French Pity Kansas Town

Artillery Duel Nothing Compared to Indians


The people of Feves, France feel sorry for the people of Morganville, Kan.

Feves during the war was caught in the middle of an artillery duel. Gen. George Patton's guns on one side, and German guns on the other, pounded the village (population 200) to rubble. But that, according to the people of Feves, is nothing compared to what happened to the people of Morganville, up near Clay Center, and its 250 souls.

Morganville, say the Frenchmen of Feves, has had Indian raids, grasshopper plagues, dust storms, tornadoes, blizzards and 25-cent wheat. That's what the Frenchmen told Charles L. Todd, New York City executive director of Operation Democracy, Inc., when he visited them recently.

Reports to U.N.E.S.C.O

Todd is in Wichita to report to the local U.N.E.S.C.O. group on progress of Wichita's cultural barter with Orleans. He explained in a press conference Thursday that Feves got its ideas about Morganville because the Kansas town, following Operation Democracy policy when Feves was adopted, sent the Frenchmen the full story of life in Kansas.

"They know now that America isn't populated by rich people," said Todd. Even so, he still seems a little surprised at the terrible misfortunes of Morganville, which he heard of in Feves.

Life with Operation Democracy is full of surprises for the youthful Todd. He enumerated a few.

Kansas, for instance, turns out to be the hotbed of cultural exchange.

Play Chess by Air

Albany, N.Y., and Numegen, Holland have an air-mail chess game going on.

Giant Brooklyn, N.Y., adopts Brooklyn, Holland, population 6,000. The Holland city promptly receives from Brooklyn, N.Y., more letters from school children than there are people in their town. All the letters, of course, are about the Dodgers baseball team. The Dutch mayor issued an order. Every letter must be answered. Each Dutch school child is assigned four letters. It took three or four months, but the answers were mailed.

The wife of the mayor of Orleans, France, calls herself a "sleek cheek." Todd asked her why. She pointed to a room in her house, informed him that six American G.I.�s were quartered there during the war. They told her she was a "sleek cheek."

The people of Zevenbergen, Holland, and Chanute, Kan., have a long distance debate going on by letter regarding Dutch policy in Indonesia.

But the Morganville-Feves situation typifies the attitude in Europe toward American charity. The people there, say Todd, are tired of it. They want to do something for America now.


Wichita, Kansas Beacon
February 11, 1949