Escutcheon of Aristocracy

Amiable and ardent is the France-America Society (William D. Guthrie of Manhattan, president). Its ceremonies usually involve roseate references to Benjamin Franklin, General Lafayette, Pershing, Herrick, Lindbergh. When the society was founded in 1911 it took over and renovated a famed old Paris mansion, proceeding on the assumption that the government would help pay the costs. Last week the French Senate was surprised and pained at being reminded of this assumption by a bill to pay a 200,000-franc architect's fee.

Mm. les Senateurs promptly and emphatically rejected the bill, announcing that the society never had the slightest right to suppose that the French Government would pay one sou toward their building.

Cried M. le Senateur Henri Berenger, fierce and agile fencer, negotiator of the Franco-U. S. debt settlement with Secretary Mellon:

"We may speak frankly in matters of the Franco-American relations now that we have settled our debts. The France-America Society is in reality a veritable escutcheon of the French aristocracy. Let them pay! What have they to do with democratic France?"

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.