Ogden Standard-Examiner | 1921-01-31 | Page 4 | Germany's Day of Tribulation

H oo I GERMANY'S DAY OF TRIBULATION H When the supreme council in sev H ion in Paris decided that the Ger : H mans must pe nppi oximati ly fifty H five billion dojparfl in repai ntions. H there was nothing left to be- said p WW hc placing of a heSYj yoke around the ! neck of tbe defeated country. Wl presume the iluree represeat the total dam? ger-, pins n liberal al H lowance for the cost ol the war. How j much of this stupendous debt should I be forced for collection is a question which should take account uf Germany's Ger-many's ability to pa. A people who deliberately went to , war to COnqtier and who applauded m the devastating of vast areas should H not escape without bearing much of the burden of restoring the things de-, de-, 1 1 roved or providing an equivalent In i dollars or marks. But there il sued n thing as dealing too harshly with H even a otfender. -Now that the war Is oxer and Germany Ger-many i? underolup reconstruction po H iitlcaily as well as Industrially . the feature of tht rebuilding which most H yitalli concerns the world is the de gree of contrition manifested and ihe extent of which Germany is honestly ' endeaorlne to get away from the old (bought of world mastery and military H glory. If the heart of Germany still H beats for war and vengeance, and if tbe people hope to restore old condi I Hons, then leparatlons should be j pUed on, until their spirits are broken and their lust of power is destroyed. Cut, if the German people have been H tbe victims of their own system ol f- jj government and have been helple.'n, until now they arc freed from a monarchy mon-archy and are determined to throw off that whleh was vicious and bad In the past, they are entitled to encouragement encourage-ment and should I"' Kiven : n upportu nity to provp their worthiness. Those phases of the big problem to in the point of n nioro Intimate under-standing under-standing of What is taking plaer- ip Germany than is obtainable at this distance. The world will advance most rapidly when nations begin to think riiore of the welfare of the homes than of in lernatlonal affairs involving Jealousies and rivalries.