Ribald

"The French hate the United States so much that they do not hesitate to desecrate the graves of 30,000 brave doughboys fought and died to defend French soil!"

Thus, to many a newsgatherer, thundered U. S. Senator Thaddeus H. Caraway (Dem.) of Jonesboro, Ark., last week in Washington, after returning from Europe.

"Go to visit our cemeteries, as I did!" cried the Senator. "There you will find ribald and insulting remarks penciled on the little white crosses that mark the graves of American soldiers. For instance: 'To hell with America,' and other insulting inscriptions. I wish, but I have not much hope, that Congress would pass at the next session an appropriation which would make it possible for the Government to bring home every American soldier now buried in French soil!" General John Joseph Pershing, Chairman of the American Battle Monuments Commission, quietly informed newsgatherers who sought him at his sister's house in Lincoln, Neb., last week that during his recent stay of two months in Europe he neither saw nor heard of any insults written on the white crosses over the graves of U. S. soldiers.