Great Falls daily tribune., 1919-05-05
THE PROOF OF THE PUDDING


1t says the old adage, and the peace pudding that
has so long been simmering and boiling in the
diplomatic kettles at Paris has now reached the
stage where the various nations Of the world are
invited to give it approval by handing up their
plates and eating their share of it. Truth to
tell most OF them are not accepting their portions
with any great signs of satisfaction and Italy
has waved hers aside with every expression Of
disgust and determination not to swallow it at
all. China makes wry face also at the portion
offered her, and while not refusing to eat it,
declares that it is sure it is going to disagree
with the stomach Belgium also shows no
pleasure over the concoction. It says it should
be seasoned by slice of German territory to
tempt it's appetite. Just what German territory
Belgium covets we do not know. It had desire
for the province of Limburg along the entrance
to the Scheldt river, but that unfortunately for
the Belgians belongs to Holland and not to Ger
many, and the Dutch have no desire or intention
Of giving it up. France is too polite to say all
that it thinks about the composition of the peace
pudding. 1t got good many ingredients into
the making of it all right, but it finds it hard
to conceal the fact that the French cherish the
conviction that if their chefs had been less inter-
fered with the peace pudding would have been
more of confection from the French point Of
view. The Japs got some grains of rice into it
, in the provisions concerning Shantung and other
German claims to bits Of China that improved
it's flavor to them as much as it made the
Chinese sick England and the United States
alone seem fairly well satisfied with the
dumping.
Of course the result is not unexpected. A
peace treaty that would suit all the allies would
be a miracle Of achievement. Our own interest
in it is largely confined to the question of
whether it contains seeds of future war in its
composition or not. Of course the defeated
parties in the war are stoutly maintaing that any
alienation of their territory means just that
thing, but their views on the matter are not
carrying much weight just now. So long as the
allies are united among themselves and satisfied
with the terms Of the treaty they are confident
Of their ability to maintain the peace Of the
world. But there is the rub They are by no
means in complete agreement. In some in
stances the citizens of allied nations are not in
complete agreement among themselves as to
what they want.
The proof Of the pudding is in the eating Of
it, and the table is set and the pudding ready. A
very few days more will tell the story of how
the invited guests behaved at the banquet The
world is weary Of discussion and talk about peace
terms. So far as this country is concerned its
citizens are getting impatient to see the banquet
begin. Let those who do not like the menu stay
away or refuse their portion. Let those so
inclined eat their portion and make no faces
about it. For ourselves we want to get our bows
home and go about our business of making
money and losing it, loving and wedding and
building up new homes, developing the good
country we have In peace and safety, and hearing
no more of wars and rumors of wars We hone
it will be long, long time before our soldier
boys sail away from our shores again. Europe
and the other continents have nothing we want
that we are not able to buy and pay for in times
of peace. We can be happy with what we have
and covet no nations inheritance. If the other
powers around the peace table had more of this
philosophy, the peace treaty would not contain
100000 words and it would have been made and
signed many months ago.
The latest date fixed for the signing is May 7.
1t has been pushed further forward many times
already, but the dope from Washington now is
that the president will be home by the close Of
the present month and congress will meet in
extra session early in June. We hope it will be
realized for we have fish to fry of our own and
they need frying soon or some of them will go
stale.
BRINGING THE BOYS HOME