The Washington herald., 1919-03-21
Economic Relations
Remedy for BOLSheviSnl


Of Ebert depends entirely upon. his
ability to extr,cate Germany from her
immediate troubles.
Recall Herpsrs.
Now IL this were the Last Judgment
II would be quite plausible to think OF
the horrors Of Belgium and France.
to recall the exultation which accom-
panied the Lusitania's destruction. and
to deny that 1t IL desirable TO extri-
cate such q people from the damna-
ton OF its defeat But the Congress
of Versailles 10 not the Last Judg-
ment; 1t 10 q meeting Of statesmen TO
determine the future of mankind. and
that freedom from responsibility for
the future, as well as the omnipo-
tence and omniscence OF the Last
Judgment are denied to them, They
cannot damn the German people for
all time, desirable as that might be,
because German mothers bear Ger
man children. They cannot consign
them to the hell they deserve. because
the location OF that hell will be the
center Of Europe. They are limited
to narrow choices among present day
facts-to an economic and political
reconciliation with the Weimar con-
vention or the victory Of the Sparta
cides. Moral reconciliation will come
more slowly, and not altogether until
q guiltless generation has grown to
maturity. With the Individual grown
up citizens OF what was the German
empire the resumption Of spiritual in
tercourse will always depend upon q
preliminary discussion of the past.
Sanitary Europe.
But this feeling which will in vary
ing degree govern the conduct of
Western people has no place in states
manship. The business Of that states
manship 10 not to make a sanitary
Gordon. but sanitary Europe. Hav-
ing eliminated the dangers of a sud-
den Prussian revival by disarming the
German nation for war their first con-
cern should be to preserve a continu-
Gus area OF stable democracy to the
frontiers of Bolshevist Russia. That
10 the true way to protect France, both
against the hypothetical peril Of re-
newed aggression and the actual peril
of revolution within the next few
years. That is the true way of deal
ing with Lenin's ambitions which will
corrode an army. but are baffied by
contentment.
With q settlement In Europe which
weayes Germans and the new states
into the texture of Western commerce
and political life, the league Of na-
tions will have a basis in reality that
1t can never obtain by making a
schism at the. Rhine. and throwing
little states out into the middle OF
the revolutionary torrent in order to
stem II. For the creation OF a solid
area OF liberal government under the
aegis of the league Is preliminary to
the final problem OF dealing with
Lenin. The nations. with whose whole
conception of society Lenin 10 avow-
edly at war, can go forward to deal
with him successfully only when they
have left no formidable discomfort in
their own rear. So long as the ma
tions OF the league are perforated
with maladministration and loss of
faith they are like an army advanc-
ing while its lines OF communication
are cut
Preplexing ThiaGh
The perplexing thinm about Bolshe-
vism is that 1t is primitive. And be-
ing primitive IT is formless. and has
no vital center. You can kill a gov
eminent by occupying its capital and
a few of its chief strategic points.
Bolshevism has no strategic points. II
Is a complete dissolution of central
lied organization into local atoms Of
self-govenment- These atoms have to
be stamped on one by one. because
no one of them is profoundly depen-
dent upon the others. That is why
the policing of Russia would require
an enormous army distributed over
Its whole area. Now even IL a suffi-
cient army could be raised, which 1t
cannot be, the discipline OF that army
would be most difficult to maintain.
An army of occupation is bored
and discontented army and the more
successfully 1t maintains order the
more time it has to growl against the
politicians and wonder when IL will be
allowed to go home. Moreover, no
government established by an army
OF occupation Is likely to last after
the army goes because it bears the
stigma OF being the creature Of the
invading alien. The odium OF all the
privations which occurred during the
occupation is upon 1t. and it is the
experience of this war at least. that
an administration set up by the con-
Queror has to be escorted out of the
country when the conqueror leaves.
1t is possible to make war upon a
nation organized under a government.
There is no way OF winning a war
"~air"t several hundred Thousand