Evening star., 1926-10-31
EUROPE MAKING ISSUE
OF ANTI-U. S. FEELING
Sentiment Gradually Growing From Debt
Question to One of Desire for
Economic independence.

war, literally scattering wealth broad
cast, to explain the ebulitionS of street
passion in Paris. Every French
man is conscious that France gave Il
million and a half lives, saw her
northern provinces devastated. has
borne an enormous burden of costs
Of reconstruction and today finds her
self practically unpaid by the enemy
and held up to ransom by the ally.
Debt Policy Blamed.
For the Briton. for the Frenchman,
the American policy with respect of
the debt is responsible for the worst
of present conditions. And in both
countries there is the sense that while
the present is evil the policy of tho
United States means that the future
must be mortgaged; that the grand
children of the ViCtOrS of GpreS, OF
the Marine and Verdun must pay
tribute to the heirs of those who
began active fighting in July. 1918.
| asked q very famous and wise
Dutch journalist about the debt sit
uation and he said quite frankly: In
a word, I should say that the feeling
a., to America tends to become Eu-
ropean." What he meant was. and
my experience was the same, that
there is q rather rapidly consolidat-
ing European feeling which is not di-
vided by frontiers and does not much
vary in different countries. 1t Is not
merely France and Britain and Italy.
our chief debtors, who are either an
CRY or alarmed. rather the whole
continent is beginning to have much
the same feeling. much the same view
of the United States. We are. If
may venture the expression. becorn-
ing "Uncle ShylOck" to all that lies
between London and Moscow.
1t is quite true that for the moment
we are less unpopular in Germany
than anywhere else. 1t is. and there
is q world of significance in the fact.
only the enemy of the recent war
who finds our policy toward our as
sociates either reasonable or COM
mendable. What we have done to
France and Britain since the war has
measureably reconciied the German
to what we did to him during the
conflict. From the German point of
view we have deprived both of his
major enemies of any semblance OF
victory. They are defeated just as
he was defeated, and if he pays tribute
to them they must pay all and more
to us.
Yet there are not lacking signs that
even in Germany the mood is likely
to change soon. that the European
sense will take the place of the pure
ly parochial feeling of satisfaction at
seeing France and Britain mulcted.
One day, not far distant, the British
and the French and the Italians are
sure to present to the Germans the
simple proposition that they. are pre-
pared to forego reparations if the
United States will cancel debts. Then
for Germany, too, we shall become
the single country responsible for its
troubles, for its foreign tribute.
F'rancO-Ger1nan Amity Seen.
No one should mistake that under
lying all the agitation for a Franco
German reconciliation was the con-
ception that If Germany could pay
France material sums which would
enable France to stabilize her cur
rency without American aid. then
France might agree to evacuate the
Rhineland ahead of time. Reconcilia-
ton between Germany and France
may be coming. and it would Obvi-
ously be q gain for European security
and peace, but the sudden popularity
of the BRAND program in France was
due not to the rapidity with which
Germany was being forgiven. but to-
the speed with which fear and hatred
of America are spreading.
Always in understanding this Euro
pean feeling the American must re-
member one thing. Europe is not
prosperous in any American sense; 1t
is not recovering in any real measure.
In Britain you have an approximately
complete prOStratiOn of national In
dustry, due to the coal strike, but the
coal strike had its origin in war CON
ditiOns and consequences. A prosper
Gus Britain, returning to her old po-
sition, might easily regard debt pay
mentS to the United States as at most
a minor annoyance. But Britain IS
not coming back-I do not mean she
may not rally ultimately-but for the
present she is rather going down hill.
In France the fall of the franc has
already wiped out S25 900, ,0O0,0 900 OF
capital, held mainly by small people.
the savings of the frugal. Cost of liv-
ing has mounted terrifically, as al
ways in the latter phases of imitation.
And what is worse, there is the sense
of insecurity, the atmosphere of ap-
preaching disaster, felt ON all sides
and by all. France today, beneath the
surface of tourist Paris, is a bitter,
tragic, disillusiOned country, with a
profound sense of having made vast
sacrifices in vain and of having lost
every last conceivable circumstance
of victory.
AS for Italy, under all the glitterinS
facade of FacismO and behind all the
brave words of MusSOlini. lies the sin
gle fact that Italy has not the raw
materials TO supply Il great industry
nor the land to feed vast and grow
ing population. Italy is buying far
more than she sells, and although her
people are on war bread and every ef-
fort is being made by a powerful and
energetic government to remedy the
situation, no known solution is in
Ci al
raw materials nor land.
Middle Glass Sacrificed.
Germany, unlike France, Italy, and
Britain, is not staggering under a ter
rife burden of domestic debt, for the
simple reason that she repudiated 1t
all. She literally sent her whole mid
die class to starvation and death. This
ma jOr operation has, at a price, given
her Il stabilized currency. She has re-
organized her Industries. and she has.
as / said from Berlin, arrived at tho
closest approach to liquidation of the
war which I have seen in Europe.
But Germany has 1850, 900 unem-
ployed, and were it not for the British
coal strike, which has saved both Ger
many and Poland by giving their coal
world markets, the German situation
might still be very difficult.
The statement that Europe is pros
porous is simply totally untrue. Euro
pean nations are undergoing various
degrees of economic and financial
crises. The situation is not quite. the
, same in any country. But offhand 1t
is a safe statement TO say that every
country which has made debt settle
ment with the United States is going
through difficult and even dangerous
times. We are taking money from all
of those who are in trouble and tho
people are conscious of the hardshipS
OF their existence. For all these peo-
pies we are represented. If only by the
official proclamations OF our own Gov.