Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1919-01-17
The Peace
Table and After
NO. 5
A Ring Of Iron or Ring of Puttyp

CWritten for and Approved by the War
Committee of the Union League Club of
Chicago)
The same Germany which, only q
few months ago. seemed near to sue
cess in an effort to dominate the
world by force of arms will be in ex-
istence when the peace treaty is sign
ed. 1t may not have the same raj
ers, but it will be inhabited by the
same people-peOple who long have be-
lieved that military and political ex-
pansion. should be coupled with com
mercial expansion.
This Germany will be surrounded
by a ring of nations not one Of which,
alone, can compare even with defeat
ed Germany in wealth and industrial
power.
Whether this ring of nations shall
be a ring of iron to resist German
aggression in the future of ring of
putty in German hands rests partly
on the action to be taken at the peace
conference. but more upon the future
policy of the United States and the
great nations which have been asSoci-
ated with her in war in reference to
continued support of the states now
about to emerge from centuries of OPP
preston as a result of the great war.
Greatest Peril on the East.
Of Belgium, of France of Italy,
there is no doubt. Come what may
they may be depended upon to make the
western part Of the circle strong as
iron to resist German expansion.
1t is on the eastern side of the cir
Gle that the greatest peril remains
peril that the nations which are to
be set up may in time become not
barriers to German expansion, but
mere tools in her hands.
Among these will be Poland. which
has suffered deeply under the iron
heel of German despOtism Czecho-
Slovakia, which, for centuries, has
grOaned beneath the Hapsburg yoke;
Ukrainia, which, during the war. es
capped from the power of the czar only
to be subjected to worse oppression;
Roumania, which was driven perilous-
~ close to destruction in an effort to
rescue the Roumanians outside her
border from Magyar tyranny; Jugo-
SlaVia, and finally there will be indie
pendent Hungary, composed of a head
strong and' Warlike people who have
been in close alliance with the Teu-
tons.
Grab Planned by Germany.
Germany herself, even while seem
ingly victorious, planned nominal in
dependence for at least two of these
states-POland and Urkrainia hut they
were to be thoroughly dominated by
German rulers until such time as it
might be convenient to absorb them
outright. Defeated Germany will seek
at the peace table to bring about con
ditiOns which will prevent them from
obtaining full economic independence.
and reconstructed Germany. whether
it be republic or empire, will seek com
mercial dominance in all these lands.
1t remains for the United States and
the entente allies to see that these ma
tiOnS not only are set up. hut that
their governments are firmly establish
ed and their peoples given an oppor
tnnity to take their place in the indus
trial life of the world. This means
that money must be provided in the
shape of national loans. to the new
governments and in the form of pri-
yate capital for the development of
natural resources.
Ships must be provided for the
development of commerce to and from
their ports. and ports must be provid-
ed to harhor the ships. This latter
necessity is one which offers the first
prospect not only of difficulty with
Germany but, perhaps, between some