The New York herald., 1921-01-23
By FRANK H. sIMoNDs.

1.-TWO events on different sides of Europe
have in the last few days confirmed
l. the impressions existing in the
American capital that affairs in Europe are
rapidly Fastening toward the most acute
crisis since the signing OF the Treaty OIL
Versailles These events. OF course, were Inc
fall of the long doomed Leygues Minisry
in France and the announcement Of the ap-
proachng bankruptcy of. the succession
state which preserves the once "shiAe1
name of Austria.
One must recognize, however, that these
two striking developments are only the iars-
est of whole series OF similar indicauohs'
Indeed one may say that the whoie EURO
pean system after having momentarily re-
gained a measure of stability seems threat
ened with a new and almost lmitless catas-
trophe which will weaken II 1t does not
actually endanger the whoie structuie -
European civilization.
SUPPOSE for example. that the proverbiai
visitor from the planet Of Mars were to un-
dertake at this precise moment to make
tourney of investigation from capital to
capital throughout Europe and extending be-
yond the Hellespont into Asia, what wouio
he find? Assume that in his painstaKlns
effort to cover the whole field he should De-
gin his travels by landing in Ireland and DE-
cial dispensation permitting him to set foot
upon Irish soil. say at Queenstown
Proceeding to Cork, he would fnd himself
in a city showing every sign OF recent m
vasion possessing all the signihcant de-
tails which perhaps even the inhabitants
of Mars have learned to recognize as the
accompaniment OF contemporary wars upon
our planet He would, In fact enter upon
a devastated district on the first day OF his
$ excursion and find himself in country in
which there existed a state Of war
Facing Industrial Crisis at Home
And Political Crises Abroad
Leaving ireland behind him-without re-
eret one may conjecture-he would cross
Britain only to find himself in country
going through the most acute Industrial
crisis in it's whole history He would llnu
by reference to any British newspapers tnat
the number of the unemployed was mount
ing to figures which rival the staggering
totals of recent military electives and ne
would find similarly that the British people,
faced with these domestic problems, are at
the same time wrestling with imperial dif-
Hculties which, involve vast expenditures
and actual campaigns in Ireland and Meso-
potamia together with the maintenance at
maximum strength Of garrisons in lndia
and Egypt where the threat OF rebellion is
ever present and the fact recognized in all
British journals.
Yet along with all the manifold ndica-
lions of crises, our visitor would be called
upon to adjust himself to the undeniable
fact that despite all that his eyes witnessed
he was seeing that country which OF all
belJigerents had made the greatest progress
toward rehabilitation and found itself best
conditioned of all European nations.
Crossing the Channel into France, our
traveller, journeying toward Paris, would
infallibly cross many Of the most famous
battIeheIds of the last war and see spread
out before him the paralyzed industrial re-
g.ons of France, notably the coal area OF
Lens, in which the efforts OF government
and private enterprise combined hold out
only the remote promise that four years
hence this vital department Of French life
will begin to approach the production OF
1914.
Laying aside the political evidence which