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Show PITY US, SAYS I ; Declares Paying of Indem-j nity Will Ruin Intention of Government. j Invitation to Wilson tJ Visit Berlin May Be Made Formally. '' 1 1 i (Now York Times-Chicago Tribune Cablo Copyright.) BERLIN, Dec. 5, via Copenhagen. A message bearing a Paris date, published hero yesterday, suggests that President Wilson on a second European trip may visit some German port. This news has created quite a stir in government circles, cir-cles, since for some days the proposition proposi-tion of inviting the president to come to Germany and stuoy existing political and economic conditions has been considered. consid-ered. The New York Times correspondent called on Dr. Sudekum, who is now installed in-stalled as Prussian minister of finance in the handsome Finanzmisterium, to inquire in-quire what progress the proposition had made. Dr. Sudekum's knowledge of the United States, to which he has made several trips, and his close intimacy with the governing of Germany today, suggested suggest-ed that he might know something positive posi-tive about the plan, but he shook liis head. "Doubtless President Wilson s visit to Germany, or at least some German port, would be of the Highest importance and would be heartily welcomed by every true friend of Germany, because of all our enemies the American president is generally gen-erally regarded as the fairest. "The German people ask nothing better bet-ter than that Mr. Wilson come and see with his own eyes that he is dealing with a new nation, having- nulhing whatever what-ever in common with the Germany of the RohenzoMern and the twenty other monarchs and princes. He will find a Germany that has completely burned the bridges lead'ng from the old kaiscrfsm and militarism the most modern republic repub-lic in the world. Want Visit Now. "That Paris message, however. , suggests sug-gests that Mr. Wilson intends to defer his visit until the peace negotiations are ab.'jt to be signed. I hope that in the interest of fair play he will reconsider this intention and see for himself before he commits the fair name of the United States to an act that is bound to have the gravest consequences for the world's future welfare." The correspondent asked if the government govern-ment had already agreed on a formal invitation. in-vitation. "With events cascading down Germany hourly, each of which would form the task of a lifetime for an ordinary prewar pre-war statesman, our overburdened government govern-ment has been as yet unable to give the proposition the careful consideration it requires before it can be brought to Mr. .Wilson's notice. "However, the matter is far too important, im-portant, to brook delay, and the decision will doubtless be hastened as much as possible." But Dr. Sudekum had something more on his mind. He called attention to a telegram from London stating that in the opinion of the Daily Chronicle, Germany might be made to pay the indemnity in yearly installments of five milliards. Asks for Pity. "What would the world say to the spectacle of a dozen able-bodied men, looking on from a safe position, jeering and sneering at a drowning man, whom every time he would try to scramble ashore -they would brutally kick back into the deadly " element? What would the world say if at last, by sheer luck and pluck, this abused creature managed to save his life and if thereupon his tormentors tor-mentors would kick his prostrate body and make his exhausted limbs carry their own burdens? That is exactly what the entente is doing with Germany when they compel us to pay fabulous indemnities, though we are starving and ara torn with internal strifes. I notice from another newaper dispatch America and the entente en-tente still distrust Germany to such a degree de-gree they cannot afford to make any change in the inhuman armistice conditions condi-tions for feir Germany should manage to crawl out somehow. Now, who has been cheated right and left but Germany, who has been told for years by entente statesmen that they dreamed of neither conquest, annexations nor revenge? Who has been told even as lat as a month or two agi) that if only Germany changed her government she might reckon on a peace of justice and conciliation? Germany Ger-many has undergone change of such completeness as is unparalleled in history, his-tory, jiot because of these promises, but because her time had arrived. Nevertheless Neverthe-less those promises still stand. But now look at what treatment the most modern mod-ern of all republics receives from the old democracies. Where ' is your peace of justice and conciliation? ' What has become be-come of Wilson's fourteen points?" |
