The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-03-21
Liberal Viewpoint
by DIR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

TTITLER has at last strapped the Treaty of
i Versailles-or at least those sections of 1t
which have held Germany in military bondage
and tutelege. The Allies are now reaping the
whirwinc which they sowed in the treacnerouS
wind of 1888.
Never in human history would generous
peace have been more beneficial to victorious
powers than in the peace making opportunity
after the Armistice The Allies were in a posi-
ton to have gained almost every one OF their
avowed war aims-democracy, disarmament, the
rights of small nations, goodwill in Europe, and
world organization.
Unfortunately these ends which we're played
up by President Wilson, the Entente war orators
and their press agents. were not the real goals
of the Allies
These were embodied in the secret treaties
which envisaged the destruction of Germany
economic power the parcellng out of her
colonial empire, the destruction of her fleet,
and the award of much of her European terri
tory to Poland, France and the like. President
Wilson was only slightly successful in blocking
these plans
TN 1918, the German people we're weary of war.
4 They were tired of the HohenzollernS and
imperial irule. They longed for peace. They
wished to try to control their own political
destiny through republicanism and democracy.
They aspired to extensive social reform and
popular justice. They were only too willing to
disarm, provided the rest of the world did like
wise. They were eager to cooperate in an i'm
partial investigation and assessment Of war
guilt. They we're reconciled to the idea Of re-
storing Belgium.
The war-weary German people refused to
back up the high command in any program of
retiring to the Hindenburg line and fighting it
out to the last ditch. Trusting President Will
son, they fell away from their rulers and COM
PEELED acquiesence in the Arnistice, supposedly
based on the Fourteen Points of President
Wilson.
But the Fourteen Points were blandly shelved
when peace was made Not a one was fully
lived up to, and most of them were wholly
strapped.
Germany disarmed to the bone and in good
faith at first
But France, like any guilty despoiler, de-
manded security in saving her ill-gotten gains
She trotted out the silly DOGGY of "the three
invaSions of France" in the 10Th century-all Of
which were in answer to initial French agrees
sion. She demanded special protection and in
sisted on a vast armament. She built up real
military hegemony in the place Of the mythical
German hegemony of 1914
7 Under French leadership, the Allies saddled
~ Germany with the exclusive guilt for the
World War, and penalized her with staggering
responsibility for 1914. Whereas Prussia had
levied an indemnity of one billion dollars on
France in 1871 the Allied powers placed one Of
80 billion dollars on Germany.
The German people hoped that this vim
dicCivenesS would prove only temporary - that
reason and justice would ultimately prevail.
They were cheered for time by Locarno. But
the fundamental injusices remained unaltered,
and no promise was given that they ever would
be remedied voluntarily by the Allies.
This generated a spirit of desperation in
Germany which was able to observe in 1926-27
in every class from the old Junkers to the
workers.
The Germans became receptive to any
demagogue who would promise and reiterate re-
vision Of the Treaty of Versailles. Men who
would not have spoken to Hitler on the street
indeed would have thrown him of the sidewalk
in 1926, ultimately rallied about his Na1
banner.
Germany now has revision, but at what a
cost to both Germany and the world!
If Europe moves into another world calamity.
it will be one which was builded at Versailles BY
those men who had a popular mandate to bring
to an appropriate close the war to end all war"