South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1919-02-19
FIRST CRISIS OF
THE CONF FERENCE

Germany Has Exploited Diff
CuIties Between Allies, Gre
ating Real Danger.
/ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 80
/ thing which promises TO be the So
luton and cure. Pres't Wilson clear
| ly confronted with the French ap-
peal with the facts on which the
/ French apprehension is based, has
| Joined with his allies in adopting
| program by which Germany is now
TO be disarmed, the German invasion
| by Poland is TO be made impossible,
| German compliance with the old
terms is TO be insisted upon and
after three months of delay, Ger
many on the military side, is TO be
! placed in a position where she can
no longer resist, and must comply,
and more than this one can no
| longer feel. as she has felt in recent
weeks, that she can exploit the diff
culties between her allies based on
principles for her own selfish and
material ends.
ARSIISTICE TERMS
! UNKNOWN AT PARIS.
Doubtless before this article is
printed the terms of the new armis-
! tice will be made public from Ber-
lin. Their exact context is rigidly
withheld here at the present mo-
ment. but 1t is officially explained
! that the ultimate result of the pres
ent crisis has been to bring all the
allies together in a common deter
mination TO check a new. German
renaissance of militarism and Of
Prussianism and 10 make Germany
| helpless before the countries she
countries she has wronged In sum.
! il 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 a century
and her almost immemorial tradi-
! ton. require that she should be
placed
IT must be said frankly that in
/ forgetting Germany and overlooking
| the practical and material problems
/ and dangers ana concentrating all
attention 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
| 10 a recognition of these solid and
| substantial facts the conference at
\ Paris has reasSerted that unity that
won the war in the field and which
( alone can win it al Paris. We have
/ in fact been disquietingly. if not
| dangerously. near 20 losing some
considerable part of Ne fruits of our
victory in the last three months
/ FRENCH OUTPOSTS
I FRONTIER OF CIVILIZATION
We have been temporary breach
opening between France on the one
hand and America and Britain on
the other. Both America and Brit
ain have not closed the breach. by
recognizing as they always should
have recognized. the necessities OF
France and the solemn and in
! escapable fact that the frontier OF
civilization remain wherever the
French outposts 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 il since, as the pres
ident said elooUently the other day
in the French senate: Danger to
France is danger to he whole civil
lied world"
The greatest difficulty of all at
Paris must he clearly understood
then. When we were fighting the
German. all nations associated
against it had a common 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 a common purpose and
in the very nature of things cannot
have one. France, as a matter Of
life and death, has her whole atten-
ton, her whole interest, concentrat-
ed on achieving protection against
new German attack as the nation
which alone has an open frontier
towards Germany and a history of
I dtI man INV dHlOlics VI WHICH, the last
is only by degree the worst.
AMERICA ONLY FOR
LEAGUE OF NATIONS.
We Americans under Pres't Will
sons impulsion are concerned pri-
marily with the creation OF a league
of nations. TO the exclusion of ev-
erything else. Convinced. at least
in the person Of our chief and only
| representative at Paris. that once
the league of nations is constituted
all dangers of war will be abolished,
and, secure against any new Ger
man attack behind our 5000 miles
of ocean.
The British, on their part, with
the channel giving them a measure
OF protection which the French do
not have, and with the German fleet
abolished. are looking towards the
league of nations as probable