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Show THE CITIZEN UP FROMfCHA OS "D Y means of a peace treaty com-- " bined with a covenant for a. League of Nations and a covenant for Labor the statesmen of the world have tried to give Europe a new lease on life. They have exhausted their wisdom, amid baffling conflicts, to reorganize Europe as a going concern and to institute certain reforms which will permit the old civilization to continue its course. Revolutionaries, acting in concert with the discontented Teutons, are striving, on the other hand, to force Europe into voluntary bankruptcy and throw the old civilization into the scrap heap. They do not want to save the old Europe. They wish to regard it as already in collapse and they would reduce it to a complete wreck and build on the debris a civilization of proletarian despotism. THE statesmen who assembled in understood that Europe was a desperate plight They knew that all their idealism, all their kindly inin tentions to make a peace of justice, might not save Etirope from ruin. They foresaw that the treaty of peace might become merely a scrap of paper because of conditions which human covenants could not control. The spirit in which Germany has signed shows that her statesmen are keenly aware of Europes sick condition. They realize that not Germany alone, but all the European nations, are sticken by the disease and that no amount of diplomatic doctoring may suffice to revive the patients and restore them to health. They hope to escape the treaty penalties by force of circumstances which no treaty can change. treaty leaves a divided world the League of Nations. The League covenant creates an alli- THE ance founded on force. Germany, Russia, Turkey, Bulgaria and any friends they may gain will ever be ready to meet force with force when the occasion presents itself. The Scheidemann government, which fell just before the treaty was signed, gave orders for the sinking of the German navy, the burning of the French flags and the fomenting and aiding of a war in eastern Europe which should crusn Poland and give Germany and Bolshevik Russia a chance to join forces. The plot was revealed, but not on that account need it fail. It can await another day for its consummation. THE . weakness of the treaty is that has not been able to extin- guish animosities. In some cases it lias intensified them. There seem to be more racial and economic grounds of conflict today than there were five years ago. Had the Paris conference been able to restore good will in Europe the task of restoring prosperwould not g ity. and general have been so formidable as it is. The one light in all the darkness is the effort of so many nations to de well-bein- By F. P. Gallagher vise a method for maintaining univer- sal peace. of unity of action with Russia. It is not absolutely essential to the sue- cess of such a union that Poland be destroyed, but it would simplify and facilitate the arrangement. The only obstacle to the harmonious development of such an alliance is the instability of Russia. The Russia of today may not be the Russia of tomorrow. Apparently, however, none of the Russian states is favorable to Polish nationality. All of them have been trying to withhold from new Poland . 'T'O have forgiven Germany and x foregone all penalties would have done no good. It would have left Germany the one powerful nation in Europe, rich with the plunder of neighboring countries and able to resume business operations while the looted neighbors lived from hand to mouth. Germany would thereby have won the war in spite of military defeat. It was only just that Germany should be made to pay to the limit of her ability. In reality the terms of peace, although they strip her of military power, do not place her in a much worse economic position than that to which some of her enemies have been doomed. Only by taking from Germany and Austria can they hope to remain alive, and, even in that case, they will be just alive and no more. Unless the United States continues to give them aid at a sacrifice as great as any made during the war they cannot hope to grow strong and prosper. It is difficult for an American to realize what has happened to Europe. Our. situation bears little resemblance to that of any of the European countries. Sometimes we talk with bated breath about the possibility of revolution in this country, but in reality there is little fear of a revolt Criminal outbreaks even of a serious character do not constitute revolution, because they have little effect in shaking the foundations of our country. It is not so in Europe. Even in England the structure of society is totter- . ing. potency of revolutionwhich is producing revolution. It is rather the collapse of business. The revoltuionary theory is a rosy promise of something better. It is a straw at which the revolutionist grasp in desptration. In Italy the people revolted and for a time lent aid to the wild theorists. The starving people, fighting blindly against high prices, had little understanding of communism or anarchism, but could not help playing into the hands of the protagonists of these doctrines. To rebel against the government was to give aid to those who were seeking to wreck