The Morning Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Okla.) 1919-1927, 1922-01-22
AND MET HIS POLITICAL DEATH BY GENEROSITY


United Statcs and Great Britain sccm
to mo To make the essential mistake
OF regarding their material inter-
osts as moral factors aud ot expect
ing the French to take a similar
view. The real trouble lies m the
fact that mutual confidence was de
struyed at Paris as u consequence uf
the rejection by the United states
OF the Paris agreement No uicdErd
ourselves to- give France an alliance
" protection and France abandoned
her claims TO the Rhine. Then we
ropudiatod our promise and Lore
France bound by hers Again and
again since their French claims 400
regard To rcpnrutions have received
the sanction and Endorsement of Eu
ropeau conferences. but no sooner
has France settled down to the b"-
lief that she had nt last reached the
minimum of what she could expect
from Germany than her associates
have started out with now cam.
paign further TO reduce this rcpurH
tluns figure. Ana tho result has
been the successive crash of the scv-
eral prime ministers who have guld
ed French politics and without eN-
coption have sought tu preserve con-
tween France, Great Britain and the
United States.
PoinCnrr No ClcmCnCpau.
Now, POinCarc may fan. hp may
oven fail In getting an effective min
istry. The tide may set back to-
ward BRAND. But IL IS worth while
recalling that what people are now
saying Of poiucarc they said of
Clemenccau when ho tool, office IN
1917. II was CaillauN who remarked
that Clemencoau would follow Pain
leve. that he would try to win the
war and fail and give way To Call.
lHuN who would make peace. But
Clemenceau won the war poincarc
IN by no means as strong "A man as
Clsnenceau: in fact. the French
opinion Of their former president is
far less flattoring than foreign. We
are prone to regard him as a man of
iron; Il very considerable number OF
Frenehmon regard him as n painted
lathe. Therefore, It IN even possible
that when he sits down at the table
with Lloyd George the Welshman will
be as successful with him as hc has
been with all OF his predecessors.
This will mean the doom Of poin-
care. but II is not certain that II
will mean a reversal OF French pol
icy
The current view In Washington is
that I'm the end the French will come
to take the English and the Amer
ic0n point OF view with respect TO
Germany There are endless num-
bers OF arguments produced to- sup
port this conclusion Tho French
policy ~ described and denounced
as militaristic chauvinistic and all
the other convenient terms available
to suggest madness OF peculiar
sort There ~ a prevailing opinion
that sooner or later the French will
find out that they cannot get ropara-
tions in large amounts from Ger
many and will accept the fhct
confess that | do not share this view.
II was just as strongly urged at tho
Paris conference where all American
and British observers agreed in fore
casting the speedy deflation Of
French expectations But this de-
flation has not come and the mcn
who have attempted to "scll" the
British view of the German quos-
ton to the French people have fall
en- in rapid succession while the
French parliament remains commit
ted TO the French view.
II seems to me that France Is
far more apt To wreck Germany, as
she can, then quietly TO permit Ger
man restoration while her own
claims are neglected Poincare
may or may not be the man To oX-
pre- ss this French determination, but
feel certain that the French peO-
pie win never In any useful time
consent to shoulder the burdens re-
sulting from the German attack and
AT the same time see Germany aided
by Britain and by the United states
regaininE her old economic pros.
perlty and political strength.
Germany In had Faith.
IT there were any way Of deter
mining the amount which Germany
could pay and OF iusuring German
payment Of that amount the situa-
tion might be solved But TO me
the profound difficulty seems 10 lie
in the fact that the one constant elc-
ment is German bad faith. The fact
that Germany does not mean TO pay
at all rs what bcdevils everything
and makes u discussion Of what
Germany can and cannot pay of no
more than academic interest From
the moment Of the armis'ico TO the
present hour German bad faith has
been uninterrupted In every single
d detail which had to do with the full
Of the terms both of the
armistice and OF the treaty ~ Yer
sailles This bad faith moreover lies