The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-05-04
THE ALLIED DEBTS.

closest observers of the trend of pub
lie thought, has written a letter to the
London Times. designed to express the
views of ''the man in the street." in
this country, relating to the allied
debt. cancellation of which has been
suggested.
Mr.. Kahn finds a distinct manifes-
tation of public sentiment against the
suggestion of relinquishing war in
debtedness all around among those
with whom we stood as brothers in
arms, barely more than two years ago.
in defense of cause for which we
were prepared to-make sacrifices lit
orally without limit.
American opinion. he says, consid-
ers the circumstances and motives of
our entrance into the war as essential
ly different from those which affected
most of the allied nations when they
unsheathed the sword. Take the case
of England. even leaving aside the
! moral obligations arising from her
membership in the entente: She was
bound to fight, quite Irrespective of
the invasion of Belgium, because if
Germany had been victorious over
France, she would have established a
military and economic overlerdship
which would have menaeed the very
existence of Great Britain as a great
world power. Indeed. the spearpoint
of the German purpose was directed
mainly against Great Britain.
Mr.. Kahn proceeds as follows:
AS to America, on the other hand.
the majority of her people never really
believed that Germany would or could
be a menace to her; they were not
greatly impressed by the argument
that she would have to fight Gers
many sooner or later" and had better
do it in company than alone, To the
extent that this phase of the question
entered into their calculations at all,
the logic of the situation pointed
rather to the conclusion that Ger
many, surrounded by emblttered hos
tility, would, of manifest self-interest,
indeed of necessity, do her utmost
after the war to establish close rela-
tons with America. And the official
ana non-effieial spokesman of Ger
many left nothing unsaid and undone
to convince our government as we'll
as our public opinion, not without
plausible arguments, that the eco
nomic and political interests of the
TWO nations ran on parallel lines.
Our people saw all the less reason
Tor apprehension in respect of Ger
many's actions toward America, as it
was the prevailing belief, after the
first battle of the Marine in the autumn
Of 1914 that Germany could not win
the war. and that, at the worst for
the allies. the h.
c!procal exhaustion and a stalenlate
II America had been willing to regard
the situation from the sheer selfish
point of view. she could have eontem-
plated such an outcome with some
thing more than complacency.
Coming down to the motives which
impelled America to enter the war,
Mr.. Kahn says:
America went into the war wholly
of her own free will uninfluenced by
any material or political consideration
and without anything whatsoever to
gain She fought because her dignity
mad been flouted, her flag defied and
her government treated with con-
tumely, but above all--conseieusly, de-
liberately, with a full realization of the
cost involved in lives and treasure
because her many-rooted people had
become finally (even tho tardily) con-
WINGED that the cause of the allies was
that of right and liberty struggling
against the brutal might of a law
breaking, treaty-defying international
bully and because she felt that in s,Ich
a cause her place was not in the eamp
of safe and profitab neutrality, but
on the battlefields by the side of the
champions of freedom and justice.
1.-The spoils. and the only spoils,
which America asked. for and prom
ised herself" continues Mr.. Kahn,
was to uproot the poison growth of
Prussianism, to make an end of war,
as far as humanity possible, and to
bring about a finer, werthier and
nobler state of the world.
Has that expectation been real
| ized?' he asks. HAS the world been
made a better place to live in? Are
national ceveteusness, racial anipoesi-
ties, narrow-souled and tertuous d.
plomacy, are jealousy, pettiness,
strife force, less in evidence now than
they were before the war? Has the
lion shown the slightest inclination to
lie down with the lamb? Has any,
thing been done, except the disingen-
uous and cumbersome continuance of
the League of Nations. to establish an
era of lasting peace and a rule of in
ternational fairness and justice? is
the peace treaty of Versailles a worthy
sequel to the noble epic of the war
| 70 ask these questions" Mr.. Kahn
says. ''is to answer them"
In conclusion Mr.. Kahn sums up his
findings as follows:
Sentimentally, the attitude of "the
man in the street" toward Europe has
| gradually become one of disiliusion-
ment and retrospective questioning,
Practically. he does net consider 1t
a JUSTIFIED contention, under the cir
cumstances of the ease, that the loans
OF America to the allies should go ipse
De considered and treated as a con-
tributien to the common expense of
the war He has not forgotten the
appalling sacrifices of the allies in
killed and wounded, nor the dreadful
destruction wrought in the invaded re-