The Penn's Grove record., 1923-02-02
FRANCE INVADES GERMANY
JUSTLY
Uncle Sam Makes a Piteable Sight
In World Affairs

A writer in a Philadelphia paper
gives the European situation in the
Following concise way:
When France, after the Franco
PruSsian var of 1870, was penallzed
a billion of dollars by their conquer
ors, they did not crawl and squeal and
beg for reductions. They went to
work to settle the troubles that fol-
lowed the collapse of the N~apoleonics
dynasty. With the subjugation of the
Communists and the establishment of
the republic, they put their energies
in play to wipe out the tat that time
c|onsidered) enormous indemnity, and
in about three years time, to the
establishment of the German Empire,
had it paid off, and rid their soul of
the presence of foreign troops. Forty
four years later the War Lord started
his mighty drive through Belgium to
northern France, with his millions Of
trained warriors, to conquer with fire,
pillage and the sword all who opposed
them.
The march of the murderous host
rivaled the rush of their ancient prog
enator, Atilla. To add to the terror
of their coming they spared neither
@ nor sex. Church, school, hospital
figured with them the same as a fort
ress, all to be left in ruins. The trail
of their march through Belgium and
France at the end of the wal was an
indictment that called for a penalty
that only the Almighty could intlict.
When the end came these voracious
beasts squaled and begged for mercy.
As soon as the Allies got the upper
hand they could not quit quick enough.
Before a foreign soldier put a foot on
their soil they howled. With all the
awful crimes and atrocities they had
been guilty of the only punishment
melted out to them was to make good
for the destruction inflicted on France
and Belgium, PREPARATIONS for war
costs to the different Allied countries,
barring the United States, the whole
settlement a matter of dollars and
cents. That was the settlement
France had to accept in Difference to
her Allies.
Beneath her sod lie a million and a
half of her heroic soldiers and on her
hands to be cared for three-quarterS
of a million of cripples, a legacy Of
German hellishness.
The Versailles treaty specified the
penalties, their OF payment,
and the course to be pursued, if Ger
many failed to pay. All the Allied
countries, with the exception of the
United States, accepted the treaty.
The failure of the United States to
ratify the treaty and its refusal to
go into the League of Nations appar-
emily gave Germany nerve enough to
start a campaign of trickery and eva
sion to escape the provisions of the
treaty.
The entrace of France and Belgium
into German territory was the proper
and only course to pursue. If they
d~ill-dallied for four or five years more
the German combination would have
been strong enough to tell them to go
to Hades. Whatever the outcome,
France deserves the moral support of
all the Allies. Future developments
will determine what action will have
to be taken. The United States is
apparently in a state of Our
foreign relations are too big a job for
Harding and Hughes. Woodrow Will
son would about fill the bill in the
present crisis.
Harvey at London and Boyden at
Paris make Uncle Sam look like a
joke. The only great question which
orr statesmen have time to wrestle
with is prohibition. Whatever is the
cause, our big men in Washington are
getting stale.