Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-12-29
Decade of Reconstruction
Continued From First Page

structure one nIoly dreamed OF IN the
pre-war days.
This is so obvious in the political
field as to need but little comment. The
map of Europe today Is an entirely diff
ferent thing from that of 1914. New
| countries are working out their des-
TIMES. The three great empires of
the Hohenzollern and Hapsburg and
Romanof have disappeared, and in
their places new experiments in govern
ment are being worked out, experiments
some of them so novel as hardly to
have attracted the attention of any
serious. responsible statesman in the
pre-war period.
So many and so vast have been the
changes that we can hardly realize the
extent OF any one of them. Take, for
instance, the establishment Of the Ger
man Republic. Any one who has lived
in Germany in the last few years must
come to the conclusion that the Ger
man Revolution of 1888 has wrought
as great change in Germany as the
French Revolution did in France. When
one recalls how much space Is given
In our histories to the French Revolu-
ton we begin to measure the magnitude
OF the political overturn which followed
the Great War.
Greatest Event Obscured,
But perhaps the greatest political
event is one that has been obscured still
further because of the fact that we in
America hitherto have paid little at
tention to the peoples affected by it.
From the Baltic and the Egean new
states have taken their places alongside
the old, carving out their liberties in
| terms OF constitutions and injecting a
problem into the European state system
which is so new that it Is hardly un-
derStood even by the rulers of the states
f, themselves. Only the wise elder states
man who preSides over the Republic of
Czechoslovakia has ventured to give it
philosophic form.
! Then there are those states which
have become SO impatient of the slow
and imperfect machinery of responsible
| government as to turn to Sterner and
more direct methods of action-the
FaScistS of Rome and of Moscow, with
their Numerically opposed philosophy
but their political affinities. All in ali.
it is clear that the political world of Eu-
rope has not been reconstructed on any
ancient lines, but Is moving along
toward some new goal.
Even If there were no League of Ma
tons, the international relations of
| these states would be quite different
from that registered in pre-war diplo-
macy, because the states themselves
are different from nations of the past
But with the League to give it express
sion and conference, the conception of a
United States of Europe takes shape in
broader lines from year to year, until
its possibilities of cooperation seem at
last even to reach the tariff barriers
themselves, fact which NJ BRAND has
been one of the first responsible states
men to discern. It probably is still a
long way from resolutions against ex-
cessfve tariff barriers passed by
chambers of commerce to the creation
| of q European tariff union, but the
representatives of business in practically
every country of Europe are insisting
that the United States of Europe is no
| longer a mere academic proposition,
but one of practical politics.
In the economic realm the postwar
period is frankly new. A new technique
Of production is making that of the
early twentieth century seem almost as
antiquated as the crude machinery of
! the early ninteenth. Mass production
3 no longer an American phenomenon.
A new industrial revolution Is taking
place, with inevitable far-reaching re-
suits In the whole field Of economics.
The repercussion of this event has
already reached to the farest corners
of the world in the search for raw ma
terial and cheap labor. Investments
| abroad carry our interests within foreign
countries and call for the insurance of
continued peace in order that the world
OF credit may continue to bring in its
| returns. The international peace move
1lent of the postwar period Is, therefore,
not the product Of a passing phase of
| sentiment, but the expression of the
real interest of the common man, an
interest bound to grow from now on,
| gaining In strength as each new gener-
alton places its savings where they will
yield their best returns In a world grow
| ing steadily less IN size as communica-
| tons increase.
Build Along New Plans.
To turn from generalitieS to detail,
let us first examine the nature Of the
European economic reconstruction. In
the Spring Of 1919 I motored for days
| at time through the devastated area of
Northern France and Belgium. recall
| that for two whole days, in an area
| that had been the heart of industrial
France, saw not more than three tall
chimneyS with smoke issuing from them.
Such factories as still we're standing
were mostly empty shells with their
machinery destroyed or taken into Ger
| many. Cities and towns were almost
obliterated from the map. Ypres was a
deSolation as complete as Nineveh. The
best fields of Picardy had been churned
by high explosives into the underlying
| chalk. Except for the temporary Frame
| work of the Army Engineers, there were
| no bridges over any streams.
What is the condition of this country
| now? The railway line of Northern
France, the Chemin de Fer du Nord,
which Is the trunk line from Paris to
| Calais and Boulogne or to Brussels, has
not merely restored its track on the
rough ballast Of the prewar days, but
it has rebuilt the roadway with new
gradients and got rid of all its anti
quated installments. There are vast
| new yards at Amiens and other juno
ton points in the north, built accord
ing TO a new plan embodying all the
most efficient devices for the railroad
man. The signal man beneath the hill
| which is crowned by Laon Cathedral,
looks down the track through curving
plate glass windows.
Electric haulage brings new ton
| mage through the restored canals and
the great rolling mills along the Bel
gian frontier have installations Of only
the most recent make. The coal mines,
which the Germans flooded in the Pas
de Calais, were recovered by devices
unknown to the science of the prewar
| period. and the new machinery in
stalled in them works with an economy
Of labor and under conditions Of safety
| for the miners unheard of there before
! the war.
! Without in any way withholding from
France the full measure of appreciation
and admiration for its marvellous effort
at economic restoration, the impartial
observer must admit that once the int-
tial cost OF installation Is paid, the in
dustry of Northern France is bound in
| the future In 0aiY hv this foroaS ohar.-o