Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-09-20

liberated. Factories have been reopened,
commerce has revived. There n employ
ment for q large ana compact industrial
population.
Good harvest and French financial sense
have been playing their important part In
the general recovery OF Europe along mate
rial lines. Csecho -Slovskia, II IL said,
has seldom been 80 prosperous In It's history.
The German revival 10 slower and the Aus
trian necessarily the most laggard Of all,
but that extreme radicalsm has been unable
to dominate either Of the Teuton countries
points to q sense Of values which some hys-
tcrical commentators have refused to sc-
knowledge.
The reawekening Of industrial and COM
mercial enterprise followed the. armistice In
Great Britain more swiftly than in any other
European nation. II Is her competition
rather than her trials which IL now Of par
ticular interest to outsiders.
In material Affairs, therefore, it may be
said without undue optimism that Europe Is
regaining health. 1t is the political and
social movements, however, upon which
American attention has been largely focused
and upon which some judgment based on
facts can at last be passed.
Bolshevism as a world code has un-
doubtedly failed. With the best Of inten-
tions to see its bright side the British labor
delegation. after the most exceptional op-
portunities for observation, Is forced In its
ofhcial report to the conclusion that per
sonai freedom together with freedom of
speech Is severely repressed." Individual
members Of the. commission have submitted
detailed accounts Of oppression, industrial
stagnation and economic collapse due di.
IN ~ -
munist standard. The disillusionrnent seems
destined to affect profoundly and for the
better the settlement Of the very serious
labor situation In England. 1t Is wildly
e1travagant to talk Of revolution" In that
country. The familiar prospects Of muddling
through are once again visible
Although italian conditions are clouded
by contradictory reports, the most reliable
authorities point to the recent acquisition Of
industrial plants BY the employees as an ex-
pertinent In syndicalism, branch Of radical
ism differing In many salient respects from
Russian Soviet principles. And In Russia
itself the validity Of these theories Is ques-
toned by an impressive majority, whose
enslavement can be but temporary.
The difficulty Of CO. ordinatlns the mani
fold political and economic currents In
Europe and from them Identifying a main
stream Is as ba6ling now a. II was to the
remakers Of the Continent and the critics Of
their work in 1915. But 1t cannot be denied
that the forces Of evolution have triumphed
over revolution and that the factors Of the
healthy change are rapidly being manifested.
Panic over the envisased spread of boil
shcvism has virtually vanished. The pre-
ludes of the negotiations at Riga inspire at
least some hope that the Poles will not ruin
good case by ovcrstating It.
The left over wars of Europe have
been to considerable degree inevitable,
reactions Of the parent struggle. The force
of the tragic momentum appears to be almost
checked.
Meanwhile. although the social and po-
litical developments do not promise the mil
'ennium once 20 naively and pathetically
contemplated, they do betoken changes of
the utmost consequence to civilization. Eu.
rope. as she quiets down. Is a more fasci-
mating topic for speculation than she has
been for many months.
But there is no comfort for forecasters
limited TO expressing belief 10 complete sue
cess or absolute failure. Europe is possibly
working out the system Of mixed benefits
with accompanying penalties that Is charac.
teristic Of the whole heroic upward drive of
mankind.