San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-01-28
SENATE FACES
WEEK s DEBATE
ON PREPARATIONS
War Veteran Denounces
Germany When France
Attacked.
MUST PAY, HE SAYS
Too Much Sympathy for
Country That Laid
Belgium Waste.
MUST PAY, HE SAYS
Washington, D. C., Jan. 27-America

Washington, d. c., Jan. 27-America
should revive the art Of minding its OWL
business so far as the French coercive
movement against Germany is con-
cerned, and, out Of respect to the Ameri-
cans who died in France, should let the
Germans suffer whatever is necessary
TO make the reparations, Senator David
Reed, Pennsylvania, the only World
War veteran in the Senate, declared to-
day in fiery speech.
Senators who have expressed a degree
of Sympathy for Germany and have
CT lied France, soon forget the crimes
for which Germany has not yet paid,
he said. Sympathy for Germany now
is "like sending flowers to murderer,
and forgetting his victim and the crime
that has brought him TO justice" Reed
said.
The young former major of artillery
literally bounced TO his feet when Sena-
tor Owen. Oklahoma, finished a speech
in which he had apportioned blame for
the present situation between Germany
and France, condemned the Ruhr in
V; sion, regretted American aloofness,
urged that this government initiate a
movement for judicial determination Of
Germany's indemnity, and then, under
principles embodied in the League of
Nations, guarantee France against as
sault.
War Lords Escape.
Owen said the Allied leaders had let
Germany's war-guilty rulers escape I'M
punished but had put the wars burdens
upon the present and yet unborn genera
tons of Germany. This, he declared.
was a manifest injustice which he urged
be remedied by a nOn-political discus
sion of Preparations.
"Why this sudden outburst Of sym
pathy for Germany" Reed demanded.
I'm recent speeches in the Senate some
sneakers have sided with France, but
more with Germany. We should forget
both the pro-French and the pro-Ger-
man view Of it and stick to the pro-
American view. We are forgetting Ger
many's crimes, and why France found
il necessary TO invade the Ruhr.
1.-THE Senate was able to restrain its
sympathies when, in 1914, Belgium was
invaded, Northern France laid to waste,
and even when our German friends,
with whom we were at peace, sank the
Lusitania and the cries Of hundreds OF
Americans were drowned il the death
gurgle. We remembered that we we're
neutral.
Then why in Gods name cannot we
stay neutral today? Why can't we look
at this from an American viewpoint!
Why should we grow mawkish and
maudlin over Germany when all that
is demanded of her is what she has
promised to pay, and that the mere cost
of restoring the damage she did:
81 am not speaking my private con-
victions alone. / am speaking, | think,
the views of the men who fought under
our flag in France.
No Comparison Of Inyasions.
"We are forgetting our own dead, "
ing there in France. when we begin to
give our sympathy to the German muir
derers who are today ing the penal
ties they themselves incurred.
IF unborn Germans must help pay
the cost of a war for which they had no
sort of responsibility, how about the
unborn Americans who also must pay"
Reed asked. He cOntrasted the German
method in 1914 with the French meth
dds in the Ruhr. and said there could
be no moral comparison between them.
Reed ended his speech as abruptly as
he began it. and Senator Oddic of Ne
vada reminded the Senate that the heads
of German insurance companies which
WEIGHED on payments growing out Of the
San Francisco fire, and thus brought
great loss 20 many Americans. are the
same men who now are trying to avoid
reparations payments.
Today's discussion was the forcrun-
ner of a debate which will probably
break out again Monday and last all
week. in which all phases of the inter
national situation and the part the
United States should play will figure.