Evening Star Newspaper, August 16, 1925, Page 37

EDITO NATIO RIAL PAGE NAL PROBLEMS SPECIAL FEATURES EDITORIAL SECTION he Swnduy SStaf Part 2—20 Pages WAS GERMANY IN NEW DRIVE American Industry Twisted Menta World War BY ELDON ONDON. ish capital after a stay on the continent, one ¢ not help but he impressed with the truthful- ness of the hoast that London is the “crossroads of the world.” There flows through this city a con- stant stream of persons going to and coming from every part of the in- habited glob and nowhere in the world is there any matter of consider- able public interest about which there cannot be found in London some one who is informed In London there is to be had more and better information about the other countries in Europe than the hurried investigator could possibly dig up in those countries through his efforts. Es the ohsery tempted in- vestigations on his own hook to come back to London to check up on hi observations. Tt gives him a_better perspective and a truer slant and enables him to free himself from the immediate influence of the propa- nda which is fed him in every opean capital It is for these reasons ‘that the re- maining articles in this series will be written from London. I am anxious not to do injustice to ‘any country about which 1 write, but I am equally anxious that the Anterican viewpoint shall not be submerged by the view- points of Frenchmen or Germans or Ttalians or otl.ers who wisl to appear to American eyes in a better than is warranted by the facts. S. CLINE. F German Propagandists Busy. German propaganda became famous during the war and German propa- nda is still on the job. It is less noxious, in a way, than is the propaganda of the Russian Soviets, but I am not certain that it is not more dangerous to the well-being of other peoples. T wish I had the power to impress upon the world the im- portance of what seems to me to be the one great vital fact in the entire European situation—and that is that German mentality has not been changed by the war. At times, when it would seem to serve German interests, profession is made that the German spirit has been chastened. That is pure hypocrisy In private conversation the German does not give you the impression of a chastened soul—does not seem even 1o seek to create such an impression. He is the same old arrogant, would-be master that he always was—the same old apostle of German “kultuy,” hold ing the same belief in the eventual inevitability of “Deutschland uber alles.” The only thing lacking to complete the picture is the saber-rattling of pre-war days. I do not believe there is in the minds of the present genera tion of Germans any notion that man aims can be achieved by an ap- peal to arms, than because Germany has no arms and is in no position them, French fears to the notwithstanding, any open-minded inquirer is forced to the conclusion that Germany is no menace to the peace of Europe today and is not likely to become so for a good many years. As an American dip- lomat 'said, Germany cannot fight with Dpitchforks and table knives against machine guns and airplanes and, figuratively speaking, has' today no more formidable weapons. It is true that the inter- allied control commission found a few hidden rifles and small quantities of ammunition, but the concealing of these war materials was obvious! the work of fanatics and had no real significance. It is the belief of Am- bassador Houghton and _other well informed Americans in Europe that there are not enough hidden arms in Germany to equip a single division and not enough such ammunition to fire a dozen rounds. to possess ¥ Seeks Commercial Supremacy. Tt 48 not, therefore, in an immediate military way that Germany is a menace to the world, though she may become a military menace at some time in the future. That twisted Ger- man mentality and vaulting German ambition which were responsible for the World War have been switched from the idea of military to the idea of commercial supremacy. There would, of course, be no quarrel with the German ambition were it not for the German mentality which is back of it. The Germans have just as much right to seek commercial cor quests as have the British or Amer! cans. The difference lies in the way the Germans go about it. Before the war the Germans were scornful of the military prowess of other peoples today the mercial their rivals the war they showed they were with- out military scruples: today they are showing that they lack commercial scruples. They view with scorn and as & weakness those instincts which impel Britons and Americans to play the game fair and above board. As in war, so in trade, the German holds that the end justifies the means. I may be accused of.drawing the picture too strong, but I am satisfled that T am not. A little later on in this letter I am going to say a word in behalf of Germany which ought to relieve me of the charge of unfair prejudices; but, whether it does or not, I am going to tell what seems to me some of the most pertinent facts bearing on relations between Ger- many and the United States. Use of American Dollars. Since the Dawes plan went into operation, and in connection with put- ting it into operation, Germany bor- rowed a great many millions of dollars from the United States and other loans are under negotiation and in prospect. The dollars being loaned to Germany are a part of the savings of the American people and the bank- ers who are making the loans are the trustees of those savings. The Ameri- can people are perfectly willing their dollars shall be loaned to Germany if the money is to be used honestly for the upbuilding of prosperity and the establishment of peace. They are not willing their dollars