The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-08-03
.Sl(O,ODO,OOO TO FORM CHAIN BETWEEN ALLIES America In European
 Affairs To Stay, f Is View SOLUTION COMES
 AFTER 10 YEARS Socialist Premier Helped
 Put Plan Into
 Effect
Rr cHARLEs M. M,cANN


 LONDON, Aug. 2.-The tenth anniversary of the outbreak of the World war finds Europe just pre-. pairing to put into operation the first business-like peace plan.
 It is a peace plan which means a way out-a chance to get to work and forge tthat if war is hell, patched-up peace is at least purga- tory. The last 10 years have been divided for Europe into two equal and almost equally bad periods five years of awful war and five of awful peace.
 And now, almost 10 years to day from those anxious moments back on August 3 and 4, 1914, when France, and then England, declared war against Germany, the allies have approved the new plan the Dawes McKenna experts re- ports.
 Americans Did Much
 Americans did much of the work of drafting the plan. Part of it was written so much in tie American lan- guage-by Owen D. Young. coliaborator with Charles e. Dawes on the experts eommittees-th French expert trans lators couldn't understand it.
 Americans did much of the work at the London conference whose work it was to put the finishing touches on the Uawes- Mo Kenna plan 0nee of twice. the conference came near finishing 1t altogether. Americans backed-up the British in putting through what is be- ieved to be a workable solution.
 And because of the number and im- portance of Americans who helped unofficially but effieiently-E Europe believes that America is, back in Eu- ropean affairs to stay.
 Secretary of State Hughes, Secre- tary of the Treasury Mellon, Thomas W. Lamont of J. P. Morgan and com pany; H. Willis Booth of the Guaranty Trust; Owen D. Young and A. c. Bedford of Standard Oil, and a dozen others, just happened to be here; they just happened to help; they were not seen at official meetings-but they really put the Dawes plan across.
 About Getting Out
 Europe is asking whether, being in, America can get out again, and they answer, mo-" The reason American big business helped to put the Dawes plan in operation is that American big business will have to subscribe about half of. the 20O,OOO,OO0 loan that is to put Germany on her feet and enable her to begin meeting the Dawes repartions payments.
 It is asked whether, with S100,000,- GOO worth of interest in the Dawes plan, the United States will sit by idle and see what happens to it. likeness vii lhe all right as long as everything runs smoothly, but it is argued that when the cylinders start missing, as all cylinders do, particularly in peace engines, Americans will be on hand to see that they get started again. That is the biggest factor for Europe on this tenth anniversary of the outbreak of the war.
 As for European nations individual ly, and the European situation gener- ally, the patients are getting along along as well as could be expected. Everybody is hard up; there are sore spots that must be watched. Prosperity may begin to return with the putting into operation of the Dawes plan.
 The big sore spot is Bessarabia, a rich territory on the Black sea, that to belong to Russia. After the war it was handed over to Rumania as reward for her work in the allied cause. Bolshevik Russia says she will never consent to its loss {; Rumania says she will never give it up.
 Frequent Scares
 There are frequent war scares about Bessarabia, but it is unlikely that there will be any war. First, Russia cannot wage a war because of lack of men, money, material and the transport fla cilities necessary to take the men and material thousands of miles. Secondly, there is another reason;
 Ten years ago Russia was the most reactionary monarchy in the world. On this tenth anniversary, Russia is coming back. step by step, into the family of nations from which She was an Outcast for seven years. She comes back a bOlshevik republic, in which the only people who do not count, are the people who count most in other countries. She has no capitalists of her own, so she is turning to other countries for capital: One by one the nations are recognizing her. If she starts a war she becomes an outcast again, penniless, hated; and if for no other reason she is likely to wait and depend on peaceful developments to re- gain what she has lost in Bessarabia.
 British and American financiers hammered through the Dawes plan. But they could not have done it if it had not been for another development o ftih sanniversary year. Socialist premiers represented the two great European allies at the London confer ence. France has had socialist pre- miers before; Great Britain, head of the tremendous British Empire, is try ing her first. Informed people here say that they, thinking alike, detesting war and armaments. made it possible for the conference to be success when the most brilliant statesmen in France and Great Britain had previously fail ed.