Evening star., 1925-07-26

formant, is the situation as the
Erenchman sees it:
France did not fight the war for
French preservation alone. but to save
the entire world, America included.
from German domination. America
should have come into the war when
Belgian neutrality was violated and
German purposes thereby disclosed.
Certainly America should have come
in when the Lusitania was sunk. But
America not only failed to come In,
but deliberately, as considered ma
tional policy, refused to prepare for
the conflict, which. to the French
mind, was inevitable. He lays great
stress upon this refusal of America
to prepare for war, because. as will be
seen, it is the keystone of his argu-
ment.
Advance Commercial Motive.
When America finally did come into
the war she came, as the F'renchman
sees it, not through any wish to help
France and the other allies. but be-
cause German interference with Amer
ica's profitable trade in war supplies
for the allies had grown intolerable.
Therefore, in the French view, Amer
lea went to war for purely commercial
and selfish purposes. And she went
to war wholly unprepared to wage
war effectively.
Now comes the kernel Of the French
contention. Once America had de-
clared war on Germany it was vital
to America that Germany should be
defeated. To defeat Germany became
to America a supreme national neces-
sity. But Germany could not be de-
feated unless France and her allies
could hold out until America could
prepare to wage effective warfare.
And the allies were at the point of
financial exhaustion. Unless they
could get financial assistance they
would have to surrender and make
peace on Germany's terms. And IL
they had to surrender and make peace
on Germany's. terms America would
have to do the same, for America
could not hope to wage alone a sue
cessful> warfare against victorious
Germany.
Price of Unpreparedness.
Therefore, when America lent the
allies money in order to enable them
to hold out until an American army
could be raised and trained and put
in. the field. she was merely con-
tributipg dollars instead of soldiers
to save herself from defeat at the
hands of Germany. In other words.
the French think the dollars America
loaned the allies to enable them to
hold back the Germans was nothing
more than a legitimate and perfectly
proper price America had to pay for
the mistake she made in not prepar-
ing herself to wage effective warfare
before declaring war on Germany. It
was, in the French view, a plain and
simple case of fighting with dollars
instead of with men to save America
from the necessity of making peace
on whatever terms Germany might
see fit to impose.
These dollars which were used in
stead of men on the battlefront the
Frenchman thinks he ought not to
be called upon to repay. He says, in
effect: If you could give US back the
men we lost to save you from de-
feat, then you could in reason ask
us to give you back your dollars. AS
you cannot give us back the men we
sacrificed in your behalf, you ought
not to demand your dollars back.
That is the situation as the French
man sees it, and the more he gazes
on this picture Of his own painting
the more firmly convinced he becomes
that he Is being badly used in the
matter of war debts. So let's dismiss
the theory that he is unwilling to pay
the debt because he is a dishonest
debt because he has argued himself.
and been argued by his politicians,
into believing that he doesn't owe it.
French Premise Unsound.
OF course. the premise from which
he argues Is unsound his arguments
frequently confound themselves and
the conclusions he reaches are illog-
ical. But the Frenchman cannot see
this. He never has had an oppor-
tunity to examine a clear exposition
of the American point of view. 1t
is amazing to an American how little
the average Frenchman, even IL of
more than average intelligence,
knows of America. His newspapers
give him practically nothing of
American news. His political lead
ers, in all too many cases, give him
only such perverted views of things
American as will serve particular
political purposes. The French are
of them ever visit the United States
and return to spread enlightenment
The Frenchman is compelled to get
his idea Of America chiefly from
American tourists, and the principal
idea he gets Is that they have a lot
of money to spend, and that a great
many of them spend 1t with irritating
ostentation.
1t is not surprising, therefore,
that he is unable to see the lack of
logic in the arguments he advances
with respect to the American debt.
I am deeply impressed with the need
that some one in America, some one
In a position to give weight and au-
thority to his words, should make a
full and clear exposition of the
American viewpoint as to the French
debt, and should make 1t In a way
that it would of necessity reach the
people of France. 1 can conceive of
no greater opportunity for statesman
ship to contribute to the cause of
better understanding.
Folly to Abuse France.
Certainly no useful purpose is
served by abuse of the French, in
Congress and in the public press, be-
cause of their views on this question
of the debt. I think they are in
error in their views, but think they
err through lack of understanding
and not through any motives of dis
honesty.
To see how much they lack in
understanding II is necessary to ex-
anime only a few of the items in the
above outline of the French view
point. To an American it seems in.
credible that any one could believe
that allied. defeat while America was
preparing for war would have com.
PEELED. America also to surrender and
accept German terms of peace. The
Frenchman seems unable to grasp
the fact that with allied defeat the
character of the war between the
United States and Germany would
have changed and its scene shifted;
that Germany would have been close