The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1919-03-29

we ave Germany to pay at the, risk
OF her being a peril, or shall we permit
her to fall into chaos, becoming thus
Powerless, but also Incapable of pay
mgr In the absence OF any settled
policy on the part Of the entente ma
tons Germany was permitted to sink
into revolution. We could not make
up u minds to\ give her the raw
materials to start ner factories, Ne
could not decide to remove the block
AIDE and let her population go back to
work. In this we were stopped by the
lact that to permit her to do this
would be to enable her to Xploit to
her own interest her destruction of
French industries and Belgian factor
les, The monstrous unfairness OF such
a course was patent. but It was not
less plain that II we did not permit
her to go to work she would not only
be unable to pay but her population
would presently become accustomed to
idleness and unwilling to go back to
work.
This is what has happened. Appre-
hension Of a m|ilitaristic Germany dur
ing the next 10 or Is years may be
now dismissed as idle. Germany can't
fight and Germany won't fight, The
national spirit Is at least temporarily
broken, confidence in national leaders,
IN old policies OF pan Germanism has
N'NNfllN"iSh iANbllpIllClliN. mOTlllN.
mllitartly German Is at dead low water
and the flood tide must be a long time
coming.
But In escaping the peril of a strong
Germany which ohsessed our leaders
who made the armistIce, which OBJ
sessed all minds in Paris at many
moments, the conquerors of the kaiser
nave only fled to a new danger,
We have almost finished computing
how much Germany owes us and there
Is not a living man in Parts who has
the remotest faith that we shall ever
De able TO collect even al insignificant
fragment Of our bill, We have per-
mitted our debtor to becbme totally
bankrupt. We have permitted him not
merely to lose the larger portion of
MS capacity to work, but also the de-
sire and the incentive to work, The
German has laid down his tools, aban-
doned his desk, economic paralysis Is
au over Germany n of course the
liquid capital OF Germany available to
meet foreign obligations is lnfitesimal.
Is Real Trage y.
This after all Is the real tragedy of
the situation which now confronts the
Paris conference. With respect OF
Germany 1t had no policy. 1t was sur
prised IN November as II was sur
I'AN'A ~ NA8 itlNilnNS HI me
latter date IL could not believe its own
senses, The n man who was capa-
Die or leading, namely, President Will
SON. was Interested In the organiza-
tion OF society In the league OF ma
tons not primarily IN dealing with
Germany, and in a very real sense All
that q happened in the case of Ger
many is exactly what happened In the
case Of Russia. We could not make
up our minds as to Russia, We could
not decide who were our friends In
Russia We could not satisfy ourselves
what to do and In the end Russia dts
appeared In chaos. The disease which
Is attacking Germany may or may not
pc the same as the Russian disease,
Not lmprobaoly B~olshevism In part at
least is a sheer Slav phenomenon, but
1t Is no less sure that the German dis
ease Is following a course revealing
exactly the same symptoms In some-
thing like the same time.
| have said all this with reference
to the German domestic condition be-
cause | am anxious that my American
readers should understand how greatly
Germany has changed between the nth
OF November and the 18th of March
we have now In fact TO speculate as
TO whether there Is any authority zap
able OF signing the name of Germany
TO the peace OF Versailles, We have
TO calculate as TO whether the Ger
man representatives II not in the case
Of the preltminaries OF peace which
VIII be signed in Paris, at least In the
case Of the definitlve text will not
simply declare their inability to sign
such q document and invite the allies
to occupy Germany and enforce thsjr
terms " they choose. hoping, as | have
said before, that while disorder grows
in allied countries as a result OF the
necessity of new military effort and