The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-08-02
Are We n Boob Nat,onY

The testimony given by Mr.. BARUCH
and Mr.. PALMER before the Senate
Committee on Foreign Relations on
Thursday revealed President WILSON
once more in the altruistic support OF
high visions at the expense Of the
rights and property of other persons.
Calamity waving American partici-
patton in the general indemnity to be
extracted from Germany, the Presi-
dent, with that generosity he habitu-
ally displays in dealing with the pos
sessions of others, with one magnih-
cent gesture brushed away American
rights in the clearing house Of inter-
national debts and credits and rele-
gated his fellow countrymen having
just claims against Germany to the
mercies Of future policy contingent
on the judgment Of Congress with re-
lation to enemy alien property seized
in this country during the war. pol
icy the barest outlines Of which have
not yet been drawn in the mind Of the
DOSt energetic SldteSInuH.
That the United States as a ma
ton should not and must not share In
the indemnity Germany must pay was
the Presidents decision; and to make
this conclusion of his own unaided
and unadvised judgment effective he
pushed aside for indirect ad1udica-
ton the honest claims Of American
citizens against German citizens, and
jettisoned the private rights Of Amer
leans for the protection of which the
Government In which he holds office
and from which he regularly draws
his salary exists.
England, rich England, was not too
proud to look out for the interests OF
British subjects or to care for the
property rights Of her people.
France took heed Of the heavy
property losses her sons and daugh-
tiers had suffered and with admirable
provision safeguarded them and pro-
yided as well as her statesmen could
provide for their payment by the au-
thor Of the wrongs done to them.
Italy through her representatives
at the peace table sought In every pos
sible way to guard the rights Of her
people in the restoration Of what war
had deprived them Of in goods and in
money.
But in the face of this international
display of common sense and common
honesty President WILSON, disdain-
fully disregarding the debts due to
Americans from their enemy, bent
only on the attainment of his own
purpose of superstate construction,
blind to all the practical details of
the task his colaborers from other
countries attacked with so mucn prac-
tical comprehension, cast the claims
of his fellow countrymen away and
RENTED the payment Of the moneys
due to them from the foe their
patriotic devotion had beaten, to
what fate he apparently neither knew
nor cared.
This contemptuous treatment Of the
righteous claims Of American citizens
was the work of a President Of the
United States unadvised by the rep
resentatives Of any other department
Of its Government, uninfiuenced by
one single thought of the vast inter
astS ba thuS summariIv fmnarilled
It was perhaps lagnappe bestowed
in gratitude to those who had taken
the League of Nations from Mr.. WI
SONS hands; and in comparison with
the total cost Of that compact to the
United States the detail Of the price
Of this betrayal of American business
interests may seem to Mr.. WILSON so
small as to be negligible.