Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1944-10-27
IzzE51!E:}290:
Allies Ponder Terms
For Postwar Germany
Debate Amputaton of Reich for Prevention
Of Future War, or, Maintenance of
Country as Economic Unit.
BY BAUKHAGE
Ne,us Analyst and Commentator.

which Clemenceau approached the
peace treaty in 1919.
He said that the French reasoning
as expressed by Clamenceau took
for granted that European wars are
to be taken as normal or at least
recurrent affairs. The Wilson ap-
proach was to make an effort to stop
the wars. Herein rose the conflict.
AS soon as we adopt the view that
Germany has to be crushed to pre-
vent her from fighting again, we
must adopt the Characterization
genthau thesis of "Carthaginian"
or destructive peace.
Clemenceau Sought
To Weaken Germany
There appears, however, to be a
difference in motive between the
Morgenthau Clemenceau projects.
The Morgenthau idea appears to be
motivated chiefly on the idea that
punishment will bring about a re-
form, while Clemenceau frankly, in
the language of Keynes, wanted "to
set back the clock and undo what,
since 1870, the progress of Germany
had accomplished. By loss of terri
tory and other measures her popu-
lation was to be curtailed; but chief
ly the economic system upon which
she depended for her new strength,
the vast fabric built upon iron, coal
and transport was to be destroyed"
So far Messrs. Clemenceau and Nor
genthau seem to see eye to eye. But
the secretary of the treasury is not
concerned particularly with trans
ferring Germany's economic power
to any other country. He certainly
doesn't want to transfer it to Amer
lea.
But Clemenceau felt (according to
Keynes) that eff France could seize,
even in part, what Germany was
compelled to drop, the inequality of
strength between the two rivals for
European hegemony might be rem
edied for many generations.
''This is the policy" said Keynes,
of an old man, whose most vivid
impressions and most lively imagi-
nation are of the past and not the
future. He sees the issue in terms
of France and Germany, not of hui
mainly and of European civilization
struggling forward towards a new
order"
And so Keynes concluded that the
"Carthaginian peace is not PRAC-
T1CALLY right or possible" and his
prediction began to come true al
most before the ink on the treaty he
was writing about, was dry.
do not know why Secretary Slim
son and Secretary Hull oppose the
Morgenthau plan. But it may be
that they feel criticism of the peace
makers of 1919 applies today:
THE clock cannot be set back"
said Keynes, AID. 1920. "You can
not restore Central Europe to 1870
without setting up such strains in the
European structure and letting loose
such human and spiritual forces, as,
pushing beyond frontiers and races,
will overwhelm not only you and
your guarantees but the existing
order of your society,""
Wilson knew what Clemenceau
was after but he thought that the
League of Nations would act to right
the wrongs of the peace. Clemen-
ceau got all he could, and the Sin.
situations" he left behind when he
died as well as, for time, the "or-
der of society" in France were, as
Keynes predicted, overwhelmed.
Perhaps Clemenceau wasn't Car.
thaginian enough, in his peace. Those
who agree may well endorse the
Morgenthau plan.
In spite of reduced employment
and decline in industrial produc-
ton, salaries and wages have con-
tinued to increase during the past
year. Nonagricultural wages and
salaries for July, 1914, amounted to
1888 million dollars, an increase of
9 per cent over July, 1913. The
average weekly earnings in manu-
factoring industries for June, 1914,
(the latest date for which figures
are available) were $46.28. This is
the highest on record and per cent
above June, 1943. Average weekly
earnings in industries manufacture
ing durable goods were S52.16 in
June, 1914, as compared with s37 SO
for nondurable goods industries.
Since it is probable that employ
ment in industries manufacturing
durable goods will decline much
more than it will in nondurable goods
industries, following the cessation of
hoStilitieS in Europe the differenca