Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1921-08-05
Friday, August S, 1921.
CAUSE FOR GRAVE CONSIDER
ALTON

Iney SnOuld DC AWARE tiiat ie'
though an Englishman, has been so
keenly appreciative OF the laws and
people of this country that he has
been able TO give credit where credit
is due. indeed, il may be said that
Americans have through him found
il possible to learn about themselves
He it was who said of our Constitu-
ton that it was the greatest single
contribution made to government as
an applied science 1t will be re-
called how great was the weight oil
his report on the German atrocities
in Belgium during the early years of
the war. He combines with wealth
Of knowledge keen discrimination of
values and rare comprehension OF
affairs. So il is we should heed
what he said in his address this
week before the Institute of Politics
at Williams College.
While recognizing the unprece-
dented difficulties attending the max
ing of the treaty of Versailles, that
the requirements called for super
men, he concludes that their work
has received nothing but censure in
Europe and has sown the seeds of
future wars.
"A task so great needed not poll
ticians of the usual type, but persons
of the class which we now call su
permen; persons who possessed not
only "A profound and accurate
knowledge of the facts they had TO
deal with. but also a wide vision,
grasp of fundamental principles. a
calm judgment raised above the re-
Vengeful passions of the moment;
persons who loved and sought JUS
tice, looking beyond the present to
the future, seeking the good OF man
kind as we'll as the advantage of
their respective nations able to APP
preciate the workings of those better
forces which alone can bring recon
element and peace to a distracted
world
should they have been expected
There is no saying more false than
the saying which declares that the
hour brings the. man"
The sore spots he finds to be many
There is" he declares. mo blacker
cloud with future storm hanging over
Europe now than that which darkens
the bank of the Rhine"
Germany. which though reduced
In area, is still Germany and con-
tinues to call herself the reich (the
realm>, albeit now Il republic instead
of "A monarchy. Germany is still the
most populous of European countries
after Russia, with highly educated
and Industrious inhabitants and
great productive industries. Between
her and France the ancestral antag-
onism. dating back to the days of
Louis X1V'S aggressions. is now
more bitter than ever and seems
likely to last in France as long as
the generation lives which remem-
bers the devastations wrought in
1918 by the retiring Germany Army
and in Germany as long as her Gov
eminent continues to pay immense
sums in reparations for the losses in
the war by France"
This war has shown one unprece-
oented feature painful in the pros
pect it opens. The victors bear as
much resentment against the van
pushed as the vanquished do against
Tue Elctors Not even after
Jena in 1906. not even after Grave
lotte and Sedan and the capitulation
of Paris in 1872 has the prospect of
reconcilement between two neigh
boring peoples seemed so distant"
He makes comparison with the
criticized work Of the Congress of
Vienna. the members of which had
common ground in their faith in
nonarchical principles They had
only monarchs to consider, not the
Will Oh peoples, and could DO what
Hhey thought best for the interests
OF those they served" He finds that
their work which was followed by a
peace for thirty years had in it few.
er seeds of trouble than may be
found in the Versailles treaty. And
1t is not difficult to infer what is his
opinion respecting the impenetrabIe
secrecy surrounding this work a,
Paris. the making of open cove
nants openly arrived at" He find:
flaws in Hungary, in Bulgaria, in the
Austrian Tyrol and sees the DANCE,
foreshadowed in Russia With re.
gard to Turkey he said he wondered
why the Turkish Government. which
had in 1915 massacred 100000 of its
Christian subjects, women and chill.
dren as well as men. whom it haC
captured in Mesopotamia with an in.
humanity which caused the death o.
more than half of the private soldier.
the officers would probably have
suffered equally but for the inter
vention on their behalf by German
oh1cers-why after these crimes tina
Government should have been treat
ed by the Allies with such extraor.
binary lenity and should now hav.
fresh indulgence offered to it by pro.
posed notifications in the Treaty O.
Sevres--these are mysteries the ex.
planatlon of which is probably
known to some of you as it is to me
But the secret is one which as Her.
odotus says OF some of those tales
which he heard from the priests in
Egypt it would be improper for me
, to disclose"