Evening star., 1925-11-15

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of peace stretched across Europe,
multiplying the obstacles to the trans
portation and exchange of necessary
materials for European peoples, to
achieve anything like q necessary
maximum of efficiency or economy.
And 1t is quite as patent that not
without destroying all reasonable
hope of success can any one or many
states seek to modify these frontiers
by force. Even Germans, for whom
the Polish corridor is an intolerable
thing, even more intolerable than
Alsace-Lorraine was to France, find
themselves forced to consent to a pact
which eliminates force as a means 10
abolish this circumstance hateful to
every Teutonic soul.
The war, then, and the consequences
Of the war have imposed upon Europe
inevitably a very large measure of
combination and cooperation. 1t would
be stretching a figure too far, perhaps,
to say that Europe in the period fol
lowing the World War is in the posi-
ton Of the Confederation Of Colonies
following the Revolutionary War and
before the making of the Union of
States, but many Of the same elements
are there. Union was necessary for
our existence; it certainly in some
form is essential to the restoration
of any form Of European prosperity
such as existed before 1900.
Idea Gaining Ground
And what it is essential every
American should recognize is that this
fundamental truth is obtaining very
general appreciation in Europe. I'm
mense as are the barriers of distrust.
resentment, hatred, which separate
European peoples. there is in every
country a growing fraction which
perceives that the single escape from
an impossible situation, the sole way
to avoid permitting present conditions
to become permanent and European
prestige and power to remain forever
diminished. lies in the surmounting Of
these barriers.
Whether 1t would have ever been
possible Immediately following the war
to arrive at a reconciliation a peace
of understanding, may well be doubted
by those who best knew the state of
European minds in those days At all
events the peace by reconciliation and
understanding was not attained and
instead, seven years of measurable
anarchy and conflict continued until
with the eliminating episode of the
Ruhr, Europe arrived on the very
edge of the abyss. Moreover, the new
passions excited added to the old ran
cors pretty completely abolished any
remaining hope of peace by mutual re-
Cancellation and understanding.
Yet curiously enough, with surpris.
ing rapidity, peace was arrived at not
by the process of mutual understand
ing, but by the recognition on the part
of the several contending nations Of
their own situation. We are attaining
peace, If l may say It, not by mutual
understanding, but by universal self
understa nding. The bitterest thing in
the life experience Of a Frenchman or
of a German may we'll be the realiZa-
ton that he must arrange with his
traditional enemy. 1t would be idle to
assume that there has been a spiritual
change. But the fact which confronts
every Frenchman and German is that
not to arrange Is to insure individual
ruin.
May Be Empty Phase
In my judgment Europe is exactly
at this point. 1t has perceived not
only that 1t has been on the edge of
complete ruin. not merely that 1t has
lost much, perhaps a great deal which
cannot be recovered, but that If 1t Is
to escape from permanent economic
and financial servitude to America If
1t Is to restore or maintain any con-
siderable portion of it's power in Asia
and Africa. if it is to avoid the com
plete overthrow of it's social and eco
nomic life, which would be doomed by
any new conflict or by any too long
continuance of existing misery, it
must find some basis of cooperation
1t must create not alone a European
spirit but European fact
The idea of United States of
Europe may very well be an empty
phase. The evolution of European CO.
operation may we'll be, probably will be,