shall be used for the purposes of war or to further commercial dishonesty. _Ispecial are they not willing that their dollars shall be used in a way calculated to undermine American prosperity. There is a disposition in Europe to regard the American as an ‘“easy mark,” but he is not as easy as all that—at least he is not willing to be. 1t hardly will be disputed that it is the duty of American bankers to scru- tinize with the utmost care the uses which are to be made of -the money they are lending to Europe. There is reason 1o believe that in all too many cases this is not being done. It is to he feared that some bankers are looking first to their own profits, then Returning to the Brit- | own | uable for | light | if for no other reason | contrary | rmany | FOR WORLD SUPREMACY Menaced by Same lity That Made So Ruthless. | to the security back of the loan, | not at all to the purposes for wk the loan is sought. This applies well to loans to countries other German, but it is Germany | discussing now | Unsound Credit Struet a well known fact that the im- | mense strides Germany made as a world trader before the war were due |1n no small measure to the terms of credit she gave. These. credits were made possible only by government subsidies in some form or other and, from an American point of view, were absolutely unsound and unhealthy. | That they were unsound even with government backing is evidenced by the fact that the German credit sys- tem had become so topheavy that it was threatening to topple, and such { well informed authorities as Dr. Julius | | Klein, director of the Bureau of For- leign and Domestic Commerc believe {that had not the war intervened it | would have come down with a worl | shaking crash Such belng the case. it is not diffi | enlt to-recognize significance in the fact that the Germans are busily en- | gaged today building up just such | another credit structure. In fhe mar- kets of the world they are zetting| business a from their American {and English rivals by making credit | terms which Americans and British | cannot meet or are unwilling to meet, because they know business gotten | on such terms is not healthy business. | Where are the Germans getting the | | money to finance these long credits? | | It is true that inflation and cancella- {tion have freed their fixed capital from about all its mortgage charges, but that does not give them the fluid | | capital necessary to the processes .-rl | manufacture and export. The gov ernment cannot be supplying it, the German government is suppo to be broke. The suspicion arises, and would seem to be justified, that | much of this unfair and unsound| | competition is being financed by | | money borrowed in Great Britaln and |the Tnited States. Do American bankers who are lending American | dollars to the Germans know whether or not these dollars are being used to g undermine American trade and throw American workers out of employ- ment? It is a fair question and the bankers ought to answer it Boring From Within. Nor is it alone in foreign markets t the Germans are resorting to | underhana ' practices to throttle | | American indust, They are trying | right now in the United States to get their grip on the American chemical lindustry which has been built up Isince the war. And American invest- |ors are largely furnishing the finan- | cial ammunition which is being used I'to cripple American industr; not the | chemical - industry alone, but the textile and other industries which are dependent upon the chemical plant Before the war Germany was su- preme in the chemical field and the industries of all the world paid tribute | to her. The war forced other nations, | particularly the United States and | Great Britain, to develop chemical in- dustries of their own. .\merl("an‘ chemical plants now supply more than 90 per cent of the requirements of | American_industry. The tariffl pro- | tects the American chemists and pre- | vents the dumping of German chem cals on the American market. So the Germans are trying to get control of | [ the American plants and already have succeeded to some extent. Not hav- | ling money. of their own with which | {to buy the plants, they are issuing | bonds to cover purchase costs and sell- | | ing the bonds to American investors. Backed by the I. G. At the head and front of the Ger- man chemical industry and back of the campaign to gain control of American chemical plants is the Interessen Geminschaft, the great German chemical cartel, as ruthless and conscienceless a combination of capital as the world ever knew. It is tied up in all sorts of ways with the German textile and other indus- tries, and its history before the war is ample warning that it is a rival that needs watching. ‘The minds back of the I. G., as the cartel is familiarly known, are the same twisted German minds that ap- proved violation of the treaty guaran- teeing the neutrality of |minds that can see no wrong double-dealing with a competitor so |1ong as the ends sought redound to German benefit. It doesn't require |any vivid imagination to foresee what | Wwould happen to the textile and other American industries dependent upon chemicals if the I. G. should succeed in getting control of the newly estab- lished chemical industry. They would pay, and pay through the nose, and be further handicapped in competition Wwith Greman industry in the markets of the world. So far the I. G. has captured only a few outposts in its campaign to control the American chemical industry. They captured those outposts only because Ameri- cans supplied the necessary ammuni- tion in the form of American dollars. How much farther they progress in their campaign depends upon how much more ammunition of the same kind Americans are willing, to pro- vide. In the future when chemical industry bonds are offered, American investors ought to make mighty ce tain that American, and not German interests are back of the offering. Being Fair to Germany. Americans want to be fair to Ger- | many. They want to see the Germans get back on their feet, pay their debts_and be useful and contented neighbors. But Americans ought not to be plain silly in their efforts to be fair. We are not going to make friends of the Germans by letting them play us for suckers. The Ger- ‘mans are not built that way. We will only increase the contempt they already have for us, in common with their contempt for all non-German peoples. 