Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-10-20
YOUNG PLAN THREATENED
BY NATIONALISTS' ACTION
Referendum to Veto Agreement to
Be Given Cermany's Voters
i'm November.

with the amount they had been able
| to squeeze from Herr Meyer ct al, hae
marched into the Ruhr.
The familiar miseries of the imitation
| period settled upon Herr Meyer and
| filled his cup of wretchedness to over
flowing. His government had decreed
passive resistance in the Ruhr and
promising to pay a dole to every work
man who refused to labor for the
French, was printing money daily by
the billions.
saw Herr Meyer at that time. On
an Autumn day exactly six years ago
when the mark jumped from ,000, 000, 900
to 5000. ZOO, 900 to the dollar, he came by
table in a restaurant on .Unter den
Linden and begged for a crust of bread
There were many beggars before him
brother, bookkeeper, had committed
suicide 1t is a matter of fact that
more than thousand bookkeepers and
accountants lost their reason during
the imitation trying to cope with the
astronomical figures in their ledgers.
Berlin was a forlorn and dreary city.
The streets were cluttered with booths
for the exchange of money. The people
were down and as nearly out as they
have ever been since the Thirty Years
War Germany in 1923 was like nothA
Ing 50 T1uCIl as luIldIlC hSyluHI. 1HeIe
was real popular desperation. To one
who observed the country then it seems
incredible that the republic that
weathered the storms of those disas-
trouS months could even be disturbed
by threats from Right or Left today.
Meanwhile, however, Herr Meyers
ne'ghbor, the major. had not been idle.
In those days his doctrine of rescuing
Germany by force seemed to have some
sense to it. No notion then, however
weird. seemed entirely demented. Herr
Meyer. however, and most Of the Ger
man people said: This Is too fright
the only way to do so Is to convince
the French that we are going to do our
best to fulfill the treaty"
Kapp Putsch Fizzles.
The major, however, contending that
the French did not want fulfillment,
but only wished to destroy Germany
utterly, joined up with an East Prussian
Junker named Knapp, and in 1921 seized
Berlin. They had to give 1t up, for
the workmen Of Germany, sober to the
core. declared, This way lies ruin," and
called nationwide strike. Knapp and
the major withdrew.
Going to the Rhineland, the major,
with several of his fellows in secret
order similar to the Serbian white
Hand" and called the Organization
Consul" after the sobriquet of their
leader, Capt. Ehrhardt, bombed a few
bridges and asSassinated few French
men.
It was the remnants of this brand of
"OC" asSassins who have just been
identified as the perpetrators of the
bomb outrages in provincial Northern
IxraI % hate
boast of being hard to handle.
Their business in the Ruhr, however,
was not enough, for the major and his
fellows were as full of hatred for their
countrymen who advocated fullllment
as they were against the French, and in
the course of few months they man.
aged to kill two of the ablest propo-
nentS of peaceful reconstruction, Mat
thias Erzberger and Walter Rathenau.
ministers, respectively, Of finance and
foreign affairs.
A year later. in 1928. the major was
on hand in Munich when the general
who, having failed to win the war at
the head of the greatest army In mod
ern history. was now trying to convince
his followers that all they needed to do
to run the French out of Germany was
to take up scythes and chop the rascals'
heads off. The attempt to carry out
this simple plan, called the Ludendorff
Putsch, failed, and the major retired
for while.
Stresemann Emerges.
For at this most critical moment Of
Germany's postwar history, when not
only the major and his friends on the
Right, but Trotsky and Redek and the
Spartacists on the Left, were threaten
ing the complete dissolution of the ma
ttonal fabric, there came to the helm
a new man.. Gustav Stresemann was
not unknown. Ironically enough, he
had attracted some attention Just
before the end of the war with con-
vincing series of speeches on the neces-
sity of victorious Germany annexing
slices from her neighbors. But Strese-
mann was realist. A disarmed coun-
try, he argued, had no business shaking
an empty scabbard. Its only chance
was to reason with its enemies and be-
come, II possible, reconciled with them.
His realism, his acute intelligence,
his courage and his ability to convince
deSpairing nation that its only hope
Of salvation lay in fulfllment Of its
obligations brought astounding success
In the course of the next i've years
Stresemann achieved for Germany by
diplomacy every aim that the hotSpurs
had declared could only be reached by
force. They hated him for 1t after
ward.
First under Stresemann's leadership,
the Germans gave up passive resistance
in the Ruhr and the allies framed the
Dawes plan, for the first time fixing
a limit on the yearly sums Germany
had to pay. The mark was stabilized
The French left the Ruhr. All talk of
separating the Rhineland from Ger
many ceased. Germany entered the
League of Nations, once more a men,
Der of the international family. The
treaties of Locarno were signed, France
and Germany mutually guaranteeing
the inviolability of their common bor-
der, with England as co-guarantor.
All Stresemann's work.
Finally, to cap the career of the man
who, by common consent of fair minded
men in this country, deserves the title
OF the most able statesman Germany
has had since Bismarck, The Hague
agreement was reached, the allied
troops started to leave the Rhineland
at once and for all, negotiations for
the return Of the Saar territory to
Germany were begun and the Young
plan was perfected fixing a final sum
OF reparations at figure considerably
lower than the Dawes plan provided
and but a fraction of what the allies
demanded at the London conference
Of 1921.
MajOr's Last Stand.
Now perhaps it is understandable why
the major and his 10000 comrades of
the old officers corps are digging up
their fleld-gray uniforms, polishing their
epaulettes and marching out to mass
meetings to protest against the Shame
of The Hague" to cry out against the
"Enslavement of the German People"
Nonplussed at the factual refutation of