The Logan Republican. [volume] (Logan, Utah) 1902-1924, 1919-05-20
THE PEACE OF VERSAILLES


torious trumpets the great drama OF
Prussian world conquest came to its ira
gic close at Versailles when Wednesday,
May z, 1919, the terms of the allied ma
tions were received by the German dele
gates. Across that fateful volume Of
10000 words might have been written the
words of the prophet "They that take the
sword shall perish with the sword" for
whatever fortune follows in the path of
overthrow the Prussian dream is gone for
ever.
No people since Rome has cherished so
towering an ambition as the Germans and
none, not even the Romans have suffered
so swift and complete downfall. 1t has
been the greatest gamble in history and
"a hairs breadth has divided it from sue
cess. 4 4.
Today Germany is PROSTATE. The peace
terms which are imposed upon her and
which she must accept or face worse
fate strip her of considerable portion of
her wealth and resources of revival. 1t
breaks the saber she ratified so threaten
ingly in past crises and scatters her shin
ing armor. On the east and southwest
her strategic boundaries are driven in.
Her future on the sea is foreclosed.
Nevertheless the Geman people remain
and they possess the qualities which give
the only foundation to the Prussian dream
of power Vitality, self control, knowl-
edge, method, patient industry, these are
ESr real strength and cannot be taken
from her. No nation of vital people has
been destroyed in modern times and it is
because of her acute realization Of the ca
pacity of the German race and the resil-
iency of great peoples that France, her
neighbor, and England, her rival, have
insited upon conditions which strip her OF
Immediate power to attack.
These terms will seem to many unduly
harsh, to others not harsh enough. The
psychology of 1916 or 1917 is not the psy-
chology of the Paris conference. BY 1919
compromise has given way to conquest,
and the opportunity ffered by the German
defeat to make security doubly secure
for those who for generation had lived
under the shadow of the German sword
was humanely irresistible.
The situation developed is the most re-
markable in modern times. But yester-
day the old world was in the hands of
three or four great military powers, Ger
many, Great Britain, Russia, France. To-
day Russia is divided into wrangling child
states and given over to primitive expert
mentation Germany is disarmed and
impoverished. The Austro Hungarian
composite is scattered. France, sore
stricken by the war, is hoping to rise up
on the ruins of German enterprise. But
Great Britain stands out in unrivaled
pursuance, more secure and more power
full than ever in her history, perhaps the
greatest single power since Rome. Her
most formidable rivals, Russia and Ger
many, have been set far back in the race
The only nation capable of challenging
her. the United States, is the nation with
which she is best able to live in peace, a
nation of kindred mode of thought and
action, of profoundly pacific tendencies,
without Incompatible interests.
If the world is not to have peace during
this generation, it will be, so far as we
can Judge international conditions at this
time, because Great Britain becomes in
famed by her own vast power and cult
Yates the seeds Of revolt against her. But
she will not do so if she retains that gen.
Jus for wise compromise and moderation
upon which her safety and progress in
the past have been chiefly founded.
The peace treaty, althoughin one In
strument, consists Of two parts the pro-