_Only once or twice in history has the world witnessed such a spectacle of greatness at tension. It is not that factories are busy on shells. It is that everything spiritual in a race touched with genius has been mobilized. Fineness of feeling, the graces of the intellect, clarity of thought, all the playful tender elements of worthy living are burning with a steady light._ AUTHOR'S NOTE The author was enabled to visit Verdun and the peasant district, and to obtain access to the German diaries through J. J. Jusserand, Ambassador of France; Frank H. Simonds, editor of the New York _Tribune_, and Theodore Roosevelt, by whose courtesy the success of the three months' visit was assured. On arrival in France the courtesy was continued by Emile Hovelaque, Madame Saint-René Taillandier, Judge Walter Berry, Mrs. Charles Prince, Leon Mirman, Prefet de Meurthe-et-Moselle, the Foreign Office and the Ministry of War. CONTENTS PAGE TO FRANCE ON JULY 14TH v SECTION I AMERICANS WHO HELPED I. THE TWO AMERICAS 3 II. THE AMERICAN AMBULANCE HOSPITAL 14 III. THE FORD CAR AND ITS DRIVERS 34 IV. THE AMERICANS AT VERDUN 55 V. "FRIENDS OF FRANCE" 72 VI. THE SAVING REMNANT 83 SECTION II WHY SOME AMERICANS ARE NEUTRAL I. NEUTRALITY: AN INTERPRETATION OF THE MIDDLE WEST 93 II. SOCIAL WORKERS AND THE WAR 105 III. FORGETTING THE AMERICAN TRADITION 116 IV. COSMOPOLITANISM 129 V. THE HYPHENATES 142 VI. THE REMEDY 151 SECTION III THE GERMANS THAT ROSE FROM THE DEAD I. LORD BRYCE ON GERMAN METHODS 159 II. SOME GERMAN WAR DIARIES 170 III. MORE DIARIES 186 IV. THE BOOMERANG 196 SECTION IV THE PEASANTS I. THE LOST VILLAGES 211 II. THE HOMELESS 221 III. "MON GAMIN" 226 IV. THE MAYOR ON THE HILLTOP 228 V. THE LITTLE CORPORAL 240 VI. THE GOOD CURÉ 244 VII. THE THREE-YEAR-OLD WITNESS 257 VIII. MIRMAN AND "MES ENFANTS" 261 IX. AN APPEAL TO THE SMALLER AMERICAN COMMUNITIES 274 X. THE EVIDENCE 289 XI. SISTER JULIE 294