The vidette. (Iuka, Tishomingo County, Miss.) 1912-1967, 1919-08-21
Europe's Present Condition.

We have not reached a settle
ment, but only basis of settlement
with Germany. provided we, her
stand united for the
next fifteen years, provided We agree
to use force, il necessary, to compel
German compliance with her
made under duress, repu-
dated in advance.
In the meantime the alliance
against Germany has not stood the
test of the Paris Conference unshak-
en-. The Italians have all but left
the conference. Italy has shown in
every conceivable fashion her dis
satisfaction with the results so far
reached. French and italian sold
iers have clashed in Fiume. Italian
journals have united in the most
savage criticism of President Will
son, welcomed in Italy few months
age as no man has been welcomed
since Italy became a nation.
Those Of us who were in Paris
saw develop the Italian dissatisfac-
ton and the equally bitter Japanese
resentment against the three nations
which were dominating the Peace
Conference. OF the five great pow
ers until recently united in the
common struggle against the Ger
man, two have already drifted very
far away from their old allies. As
a matter Of fact the old alliance has
ceased to exist. There are left now
only the United States, Britain,
and France,
Nor is it less plain that forces are
at work still further to extend the
disintegration In the United States
public opinion is being deliberately
and successfully stirred against
Great Britrin. against France, and
even more successfully in the direc-
tion of a return to the old policy of
isolation, which, If adopted, would
leave France and Britain substan-
TALLY alone in the presence OF a
vengeful Germany. a hostile Italy,
a Russia whose ultimate reintegra-
ton is almost certain but whose
future alignment must remain
problematical.
Not only will Russia's alignment
be a matter OF conjecture, but it is
at least certain that most OF the in
fluential Russians, the anti-Bolshe-
vistic leaders, whom one saw or
knew about in Paris, were even
more hostile to the Western powers
than to Germany, regarded what
they termed Allied betrayal as more
intolerable than German brutality.
Meantime, Russia herself is the
scene OF half dozen wars, the site
OF at least as many struggling states.
From the Baltic to the Black Sea
chaos and contest endure and we
have become hardened to the re-
ports of the murder of hundreds
and the death from starvation and
disease of thousands and even
millions.
Such, then, is the Europe that
exists at the moment the treaty with
Germany is signed. Two hunderd
millions OF people are still in the
agonizing torture of Bolshevism,
which has proclaimed its hostility
to Western civilization and demon
strated it. Seventy million Ger
mans in the old Germany and the
present Austria are sullen and hop
ing for revenge. Nearly forty mil
lions of Italians hate France and
Britain with hatred as intense as
that they felt for Austria only five
years ago. Upwards of fifty mil
lions of people of the recently liber-
ated races are fighting with each
other and with at least one of the
Great Powers for their respective
places in the sun. From Peace
with Germany" by Frank II.
in the American Review
OF Reviews for August, 1919.
al 50 Outside fhA County.