New Ulm review., 1922-02-15
The Poison Of sPoincare

it Is q good thing for the world that
Raymond Poincare, bitter anti German
determined anti-bolsheYist, protagonist of
strict enforcement of the Treaty Of Yer
|sailles, Of Allied revision Of German tax
alton, Of French seizure Of guarantees
in the Rphr, an old-style. diplomat whose
pre-War secret negotiations with Czarist
Russia did much to provoke the war, the
most powerful critic Of Briand's every step
toward reconciliation and common re-
construction .5of Europe, should assn me.
the premiership of France. NJ Poincare,
in or out Of Office, tended to control
French policy. It is better that he be in
office and be sobered by responsibility.
Time and again N, BRAND has gone
against his own better knowledge be-
because of fear of NJ. Poincare and his
supporters.
| Now M. Poincare ceases to play the
destructive critic and assumes the respon-
sibilties of Office. He may continue
rattIing his sword, but he can no longer
shout continuously that little sword d-rattl-
I ing is all that is needed to win billions of
gold marks for France; he will have to prove
it. When he fails to prove it as he will if
he holds Q flee long enough to try out his
policies his militaristic policies will at
Hast have been discredited inside of France,
nothing could do more for the peace OF
Europe than that M, Poincare has been
Las a poison in the French system; it is
better that he have his hour, that France
may then be purged Of him, than that he
remain a continuing source Of disease.
We write these lines before M. Poin-
care has made hi; program speech to the
French Chamber, and we do not know
what will then happen. It is possible
that. Chamber which has had ime to
reflect may then and there defeat M.
Poincare, as the Chamber defeated M.
Ribot on his appearance in 1913. But
that now seems unlikely, for the present
Chamber, elected when the war passions
were still hot, has not. yet learned the
. first lesson of European economics, that
no nation can achieve reconstruction alone.
It i; possible also that M. Poincare, once
in office, may yield to the same economic
compulsion which forced M. BRAND from
his earlier path, and follow the moderate
course he has SO bitterly attacked. It
matters little who holds. the wheel the
important question is to what port he
is steering. 5@5s< s,Ff3zf3
Announcement of the Conference Of
Genoa, at which Germans and Russians
were to parley with Frenchmen, Italians,
and Britons on the. common plight Of
Europe, seemed to indicate that the pilots
had at last agreed upon course. M.
Poincare.s advent means a postponenent
of that reconciliation policy, but when
M. Poincare or his policies are discredited
there will be left no formidable opponent
of that concert of all Europe without
which no real reconstruction is possible.
The evidence Of its need aCcumulates 2
daily. Britain's trade figures just made
/. : < ! } ~
public give a1sdramatic presentation Of
the economic forces behind Mr. Lloyd
Georges policy. II he exported only three
and half billion dollars worth Of goods
in 1921 as against early seven billions
in 1920. Foreign trade is England's meat
and sustenance, and in 4 single year it.
has been cat IN Iay. The meaning Of
|such figures seems obvious. NJ. Poin-I
care iinsistslthat the economic and fnan-
|cial reconstruction Of Frame is essential
to the reconstruction Of Europe" Europe
needs statesmen wno think, not in such
inverted terms Of partial truth, but in
the larger terms that the reconstruction Of
all Europe is essential to the @reconstruc-
tion Of any nation. '6
1 Esa,, "a 4nr iy,