Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-09-20
IS A NEW ORDER EVOLVING
FROM A QUiETER EUROPE7
Evidences Of Material Recovery and the
Failure OF eoishevIsm Suggest, With.
out Definitely Defining, the
Upward Drive

Aside from the relief to less assertivc
human specimens-happiy in the majority
the situation Is wholesome for what II lacks.
This deficiency IL chiefly in the stock OF the
sensational and the spectacular. Up to date
the last dramatic event in Continental af.
fairs was the swift and effective repulse Of
the Bolshevist invasion by the Polish armies.
The direct conseQuence-the conference at
Rtgn-is so much tanner and less colorful
that the angle of observation on happenings
abroad has nppreciably widcned.
Snap judgments are. temporarily at least.
In allegiance. Tendencies that once seemed
formidable for good or III nre acquiring hazy
outlines or have overlapped with other move
ments. This does not mean the absence OF
highly interesting developments. On the con-
trary. II suggests that formative processes
arc at work. leading perhaps to something
very different from results forecast by either
radical or conservative idealists Immediately
after the war.
As every aftermath of armed conflict has
been throughout history. the period which
may be roughly dated from November, 1918,
to August 1920, was one largely of fever In
thought and paralysis or confusion in action.
Men who fight are supposedly infused with
clear cut conception OF their purpose. Prob
lens, whether speciously or otherwise, are
reduced to their simplest terms. 1t was the
belief Of Germany that she was defending her
national integrity 1t was the conviction
of the Allies that they we're seeking to
emancipate the world.
But II, for the time being, war In Its sub.
jective aspect IL simple. peace is all but
overwhelmingly complicated. 1t was an
ancient and enduring misconception of its
nature which provoked the anguish of dis.
appointment over the nonfulfllment of theo.
retically estimable ideals. Virtue, as the
best intcntioncd liberalist conccives it, was
not enthroned either by the armistice or the
Treaty of Versailles. Virtue, as the Rus
sian revolutionary Communist sees it, failed
to conquer the planet
The Germans, ever materialstic In their
aims. IL no less destined to be disa appointed,
saw In the peace possible escape from pun
ishment. The collapse of some of their plans
indicates that they we're still thinking in
the crude blacks and whites Of war.
II Is. however. the height OF failacy TO
derive from this series Of establishments
belief in economic, social or political stag
nation. When the Napoleonic catacly SIN
ended there were in Europe momentarily
powerful forces which openly championed
the status quo Of n preceding generation.
gress Of Vienna to restore the Continent to a
pre- revolutionary basis. The mockery of
the divine right of kings was ostensibly re-
established. National frontiers were arbi-
trarily drawn.
After quarter Of a century of nearly
continuous strife there was naturally deep
prostration Of spirit among European
peoples. Self constituted clairvoyants dis
mnily refused to proffer forecastr OF re.
covery. What they and others, not so ar
rogant. failed to note were the germs Of n
new Europe inextinguishable by fiat or
convention.
The liberalism of the French Revolution
had not only survived the pIcesses which
had seemed TO some minds a dominant char.
actcristic, but the tcnets of sane freedom
had fostered new sense of nationality
among peoples previously accounted dead to
such sentiments. The result is to be read in
the annals OF the siIty-hve years during
which liberal uprisings unforeseen by Meter!
mich and his kind dealt to absolutism some
irrecovcrable blows.
The accompanying movement. almost
equally slgnhrant. was the intense develop.
ment n nationality az q political factor
Germany and Italy were recreated and II
was national feeling chauvinistically exae.
gerated which produced the Franco Prus
sian War, correctly regarded as marking the
end OF an epoch. In other words the makers
OF the Treaty of Vienna had but the faintest
notions of the currents Of European clyiliza
ton.
Similarly, the depression which the Paris
Commune caused In the minds Of genuine
liberals was based upon a structure of faulty
proportions. Recovery from the traRcdv ~
1871 was specd!er in France than the proc.
oSs OF restoration In Europe has lately
been. 1t seems fair TO assume however,
that 1t is the scale rather than the historic
principle that has changed. Economic pros
tration in many parts OF ante beum Europe
and nearly three years Of Boshevist rule in
Russia must b. viewed In relation TO con
siderable periods Of time.
1t Is permissible. however, after the lanse
of almost two years from the armistice TO
appraiSe European conditions with the as.
sistance Of accumulated evidence Colonel
House, for instance, is only one of several
recent acute observers TO note the solid be-
ginnings OF reconstruction abroad In his
opinion. expressed on returning to America
| last week, Europe is waking up and ut last
graphing with the problems that are before
her. After the war there was a strange
| inertia everywhere. From this they are
recovering. Unfortunately. bolsheyism has
| retarded the recovery somewhat because 1t
| has injected into the situation entirely new
| problems 1t is doubtful whether Europeans
will ever return to prc-war conditions"
There is unquestionable phllosophic valid.
| ity in his conclusion. That the inertia was
Strange seems. on the other hand, to be a
| rather superficial statement for so searching
| a critic. The war itself at this stage Of
| civilization was a much stranger thing than
the inevitable shock from It's blow.
Camille Huysmanns, the eminent Belgian
| statesman, has recently described In the