Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1919-04-09
LEAGUE is DEAD
SAYS FRANK SIMONDS.
Declares France and Poland Betrayed
to Germany and BOlshevism.

to Germany and Bolshevism.
Paris The league of nations is
dead All chance of real settle
ment of the European problems is at
IAN end A desperate effort is being
made to get together patched-up
peace within the next ten days which
shall at least put an end to unrest
and economic paralysis of the world.
The collapse of the league of ma
tons is the result of the panic fol-
lowing the arrival of the Bolsheyists
at Budapest. The conference at Par
is gave up the just decision that the
Poles should have Danzig and an out
let on the Baltic. By this course it
doomed the Poles to a chance between
the Germans and the BOlshevists and
put an end forever to the Polish hopes
of real independence The confer
ence had brought the Bolshevists to
Budapest by recognizing the rights
of the Roumanians, it now condemned
the Poles to Bolshevisn by denying
Polish rights
There remains another sacrifice to
be made to the Germans. To produce
a peace that the Germans would
sign, it was not simply necessary to
sacrifice Poland, but also France
This is being done. Today, the allies
Of France are engaged in reducing
the just claims of France for compen-
sation and reparation and when the
reduction is over, France, in return
for million and half of dead, and
! her ruined northern industrial re-
gions, will have neither a guarantee
against new German invasion, nor
PREPARATION for the devastation of the
last.
War Burden on France.
The result is patent Germany may
sign the treaty of peace which her
| conquerors will now offer her, so
amended as to make her payment
small, but the burden of war Will be
thrown upon France, and the dream
that all of us had once that the small
Ter peoples of Europe would be raised
to independence goes by the board.
We have, in effect, surrendered east
ern Europe to Bolshevism, and are
about to leave France at the mercy
of Germany. We have amended our
principle of the right of the small peo-
pie to existence so that it now reads
that it is a mistake to take from the
large state and give to the smaller
state, because the smaller state can
not defend itself. Thus amended the
doctrine of the league of nations be-
comes the German gospel of force
There is left, then, only on thing.
a patched up peace. When a patched
up peace is signed, we shall have Eu-
rope as full of wrongs and injustices
as it was before 1914, and we shall
houo loft
again, this time by economic as well
as military methods, the organization
Of the Mittel-Europa
Reducing French Demands.
At the present moment, England,
the United States and Italy are en-
gagged in reducing French demands
to the point which Germany will ac-
cept. England, with the German feet
in her possession, and German COM
mercial competition destroyed, has
won her phase of the war. Italy, with
Trieste, the Trentino and the Dalma-
tan coast in her possession and Eng
lish and Americans agreeing that she
shall hold these stakes, is satisfied.
The United States, represented by Mr..
Wilson, who has no purpose than to
acquire endorsements of the league
OF nations documents by as many Eu-
ropean powers as possible, has won
English and Italian assent. France
has to choose between signing Mr..
Wilson'S document, which leaves her
financially ruined and militarily de-
fenseless. or being Immediately de-
serted by all her allies.
Mr.. Wilson will take back to Amer
lea some sort of document which is
without value and reports nothing ex-
cept the interested assent of the ma
tions who do not subscribe, except on
paper, to the principles there formu-
lated.
Dreams UnrealiZed.
So far as we can see now, no single
one of the dreams that millions of
people have had, dreams of settle
ment IL accordance with justice and
of peace guaranteed by the common
consent of the free peoples of the
world, will be realized
And when all these sacrifices have
been made, will the Germans be salts
fed and sign? Will the Bolshevists
be impressed and surrender? And if
neither thing happens, will the east
ern people who have been abandoned,
will the French nation which feels it
is betrayed, take up arms against Boil
shevism, or will Bolshevism profit as
a result of the collapse of the states
manship Of the western world.--Mil-