The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1922-07-16

elers should be taken into consid-
Grafton. and special care should be
taken not to spoil the first impress
sion of Japan of foreign visitors"
to differentiate the German from
the American, the Briton. or the
Frenchman is his conception OF his
own country. To us. to English
men. to Frenchmen, there is a ma
tional entity quite distinct from the
political detail. For the German
everything seems to have been
compressed into the political fact
which was Germany at the outbreak
of the world war. when that was
smashed. his state of mind was that
of Bazaine: he could not rally, he
has not rallied.
Signs OF Collapse.
II one reads British newspapers
it is clear that those liberal jour-
nails. which have always been pro-
German before the war and since
the end of the struggle, those edi-
tors like A. G. Gardiner, whose in
formation on German subjects is
usually pretty accurate. see unmis-
taxable signs of collapse in Ger
many, see the coming of that real
revolution which would mean a bat
tie between radicalism and the old
order, another Kapp Putsch, with
all that abortive experiment in
volved. And this, it seems to me,
Is the inescapable end of the road
contemporary Germany is travel
ing.
Before the killing of Rathenau II
seemed possible that some regime
might be evolved which would
bridge the gap between the
old monarchy and some new and
constitutional monarchy of a more
or less distant future. But with
the elimination of Rathenau and
with the fresh revelation of the
spirit of the old order. which this
murder and the attempted slaugh-
ter of Scheidemann and Harden,
disclose. such optimism seems I'M
warranted.
VIII Count in Industry.
As have said before, the great
difficulty, perhaps the main diff
Guilty, lies in the tremendous differ
ence between the Germany of 1914
and of the present hour and of any
hour that one can foresee. Obvi-
ously 100000 Of people, industri-
Gus, well trained in modern indus
trial methods, provided with a
magnificent tool equipment, will
continue to count in world indus
try and will be factor in all con-
tinental history for the future.
Sooner or later Germany must be
one of the important nations IN
Europe, this goes without saying.
Yet in the larger sense II is diff
ficult to see how Germany can ever
again be a world power, as she
dreamed OF being in all the years
between 1900 and the world war,
dreamed with real prospect of real
izing her dreams. 1t is this shin
ing prospect which cannot be re-
stored by a long series of wars.
which, II militarily successful
would be economically ruinous. But
precisely this Germany Is the real
ity for all Of those members of
the ruling class, who have survived
comprehending its finality.
Live in Vanished Past.
The more one talks with Ger
mans, reads what they write, see
what they do, the more unmistak-
able becomes the fact that as a
people they have either obstinately
refused to recognize or been con-
CENTRALLY incapable of perceiving
the enormous fact Of defeat, with
all of its present and permanent
consequences. The world they be-
lieved in has crumbled, but with
out regard to the new world, they
live in that vanished past.
Given this state of mind, no set
Element of such a question as re-
parations is possible, for the
Frenchman demands more than the
German can pay, the German is re-
those of his Leaders who would
persuade him to pay something to
avoid a worse fate. What can be
accomplished in convincing a
Frenchman that his policy Is mis-
taken, when German policy reveals
itself with each succeeding month
as one of defiance, evasion, men,
ace?
For three years, ever since the
signing of the treaty of Versailles
the gravest problem in the world
has been that of German reintegra-
tion. political, moral. economic. The
Rathenau murder serves wildly to
emphasize the fact that in all this
long time in three departments the
process has been one of disintegra-
tion not Of recovery and 1t requires
no gift of prophecy to see what the
end Of such disintegration must be.
2 (copynrht. 1s22.l