Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-06-13


about equal to what we meant to get
from our European debtors. And We
have since made settlements which III
effect amount to taking the entire
sum which Germany will pay. All and
more than there is any chance of col
lecting must be paid TO us.
If YOU 30 IL little deeper you will
find that what inks most is the realiza
ton that because American capita!
must still be had. Europe must con
tinue TO grin and bear our advice.
exhortation and objurgation. Again
and again you hear in Europe the
same expression, I'VE have lost our
freedom. we have become the slaves
of America
Find Talk Humiliating.
Most of the expressed opinions on
this side of the water concerning
European affairs seem over there
merely silly. If there were no money
question at issue between us, Europe
would just laugh and dismiss the
various congressional deliverances as
more Americana" 1t is not mainly
because we are rich and Europe is
poor that Europeans hate us, but it
is far more because, being rich where
Europe Is poor, we take advantage of
our power-or seem to Europeans to
do SOTO humiliate, offend, Insult
them,
A book like that of Col. House does
an enormous amount to exacerbate
the European feelings, because in Lon
don, Paris or Rome it seems that the
war. which was q. matter of life or
death to Britain, France and Italy,
was to Col House, representative
American, President Wilson's silent
partner" only a chance to gain pres
tige by settling it up. 1t was a field
for political exploitation, although
millions were suffering and hundreds
Of thousan ds dying.
At the moment when Britain was
on the verge of a general strike, when
she was facing every sort of economic
and fiscal evil, Notwithstanding that
she has made a debt settlement long
before any other nation and alone has
been paying large sums regularly,
Senator Borah launched his campaign
on behalf of war claims. When many
French boys were dying TO maintain
French rights in Morocco, other sena
tors made speeches denouncing
France, which unhappily, as every
Frenchman knew, would only en-
courage the Riffians to resist
more stubbornly. Italy having
had revolution and her die
tator having ordered the national
finances aid balanced the budget,
sends a nhs1ister here to negotiate
for debt settlement. His appearance
is signal Tor an outbreak of con-
gressional danunciation of Mussolini,
which must strengthen the hands of
the opposition and give the impression
that the United States is anti-Fascisti.
See Politics i'm L. S. Course.
AS to our present views and utter
ances on the subject of disarmament,
Europe quite frankly sees I'm our off
cial action at Geneva a deliberate
effort to acquire campaign material
for the next presidential election. So
far from welcoming our participation,
Europe pretty generally resents il be-
cause it seems nothing more or less
than an effort to exploit European
necessities for domestic political ad-
vantage. When all is said and done
we will do nothing practical to help
disarmament. We will not join the
league and add at least our moral
weight to Article X. We advise all
hands to reduce ornaments and Guilt
vate friendly relations. but we also in
dictate that any nation which takes
our advice and disarms must not look
to us for moral or material aid, If ii be
attacked later
We maintain a navy equal to that
of the only other first-class naval
power, despite the three thousand
miles of sea between us and any Euro
pean danger and four thousand miles
between us and any Asiatic menace.
real or imaginary. We maintain an
army vastly larger than the forces of
either of our land neighbors. Our ex-
penditure for war preparation. aside
from pensions. has mounted enor-
mously since 1914. But with a SUI
preme fleet and an army larger than
that of any immediate neighbor, we
tell the French and the Italians. who
have been frequently invaded and still
have marks of the latest devastating
invasion, that their measures of self
defense are evidences of inherent and
congenital wickedness.
Europe does not care how big an
army or navy we maintain, but 1t does
most awfully resent our insistence
that. because we only need a small
army, all our dangers. so far as we
have any, being obviously European
or Asiatic-that is, beyond the seas
nations whose dangers are nearby and
to be met only by land forces shall
reduce these according to our concep-
ton, not theirs.
You hardly see a British magazine
or newspaper in recent years which
does not have some reference to the
American States which have repudi-
ated the loans which they made in
England. This is the British answer
to all our arguments that debts are
sacred and that our insistence on be-
ing paid is in reality a defense of in
ternational morality 1t lis no use In
point out that our State is something
apart from the Nation and the Ma
tiOnal Government has no RESPONSE
bility. "A rather fortunate arrange
ment," is the typical British rejoinder.
One might multiply the examples
Indefinitely, but what have Indicated
will perhaps support the point which
1 am trying to make. namely, that
fundamentally it is not our prosperity.
our debt policy or our different inter
national conceptions which explain
the universal European dislike of us at
the present moment. ON the contrary.
l believe the root of the thing lies in
the fact that Europe is fed up" and
tired to death of our preaching, our
prescribing, our indicting.
Americans must remember that
every workincman i'm England believes
his present plight is due to the Ameri
can insistence upon the debt payment,
that every F'renchman believes thar
the collapse of the franc is the result
of American desertion and hostility,
and that every German is coming to
believe that the burden of reparations
is due solely to America. since all that
the German pays finds its way ulti-
mately to us, or will when the debt set
Elements begin to function regularly.
And this belief weighs against our
endless assertion that we are ready
to help. accompa MED by our refusal
to render any help of the sort Europe
asks.
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