Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-09-14
BY FLOYD MACGRIFF,
international News Service Staff Core
spondent.)

BY FLOYD MACGRlFF,
international News Service Staff Core
spondent.)
London, Sept. 15.-Coutemporane-
Gus with the first year of transat-
lantic air voyages the step toward
the first mile post in the worlds ad-
venture in the new peace era, and
the beginning of the first years
work of the league of nations, is a
situation in Europe fraught with
grave anxiety.
So far as world peace is concern
ed, the situation will in no way be
limited by the treaty of Versailles.
To sum up the situation in few
words, which sound ragged and
worn, the situation which menaces
nearly every government in Europe
today is class war.
To the politician, statesman,
banker, large employer and upper
crust citizen generally, the words
class war" have come to rob them
of sleep. And unless very favorable
winds blow-winds that they con-
troll in some measure-the situation
may rob them OF their security, and,
perhaps, set the world back no lit
tie degree farther than it was by
the world war.
Already the countries formerly
doing business under the title "em-
pire"--the Russian empire, the Ger
man empire, the Austro-Hungarian
empire-have tasted class war, and
have found it something more than
trite phrase. And symptoms Of
this new situation have already ap-
peared in Italy, France and Eng
land.
Surely the peoples of entente
countries are beginning to think IT
world peace is to be promise OF a
better world order then there is
desperate need OF intense and
thoughtful efforts to bring it into
realization. If not, that part OF
civilization in Europe which was
salvaged from the Hohenzollern
flame may perish in the new strug-
gle that needs but little goading to
cause disaster in lands hitherto
spared and presumed to be basklng
in the Toys of peace"
To define the situation in a para
graph:
Workingmen and women, long
held down to subsistence wage
level, want a greater share of pro-
duction, less work, more social and
intellectual advantages, better
homes, no oppression, although
they have been used to much, and
they want it all very quickly. There
in lies the possible danger. No
country in Europe today can pro-
vide all of these things quickly,
even though those in power had a
mind to do it. And unless such
changes are effected very quickly
and in a satisfactory manner, dire
things may result.
An additional danger, and this is
a very potential one, is that while
the workingmen and women OF
ginning to realize they have power
and can get things done if they are
these European countries are be-
determined enough, they themselves
are without sufficient education.
breadth of view and have such lit
tie administrative capacity that even
though they may force capitulation
by the Capitalists" or by the gov
eminent, these workers are incap-
able Of themselves carrying out the
program they want. They have
few broad-minded or able leaders
They realize their own incapacity
is colossal. And they dumbly re-
sent that it is SO, and feel that not
they, but the social and economic
system which they want changed, is
responsible.
There is, perhaps, no saner, more
patient or less emotional workman
than the British laborer, skilled Or
unskilled. But when a majority OF
his class begin to stand up and tell
the government if CONSUMPTION is
not forthwith abolished and the
troops recalled from Russia, he may
take things into his own hands, one
may get an idea of the way the wind
lis blowing. The miners, for instance
have practically forced the country
to accept naturalization of the coal
mines.
Similar conditions may be OBJ.
served in other European countries
The nations which are wise have be-
gun a progressive system of Co
operation and consultation with the
labor representatives.
| Europe, for centuries accustomed
to look up to and reverence the
strongest class and for similar pc
Rod lettering the conditions of the
mass of people only begrudgingly
has far to travel. America, without
such heritage, may view more
complacently the social upheavel de.
signed to remedy irritating sores Of
unrest and to remove traditional
barnacles of inequality of opportu.
nifty in Europe.
The more extreme the oppression
Of the working classes have been
the more bitter the reaction is likely
to be. Witness bolshevism in Rus.
STA. And hence the British govern.
ment's policy of unemployment pay
housing program and land resettle.
ment scheme. The spirit of com.
promise actuates. British policy.
z Some observers have commented
upon how the sons of the rich have
fought and died alongside the son:
Of the poor in the world war
They've partly missed the point
What happened was that the poor
mems sons found they could shoo
and fight just as we'll as the "bes
of them" And this fact has new
significance when considered to-
gether with the determination of the
lower classes, ex-solders included
ITO give America not the social
istic or communistic, but liberia
viewpoint as expressed in British