The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-12-01

twisted steel skeletons, bent
over in grotesque forms and
angles.
Smoke all but hid the ruins of
what had been the dwellings of
$4,000 people. The debris of what
had been great iron, steel and engi-
neering works swan and reeled in
the maelstrom of blood and burning
guncotton below.
Later 1 was TO enter that town.
But not ur5il well into 1918. For
the invaders, though surrounded on
three sides, held on to the bitter
end. And what saw was not
pretty.
A SOrdid Partnership
War at best is an unlovely mess,
but never did it seem more sordid.
War to make the world safe for
democracy, bad as it was. was one
thing. Here it was plain that Mars
and Big Business had become part
ners in a big way.
Germans at war are no better and
no worse that other civilized
peoples. And in Lens, and through
out Northern France, where they
were the masters for four years
from 1914 to 19l8-German Big
Business saw its chance and took it.
Systematically, according to what
was described as a written plan
I'd faff Of
industry, the Kaiser's war captains
flooded mines. smashed machinery
and RACED great industrial plants of
all kinds.
No French Competition
When peace was declared there
would be no French competition for
many years. Not only would France
be unable to compete in foreign
markets, but even much of what
she consumed at home would have
= to be brought in from the outside.
German industry would fall heir to
this trade.
Such is the French thesis. That
is behind what is now happening
in the Saar. That is what makes
it today's worst danger spot in all
Europe.
1t was because of what happened
at Lens, and in the region there
aboutS, that France, at the Paris
peace conference, demanded that the
Saar be turned over to her.
President Poincare. Marshal Foch
and many other Frenchmen wanted
more than the Saar They wanted
the Rhineland. But more than
economic reasons lay behind this
demand. They wanted security
against the legions which twice,
within forty-flve years. had in
vaded their soil. Foch insisted that
the Rhine be made Frances east
ern frontier.
Demanded Saar Outright
"Tiger" Clemenceau, Frances pre-
mier and chief spokesman at the
peace conference, did not go quite
that far. He found himself battling
ferociouSly against two sides at
once. Some of his own people de-
manded too much while some of the
others, as he saw it, did not want
to give him enough.
p Clemenceau demanded tine Saar
outright, in return for similar
French regions destroyed by the
Germans. Pounding the table about
which sat the Big Four-himself,
President Wilson, Lloyd George and
Signor Orlando-he denied any in
tention of annexing the Rhineland.
But the Saar, by rights. belonged to
France.
One day he pulled a gorgeous
bluff He said 10000 Frenchmen of
voting age in the Saar had petit
toned President Poincare for an
neXation to France. Even Lloyd
George smiled. For though he and
the other knew very little about the
Saar, they were aware that there
were probably not one-tenth that
many French people there all told
men, women and children.
Wilson's Thumbs Down
Young Andre Tardieu, former
foreign editor of lie Temps, captain
in the army, and commissioner to
the United States, now was aid to
the Tiger" He advanced a plan.
He recalled that Louis XIV had
founded the city of SaarlouiS; that
that city was even named for the
French monarch; and that Napoleon
Bonaparte had raised the French
flag above Saarbrucken, where it
fluttered until 1915. The Saar was
almost on all fours with Alsace-
Lorraine. 1t was practically French
territory.
Grimly President Wilson listened
to the foxy Tardieu. When the
Frenchman had finished. the Amer
lean put thumbs down on the
project.
7 am willing to rectify, as far as
possible. the wrongs done France in
1870" he said icily. And also since
1914. But not for 1915. I have no
right TO hand over to her people
who do not want to go to her, or to
give them special gvernment, even
If it is better for them, if they do
not want it."
Crisis and Compromise
For two or three days the atmos-
phere of Paris was hectic. I re-
member hearing the startling rumor
at the Hotel Crillon. American head
quarters. the the President lad or
dered the George Washington to
Brest to take him home.
The peace conference was about
to blow upl
AS suddenly as the crisis had
arisen, it blew over. A compromise
had been found.
At in the afternoon of April 9,
1919. Tardieu, for France, Headlam
Morley. for Britain. and Professor
Charles H. HaSkins. for America,
met in a room and started drafting
ko~Nrr,a Sl,~