1 promised I would say a word for the Germans in offset to the things I am forced to say against them, and here it is: I believe the allies should give back to Germany the colonies they took away from her by the terms of the treaty of Versailles. 1 held that belief before coming to Europe and the most open-minded inquiry here has confirmed me in it It is not predicated upon any sym- pathy for Germany or conviction that she was unjustly despoiled of her pos- sessions by the victors. I think Ger- many ought to be given back her colonies simply and solely as a safety valve. Germany never was a good colonial power and I don’t know that she would make any better use of her colonies in the future than she‘did before the war, but any attempt per- | manently to shut up 66,000,000 enter- | prising and aggressive people within ' the narrowed boundaries of the pres- | | | | | HINGTON, D; SUNDAY == Society News MORNING, AUGUST 16, 1925. Former Socialist Leader Discusses Controlling of Dangerous Free Speech BY DREW PEARSON. EADING the Constitution of the United States is an ad- mirable exercise and should be practiced oftener by some of our officials, but there are times when reading the Con- stitution may be closely allied to treason. John Spargo 14 was talking. Spargo, who came to this country British immigrant, who once was the backbone of the Socialist party, and who now has left it to sit in the im- artial background and watch the st radical forces in this country. He was talking in response to a question from me regarding the probability of com- munism 4n the United States and the best method of checking its dangereus propaganda. “A good citizen,” continued John Spargo, “doesn’t read the Constitu tion during times of emergency. He doesn't even read the Ten Command. | ments. The Ten Commandments are the basis of our social and moral life and vet to read them at certain crit ical moments when men are ready for a spark to set them aflame sould be a serlous moral offense. All Believe in F “We peech. all believe in free speech. T am a liberal and I know I do. I don't know your politics, but I infer that you do. Even our old friend Judge Gary, who is an avowed conservative, not_feel hurt if we say t he does. We all three believe in free speech. And we all thrge belleve in common sense. But free speech un- tempered by common sense may at times be treasonous. “Let me give an illustration. Take the town of Herrin have been riots and disastrous out breaks and where it is the duty of the authorities to guard against fur- ther outbreaks. You will grant, I be- lieve, that it i the duty of the au- thorities to protect property and pre- vent the loss of life. That, in my opinion, fs-the paramount duty of any democracy, and the further you get into the .workings of democracy, the more important becomes the humani tarian funetion of the state. “Therefore, in order to protect property and life in Herrin, the au thorities must establish certain re- strictions against holding public meet- ings and against being on the streets after a certaig time, and so on. Now I may consider it my constitutional right to attend the theater. Or I may consider it my constitutional right to £0 to church. But for the sake of law and order, 1 must for the time being waive those constitutional rights. Circumstances Must Control. “Or, again. T may be a person like Roger Baldwin, who comes down from the Civil Liberties Bureau and insists on nding upon his constitutional rights by reading the Constitution in the public square at Paterson, N. J. Now it was not the reading of the Con- stitution” that caused Mr. Baldwin to be arrested. but the fact that he chose | intention of becoming an American | a particularly dangerous time during strike riots to read it, and the fact that large crowds can easily be touched off in times of trouble. To read the Constitution is to draw a 1ggle between the conservative and | 111, where there | | | | | | JOHN crowd, and to draw a crowd is to in- vite disaster. tell him he is wromg and I am right, nd that T have a perfect right to read the Constitution in the public square. Because the police chief is responsible for property and life, while I am not. “This you self-appointed triumvirate— Judge Gary and I—probably also worship was a_constitutional right. Every man is entitled to it, both white and black. Yet I can conceive of a time, such as during a Ku Klux Klan riot, when common sense would dic- tate the closing of a negro church.” “Is not the right of free speech frequently unjustly curtailed by the authorities?” I usked John Spargo. Undoubtedly,” he replied. “But who are the best judges of whether the curtailment s just or unjust. Frankly, 1 don't get nearly as hot under the ccllar when I see public meetings suppressed as I used to. A Youthful Indiscretion. “I remember one case, for instance, when I was much younger and when I was not yet a citizen of this country. There was a strike down in Pennsyl- vania and an injunction had been is- sued—I