as he spoke, "The Irish soldiers will be brave indeed, if they help England as much as Irish potatoes are helping Germany."

That one meal confirmed all reports which I had heard from Scandinavian travelers with regard to the German food situation. Germany is very short of certain particular foods, such as meat, fats, and wheat, so that some deprivation occurs. But Germany has an abundance of other foodstuffs, such as potatoes and fish, so that no actual suffering is present. Nothing short of an unprecedented crop failure can starve Germany.