The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-03-12
A CRISIS REACHED
Sec. Lansing Says World Is at
the Turning Point.
Allies Must Feed German or
BoIsheyism viii Rule.
TALKS At PRESS DINNER
Hun Army Is Beaten But
Hunger Is Consequence.
Not Much Pity When We Look
ON DesoiatiOn.
TALKS At PRESS DINNER

| Paris March 1--we have reached
a crisis ii the affairs Of the world"
said Secretary of State Robert Lansing
at a banquet given last night by the
Inter-Allied Press club in honor of
the American peace commissioners
Mr. Lansing was emphatic in his
| statement that the allies must feed
Germany and give the Germans OPP
portunity to sell their products in the
foreign marks if the danger of Boil
shevism was to be avoided. He painted
a vivid picture of conditions in the
war zone of France, and pointed out
that it was not thru pity for Germany,
but to the allies own advantage to
see that anarchy was prevented in
the former German empire.
Mr.. Lansing said: "A mighty vic
! tory has been won. The imperial
armies of the central powers hay
| ceased to threaten. They no longer
exist Scattered and broken, they
| have returned to their homes, where
hunger and priyation await them
| hunger and priyation which are the
| consequences of their own blind falth
| in evil men who led them into this
! unrighteous war.
Hun Entitled to Suffer.
Germany has suffered bitterly, is
| suffering bitterly. and Germany Is
| entitled to suffer for what she has
done. She has paid a fearful penalty
| for the crime of plunging the worlo
into four years of blood and fire. To-
| day starvation and want are the por-
| tons of the German people. violence
| and murder stalk thru the streets OF
their great cities. Political institu-
lions, Industrial enterprise and the
very structure of society are lettering.
! It is the price of their own evil doing,
the Just retribution of their crimes.
| I'VE may be disposed to pity those
innocent among the, Germans, but our
pity is almost dried up when we con-
slider what France and other nations
have had to suffer from the invading
armies of the Teutons. Ten days alter
! L landed in France, in December, L
made it my business to visit the battle
fields of the Marine, Aisne and tine
Champagne. 1 saw the ruins of Cha
teau Thierry and F'ismes; 1 saw the
stately and historic cathedral OF
| Rheims, a monument to the ferocity OF
the Germans; I saw the Scared and
up-turned fields of Champagne and
deserted places where once had been
thriving, happy villages: I saw ham,
lets along the Marine whose crumbiing
walls bore witness to the frightfulness
: of war. No man could see what l
saw in those days without bearing a
burning Indignation against those re-
sponsible for such ruins and destruc-
lions, with It an intense and undying
hatred for them.
Have New Problems Ahead.
'And now that the great conflict is
ended and the mighty war engine of
Prussia is crushed we have new prob
lens to solve, new dangers to over
come. Political chaos and outlawry
have supplante1 the highly organized
government of i'm perial Germany.
Over the ruins of this once great en-
pire the flames are sweeping west
ward. 1t is no time to allow senti-
ments of vengeance and hatred to
stand in the way of checking this con-
flagration which will soon be at the
German borders and threatening other
lands. We must change the conditions
on which social unrest feeds, and
strive to restore Germany to a normal
tho it be a weakened social order.
Two words tell the story-food and
peace. To make &c many capable of
resisting anarchy and the hideous
depotism of the red terror, Germany
must be allowed to purchase food and
to earn that food, industrial condi-
lions must be restored by a treaty of
peace. 1t is not out of pity for the
German people that this mus. be done
and done without delay, but because
we, the victors in ms war, will be the
chief sufferers # it is not done.
You may demand reparation as
much as you please. but unless the
German people are furnished mate
rails for their industries and CONNER
c1al opportunities to sell the products
OF labor in the foreign markets and
unless the laborers have food, Ger
many can never pay. even in part for
the evil she has done. Furthermore.
II the present state of chaos continues
and the political power continues to
grow weaker there wills be no re-
sponsible German government with
which to make peace; there will be no
COVER nment strong enough to carry
out the conditions of treaty of peace.
No Time To Be Lost.
81 say to you men of France and
men of America and to you men of
the allied powers that there is no time
to be lost if we are to save the world
| frcm the despotism of autocracy. We
ought to make, we must make, peace
without delay and ships laden with
hfood must enter the harbors of Ger
many. We have reached a crisis in
the affairs of the world, we must meet
1t without passion and without per-
hitting our judgment to be warped by
a natural and unavoidable desire for
Vengeance on nation which has COM
mitted such atrocities as those the
! Germans have committed.
-, There can not be any doubt in the
MINDS OF thinking men as to the dan
ger that faces the nation. We are vic
tor1ous and yet victory on the battle
field is not ALL We must use our vic
tory wisely or we will lose even more
than we have gained. 1t is no time to
permit selfishnesS to control our ac-
ton or to permit an immediate adj
vantage to blind our eyes to the great
| er good which lies in the future it is
not a spirit of generosity which de-
mands peace and which cries out that
the Germans must be fed. 1t is COM
mon sense that demands it and that
: points out the perils before us if we
do not listen to the voice of reason.
France Showed Her Greatness.
France showed her greatness OF
soul in the dark hours of adversity
and we of America, who give her un.
stinted praise. trust her to show the
: same spirit in these days of triumph
Together France. America and the