Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-05-14
4 Clearing of the Skies for
Better World Relations

n
ultimatum touching such weighty
matters as reparation, disarmament
and guarantees should react favorably upon
Europe and the wSrld, and eventually re-
dound to the welfare of the Rhine land it.
SELF Certainly there could be scant progress
IN stable an prosperous readjustment while
the vexatious issues now settled were in
suspense. Above two and half years have
elapsed since the armistice, and nearly two
since the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.
Yet, toward the great constructive ends of
peace there have been but feeble and halt
ing steps. Relations between Germany and
her opponents in the World War have con-
tinued to be virtually that of enemies, when
mutual interests and the orlds interests
require that they be that of co-workers. The
military campaigns of the summer and au-
tumn of 1918 ended beyond perad-
venture Germany's hope of debating the
peace By the sword she essayed to live, ana
by the sword her ambition perlshed. Her
best advised course therefore lay In accept
ing the terms offered and in undertaking
with as good a heart as possible to carry
them out If they were impracticable, time
would show as much; ii they were unjust
or unduly severe, the liberal thought OF the
world could be appealed to, when the cage
of war bitterness had worn away, to soften
them.
But so long as Berlin maintained an
attitude Of signing the Treaty with one hand
and crumpling it up with the other, there
was no ground for a getting together of the
forces of goodwill, no ground indeed for a
happy working out of any of those impera-
tive problems in which Europe's prosperity
and all the worlds are involved. There was
the promise to disarm, but a continued
clanking of soldiery; there was a pledge to
pay certain sums by certain dates, but when
the time came no better coin than words;
there were Divers assurances of moment to
the Allies but few fulfillments without res
ervation.
That those tactics were measurabIy
encouraged by the failure of the United
States Senate to ratify the Treaty of Yer
sailles and by the result of the ensuing ma
tiOnal election, can hardly be doubted. Ber
lin, its wish fatherng the thought, con-
strued those events as American repudia-
ton of the peace terms, the league cove
nant, the Allies, the victory, and of the very
cause for which this nation gave its treas
ure and deareet lives. (NOr was Berlin alone
in that assumption; in this country as we'll,
there were high-piping politicians who rea-
soned likewise.) But the Illusion was swift
ly dispelled when Secretary Hughes, inter-
preting the nations serious and abiding will,
plainly told the German Government, in re-
ply to it's overtures, that il must make
terms with the Allies and must meet it's
just obligations under the Streaty. Follow
ing that pronouncement came the still more
significant statement that American repre-
sentatves would sit in the international
councils at London and Paris--a develop
ment that appears to have been equally dis
appointing to the "Bitter Enders" at Wash
ington and the Would-be evaders at Berlin.
With the skies thus leAred, or clearing,
the prospect for more stable, more friendly
and hence more prosperous conditions in the
world are distinctly brighter. From the de-
cisive vote in the Reichstag sustaining the
new ministry which accepted the Allied uf-
timatum it seems that the German people
finally recognize the responsibility OF the
war and it's outcome. That they have not
done so earlier may have been owing in part
to political efforts to salve popular pride and
curry popular favor. In any case it is for
tunate that at last the truth is being told
and the facts faced. The longer that was de-
ferred the longer and harder the road which
Germany needs must travel to atonement,
the slower the recovery of all nations CON
and the more distant the goal OF
that splendid and enduring peace which shall
rest upon goodwill
America is peculiarly interested in the sit
uation because both her business and her
higher national welfare are vitality involved
Her export commerce, with it's fundamental
bearing on industry and agriculture and do
nestle trade, will not go freely F0rWar
while European affairs an her own rela-
tions to them are clouded with uncertainty.
7 is greatly to be hoped, therefore, that
Was hington will continue the we'll advised
steps it has lately taken, to the end that this
oountry bear her due part in conserving ana
advancing high common interests of the
world, for only thus she be true to her
own.