The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-04-25

"The plan is too complete"
viii prove too CALLING. The ray
proposing is too obvious. It's
tyranny is too oppressive. Per-
haps Germany will reject the
plan. Perhaps she will accept it,
with minor notifications to
save the face of the Govern
ment, but in five years, or perhaps in
ten, there will be an explosion in Eu-
rope that will put 1914 completely in
the shade. Among the factors that
contribute toward this explosion and
that add to its terribleness when it
comes, documents like the Dawes re-
port will deserve positions of for e.
most distinction"
In reviewing the conditions that led
up to the framing of the Morgan
Dawes plan, Nearing said:
On Rehabilitatlng Europe.
"Ten years ago the principal capital
list empires Of Europe plunged into a
war that was to last for few weeks,
and that was to bring victory and
glory to the arms of each of the con-
testants. The war dragged on for
more than four years, and then, five
years ago, the Allies, having won the
war, and thus established the Peace
of Right (as opposed to the Peace
Of Might" which Germany would have
enforced on her enemies had she won
the contest) handed to the Central
Empires the treaty, with instructions
to sign on the dotted line
This treaty was the work Of the
ablest statesmen that the Allies had at
their disposal. Instead of sending
mere commissioners, the premiers,
presidents and elder statesmen of Eu-
rope and America assembled in Paris
and prepared the treaty.
"Solemnly these men (there were
no women among the treaty makers)
assured the world that the rehabili
tation of Europe had begun. With the
defeat of the German militarists, the
rule of might had given place to the
rule of right. The passing of the Ger
man menace was to mark a milestone
in the history of the race. Beyond
this point was prosperity and peace.
"A hectic year ensued during which
the nations of Europe issued bonds
and paper money, reorganized their
military and naval forces, and pre-
pared for the next war Then, in the
spring of 1920, first in Japan, and later
turnout the entire capitalist world,
there broke out one of the most dis
astrous financial panics that the mod
ern world has known.
1.-THE four succeeding years in Eu-
rope, have been years of petty war
fare, of unemployment, of famine, of
pestilence. Financial systems have
broken down in every one of the war
ring nations, with the single excep-
ton of Britain. The states carved
out of Russia, Germany and Austria,
as part Of the treaty reconstruction
policy, have been, for the most part,
maintained by French and English
loans, and all of them are in a twi-
light zone of impotence. Despite the
efforts of the Allies, Russia has main
tanned her revolution, and despite
their utmost endeavors German COM
petition still threatens the life of their
industries.
How can poorly organized people
like the French destroy a we'll organ
lied people like the Germans? There
Is only one way-the destruction Of
the basis upon which German civiliza-
ton is built. That policy France and
the Allies have pursued with relent-
less vigor.
THE treaty began the destruction
by depriving Germany of her colonies,
her foreign investments, her iron and
coal resources, her merchant ships,
and saddling her with an immense
PREPARATIONS bill payable over half a
century. The occupation of the Ruhr
continued the process by turning over
to the French steel interests the most
important iron and steel center in Ger
many. The Dawes report completes
the work by saddling directly upon
German industry and upon the Ger
man workers an annual charge of two
and half billions of gold marks
which will be, in effect, a sharing with
he Allies OF German industrial profits
a period to be determined by the
lies.
Continued on page p