Life — February 1, 1923 — page 18: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

FEBRUARY 1, 1923 ga se. 22: XN “While there is Life there’s Hope” Published by LIFE PUBLISHING COMPANY London Offices, Rolls House, Breams Bldgs., London, E. C. LL we can be sure of about the news from Europe is that we do not get it all nor get what we do get entirely straight. Probably we are correctly advised from day to day of what France is doing in Ger- many, but even about that one can- not be entirely confident. The gen- eral French policy, of which the movement into the Ruhr is a part, is a large speculation. To start with it is a plan for collecting dues, but if the dues cannot be collected what ‘is it? Is it the beginning of a movement to separate the Ruhr and part of Silesia politically and indus- trially from the rest of Germany, as some observers, who think they are well informed, assert? The Ruhr and Silesia are described as the Pennsylvania of Germany. Her steel and iron industries could not exist without them and in those in- dustries lies the main part of Ger- many’s industrial and military pow- er. If France can control them she is protected against the resurgence of a militant Germany and also against being wiped out in her in- dustrial competition. If she can get her indemnities and reparations by seizing the Ruhr, her adventure will appear to be successful even when she recalls her troops. If she can- not get the indemnities, but holds the Ruhr, her adventure may seem to her present guardians still more suc- cessful. Supposing that she has this pur- pose to keep the Ruhr, if necessary, what is it based on? She has by far the greatest and ablest army in Europe. In the air she is nearly three times as strong as England. In the sea she has submarines to 598 Madison Avenue, New York help her maintain communication across the Mediterranean with A fri- ca and shies at the five-party treaty that would limit her subma- tine strength. She is credited with ability to draw half a million black troops out of Africa at will, and more if-she needs them and can train them. If force is going to manage the concerns of Europe, France is very formidable. If force is to rule, there seems to be nothing between Moscow and the British Channel that she cannot have for a time. But for how long a time? That is the rub. France is no fool. She doubtless knows what dreams of continental domination have come to. Her men have had fighting enough —been killed a-plenty, and she has no more to spare. She may go mad, as Germany went mad, but it seems too soon after the great war for that to happen. When we think of the plan imputed to her, realize its mag- nitude and the hazards it involves, we shall be apt to conclude that if a reasonable bargain is offered her, her government will abandon that plan and take much less. She has said what she would take—12¥% billion gold marks, which is not an ex- treme sum for Germany to pay. OW much responsibility have these States about the predica- ment of France and her present ef- forts to extricate herself from it? It will be generally admitted that except for the American military in- trusion into Europe France would have none of these troubles about reparations. We brought them all on her without a doubt and we have not done much to help her with them. Some other things have come to be pretty generally admitted, as that the Treaty of Versailles was a bad job and that the reparations and in)- demnities demanded of Germany were about three times more than she could meet. The United States was not much to blame because the Treaty was bad nor because the de- mands on Germany were too heavy It was not our representatives who did those things but the various Europeans, each group reaching out for something for itself and all ve greedy. But because it was the American incursion that gave G« many the final knockout and pro- duced the present situation in Eu rope, including this embarrassment of France about reparations, we have responsibility about what is happening and ought, of course, to try to meet it. But how? For the moment by keeping our shirts on and maintaining tranquillity of spirit while France makes her e/- fort to persuade Germany to shell out. Of course the Germans do not want to pay any more than they can help and will squirm out of it if they can, but there is an opinion that Germany could pay France her twelve billion gold marks if she wanted to, and that the men to mak¢ her want to are not her officers 0 government but her industrial mag nates. The Germans undoubted!) have immense sums of money in England and the United States an: Switzerland and other foreign coun tries. The men to reach that mone are the kings of German business They are the men the French are after and it is their seats of govern ment that the French are occupying So let us be calm and see if th: French can fry the fat out of the great German profiteers. If they can we have no need to be sad. E.S.M, comicbooks.com