America, The Land of Joy
After French Prime Minister Édouard Herriot visited the U.S. in 1924, he wrote a New York Times Magazine essay describing what he called "America, The Land of Joy."
Clearly, Gen Z hadn't been born yet.
First, Herriot lamented the meager French influence in the U.S.:
The French numbering 150,000... are listed after the nationalities we have mentioned [Germans, Italians, Poles, Canadians, and English], and even after the Swedes, the Austrians, the Mexicans, the Hungarians, the Czechs, the Norwegians, and the Danes.
It follows, then, that France cannot count for the development or the maintenance of her influence in the United States on the number of her immigrants.
The number has barely risen since then. In 1924, the number of French immigrants totaled 150,000; in 2024, it's around 180,000.
Herriot went on to compliment what he perceived as a uniquely American enthusiasm and vigor:
But America is not merely a piece of machinery. One would misunderstand it, misjudge it, wrong it, if one considered it only a country of machines, if one did not enlarge the picture to depict the race itself — so alive, so young, so quick! What happy health! What balance! I saw aged men in the United States, but I did not see tottering old men, bent over their sticks, hesitant in walk and speech.
Herriot also contrasted how France would never stand for an equivalent of America's then-in-effect Prohibition on alcohol. Not that all Americans did, either, considering the rise of illegal bootlegging. But the constitutional amendment banning alcohol was at least ratified, which Herriot found it impossible to imagine even occurring in wine-obsessed France.
From a desire to conserve the health of the race, the government takes various measures which with us would not be tolerated. First among these, of course, is the suppression of all alcoholic drinks, including wine and beer.
...
Nevertheless, when all is said and done, it is impossible not to admire the effort of a young and vigorous race to escape the social scourges which decimate Europe and people it with failures.
I have yet to visit France myself, but I can confidently say that differences between France and the U.S. persist today. Having just watched the Paris Olympics opening ceremony — in IMAX, no less — it's hard to imagine anything remotely like that at the upcoming 2028 games in Los Angeles or 2034 games in Salt Lake City. I mean, the ceremony was even officially condemned by the Catholic Church.
America, The Land of Joy: Impressions of the United States and Its People by the Prime Minister of France
Published: Sunday, August 17, 1924