civilization everywhere. is not the IT ary ideals economic struggle of Europe recover something of her former strength and prosperity is liable to be marked by much bloodshed. There will be wars between nations and wars within nations. There will be strikes, mob violence, revolution. The League of Nations cannot reach the causes of internal dissensions. It can act only when nation lifts up its hand against nation. That promises to be a chronic conditon in Europe for many years. Germany, beaten in the west, will be eager to adopt Bismarcks policy THE the territory conceded .to it by the peace conference. Not one of them, except perhaps Lithuania, but will be ready to unite with Germany in brigandage against Poland. There are more ways than by warfare to crush a nation. Propaganda and economic pressure, it has been proved, can be as effective as slaughter. Poland will have almost Insuperable forces of disorder to deal with. Unless aided constantly by her allies her existence as an independent nation will not be for staged a peculiar drama. On the one hand there will be a vast faction in favor of sacrificing to give Great Brit- and other ain, France, Italy countries the necessary credit and raw materials to start them anew toward commercial stability. The argument for such a course will be fundamentally sound. It will be contended that the United States cannot tinue to prosper if it abandons ' its friends and permits its enemies to tri- . . long. years all. of eastern Europe much of central Europe will be in a state of flux. Hungary with seems destined to Germany In blotting out the new nawhich was tion of Szecho-Slovakisaved from extinction a few weeks ago only when the allies warned the invaded Hungarians to cease fighting or risk the consequences of a war with an entente army. Here we have a foreshadowing of what may recur atagain and again the outsiders tempting, to crush one of the nations of the League and the League interfering to save the threatened member. But it is not necessary that the enemy always resort to miltiary invasion. Combinations and conferences in trade and revolutionary plots or strikes, and sometimes all together, may bring some of the new and even some of the old nations down to destruction. The nations which have benefited by the war are not all such "friends of humanity that they will make sacrifices to save stricken nations. Spain is an example of a country which has prospered because of the war, but her population is mostly interested in its own affairs. A great working class secret society of revolutionary tendencies has been dominating some of the Spanish cities in defiance of the government. FOR co-opera- te a, at Germans where they are nu- NATURALLY the merous abroad will not be interested in helping Great Britain, France and Italy get on their feet. Cn the contrary, we may look for Teutonic propaganda and blacklisting In this country and South America to weaken l ho entente countries cpmmmercially, the hope being that despite the terms of jeace Germany will be able to grow strong by the failure of her old enemies to recuperate. In our own country we may con- see umph. Nor can it expect to flourish by the disaster of Europe. It might shut itself off from Europe and live within itself, prosperous to a certain degree, but in the long run it would feel the effects of European ruin, especially if that ruin should lead to the rehabilitation of such a combination of peoples as the Teutons, the Slavs and, perhaps, some of the yellow races. On the other hand there will be those who will urge us to keep all good tilings to ourselves. They will say that our first duty is to ourselves .It will be America first in a twisted sense. Why should the American people, who did so. much to help their associates in the war, continue to sacrifice for Europe? they will ask. Why should America endure high prices' by lowering the cost of living by withholding food and raw materials from Europe? Why not let Europe depend on herself? Have we not done enough for her? These will be persausive arguments to many. We have stated them in all their crudeness, but propaganda will give them an alluring aspect. Much of the propaganda will be just, because it will be directed against abuses committed by the entente nations. The Irish question, the Shantung injustice and class hatreds will be exploited to the utmost. If Great Britain could settle the Irish question it would go far toward frustrating the propaganda of her enemies in all lands. The danger is that by maintaining martial law in Ireland and letting loose the passions that spring from such a regime, Great Britain will be constantly supplying her enemies with ammunition. She will make it easy for the Germanic elements everywhere on the globe to form combinations with the Celts and Slavs, the and with races which like Swedes, Finns and Spaniards were mclined to look through Teutonic glasses while the war was in REALISM. "This snowstorm painting is very fine, indeed, said the critic to the It almost makes me feel artist. cold to look at it. "Yes, it must be realistic, admitA fellow got Into my ted the other. studio in my absence, looked at the picture, and unconsciously put my fur overcoat on before he went out. |