Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-10-20
DEATH OF STRESEMANN
REAL BLOW TO GERMANY
Passing of Leader Gives Rise to Fear
Monarchial Government May
Be Again Set Up.
BY FRANK II. SIMONDS.

TINE death of Gustav Stresemann,
foreign secretary of the German
Republic since 1924 without in
Il terruption, must inevitably evoke
two thoughts. On the one hand
the world has already paid tribute to
the achievement of the man who must
be recognized-with the single eXcep-
ton of Bismarck-as the greatest for
eign minister of modern Germany, and,
with BRAND and Macdonald, as one of
the three most potent servants of the
cause of reconciliation and peace in
Europe. But on the other hand his
disappearance at the present critical
hour has been rightly pronounced a
worldwide calamity and a cause for
profound anxiety.
To appreciate what Stresemann has
actually accomplished in less than five
years, it is necessary to go back to the
moment when, after few weeks as
chancellor, he took over Bismarcks old
occupation as the master of the foreign
policy of his country. At that moment
Germany had just lost the fatal strug-
gle over the Ruhr, more costly and
more Immediately disastrous for her
than the World War itself
Abroad the German people still suf-
fered from the enormous anger and
distrust that the war had reused In
all the allied nations. Morally Ger
many was isolated, she appeared at in
ternational gatherings only In the role
OF the criminal coming up for sentence
and condemned to submit to the
never-ending series Of penalties i'm
posed by her recent foes. Her border
provinces were occupied. Not only
French, Belgian and British troops in
Mayence, Aix-la-Chapelle and Cologne,
but another French army was seated
fv1 he n,tHxy a. - ",
dustrial centerS of Germany.
Even more appalling. was the domes-
tic situation. Imitation had destroyed
the financial structure, the Ruhr strug-
gle had resulted in the paralysis of the
whole industrial machine. Misery and
even starvation were on every hand.
Hopeless and desperate, the German
people seemed drifting inescapably to
Bolshevist upheaval which would
justify the hopes of Moscow and the
worst fears of the rest of civilized
mankind.
He Saw Clearly.
The supreme merit of Stresemann
lay in the fact that in this desperate
hour he perceived not only clearly but
alone of German statesmen the single
avenue of escape. He saw that Ger
many must at last accept the conse-
quences of having lost a war, conse-
quences expressed in terms of territory,
population and power. He perceived
that while Germany's conquerors, nota-
bly, France, still believed that Germany
was resolved to evade all PREPARATIONS
payments and at the same time to seek
to restore her strength for the sole pur-
pose of reversing the decision of 1918,
German recovery was impossible.
Above all, StreSemann recognized that
q a In wi nj in
victorious powers that Germany was
peaceful. that she was prepared to pay
up to any reasonable amount, that she
was anxious to return to the circle of
civilized nations, to live in peace and
anfty with all peoples. UP to that mo-
ment neither British nor American in
fluence had been adequate to restrain
French violence, because there was no
evidence that Germany would, II she