still think rather unfairly— against the holding of public meetings. I was sent down to tell the authori- ties that they couldn’t get away with | this | " “Well, T told them! | about our constitutional rights, and | about Valley Forze and Lexington nd what our forefathers had stood at which time, re- I had not yet declared mv | I told them fol member, | citizen. The meeting was held and there was no violence, but as I look back on it, I think I had nerve to place my own judgment ahead of ! other men who knew the community, would agree that freedom of religious | “I can’t g0 to the police chief and| would we have ended? Is Reading the Constitution Treason ? Yes, says John Spargo, if ou do it at the wrong time the There are times, he explains and in wrong way. in the accompanying inter- view, when reading Consti- tution or Ten Command- ments in a certain tone,of voice and with certain ac- companiments may touch off a spark that will lead to riot and Dbloodshed. He sense and liberal says common government must control in regulating public speech. men of standing at that. Suppose some one had thrown a brick? Where And the re- | sponsibility would have been all mine.” After reminding Mr. Spargo that Italy and Japan had just recently. passed laws which strictly defined free speech and provided strict penalties for those who violated them, I asked if he believed the United States should pass a similar law. “ree speech Is 100 hard to define.” Mr. Spargo replied immediately. “It is too debatable a question o put down in black and white in terms of law. It is too easy to slip away from the democratic principle of free speech into endangering the public peace. Besides we have too many aws in this countr; We believe in individualistic government and there- fore we should govern ourselves not by petty and res aws, but by common sense. Dealing With Violence. “But what are we to do with the man who deliberately advocates the violent overthrow of government? I asked. “At present, according to the Department of Justice, there is no penalty nor any means of dealing with the American citizen who advo- cates violence.” “I say by all means shut up the man who ~advocates violence,” re. turned the noted ex-soclalist, “but I am not convinced that you can do it by law. The man who really wants to advocate violence is skillful enough to | set around the law. The fanatic who openly advocates violence is so blatant | that he is not dangerous. People laugh at him. It is the skilful man we have to fear, and he can always avoid any law. “For instance, I have heard a man inciting a mob to beat up ‘scabs.’ He sald nothing about violence, in fact just the contrary. ‘Let me impress!| upon Your minds that vou must not | tempt to present his ¢ | immediately | morning. beat up these fellows,’ he said. ‘Don’t use violence. Don't lay your hands on them.! A stenographic report of his words would have shown him entirely | within the law.® But his sneering | words very subily conveyed the idea | of vielence. Common Sense a Good Rule. “Over in England T have seen man blaspheming Queen Victoria be- fore a big crowd in Trafalgar Square. Sorue of the people In the owd wanted to mob the speaker, but a po liceman protected him. He was say- ing: ‘It would be a shame to throw brick at the old lady when she passes. We must have respect for her aze and high position,’ and so on, inciting the crowd to violence with every sentence. That kind of free speech is all right for England. England has a uniform and even-keeled pophlation. Our peo- ple are too mixed and conglomerate. They catch fire too easily. ome of our people could listen to a speech like that without danger. The stald old New England Historfcal Society, for instance. It would prob- ably do them good. But ‘the same speech delivered to a crowd on Pine street, Philadelphia, would set them | on fire “Our only safe method of regulat ing free speech is common sense and a liberal government And for the individual citizen, an implicit obedi- ence to any ordinance which an emer- gency calls forth.” Intolerances of Radicals. “What do you think of these com munistic attacks upon State and mu nicipal authorities who have found it necessary to limit free speech?” I put my last question. “The men who get exercised about the curtailment of free speech have shown themselves more intolerant than most of these State and munici- pal authorities. It all depends on who is doing the talking and what side he talking on. “I have seen crowds of soci tending discussions at Madison Garden or Carnegle Hall that supposed to be free and open let some one from the other conservative—rise in his seat lists at quare were But side: and at ase, and he was in ‘a tumult of have heard an drowned boohs. Sometimes 1 invited speaker who was presenting | the other side boohed down by these same radicals who fight for free- dom of speech. I says that these fellows are just as serious opponents to free speech as the policeman with the badge and the big stick. They both use force. Intolerant Liberals. “The soclalists are really just as intolerant as their enemies. I remem- ber open air meetings up around 125th and 138th streets in New York when I was a member of the Socialist party which used to last until 1:30 in the The people living in the rooms above and around us must have been kept awake. And as I look back upon it, I should not have blamed those people if they had taken out the fire hose and deluged us. “If a than comes around at night and bawls under my window, I may agree with his sentiments, but 1 am nevertheless seized with a violent de- sire to go out and kick him." ITAX REEORM IS CONGRESS’ GREAT OBJECTIVE THIS FALL Reduction of Burden Generally Is