The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-02-19

great powers or their representatives
chiefly responsible. Tho fact seems
to be that the Americans too little APP
preciated French interests, the French
too little understood the need Of max
ing their interests clear to America.
and the English were too eager to
take advantage of present opportuni-
ties for cementing American friend
ship to perceive Immediately the COM
mon peril and overwhelming neces-
sity Of acting as q unit In the pres
ence OF the enemy. It all comes back
to the initial blunder. Germany re-
manned the enemy, with the allies at
the present time as blind to the real
fact as were the allies of century
ago to the vitality Of the NapOleonic
peril. AS / said the other day, the
return of Germany to strength and
to her old tone and manner, has had
something Of the character for Paris
that Napoleon's return from Elba had
for the Congress at Vienna.
Out Of this confusion. which was
marked alike by grave warning ut
tered by Marshal Foch on the military
side, and by moving appeal by Prime
Minister Clemenceau, alike on the ma
terial and on the moral side, there
has emerged something which prom
ises to be the solution and cure. Pres
ident Wilson, clearly confronted with
the French appeal, with the facts on
which the French apprehension Is
based, has joined with his allies in
adopting a programme by which Ger
many is now to be disarmed, the Ger
man invasion Of Poland is to be made
impossible. German compliance with
A. ~ \ a.. A. 10 srf0 6
and, after three months of delay, Ger
many on the military side, Is to be
placed where she can no longer resist,
and must comply, and, more than this
she can no longer feel, as she has felt
in recent weeks, that she can exploit
the difficulties between her allies,
based on principles, for her own sell
fish and material ends.
Allies Ran Great Risk
Doubtless before this article is print
ed the terms OF the new armistice Will
be made public from Berlin. Their
exact content is rigidly withheld here
at the present moment, but it Is of1t-
cially explained that the ultimate re-
suit Of the present crisis has been to
bring all the Allies together In COM
mon determination to check a new
German renaissance of militarism and
of Prussianism, and to make Germany
helpless before the countries she has
wronged. In sum, it has been decided
to do at least what should have been
done in the beginning, namely to place
Germany in the position In which her
conduct, her purpose for over half
century, and her almost immemorlal
tradition, require that she should De
placed.
It must be said frankly that in for
getting Germany and overlooking the
practical and material problems and
dangers and concentrating all atten-
ton upon the theoretical and abstract,
the conference at Paris has made
grave mistake, and run very real risks.
Hope for the future lies in the fact
that, recalled by Germany to recog-
milton of these solid and substantial
facts the conference at Paris has re-
asserted that unity that won the war
in the field and which alone can win
it at Paris. We have In fact; been
disquietingly if not dangerously near
to losing some considerable part OF
the fruits of our victory in the last
three months. We have seen tenn
porary breach opening between France
on one hand, and America and Britain
on the other. Both America and Brit
ain have now closed the breach by
recognizing, as they always should
have recognized, the necessities OF
France and the solemn and inescap-
able fact that the frontier Of civiliza-
ton remain wherever the French out
posts stand, and that if the German
comes again, as he now threatens,
France will have to bear the first
blow and must therefore be fortified
against it, since, as the president said
eloquently the other day in the French
senate, Danger to France is danger
to the whole civilized world"
Interests Divided.
The greatest difficulty of all at Paris
must be clearly understood. When
we were fighting the German. all ma
lions associated against it had COM
mon purpose and In the end achieved
that unity of command on the edge OF
destruction which alone saved us. But
Germany beaten, the nations allied
against her have not common pur-
pose, and in the very nature of things
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