Evening star., 1926-03-28

the home staying American to under
Il stand than the attitude which Is taken
toward the United States pretty gener-
ally all over Europe but particularly in
France and Britain. Moreover. the most diffi-
cult circumstance to believe about this general
attitude must be the fact that 1t is held most
strongly, not by the politicians, not even by the
upper classes, but by the mass OF the common
people for whom Uncle Sam Is not alone the
enemy, but the cruel and save-drivfng master
Perhaps the best proof of the European at
ttude among the masses is found m ,er,st IN me re-
of the continent to unite across frontiers In
the common battle against the American enc
remember that the underlying principle of boil
shevist strategy Is to exploit all possible pas
sions, prejudices and quarrels. Wherever there
is bitterness it Is the Soviet Idea to arrive ana
exploit 1t to advantage.
X X X X
But it would be a mistake to think that it is
only among the masses and chiefly among the
uninformed that the resentment, dislike and
even hatred of the United States f1ourishes pc
culiarly. In recent number of the British
National Review, the journal which represents
the most extreme conservative opinion In
England, Uncle Sam appears repeatedly de-
scribed as a combination Of "Mr. Chadband and
Shylock" And it is by no means exact to thlnk
Of this opinion English alone.
What is the conception on which this hostil-
ity rests? It Is fairly we'll defined. The mass or
Europeans, without regard to nationality. be
lieve that America remained neutral during
the just as long as she was able to sell nu-
nitions and supplies to the allies ana OBTAIN
however the war reached point where 1t
seemed likely that Germany might win. then,
to save the sums we had loaned TO the alies'
we entered. Our coming into the war was no
more nor less than business transaction, TO
save our investments.
Having come into the war and having shared
in pushing it to a conclusion satisfactory to our
associates, then, so Europe believes, Mr.. Wilson
came to Europe and sought to impose peace
which would deprive the vctors Of all the fruits
of their sacrifices and sufferings we denied TO
France protection against Germany through the
occupation of the Rhine boundary. we deprived
Italy temporarily of her chance to obtain
Fiume. Our policy. as expressed by Mr: wilson,
created anarchy and confusion on the allied
side, and at the same time brought no alterna-
tive solution.
Then having imposed & League Of Nations,
which could not have been created otherwise,
we went home, rejected the treaty of Yer
saies, declined to join the league and cut our
selves loose entirely from all European responsi-
bilities.
In due course of time. moreover, we appeared
once more on the horizon to demand the pay
ment of the debts which had been contracted
to us by our associates of the war. Our first
appearance In this direction was through the
Dawes plan, which, from the European point
of view, represented an American plan to regu-
late reparations in such fashion that Germany
would be able to pay just enough to cover what
her enemies owed us and no more In word,
we intervened to save Germany from her con-
querors and to reduce her reparations payments
to sums which would cover our loans to her
conguerorS.
x X X X
The Dawes plan having been put through,
then IN Washington the demands for the pay
ments of the debts other than British were re-
doubled. AS to the British debt, do not be-
lieve 1t is humanity possible to exaggerate the
depth and breadth of British resentment over
this. 1t will take generation, perhaps two. If
the payments continue. to modify this feeling
materially.
Moreover, while we insisted upon British and
European payment we at the same time closed
EtlrODean goods 1ar1f1S,
we closed our gates to European immigration
by our new laws. British commercial marine
was terribly struck by the competition of our
new merchant marine, now in reality run by
Government subsidies. We restricted our pro-
ducton. both of cotton and of wheat, so Eu-
rope believes, for the deliberate and calculated