The producers news., 1925-10-23
OUR
WASHINGTON LETTER

Bv LAURENCE TODD

cial and financial washington, WHICH ]
speaks for financial America.
President Coolidge is pleased be-
cause he sees in the peace agree
mnt the removal of one more excuse
for non-payment of French and ltall-
an debts to the American treasury:
That excuse is the German peril
which requires that France and Italy
maintain big ornaments. That is to
say, France fears the Germans, ana
Italy will not disarm while France Is
armed. Now they are all under bond
to keep the peace, and Coolidge sees
no reason why they cannot promptly
cut their military budgets and turn
the savings over to Secretary Mellon.
The state department is pleased be-
cause diplomacy has scored. True,
the British Tory diplomats scheme
of making Germany agree to let
French armies pass through Germany
to defend Poland and Czechoslocaha
against the Soviet Union was aoan-
dOned. Tchicherin had seen the Ger
mans first, and had shown them the
advantage cf holding aloof from the
anti-Russian combination at Locarno.
But at least Germany has signed up
with the other western powers, and
professional diplomacy will get cred
it for having saved Europe from
chaos. Germany has been brought IN
to the League of Nations. Germany
will begin the process CT remaklng
the League from within. No longer
is the League the combination OF con-
quering Allies that it has been. Ger
many is making the League safe for
America-unless she makes 1T safe
for Russia instead-and American
politics may now take turn which
will make a pro-League attitude safe
for the state department. That Will
please the department.
| That Germany will proceed, as a
! member of the League council, to
move for a change in the terms OF
) the covenant which will remove the
danger that the penalty clause may
be used to justify war on Russia,
is felt to be certain. That American
influence will be used, through Lon
don, to counteract this move, is equal
ly certain. Through the screen of
guarantees and pledges the Washing
ton government sees one thing very
clearly-that the western European
powers are in SO serious an economic
situation that each one of them will
be more tempted to enter into close
relations with the Soviet Union, and
+ hence to take steps to bring the Sow
J cts into the League, than will the
United States in the next few years
} Washington is glad that Moscow had
nc direct part in the Locarno pact
and it hopes that the new treaties
/ will swing all of western Europe into
y an anti-Russian entente, which the
German nationalsts will force their
: government actually, if not formally
9 to accept. 1t is their dream of g
: league to defend private property.
v There are men such as Borah who
9 see in the new situation a tendency
= to create a new balance of military
l. power in the world, with Russia, Asia
and Moslem Africa on one side ant
western Europe and America on tn,
I other. But these critics are not run
| ming the White House or state de
/ partment.
| Count Laszlo Szechenyi, ministe
j flom Hungary, has received from th
International Workers Defense Ceun
,e ell, in Chicago, a joint protest anC
E appeal against the persecution of lef
. wing socialists and the arrest ant
n threatened execution of Rakosi,
former comiser under the Bella Km
government of 1919. 1t is reported
e that Clarence Darrow, Upon Sinclair
) leaders In the American Civil Liber
ties Union and other liberals through
out the United States are lombard
ing Scchenyi with kilograms to tn
y same effect. They ask that the min
= lister to Washington notify the dicta
tor Horthy in Budapest that American
J. liberals demand that the terro
o against Hungarian liberals shall
{ cease, in teh name of humanity.
l Szechenyi is a white guard, hard
n prejudiced and fully sympathetic with
! the HOrthy methods. That is why he
u was sent to Washington. What he
: fears is not the kilograms that nay
i. be sent him, but what may be pub.
Il lished here. And he will be disturbed
if the Defense Council starts picket
ing his Office, as was the case with
I the Polish legation when Lanzutsky
a was threatened with death last spring
I Sen. Wheeler of Montana is bus!
with his lawyers in Washington once
,. more. This time it is Sargent, tn,
It Coolidge personal choice as attorney
general, who is directing the renewed
attempt of the administration to "get'
e Wheeler, who "got" Coclidge's frs
a attorney general, Harry Daugherty
r Trial of Wheeler on the indictmen
II secured by Att. Gen. Stone in tn
District of Columbia last winter
charging Wheeler with a technical vi
s olation of the public land law, is ex
= pected to take place some time thi
:" winter. Wheeler is to file a demur
Y rer.
One of the chief gains to the ad
ministration from this pursuit of tn
l. Montana senators in the courts is tn
q fact that it has kept him from taking
an active part in the work of the Sen
e ate committee on interstate com
e merce. Railroad senators dominat
that committee. They do not wan
l. to argue with Wheeler if he can b
r kept busy elsewhere.
Young LaF'ellette, now returning t.
d Washington, is anxious to get tn
place on interstate commerce whic
his father held with concentrated in
s telligence for many years. If the ad
ministration senators refuse MIN tn
place, the progressives will start
fight on the Coolidge appointment
; now awaiting confirmation by tn
Senate.
ECONOMY CAUSES DISCONTINU