The Washington herald., 1920-03-06
SLY VICTORY
WON BY HUN IN
TREATY FIGHT
Revision Stamped as Tn
umph Of Subtle German
Propaganda.
HOAX IN POVERTY TALK
Already Dominating Italian
Market, Boche Ready to
Swoop Everywhere.
ny FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

ny FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.
Germany is about to make good
the threat of her first republican
chancellor, Philip Scheidemann, that
she considered the treaty of ver-
sailles a scrap of paper.
That Is the construction which in
ftiated persons in Washington place
upon the prospective revision of the
treaty. as foreshadowed in the latest
dispatches from London and Paris.
The revision is construed as a Ger
man diplomatic victory of the first
magnitude and a triumph for Ger
man propaganda without parallel.
1t is considered a fitting conse-
quence Of the Germans first act of
defiance against the treaty-their
Triumphant refusal to deliver up
their war criminals for trial before
allied tribunals.
Played subtle Game.
The writer makes the statement
that German propaganda has won
O0N Oh IhC VI
guished American financier, who
played a leading role at Paris in
fashioning the economic terms
which the German government ac-
cepted and has never ceased trying
TO wiggle out of, He declares that
well-informed persons in the United
States have been aware for months
OF the subtle and insidious game
which Germany was playing to ter
rify the world into a generous
mood. The program which the Ger
man propagandists-who are not all
Germans-set themselves was sim
plicity itself. They decided not to
whine for mercy for Germany. That
would have exposed their hand. 1t
was Europe" which the allies
harsh terms menaced with econom-
ic destruction. 1t was Europe"
which Bolshevism would engulf IL
the conditions to which Herman
Mueller and DIR. Bell affixed the
German empires signature on June
70, 1919, were lived up TO.
Respected at First.
1t will be recalled that those con-
ditions, virtually unchanged in any
particular, were the ones to which
the original German peace delega-
tion at Versailles, headed by the
supercilious Count Rantzau, de-
cIined to subscribe.
Mueller and Bell had no sooner
returned to Berlin than schemes
were Matched for evading the SOL
emn bargain into which they had
entered on Germany's behalf. 1t
was determined that the most ef-
ficscious way to dodge the terms
was for Germany to whine herself
out of them. She could never
pay" the indemnities imposed upon
her. She would be condemned to
economic slavery for life" Her
Industries could not start up" The
allies had KILLED the Teutonic goose
tary golden egg"
Painted Dire Pictures.
That was the picture the Germans
painted of their own fate. Then
they proceeded to deluge Europe
and America with dire prognosti-
cations of the disaster that would
overtake the rest of the world IL
poor, down-t-odden Germany were
not helped to her knees. Bank
ruptcy would not stop at the Rhine,
but would overflow its banks and
drench all Europe in a flood of
panic, chaos and poverty. Even the
width of the Atlantic would not
protect plutocratic and super-pros-
porous America from the effects of
allied 'rapacity" at Germany's ex-
pense. Let the world ponder
whether it was wise to purchase
Germany's ruin at the cost of disin-
tegration of the whole economic
universe" And so on.
Carl w. Ackerman's Illuminating
dispatches about the real economic
conditions in Europe arrive at
timely moment to call attention to
the mighty German propaganda
bluff.
Far from Bankruptcy.
Ackerman has shown that Europe
~ He has shown how Germany.
eager and ready to resume compe-
tition in the markets of the world.
actually dominates the Italian
market at this moment. Dispatches
from Leipzig. the seat of the annual
and famous German trade fair,
which opened this week, show that
10000 buyers, including 1900 for
eigners, are on hand. There must
be something to show them and to
sell them, or they would not be
there. There must also be raw ma
terials on hand in Germany to some
extent, too, or the goods could not
have been manufactured.
= II is known in Washington, too,
that German business men by the
hundred are waiting to swoop down
on the American market with their
wares. These facts support the
theory of those who believe that in
begging for mercy on the peace
terms Germany is indulging in
hypocrisy and cant almost without
parallel in her own cunning history.
sympathy I'm America.
The United States. though for the
moment a rank outsider as far as
the treaty of Versailles is concern
ed. is understood to sympathize
with the movement to soften down
the terms to Germany.
We are also understood to be
ready to join, II not officially,
through the medium of sympathetic
banking interests. in an internation-
al loan to the would-be world
wreckers of two years ago.
To Americans who have never
% T.