The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-01-18
URGENT REASONS
 FOR EARLY PEACE
BY HOLLAND

reason, perhaps the chief reason why so
 many business men of the United States
 are anxious that the treaty of peace be speedily ratified is to be found in the
 lurking apprehension that the longer the
 delay the more easy it will be for Ger
 many to gain the mastery in world com
 merce which her leaders and her people
 are now seeking to secure Within the i past two or three months Germany has
 neen visited by American business men. some of whom have established indus 1 tries in that country. They have come 1 back to tell their friends in New York tnat unless the other nations have a cafo Germany will within three years hav& gained such commercial triumphs as will | justify the people and the German iead- CTS in saying that although the war was lost to them upon the field of battle. nev- ertheless they have gained all they sought to gain when the war began. Several reasons are given for the view which has been taken by these Americans for the apprehension that unless the other nations, particularly the United States and Great Britain, have a care it will be discovered, possibly within three years. that Germany won the war commercially. One reason for this view is to be found in the probability that Germany will con- trol, commercially at least, such of Rus, sia, and that will give her needed aid in advance towards the great commerce of the far east, which Germany seeks to master. Another reason is based upon the belief that German interests and Ger
 man leadership are already the dominat- ing foreign influence in Mexico, an in- fluence which is sure to be increased. Then, again, the German advance to South America, the colonization there of large numbers of German industrial work CTS, the establishment of German banks, or the reopening of banks which were closed while the war was in progress, and the very heavy demand which Germany will make for raw materials of the kind which some of the South American na- tions have in abundance will inevitably lead to very large trade relations with South American.
 WHAT GERMANY IS DOING As soon as possible after the armistice
 was signed the new leaders in Germany. | many of the bankers and those who are l in control of industries, began the recon struction of Germanys industrial and commercial life These leaders still have their eye upon the British empire, seek
 ing ultimately to wrest from Great Brit
 ain her predominance in far eastern
 trade. These leaders recognize we have been informed by Americans who have I returned from Germany, that upon the 1 German territory the ravages Of war were inconspicuous Few if any indus l trial plants were harmed, and her agri- cultural fields were as ready for the blow and cultivator in the spring of 1919
 as they were in those earlier springs be- 1 fore the war.
 1 Two things Germany needed one or which she still needs. There was need of speeding up production and of renewing
 efficiency, the kind of efficiency for
 which the German workmen have gained high reputation, and this is being ac-
 complished, as far as possible. The Ger man nation also needed and still needs
 raw material, at least certain kind of raw
 material With commodities of this sort ! at her command, and with production and efficiency speeded up to their high I est capacity, Germany would be in posi- tion to command some of the markets Of the world and thereby to gain the money
 which be needed completely to restore her industrial life, make her people content
 and provide her with the runds with which l she may pay the idemnities which may | be demanded of her.
 l What the German leaders would like to know is the exact amount of the idemni- | ties which they will be called upon to 1 pay. When that sum is named, no mat ter how large. then Germany will be in position so to arrange her affairs that these idemnities can be paid.
 A NEW PROPOSITION There comes from Germany state ment, apparently authorized. to the effect that the German industrial leaders, propose to the American trade organiza- tions that hereafter, or until the time when the mark regains it's former rela- tive value with the American dollar. there be return to an exchange of goods by means of direct or open barter. That
 undoubtedly means that Germany, realz-
 ing that for the present it will be inn
 possible for her to pay balances on &C.,
 count of American trade in gold. she.
 will seek to make settlement through
 an actual exchange of goods. I
 This is one manner of admission that
 Germany knows that raw material must
 be obtained, and no small part of it frvHn
 the United States, especially of cotton
 and also copper and oil Having obtained
 tbese raw materials, German industry
 will speedily convert them into manufac- tured products with which she could not only enter the markets of the world, but
 also in return for cotton obtained in the United States, send to this country an equivalent amount in money vaiue or ner manufactured products.
 The Americans who have recently wis., tied Germany some of whom spent sev-
 eral weeks in Berlin. report that the German people seem to nave 1orsotten the war. They are occupied with recon, struction masures, believing that they can
 in due time gain such commercial ri- umphs as will justify them in proclaiming that they have obtained place in the
 sun. commercially. and that the German
 nation is to be reckoned with by all the other nations, while the intensely ag- gressive battle for world trade is Tn pro- gress.
 Business men are beginning to urge rhe in hn States they see to it that. if possible. durins
 the year 1920. the administration at Wash- ington and the Congress take measures which are of imperative need in oroer that the United States may be able 10
 hold it's own with Germany in the great
 battle of which the skirmish lines are
 already thrown out, pointing thereby to
 the battle for commercial supremacy or
 the world which is surely to follow.