Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-07-25
EUROPE WORKS UP HATE
OF u. S. OVER WAR DEBTS
Policy of Passive Resistance, Followed by
Reputation of Obligations, Declared
Prospect America Faces.


debts.
1t is true that in terms the British
have not accepted the CaillauX princi-
pie. but in practice they know that
France will not pay If she is not
paid and in agreeing that the French
may reopen the discussion they have
actually bowed to the French con-
tention. They have done this be-
cause they are a reasonable people
who perceive that there is no use
fighting about what you can't get.
They have become popular in France
at the cheap price Of surrendering
what they never could have obtained
But it would be mistake to think
that the debt issue would be disposed
of If France paid lip-service to Ameri
can demand and ratified the Beren-
ger-Mellon agreement. In reality, II
would be begun on new base for 1t
is perfectly idle to suppose that for
60 years Germany is going to pay
reparations. And it is just as idle to
suppose that Germany's conquerors
are going to be interested in making
Germany pay for the rare pleasure
of transferring all this money to the
United States.
Coalition Against u. S.
AT Tie IIlOIIeIll Tic Del SnSSA-
Mellon agreement will be either re-
jected outright or put in committee
to cool in Paris, French payments
TO Britain will begin and we shall
get nothing. Meantime there will
be a slow but sure getting together
of all the debtor nations, Germany
included, to consider ways and means
to force the United States to change
it's course. This movement will not
be very articulate just now, when
new Americans credits are necessary.
but it will be formidable, and it
must be faced.
Europe does not mean to pay the
debts to America, because it does not
believe that they are justly insisted
upon Europe regards the money
we lent as the price we paid for be-
ing unready, and it feels that its
youth died in the trenches, while
ours were training in camps. More
over it's conviction is deeply fortified
by the fact that we are prosperous
and rich, while Europe is plunged
into every sort of economic and
financial misery. The question of
European capacity to pay, therefore,
must be given second place, the first
consideration Is that Europe does
not believe that it ought to be asked
to pay.
If Europe were suddenly to leap
into prosperity, and the burden of
the debts to us were thus to be
transformed into a relatively minor
affair, felt by no one, the case might
be different. But Europe has no
promise of immediate prosperity in
sight. Whether you consider the
financial crisis in France, the
economic crisis in Britain. or the gen.
eral post war conditions in Germany,
you are bound to appreciate the fact
that real recovery will be gradual.
it, indeed. it comes. The present
generation will not see a Europe
restored to approximately the COM
fort and prosperity of 1914.
Future Prospect of Debts.
1t is true also in France and Brit
ain, perhaps also in Germany, GER
tainly in Italy, that present indica-
tons point rather to an accentuation
than a lessening of difficulties. Things
may well be much worse before they
are better. But does any one sup
pose that this fact will fail to in
crease the general European resent
ment at our policy, which in the
midst of this time demands eVer-in-
creasing payments and utterly re-
fuses to consider any European argu-
ment which would permit readjust-
ment?
Our debt policy, then, has not only
already aroused European resent
ment. and, particularly in France
and Britain, produced an anti-Amer-
lean sentiment hardly discoverable
before in any recent time; what Is
more serious Is not only that it must
in the future continue to have this
effect but also that the effect will
be cumulative. Bad feelings today
are certainly only the prelude to
worse.
The spectacle Of the French vet
Grams, the mutilated of the war.
marching in pathetic and solemn pro-
test pleased all Europe; it awakened
a note of sympathy everywhere, be-
cause it was the sort of indictment
which it is impossible to meet. If
the French government attempted to
prevent the parade it was not be-
cause it did not sympathize with it,
but because it feared that the conse-
quence might be q new financial re-
prisal in America.
What Americans ought now to
recognize is that there has been
created from one end of Europe to
the other a picture of Uncle Sam,
which tends to become standardized
and will influence all European opin-
ion for many years to come. We have
become the Shylock of the nations.
insisting upon our bond, our pound
of flesh taken over the heart, no
matter what the consequences. That
Is the sentimental side, least easily
to be controversial in sense most
deadly, but not material.
Fear Domination Move.
Far more definite is the great and
growing belief that we are out to
dominate Europe. that back of our
policies lies the clear and definite
purpose to control; that there is, in
fact, a dollar imperialism as danger
Gus, as arrogant, as ambitious as
that Imperialism we once believed to
be the underlying cause of the World
War. We are. in fact, assuming the
appearance of an invader in Europe,
come to dominate, to rule and de-
termined to exercise both financial
and political control in Europe.
Such a view will seem fantastic
to most people on our side of the
Atlantic. In reality 1t is, OF course,
fantastic. But the point is that
on the other side of the Atlantic 1t
does not appear fantastic. Millions
believe 1t, other millions are like
to believe it. Senator Borah, for ex-
ample. suffering a sea change, in
transit becomes the spokesman of
American imperialism. His speeches
have the same effect as those of the
German Kaiser in the heyday of his
oratorial effulgence. 1t is Borah more
than any other single American who
has establishedsthe idea that America
desires either to crush or to dominate
Europe.
And insensibly Europe is tending
to draw together. We Americans