Evening star., 1923-01-22
BLOOD MONEY IDEA
FIRES GERMANS
Rebel Because of General Be-
lief That Reparations
Are Unjust.
SAY WAR WAS FORCED
State of Mind Declared One of
Sullenness and Responsible for
Present Resistance.
SAY WAR WAS FORCED
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

By FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.
Washington has just been made
authoritatively acquainted with the
precise state of the German mind, Of
fetal and popular, on the question Of
reparations. 1t clearly explains not
only past but present German resist
many does not consider that repara-
tions are a debt Of honor, but ..blood
money extorted by conquerors after
a war which they forced upon her.
She will pay If and when she must,
but, no matter how much, will pay
sullenly and in the spirit of people
who feel they are disgorsing some
thing they really do not owe, at all.
State of Mind AnaIyxed.
First-hand information Of the Ger
man mental process anent repara-
tions is brought by Prof. jeremiah W,
Jenks, the well known political econo-
mist and currency export. who was
on duty in Berlin six weeks ago as
the American member of an inter-
national commission invited by the
Cuno government to diagnose Ger
many's fiscal woes. Prof. jerks set
forth the German viewpoint on repa-
rations before the National Civic Fed
was convened in Washington to dig
cuss Americas role in world affairs
Prof. jerks spoke dispassionately of
| the German attitude toward repara-
tions.
The country's stubbornness dates
back, he said, to tho fourteen points
OF President Wilson. The Germans,
IN accepting those terms for ending
, the war, understood they were bind
ing themselves to pay only for resti-
tuition of war-damaged civilian prop
erty in France ard Belgium They
dld not really regard themselves
bound to do even that The war, they
insist was war of defense which
| they were compelled to wage against
their villa war forced upon them
| they acknowledged no moral or legal
obligation to pay restitution repara-
lions, they realized that 1t was Gus
! tomary for the loser Of a war to do
SO. They sought and obtained the
| armistlce on that understanding.
Staggering War Burdens.
| Then came the peace conference. At
selves saddled not only with q gi-
gantic bill for restitution" costs, but
! Tor pensions to members of the VIC
torious armies and their survivors
and dependents. With other damages
assessed against them by the treaty
of Versailles the Germans were con-
fronted with a Preparations" bill
staggeringly out of proportion to
I anything they imagined they were
| letting themselves in for under the
( fourteen points of Woodrow Wilson, !.
From the outset they were sullen,
resentful and openly bent upon evasion
| Of such an injustice" It was their
attitude from the day they were re-
| quired to sign on the DATED line at
Versailles on June %. 1919. II an
| peared to be their attitude when PROF..
jerks was in Berlin in November and
December. It remains their attitude
while the Ruhr Is ringed with French
baYonets today.
| Not In Sympathy.
! Prof. jerks was at pains to make
| plain he was not identifying him
self with the German viewpoint, He
intended merely to set 1t forth. II
| was q condition Of mind. he said,
that required to be understood abroad
| in any attempt intelligently to gauge
| what is now going on in Berlin and
J the Ruhr. jerks clothed the idea in
| a homely illustration. "The average
| man Or woman among U.s." he said,
| "incurs an ordinary liability, like a
bill for a purchase, and recognizes
| without question the duty to pay the
bill when it is presented. But any
number OF people waste gray matter
and midnight oil trying to circum-
vent income tax assessments.
"They see nothing politically i'm.
moral or irregular about that. That's
! about the way the Gernians look at