The Cordova daily times., 1923-01-27
SATURDAY, JANUARY 27, 1923
GERMANY SQUEALS

Therc is grimly ludicrous element in the German protest against the attempt of the French and Belgian troops in the Ruhr dis trict to 'Eforce with terrorizing measures Ger man officials to render assistance in the exc cution of illegal measures against their own comtrv.'' Vivid recolectons of German op- eraticns i'll the invasion of Belgium and France in the first days of the war, memories of the methods employed by the Huns in forcing Belgian and French officials to "execute illegal measures against their own country, are by TO means erased from the mind of the world, and in comparison they make the pres ent activities of the French in the Ruhr region look like a pleasant afternoon party.
 There never heed be any hope that France will visit upon Germany the treatment she deserves To equal German devilment in Belgium, says the San Francisco Argonaut 1t would be necessary for the French to starve the Germans in the Ruhr Valley to the point where they would be dependent on the charity of an outraged world to keep them alive, which we do not believe the French will do, because they would not enjoy 1t. To equal German wantOnness in France It would be necessary for the French artillery to demolls tie cathedral at Colognc which the French would not enjoy doing either. To approach German thorOugh ghness in destruction 1t would be necessary for the French to blot out utterly tj'n great Erupp munltlOn works, which 1t IS not Believed they will. They will be 1noro likely to operate it, which they probably can not do with German efficiency. France will Doyrr be able to make Germany pay for the war; but if Germany had won it she would have made France pay, and if France could not lave paid she would have made the Allies 1.t,, "rI would then have attacked the United ~t0 o5 Wl!h lp2 fresh capital and fresh leVios of troops, and if she had beaten HIS she would Have made us pay for that, if she had had t0 put a German inspector in every American home 10 see that we did not conceal our assets. There would have been no long paavpr about il, no conferences The asscssmonts wou11 t,}E" been collected The people would have been squeezed dry and then ro@mcnted into German armies for fresh conquest, prob ably of Asia
 In the comparatively mild and gentle in vasion of the Ruhr by the French where all that is asked of laborers is that they take thc' wages from French officers rather than Germans where officers instead of being shot by cOurt-martial or without ii, for r0n-c0n- nI'"Htc, aye let off with fines; where the local
 police are asked to enforce the laws rather than that the people be lordcd over by foreign CTS; in all these perfectly lawful and civilized measures taken by the French thc Germans crN cf "terT0rizing methods" to compel the lrhabItants to "execute illegal measures against their own country'' sounds like the hvStcria of a coward or the blustcr of a bullv The truth is that the scverest measures the French as people would be capable of pur- suing against Germany would hardly be de- cried Iy any nation in the world, thouqh thorc lS not tho slightest reason to fear from France the poIpotration of any acts counter to the laws of humanity and civilized pro ccdnre. It is more than can ever be said ot Germany, a fact which the world will note with smile over her present "terrble'' plight