The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1922-11-27

See-hefdid ana the siNtS-elSht5
other members OF the North
American Newspaper Alliance by
Georges elemenceau, the Tiger
OF France Father of Victory
war premier and one of the big
Four Of the peace conference
who Is now touring America.
BY GEORGES CLENENef II
Copyright is22, In Gntted S5atSs, Great
Britain. Canada ana south America BY
North American Newspaper Alliance. Of
which The Age Herad is the only
Alabama member and New York
World Press Publish. com.
pany. All rights reserved unlicensed
representations IN fun u in part expressly
prohibited.l
Europe is sick The world is sick
Everywhere is economic disequllih-
rum. Each one is complaining Ger
many. in declaring a fresh and joy
GUS war, decided that ghis should be
so First comes the labor crisis. An
immense decrease in working power;
9s.0ee,o00 Of dead and 30,900.000 II
wounded. crisis also ~ labor sup
pressed by the mobilization for war
purposes of 100000 men. People
are amazed at the universal trouble.
Yet whenever was there so decisive
a cause?
Next comes the crisis of raw ma
AtAtatt HF wal utSiTO9 GU NllhOui
creating. For France alone, from
steel 100000 shells were manufae-
tnred, While less was being pro-
dueed more was being consumed and
nothing went to replace IN human ace
tivity what the battlefield absorbed.
Then there follows the crisis Of per-
scnal property. On the one hand, the
devastation of warehouses. factories,
railways destroyed; on the other. the
work neglected owing 20 tho general
mobilization. Wholesale stoppage or
a steady slaekening off diminished
the productive capital OF each coun-
try at time when all nations to-
sether consecrated a sum OF 40
milliards of dollars TO the process
of waging war.
A crisis in the cost of living re-
suited from the three first crises. The
law of supply and demand was now
rudeiy ruptured, now hopelessly In
.trfsred with, by the exigencies aaf
military manufacturing. Other crises
followed fast, one upon the other
the salary crisis. both social and eco
nomic; the industrial crisis. the
world stll producing useless war
material after the declaration of
peace instead of concentrating on
articles urgently needed in peace.
The budgetary crisis came to a
head everywhere in 1922. even among
the richest in the land. Deficits on
all sides-in France Sfour milliards.
rot counting pensions and repara-
tions. In England. in the United
States. even in neutral countries like
Holland. there has been an increase
in expenditure due principally to a
formidable growth in public debts,
external no less than internal FL
nally, there is the chaos of the ex-
change. concrete expression Of the
general world disorder. due in part
to the influx of gold into certain
countries and to the pauperization of
others; in another case caused by
the debt of one country to second;
in larger number of instances due
to the insecurity of national and pri-
vate property
Crisis Hits All Countries
This y-sided economic crisis
hits all countries. some in the form
OF strikes, others in the rendering
worthless Of their money. Ii assails
the mass and individuals. Finance
ministers are obsessed by II and the
nan In the street cannot ignore it.
That is why, very naturally, this par
Ecular feature in the general chaos
has preoccupied US above all others.
Yet we have not stopped 10 ponder
whether these material phenomena
are not profoundly related TO moral
and political factors. People have
preferred to study them by them
selves and to find direct remedy
expressing itself in materislistic
conception of international life.
Mr.. Maynard Keynes, who was for
h. Nm ..f M
Lloyd George at the peace confer
erce and who resigned. when all was
over, in order to devote himself to a
aimed at those whose SER
want he had been. was the prophet of
this conception.
His doctrine is familiar. Economic
factors dominate the world Under
their auspices alone should the new
frontiers have been traced. The
peace was bad one because il was
a peace Of nationalties. Iron and coal
should rule far more than plebes-
cites. Need ! recall the effect OF
this thesis. as manifested in Upper
Silesa and elsewhereA since 1920? All
the revisioning and non-application
OF the treaties OF 1919 have been di-
rectly inspired by it. Even now the
brilliant" results accruing from the
application of this theory and in the
economic field, no less than else
not duly appreciated. The
all that it was intended to cure re-
mains, and other ills which might
have been averted, have appeared u
the situation. The system
OF Mr.. Keynes seems to be a mega
ton of all the ideals which inspired
and formed the motor power of the
allied associated nations during their
common waging of the war.
The Collapse of Solidarity
If economic interests demand that
Germany shall emerge intact from the
unloosed by her crime.
then the big criminal nations OF his
tory are forever assured impunity,
since, in the event of thei coup fail
ing. the common interest demands
that they shall be rehabilitated in
their former position. Against this
those people who happen to be eco
weak never will be able to
come to the surface politically. 1t
is the old doctrine of BueIow and Won
Jagow, Woe to the feeble"
This theory has had some success
because 1t was thought that it would
the difficulties of the pres
ent. 1t was propaganda. vulgarized
developed by millions Of men in the
United States. in England. in the
neutral countries and among the for
mer enemy peoples. And. on the pre-
text OF economic solidarity. the VIC
tors were invited to foreEo their vic.
tory and to repudiate the peace they
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