The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-12-16
WORLD FAILS
TO MAKE BIG
GAIN IN YEAR
European Mess Far
From Solution
BY MARK SULLIVAN

surveying tn eevents and tendencies of
the past IL months, whether from the
point of view of our own country or
of the world as whole, must be fore
ed to find such consolation as an op-
timist may in the hope that the next
year will be better.
The writer recalls vividly an expe
rience here in Washington almost ex-
actly year ago. While the confer
ence for the Limitation of Armaments
was in session, the leisure of one
heavy, rainy Saturday afternoon was
spent in conversation with a delegate
TO the conference who, both in the
range of his information and the
reach of his thought, ranks with the
great men of his generation.
In the course of the conversation
the writer suggested that if the state
of the world be considered by analo-
gy to an automobile, then that sudden
and furious wrench with which the
Kaiser, in July, 1914, threw the ma
chine into reverse gear, had not yet
been changed-that civilization was
still going backward and that the only
qualification was that the backward
momentum had slowed down a little
from what it was while the fighting
of the great war was still on.
World Stuck in Mud.
To this, the sponse of the other
party to the conversation was that
civilization looked to him like an au-
tomobile which was stuck in the mud
at the foot of a steep hill, with many
well-meaning persons making unco-
ordinated efforts to get it going for
ward with the engin whirling furious
ly, but the machine itself making no
progress; while at the same time, the
oil and fuel were being used up and
he mechanism was in every way de-
.eriorating.
BY a different analogy he described
civilization as being like a compara-
lively small island, surrounded by seas
Of actual chaos in many sections of the
world, and impending chaos in others.
No Material Change
If this was a reasonably accurate
picture of the world a year ago, not
even the most optimistic can claim
that things have changed materially
for the better in the intervening Il
months. The return of the Turk 70
Europe has visualiZed in terms grave
ly alarming to us al the actual AMI
complete undoing of the expulsion Of
the Turk from Europe three years be.
fore, which expulsion had been held
to be one of the principal compensa-
tions of the great war-a compensa-
ton weighing. in the eyes of many.
even more than the overthrow of au-
tocracy in Germany.
Aside from this sombre Turkish in
cident, in broader way, we are com
PEELED TO admit that those causes OF
delayed restoration which hang abou;
the relations between France and Ge,-
many are no nearer removal than they
were year ago. On this point. some
OF the wisest persons within the ac-
quaintance of the writer state the sit
uation in a series of sentences which
may be summarized roughly as
follows:
Guaranty Is Needed
The French people, being in a
state of terror about Germany, wheth.
er that terror is justified or not, will
not themselves take, nor permit others
TO take, the steps necessary for a re
stored world until their state of fear
is removed. The only way to remove
that fear is by sufficient number o.
other nations giving to France a guar
anty to come to her help if at any
time in the future a recovered Ger
many should repeat the assaults it has
made on France twice during the pas
fifty years. 1t may not be essential
for the United States to join in this
specific guaranty. II is possible thai
if sufficient number of nations, like
Great Britain and Italy, emitting the
United States, should give the guar
anty, Frances fear would. be removed
But that the removal of this fear i;
an indispensable condition of the re
covery Of the world is indisputable"
Very Little Nearer
If this is true, if the removal of the
state of fear from the French people
. by adequate guarantees is an essential
y prerequisite to a peaceful, normal world
who can say that we are much nearer
to that consummation today than VIZ
were year ago? A little nearer we
may be. The elimination of Lloy(
George. who without meaning to be
was always a stumbling block, and tn,
negotiations at London this week ma,
have given us some slight start TOWARD
better things in Europe. 1t is too earl,
vet to be sure. In any event. certainly
the consummation is much more clear
ly within the field of hope for the com
ing year than accomplishment for tn
past one.
Some other thoughtful persons. az
preaching the same situation from tn
economic point of view, say substan
TALLY the same thing in terms some
what like the following:
Must Fix Sum
The indispensable prerequisite t
economic recoverable one thing upo
which all others hang-the indispensa
bic action which must be taken befor
the world can make the first step tC
war deconomic health lies in the Gel
man reparations. So long as the reps
rations remain as they now are a
undetermined sum greater than Gel
many can possibly pay, there can be n
progress toward cure. Germany is i
the position of a renter. the amour
of whose rent is not a fixed sum
renter whose landlord comes around a
the end of the year, takes a look a
what his tenant has made. and seize
for himself as much as pleases him c
y the product. Under a burden of thi
= kind no individual and no nation ca
or will go to work effectively TIL
first essential to world recovery