Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-05-18
BY OLIVER OWEN KUHN.

BY OLIVER OWEN KUHN.
TN wild orgy of protestaton against the
peace terms imposed by the allies at YER
sailes. the Germans large and small,
i reveng in their mad cries, particularly
against economic and industrial slavery,
which they say the powers of the world would
subject them to.
They have appealed to the world that they
are to starve, millions Of people will be buff
feted by the tides of circumstance, that they
eventually will succumb to the rigors of
entente ACKNOWLEDGMENT. They picture Ger
many poor innocent thing already hanged and
now about to be quartered.
Weep, oh weep. they say. for once proud.
prosperous nation which is to be a mere door
mat for the feet of all other peoples of the
world, nation which is to be robbed of the
very essentials Of fairly well ordered existence.
There can be but one answer to the walls
that emanatng from brazened threats of
the believing Hun. 1t is one word. and that
NONSENSE.
GERMANY today is better able to usher in
" era of industrial expansion than any
ton of Europe BY her own efforts. if she does
not seek to paralyze herself by the adoption Of
facilitating boshevik doctrines, Germany
reha biltate herself economically and financially
quicker than any nation in Europe today, with
the possible exception of England
Germanys factories are intact. Those of
France and Belgium but shells of their for
day prosperity, simply for the reason that they
were Quilted that Germany might enjoy her
present industrial advantage over European
trade rivals Germany Systematically went
about this business of despoliation to insure
her present-day trade advantage.
Germany today is faced by many obstacles.
The economic and financial clauses which the
allies have written into the peace treaty are
truly exacting, but days pass 1T becomes
more and more plain that these are the very
influences that to convince the German of
today that he lost the war and that his perfidy
is to be adequately punished. To lessen one
whit or jot economic financial terms imposed
upon Germany would that much lessen the
chances of convincing the German that war is
bad business and that once widespread financial
commercial and military methods pursued by
the German never be repeated
Through the imposition of financial and
economic terms, Germany is curbed in many
respects as safeguards, though given chance
to advance If she desires. Only discredted
German methods of doing business the world
over are forever ended through the peace
treaty
If Germany desires she gamey shoulder
the penalties that have been imposed, or Ger
many can founder. But the Germans do not
intend to founder. They intend to go ahead,
and the present of whining is one with
specific purpose. The writing of German notes
to the allied peace delegation in Paris has
specific mission How we'll 1t will succeed can
not be foreseen, but in this the Germans have
shown the same brand of underhanded cunning
that manifest in their war and pre-war
time dealings with other nations
X X X X
THE Germans have little to gain, they know.
l in appealing to the allied governments.
Through the medium of the notes being dis
patched to allied emissaries in Paris documents
which in the main have been made public, the
Germans, themselves the heart of so-called
socialist government, expect to stir sympathy
among the socialists of all lands and consequent
protests and demands for the lessening OF rfgor
in the peace terms. The socialists of Europe
emphasize industrial and economic freedom for
all classes. If the Huns at Versailles can con-
vince the European political brothers that their
economic and industrial life is hazarded they
believe the support they will receive in Other
nations will be great and may lead to mod1-
dcation of present stipuiations.
The Germans. however. are overlooking one
thing The socialists of Europe today are suf-
fering the tortures of the damned; have seen
hundreds Of thousands Of their brothers faH
upon battle fields and seen their wives, chill
dren and relatives suffer never before, all
through perifdious actions on the part OF the
German nation in the past. These socialists
of other countries cognizant that Ebert and
Scheidemann of Germany ever were the will
ing tool of that arch criminal, the kaiser.
These things may be forgotten In America.
The feeling among European peoples Is not
SO transitory. It is exceedingly likely that the
German-fostered propaganda to influence and
mitigate the terms of peace will fall just as