Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-03-09
Editor Reports What He
Would Have Told States
men at oCnferencer if He
Had Been Admitted
BY MAMMALIAN HARDEN


Oil tank cleaner may dream of what
he would do if he were John D.
Rockefeller. So, perhaps, may be
permitted to mention what I would
have said if 1 had been allowed to
attend the Lloyd George Poincare
tete-a-tete at Boulogne.
Don't groan, my readers, for you
have swallowed longer and duller
congress speeches. Therefore I pro-
coed with my unstated statement.
Ministers of the allied and associ-
ated powers: How long are you go
ing to continue jumping from rail-
way to motor car, from coal smoke to
gasoline fumes? This delightful pas
time has lasted for three years, but
all of your different conveyances
have not got us a step further. Four
continentS-the Washington confer
ence has brought temporary order
to the fifth--want to think seriously
of the future and not waste their
time and strength in discussing the
past war and its consequences.
"Clemenceau terminated his pref
ace to Andre Tardieu's book with the
statement: TO make sure of the fu-
ture we must forget it ourselves. The
about our brawn?' But Clemenceau
maintains his retirement and does
not trouble about the Drawn or the
hammers and anviIs. He still con-
siders the Versailles treaty, of which
he was one of the principal authors,
a masterpiece and blames those who
are yielding the hammer if liver
sparks Go not fly from the anvil.
Whether he or the detractors of the
treaty are right does not matter prac-
tically. The anvils and the hammer
and the hands at work on them must
for the present ba accepted as they
are.
America ExcusaEle
'It is also senseless, gentlemen, to
moan because the United States does
not participate in these European
conferences or garden parties, The
shrewd creditor naturally will keep
away as long as possible from meet
ings where he certainly would be inn
plored to abandon his demands for
payment; where, hearkening to the
of misery and hard
ship, he would be forced to play the
part of the rich man, who, after the
begggar's lamentations, calls to the
servant:
Throw this person out Of here;
he's breaking my heart
From the Mouse to Moscow all
eyes are turned toward America.
France says, I can only pay you
when Germany pays me- Germany
says, L can only pay France if 1 en-
get big loan and I can only get a
big loan from America Russia cries,
"A dollar loan or die and my rotting
corpse will poison your world, too
at is unnecessary, gentlemen, for
an American delegation to cross the
Atlantic to hear this beggars' cho-
rus. The great creditor should and
will lessen or abandon his claims
when it is to his interest to do so,
and not before. Just now there is no
market for his goods in Europe.
Consequently he has many unem-
ployed, as in England. This crisis
will not be helped by the mere ship
ping out Of American gold into chan.
nels which the creditor cannot con.
troll, but it is also true that the
worlds condition will not improve if
the powerful one merely turns his
back and let's thinkers drift
France and Germany Wrong
Both France and Germany mis-
judge their positions. France, re-
Numbering her heroic sufferings, i'm
AGNES that her demands. because
they are just, must be quickly full
filled. Frances principal industrial
apparatus was destroyed and she
has spent eighty billion francs in re-
construction, of which not franc
has been reimbursed to her from
the Vanquished foe, whose indus
trial plant is still intact. Therefore,
her angry complaints are compre-
hensible, but the vanquished should
be required to repair only the dam
age done to civilians, whereas the
treaty annex burdens him with pen
sions for the cripples, the widows
and orphans.
Unreasonable demands, which
the best will in the world can not
fulfill, make it easy to persuade Ger
mans that the entire Versailles
treaty is unjust and enforceable only
by might. But the rebuilding of
northern France should be consid-
cred by Germany as a moral duty.
This can be accomplished if other
burdens are lifted from the Ger
man republic and If its people in
public and private life would stop
their frivolous waste and live as
BELTS a defeated debtor nation.
"a single nation can not be made
responsible for world catastrophe,
nor can conferences and vanity
fairs take the place of productive
ideas and work.
Here, gentlemen, are your prob
lens:
His Proposals
First, France must be secured
against any possible German re-