The Indianapolis times., 1931-08-21
EUROPE, FACING
CHAOS, NEEDS
MASTER HAND
Only Best Craftsmanship Of
Whole World Can Avert
Disaster.
BY WILLIAM PHILIP SIMMS
Soripps- Howard Foreign Editor

LONDON, Aug. 2l.-Europe faces
the blacklist and in many ways the
most perilous winter in her peace
time history.
Forces almost beyond human con-
troll are in motion threatening the
old world with economic, financial
and political upheayels with record
unemployment and possibly even
revolution in their train
To be an alarmist in times like
these would be criminal But it
would be even worse to go on liv-
ing in a FOOLS paradise.
The situation is not hopeless. Itis
just bad, And it is going to require
the combined brains of both the old
and new worlds to set it right-plus
a moral courage seldom encountered
among politicians.
On Edge of Abyss
have just completed swing
around Europe, from the tip Of the
toe Of the boot" of Italy to the Pol
ish frontier, and from the British
isles to Austria. I saw and talked
with many leading statesmen, diplo-
mats and economists. And the above
fairly represents a cross-section of
their opinion.
Some of the oldest and stancheSt
powers Of this hemisphere are ad-
mittedly on the ragged edge Of an
abyss whence only the coolest heads
can save them.
Great Britain as well as Germany
TO mention merely the two great
est-can avoid disaster only through
drastic and unprecedented reorgani-
zation of their finances, which, in
itself, involves political dangers
To make things infinitely worse,
the whole situation, from top to
bottom, is shot through with sullen
or angry nationalism extremely diff
ficult to cope with.
Worse Than in 1914
In some ways things are worse
than in 1914. Ther, such was the
power of Europe's foremost govern
ments, a determined stand by one
Of them-say England or Germany
might have prevented the war.
Today such thing would be i'm
possible Most of the governments
are powerless to make agreements
which they, in their broader knowl-
edge, know to be vital for the SIM
pie reason they would be over
thrown in jiffy if they did.
Between them France and Ger
many hold the key to the future OF
Europe for the next twenty years,
at least. Yet neither Premier La
val, at Paris, nor Chancellor Bruen-
ing, at Berlin, dares to go as far
as he would like with an entente
which would be the salvation not |
only of themselves but maybe of
civilization itself.
In Germany the extremists are
growing in power, and they Will
continue to grow until the country
gets back on it's feet again. The
danger is that before that time
comes, the extremists may be in
power there and set fire to Europe.
Nationalism Dangerous
German nationalism is mounting
higher and higher. Whether it is
Adolf Hitler Or somebody else who
leads them, the people are on the
move and are not going to stop until
reparations are wiped out or greatly
reduced, the treaty of Versailles re-
vised and union with Austria ac-
complished.
France, meanwhile, is sitting
pretty. The richest and strongest
power in Europe, she intends to hold
on to her advantage. Only in a new
world order in which all nations
will guarantee each other against
war, or something approximating
that, will she consent to change her
stand