Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1923-01-24
BoRAH UNSAFE COUNSELOR

aiTalfS. we know or no better IN
formed authority: and certainly all
the conditions of world intercourse
are becoming such that it is a big
= neighborhood and the condition of
any part of it a matter of interest
to the other parts. Moreover, the
countries comprising it are becoming
dcmocracies. This of course, means
that the people will determine what
% policies shall or shall not be
used. If those people are igno
rant respecting those policies
they will be children using sharp
tools, including the dynamite.
But of whom shall we learn? OF
the demagoeue? or the banker, with
a loan to place or to collect or some
other financial axe to grind? OF the
farm bloc, composed of shrcwd law
ycrs and the like, thinking of a wider
market for its own products and SO
busy at that as TO find little time
for consideration of other matters?
.Of the United States Senate, over
flowing with presidential ambitions
and thinking of votes?
W IICl DIlDSS us 10 senator 30
rah's remarks. attacking the French
policy as ruthless militarism." This
is in accord with the reported opinion
of the Russian boshevik olgarchy,
he would have us recognize, Borah,
the ''irreconcilablc," who would have
none of the Versailles Treaty at the
-. time it was made, now calls on this
II e.s country to interfere on behalf of
,sr- Germany on the ground that France
r.. has violated the treaty, and all that,
~ and blames the administration for
not doing that which only short
time ago he was declaring this coun-
try should not do in the way of in
tcrferng with foreign affairs. 1t
e., ~ would scarcely seem that we should
look to Borah for fair understand
ing of foreign affairs.
.r@s Where shall We look? Must we
VI, not, as in other matters, consult
the various authorities, arrive as
nearly as possible at the motives act
uating those authorities, learn as
p. much as possible of the actual con-
ditions shown by the news reports
If we do this, we surely will find diff
tculty in accepting Borah's views,
especially if we review these words
OF the treaty:
The measures which the allied
and associated powers shall have the
right to take. in case of voluntary
default by Germany, and which Ger
many agrees not to regard as acts of
war, may include economic and fl
nancial prohibition and rcprisals and
in general such other measures as
the respective governments may de-
tcrmine to be necessary in The cir
cumStanccS."
Then. assuming that the news re-
ports of the past four years have not
all been at fault, we are forced to
conclude that Germany has been re-
solved from the first to avoid obliga-
tions, that she has been 'farmed' and
bed by her war profiteers. We re-
call that at first the world agreed
that France. whose territory had been
so Wantonly ravaged, should receive
PREPARATIONS therefor: how later to
this bill was added by her other al
lies in the treaty a bill for pensions,
how as the total was proposed to be
reduced at the several conferences
Frances bill for having been the
,u, theatcr of war was likewise proper
tionately reduced until she was faced
by prospect of being unable to COL
lect even that which in the beginning
all conceded she should have. All
along it has been evident that for
trade reasons England has been so
49, anxious TO have Germany's business
get under way that she was ready to
loan the Germans aid to finance it,
Seeing these things, Frank Simonds
tells us. the French people from the
peasant up. have come to believe that
ii she comedies what England wants
she will face a bigger country in
dustriaily strong and be herself on
the verge of Bankruptcy
In the light of this evidence, are
we to conclude with Borah that
France the invaded, the ravagcd and
the disillusoncd. is tamely to ac-
quiesce in being deprived of that
80 which all agreed she should have
and of which in four years, she has
q not been able to get even assurance.
g" Is 10 be condemned Tor ''ruthleSS
militarism?" She may have made q
mistake. Having ingrained con-
viction, one and all, that her future
=, is at stake, she as a democracy and
subject to the popular will of her
people could scarcely do less. She
may incur terrible penalty for mis-
taken judgement, but she has not
violated any German definition of
meum and tuum. of mine and thine.
We may regret the step she has talk
en-, we may be fearful of the conse-
quence but until she has exacted at
least enough to restore the wilful
devastation inflicted by the German
armies, for the sole purpose of des-
troying the future of France, we will
be unkind to condemn her. Our
Government at Washington fully APP
prised her of our belief in the unws-
dom of the step she was taking. The
. 80 time. If it ever comes, has not ar
rived when it will be fitting for us
10 interfere. Borah is far and away
from being "a safe counselor-or a
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