The Morgan City daily review. (Morgan City, La.) 1916-1920, 1919-06-03
Is the German Dem
ocracy Real?

falling l46 pages, have bee. handed
10 the Allies. The caption at the
head Of the contemporaries reads
as follows: "Observatons Of the
German Delegation on the Condl-
tions Of Peace The chief features
OF the document are provisions IN
sistng that Germany be made mem
Der Of the League Of Nations; the
disposition OF Silesia be decided by
plebiscite; that definite sum be
fixed for reparations. and that the
proposed disposition Of the Saare
Valley is utterly unjust to Germany.
In protesting against the provl-
sions OF the peace treaty concerning
the Saare Valley the German counter
proposals say The territory of the
Saare, inhabited by 100000 persons, is
to be detached from the German
Empire solely because Of claims up
on its coal" and it is objected that
for the next fifteen years the treaty
provides for the control of the terri
tory of commission in the nomi-
nation of which the population has
no choice"
Since the population Of the Saare
Valley is largely German it would
scarcely have been wise for the Al
lies to allow the inhabitants of the
district to choose the controlling
commission. AS to the claim con-
corning the matter Of coal, it is
doubtless true. However. France
needs the Saare Valley in order to
start and keep going. the industries
paralyzed by the German invasion.
In recent speech delivered before
the Economic ~Club--of New York
Mr.. Frank VANDERBILT. President of
the National City Bank Of New York.
painted an appalling picture Of the
condition of French industry, of the
complete destruction of French cities
in Northern France. In order to
start the wheels of industry going
again coal is necessary and. by the
Saare Valley provisions, France is
merely making Germany pay, for the
restoration Of industries she de-
stroyed.
1t is to be noted that the plebiscite
which the Germans. desire now will |
take place, by the terms of the trea-
ty, in fifteen years: To insure a fair
plebscite at that time, and to avoid
the possibility that Frenchmen who
may have migrated nto the region
in large numbers, will turn the bal
ance in favor Of France, the treaty
provides that only those shall be al
bowed to vote who are living in the
Saare Valley at the time the treaty
is signed and are then twenty years
old or over. One can scarcely imag-
inc Germany making a provision of
this sort had she bean the victor. |
One has only to recall her ruthless |
of Alsace-Lorraine in
1870 There was no provision made
then for plebiscite in fifteen years.
The plea upon which the claims
embodied in the counter-proposals
chiefly rest is the oft-reiterated one
the change in the German
government. "We are now Repub-
ic,' the Germans say, in effect, "and
you are treating us as though we
we're still an imperialism" 1t is sur-
missed by many. however, that Ger
nany's republicanism is at best only
'skin-deep." Otherwise how can one
account for the clause in the counter
proposals refusing to deliver for tri-
j the former Emperor and others
:harged by the Allies with RESPONSE
'ility for the war atrocities. The
Germans ask for clemency because
hey have repudiated the men and the
ystem which, they say, forced the
var upon them; and then they spring
o the defense of the very men, who
~ their own admissions, plunged the
world into that unparalleled cata-
:Iysm. If they have abandoned Prus-