The Alaska daily empire., 1921-11-08
Wicked Statesmen and Popular Passions.
{ New York Post.

f Something more chapter in the history Of Herman reparations written at Wiesbaden last 1 week. The Loucheur- Rathenau agreement by which fGermany is to deliver in five years machinery and materials to the value of 7,000000 1000 gold marks !so the reconstruction of the devastated regions oi France, 3 chapter in the liquidation of psychol- ogy As a contribution to knowledge of the forces behind diplomacy it has significance for the approaching conference at Washington. The Lou cheur Rathenau agreement is commentary the respective share of peoples and statesmen in the de termination of international policy.
 1 The idea of German materials and labor to be en- ployed in the reconstruction of France was under consideration during the Peace Conference. It was rejected by Allied satesmen not because they were bent always doing the wrong thing, but because popular sentiment in France would not tolerate the Suggestion. French industrial leaders described the |. project German way of winning the peace after losing the It intimated that French factories mines destroyed with that pre- else object in view French labor shield the prospect of German workers busied in the rebuilding of France while French workers idle. Only year ago. when war passions had appreciaby cooled off, there was still general resentment against the presence cf Germans in France, if they to be engaged in undoing the destruction they had wrought has taken three years for blind to yield to
 Many of the foes and iniquties embodied in the Treaty of Versailles to be explained in the manner, and notably the question of reparatons lwhoe. Statesmen who knew better had their hands forced by popular paSslon at least lacked the to face popular sentiment and speak bitter truth. The statesmen asked for in repara- tion because they did not dare to tell their people how | They left it for time to bring aout the truth The amount of debate that preceded the fixing the man indemnity last winter-those portentous debates lin of billions dollars-was largely empty because could really tell what Germany after few years could pay except that the states men knew that Germany could not pay what she was being asked to pay. The hatreds during the war and the hopes aroused immediately after the 1 armisce had not yet exhausted themselves.
 Norman Angell, who is no friend of the statesmen of Versailles, has said in his Fruits of Victory" O he It was not merely act of the states
 The features of the Treaty were imposed by popular feeling-put into the
 Treaty by statesmen who did not believe in 1 them, and only included them in order
 satisfy public opinion. The policy of Presi- dent Wilson failed in part because the hu-
 and internationalist opinion of the America of 1916 had become the fercely
 chauvinist and cOercive opinion of 1919
 The lesson for the disarmament conference is plain t is too saying of the citizens conscience to assume that if disappointment comes at Washington pas it did at Paris, it will be the fault of the wicked lgood
 Popular sentiment must recognize the responsibi N attaching to it's driving force. If popular sentiment in America wants reduction of ornaments land safeguards against imperialism in the Pacific ii
 lust consent to the price that must be paid for such desirable goals If popular sentiment permits itself 10 wild against Japan if 1t insists attitude lof suspicion with regard Great Britain if in other words it surrenders itself to something of the blind ssions which the mobilized around Versailles then it cannot lay the blame for failure Washing ton upon the wicked statesmen. The distinction be- the peoples and their statesmen be pressed far. It is only of home affairs that be said that democraces get the kind of gov ernments they deserve It is true also of ,democ- raey's diplomats. 1Y