Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-02-10
WARS END MAY BE 'LULL IN
STORM" CLEMENCEAU FEARS

that there have been overcharges by
| the French for food and other things
Well, there are things to be said
about that. First for many years the
Americans have been coming to Eu-
rope and with abundant means and
great generosity have been spelling
| our people. They have paid for every
thing with bounteous hand. AS
! result they have taught our people,
| who were willing pupils. that they
were rich and very, very generous
1t was but human that our people
| should expect much from the Ameri-
| cans.
! ut is only fair to say that in every
I case where the attention OF the
| French government has been brought
| to case of extortion an earnest and,
! 1 think, effective effort has been made
/ to stop 1t. Compared with the United
States. France is a small country ana
| limited in her resources. Necessarily
she is provident. perhaps unpleasant
ly careful. l would say; not misery
| nor certainly Intentionally extortion-
ate. But also you must know that all
the time our own French people have
paid the same prices for what they
bought that our American friends
have.
Throughout the war our relations
with the American Army have been
most cordial, and your Treasury Of
!iciais Will assure you. ! am sure. that
there has always been a spirit of
generosity on both sides. Any sug-
geStion that we have asked payment
for trenches or the burial places of
your brave soldiers is atrocious. For
all future ages the graves of Ameri-
can soldiers will be in the tender and
sacred keeping of our grateful people.
II have said that the war is won. II
would perhaps be more accurate to
say that there is lu!l in the storm
At least II is as well to face sQuarely
all of the possibilities.
Deeper View of Hun Purposes.
Recent disclosures have enabled us
to look deeper into the purposes of
the enemy than we could heretofore.
1t was not purely dream of military
domination on the part of Prussia.
1T was definite, calculated conspiracy
to exterminate France as well in
dustrially as commercially as in a
military sense. In this effort the Ger
man bankers and manufacturers join
ed their general staff.
And in this phase of their war
making effort they have not been
altogether unsuccessful. The indus
trial life of France has been so
wrecked that it's resuscitation is most
difficult, while. by reason of her mill
tary surrender. Germany has been
able to save her factories intact and
ready for immediate efficient opera
ton, industrially and commercially;
as between France and Prussia for
the present the victory is with the
Hun.
Hun and French Debts Different.
"And financially. by reason of the
blockade tthe value of which as
military factor no one will question),
the German war debt ia almost wholly
a debt to her own people, easily re-
pudiated, while the debt of France is
one which must be paid. Here again
the war has proved something like a
pyrrhic victory for France.
1.-THE French fortune invested
abroad before the war was large.
of French stock. What has become
Of that fortune? The best that we can
hope for is that payments on about
two-thirds of it may be considered as
simply deferred; that the immense
sum accumulated by French thrift
and loaned abroad will be collectable
eventually.
I'VE shall have problems. but France
will face them, as she has done, with
courage and with an abiding faith in
the triumph of right and Justice. As
must II be said Of France--she will
continue Sans peur ct sans reproche.'
"All of our plans are based on the
splendid platform laid down by Pres
ident Wilson. In perfect harmony
enunciated we are striving for higher
and holier idealism in the conduct of
affairs of the world. Divested OF all
mercenary aspirations we Join heart
lily and unreservedly IN the effort to
simple justice to all mankind"