The Washington herald., 1919-04-09
CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE.


things be. For the mute heaps are
more than ruins, they are not merely
stark dismembered industries; they
represent more than vanished COM
merce, and they picture more than
vanished homes, whose pitiful debris
wrenches the heartstrings at every
turn. What one sees Is the sum of all
these things, and the sum is greater
than the total OF all its parts. 1t is
an awful cataclysm. It is the uproot-
ing of tradition. the anarchy of the
things which tradition makes, the
spllling Of the precious social blood
that makes men what they are, the
best OF what they are. It is the loss
to life OF its most cherished essence
the past and its continuity with the
future. That has been spilled in the
devastated region. and spilled forever.
Money-money and men in billions
cannot restore it. Time even cannot
bring 1t back. Wood and iron and
stone can never revive that dead
thing. Money and time will bring
something else. but that France and
that Belgium which are lost never
can be what they would have been
And the agony one feels in going
iii o1bh NAAo LlAlS Ia TIC ndhe Ol lIt
war is that war has committed the
objectionable sin. has done the great
irreparable wrong.
What VIII Peace Terms Be.
And yet il Germany pays-and
she will pay ultimately and mate
rally for the havoc she has done
it is important that she should pay
to those she has wronged. Some
small part of the reparation must
be in cash: that naturally will go
to France and Belgium. But il is Il
curious thing that the attempt OF
The French socialists to demand thai
every dollar paid as reparatiOn
shall be spent in the devastated
area has failed. 1t is also just that
the German prisoners of the allies
should remain in France so long as
they are needed in rebuilding the
ruined towns and harvesting crops
In regions where the farmers have
been taken by the war. But when
all this is done il will be a COM
paratively small fraction of Ger
many's just debt to the people in
the war zone. France. England,
Italy, Belgium. Rumania, America
will not be reimbursed for their
war losses. much less their war
costs by the little that Germany
may pay now; even straining to the
uttermost to meet the drastic re-
Quirements of the peace terms.
Now these things were in the
minds of the Peace Commissioners
while the peace terms were being
considered. The commissioners were
faced with two alternatives: They
could give Germany the place in the
world to which her unbroken social
and industrial organization would
have entitled her, or they could
handicCp Germany. If she were al
lowed to go forward into the COM
merce Of the world in ten years she
would have all the business of Rus
STA and the Balkans and the Near
East coming to Germany. Thus she
would win in peace what she lost
by war. For Germany's toe was on
the line ready to start in the COM
mercial race, a strong, organized
competitor with America and Eng
land for the worlds business, where
as France and Belgium, and to a
certain extent Italy. would be from
one to ten years behind her in the
race. So it has been necessary to
impose restrictions upon. Germany;
to limit her raw materials, to ra-
tion certain of her imports, and to
keep her out OF foreign competition
for a period of years, so that the
victor in war might not be the van
Quished in peace. But the allies
have had to relinquish the large
immediate indemnity which would
have been needed to place France
and Belgium and Poland upon their
feet. In order to make Germany a
certain loser OF the war it became
necessary to make France and Bel
gium suffer also. Such is the mis-
cradle irony of the appeal to war.
Who VIII Pay War Debt.
Now about the allied war debt.
There it stands, something like s105,-
100000. The other allies owe to Amer
lea approximately 5000, 10000. The
American debt has risen from 5000, :
10000 to about $4,000, 10000. England
and France have debts about as large;
larger. when one considers resources
and population. and other allies are
equally heavily burdened. Now France
feels that the debt should be pooled
that those Who have paid in blood
should be excused from paying SO
large a share of the cash. This would
put the burden of the s1O5,OOO 900 900 on
Japan and the United States, and
these two countries for three months
have been resisting to demands of
France. And one of the strong argu-
ments against pooling the war debt
lies in the fact that France has paid
less of her debt by direct taxes than
the other allies. England has paid 60
per cent Of her war debt by direct tax
alton. by taxing war profits, by tax
ing incomes and inheritances and by
heavy taxes on things which the rich
buy and use. America has paid some
thing like 80 per cent of her war ex-
penses thus. France has paid but Is
per cent of her war debt. She has not,
until very recently, taxed war profits.
She has not gouged into great for
tunes. She has not dug into big in
heritances. France is property mind
eds Her rich were willing to give
their sons, but not their fortunes, not
the things which secured their fani-
lies distinction over other families. So
France having saved her great famI-
lies, now finding that Germany can
not pay at once and directly. has a tre-
mendous debt, ruins in a sixth Of the
country which normally pays more
than q quarter OF the taxas, and sha