Evening star., 1926-05-30

mentarily successful because the Po
| lish government had failed to save the
economic and financial equilibrium OF
the country.
It would be. perhaps. an exaggera,
ton to speak Of Europe at the mo-
ment as actually In revolution. but
from Warsaw to Madrid. and from
Berlin to Bucharest, no government is
actually secure. Presidents are Civ.
tors; prime ministers have followed
suit or become themselves dictators.
And what Is asked Of the old or the
new Is not to conquer adjoining prov
inces or regain lost lands, but to as
sure to the man and woman Of any
rank work and wages, the chances to
earn a living and the certainty of be-
ing paid for their work in money
which will represent q living wage.
Aside from Britain there is no Euro
pean government with a real and
functioning democracy. In every ma
tional legislature the membership Is
broken into groups. and between these
almost innumerable groups no COOP
Grafton. no solidarity Is possible.
When Germany has 100000 unem-
ployed and needs foreign confidence
and capital desperately, the Luther
cabinet, which had foreign confidence.
falls over a petty squabble between
groups over the colors upon the ma
tional fiag.
Other Nations Restless.
Poland. which more than any other
country In Europe needs foreign con-
fidence, needs the subordination Of all
political and partisan issues to the su-
preme task of re.creating a vanished
state, flies into insurrection over still
more trivial political issues. In France
members Of the Chamber Of Deputies
are more afraid Of their constituents
than of the ruin Of the country, and.
therefore, have been incapable Of &C.
tion until inaction has well night de-
stroyed national solvency.
A sort of creeping paralysis has
more or less afflicted the govern
mental machines Of all continental
countries. Even in Britain the fact of
the strike is a sign of the desintegra-
ton Of national sentiment. The fact
that such a strike could take place at
such q time. with all the fate Of Brit
ain in the balance. demonstrates that
Britain, too, Is going through some
measure Of the same phase. But note
the contrast with q time still recent:
remedy for his domestic miseries Is
the coercion Of Germany in the mat
ter of reparations, the German no
longer finds French hostility the insu-
perable barrier to his recovery, It is
not the omissions or the commissions
of neighbors which explain the British
trouble.
Europeans, western Europeans at
the least, are not thinking Of fighting
each other to benefit themselves. nor
are they expecting to be attacked by
less fortunate or more ambitious
neighbors. On the contrary. from one
end of Europe to the other nations with
almost immemorial hatredS are actual
ly making business agreements. Even
in the distracted Danubian region new,
saner tariff arrangements are replac-
ing the products Of the postwar pas
Sions.
No Real Threat Seen.
I have been speaking Of the west of
Europe, but even in the center, the
lens are not international but do
mestic. We're Poland actually under
the shadow Of q Bolshevist threat,
the latest revolution would not have
taken place. The tumult and chaos in
Rumania are plain proof that Soviet
troops are not on the way to Bessa-
rabia. To be sure. at Geneva and else
where diplomats continue to quarrel
according to the old rules and the va
rious national organs break out with
all the old-style attacks, but the man
in the street Is neither impressed nor
interested. His problems are more
personal and ever so much more press
ing.
Explain the contemporary European
state OF mind as you choose; set It
down to postwar mentality. to the in
evitable consequences Of the war It.
self. Go vastly farther and accept It
as proof Of the decline of western CIV
or Interpret It as the onset
OF q new and tremendous revolution
still gathering force and presently to
disclose itself in some Transformation
as far-reaching as the French Revolu.
ton itself, the fact remains that Eu-
rope at the moment Is something vast.
ly different from the Europe which ex-
listed in all the period from the Tan
gier crisis Of 1905 to the occupation of
the Ruhr in 1923.
Again, what must be perceived is
that European peoples are moving
rather in parallel than in conflicting
courses. From Madrid to Moscow gov
badly. In practically every European
country there is a sense, a general
sense, that something is wrong. funda-
wrong. Life is not only hard,
but on the whole getting harder, the
and the men that ought to
provide the things which states exist
to provide are failing to function or at
best functionfng very poorly.
Situation i'm Italy.
For eight years. ever since the close
of the struggle, the mass of men and
women in all countries have been per-
forming miracles. rebuilding ruins. re-
ordering their lives, going back to
work where work was to be had, bear
ing, enduring, striving. but. on the
whole, the government, which should
have helped, has failed, has even again
and again hindered, rendered next to
useless the labors Of Hercules which
the people have performed.
! made an exception Of Italy q mo-
ment ago. Italy has tried the most
violent solution Of all, save only Rus
sia. Italy has found a great man, the
the domestic life of, the nation, he has
imposed governmental efficiency and
economy, order and discipline by the
device of abolishing government as we
know it, substituting force for law
and personal power for parliament.
But today he has filed Italy with the
of great future and an
enormous imperial aspiration which
may tomorrow end in new misfortunes.
And in italy Mussolini is master be-
cause in Italy the system which is
badly everywhere completely
broke down. italy suffered from the
same disease-she is now experiment.
Ing with a cure.
II I were to sum up my experiences
In nearly four months of European
travel 1t would be to point out that,
however difficult 1t may be to define,
much less forescast, the future of
Europe. it is essential
10 recognize that there is new Eu.