The Washington times., 1921-02-02
Today
Who Will Pay7
Germany Perhaps Not.
The Strassburg Statue.
Revenge UnprofitabIe.
: ARTHUR BRISBANE

tHC OH doouui8 otdtuC.
Revenge UnprofitabIe.
by ARTHUR BRISBANE
Copyright. iszi)
The German indemnity Is fixed.
Some changes may come when
Lloyd George, ruler Of all Europe
outside Of Russia, discusses the
matter with Germanys represen-
.atives. But subject to change
of details, Germany is to pay the
Allies, France chiefly, fifty-five
thousand million dollars during the
next forty-two years.
WHO WILL PAY THAT IN
DEMNITY? Will Germany pay
1t, or will France pay it!
Fifty years ago France and
Germany settled the war of 1870.
Then Germany did what France
does now. She took what she
wanted, Alsace and Lorraine, that
had formerly been German ter
ritory, and one thousand million
dollars.
Bismarck thought, and France
thought, that France was to pay
the bill. But France and Ger
many know now that it was only
a question Of waiting a few years.
Germany is to give back the
one billion that Bismarck took
multiplied by fyty-five, and Ger.
many is returning Alsace and Lor-
raine and a great strip Of German. +.
territory, including most valuable
mines. Bismarck thought he was
taking something from France. He
was really piling up a debt to be
repaid with five thousand per cent
interest a little later.
In the great Place de la Con-
eorde stands statue represent
ing Strassburg, the fine Cathedral
City that Germany took from
France fifty years ago.
After 1870 that statue was kept
draped heavily in black. Every
Frenchman that fought in this
war had seen or all his life had
heard of that statue with it's
heavy black drapery. Every
statesman as he rose to power
knew that the oneI idea of the
French people was REVENGE.
The time came, and revenge
came. Now Germany gives back
Alsace and Lorraine. The Strass-
burg statue in the Place de la Con-
corde is draped in gay colors, and
the French, If they choose, can
hang around the neck of that
statue a necklace of fifty-five
beads, each representing a bill
lion dollars-fifty-five times the
amount that Bismarck took from
France. '
But who will pay the indemnity
of $55, ,000, 900, 900 in the long run?
Germany has given back the land,
and money taken by Bismarck, and
all her colonies, her ships, the
right to have. an army, her loco
motives, her cows, her mines and
fiftXufiva, Thousand millions, in
.pau ntska f<uss9( i6n fxken. =
There the score stands now.
How will it stand fifty years from
now. After the sixty-five million
Germans that raise big families
shall have gone on breeding and
brooding on revenge, developing
a population three or four times
as great as that of France, will
France then perhaps pay with her
life when England is no longer
strong enough to protect her, for
the fifty-five billions?
And what will happen if Ger
many, unable to pay this amount,
or unwilling to enter into indus
trial and financial slavery for
forty-two years, decides to throw
herself into the arms of Russian
Bolshevism?
What wCuld happen to all west
ern Europe, France, Italy and
England if the Russian population.
Russian resources, and German
efficiency, manufacturing and
fighting power should combine to
make Bolshevism the ruling force
in Europe and to enable Germany
to push on toward the Atlantic
once and for all.
You may say that Germany has
no army and navy. But it isn't
guns or ships alone that count.
What counts is THE FEELING
OF A PEOPLE AND THE POW
Err OF INDIVIDUALS TO d.
RECT.
France didn't have much of an
army when the .sallow-faced boy
Napoleon was sent down to deal
with the armies of Italy and Aus
tria. That didn't keep him from
ruling Europe.
Revenge planted in the heart Of
an individual or nation is danger
Gus. It Injuries the person that
harbors revenge; undoubtedly, it
Injuries more the enemy at whom
the hatred is aimed.
The world now looks on speculat-
ing: "Will Germany be able to
pay the fifty-five billions after
having had her gold, her best lands
and mines taken from herr"
That is not the important ques-
ton. "Who will PAY the indem-
nitv In the long run 2" That is the