Practically Onl Question to Be Tackled by Legislative Body During Session. BY WILL P. KENNEDY. Abatement of the tax nuisance is going to be the preponderant work of the next session of Congress—in fact, about all that will be done, save to pass the regular annual appropria- tion bills. The new ‘Republican leader of the House of Representatives, Represent- ative John Q. Tilson of Connecticut, believes in doing one thing at a time and doing that one thing hard. Bear- ing in mind that characteristic, it is not surprising that inquiries directed to him concerning plans for the next session of Congress bring forth the information that he has no plans in the plural sense, but only “a” plan— and that is for tax reform. Tilson is not prone to shout his a views from the housetops, but on the | subject of taxes he has very definite ideas, which of late he has shown a disposition to “tell the world” when- ever and wherever the opportunity presents itself. The nety House leader believes that those who are entitled to the greatest relief through tax reform are the mil- Tions of persons in the United States who pay no direct income tax to the Federal Government, but who feel the burden greatest by reason of increased prices for the necessities of life. These are the persons who suffer most b reason of the high sur-taxes, Repre- sentative Tilson believes, because they are the ultimate consumers and in the end -must pay. all taxes, which are passed on to them as part of ithe price of evervthing they eat and wear. Briefly stated, Representative Til- son’s ideas for tax reform and the ent German republic is bound some ay to result in an explosion that will shake Europe and the world. It sim- ply can't be done. Must Find an Outlet. Somewhere Germany must find an outlet for her surplus energies and her surplus population. There are few places in the world where Ger- man emigrants are welcome today or are likely to be welcome for many vears to come. If there were Ger- man colonies to which they could go necessity would force them there and in time these colonies would be made to contribute largely to the world’s wealth. New wealth comes only through the development of raw re- sources, and Germany has need of a lot of new wealth if she is to feed her people and pay her debts. She cannot earn this new wealth unless given an opportunity. 1t would be much better to keep her busy earning it in tropical Africa than to have her seeking a way out of her difficulties hy plotting for unfair advantage in the establishments of her ereditors. ‘Germany deserved punishment and must be made to pay—all the world agrees to that. But the victors can- not consistently demand payment and at the same time deny’the means of payment. Economists agree that fu-. ture increases in standards of Mving must come. largely - through develop- ment of the tropigs. “Development of the tropics is a mighty disagreeable job, as all colonial powers have found. Why not let the Germans do a share of- 17 . Copsright, 1825.X | elements of his plan of action for the | next session of the House are: | 1. Substantial reduction of taxes. 2. Elimination of the publicity of income tax returns. 3. Reduction or elimination of in- heritance taxes, so as to enlarge the fleld for State taxation. 4. Repeal of the so-called ‘“nuis- ance” taxes, on automobile parts, etc., to the greatest extent practicable. Tilson’s Summer has been a rather busy one, as he spent several months running from one end of Europe to the other, ostensibly studying the production of war munitions—a sub- Jject in which he has been interested for many years. He devoted a great amount of time to this subject and rated on a voluminous report sub- mitted to the War Department; but, between train. jumps, official dinners and other incidents of his tour through a dozen or more countries he also found time to gather sufficient material for an equally voluminous report on European taxation methods. This information is now digesting while on a “vacation” in his Summer camp in New Hampshire. In slang phase, Tilson is “a bear .for work” and a vacation to him means merely dodging the crowd for a time so that he can get to work on a subject that interests him. Those who know Tilson's charac- ! ter do not expect to find him a party to any compromise on the tax ques- tion in the next session. Born in Tennessee, where such a thing as compromise is unknown, and edu- cated and for 35 years a resident among Connecticut Yankees, who have a supreme faculty for knowing just what they want and going after it by the shortest possible route, his background and environment has helped to make him a man who would rather go down starving than take half a loaf for surrender. Tilson's idea of a fair compromise where prin- ciple is Involved is to get what he thinks right and not a jot less. With all his unyielding disposition on questions of large importance, members of the House almost unani- mously agree that there are few men in Congress more easy to get along with than he is. On such matters as committee appointments and other privileges and prerogatives:for which the general run of Congressmen are, to say the least, persistently looking after their own interests, Tilson has shown a disposition to step aside for the other fellow—as he did two years ago when he gave up a_place on the rules committee so that Represent- ative John M. Nelson of Wisconsin might have the appointment—thus for a time appeasing the La Follette bloc. On matters of principle, however, his record shows that he has been as unyielding as granite, being one of the handful who voted against the “soldiers’ bonus” and of the even smaller number who refused to com- promise on the Mellon tax plan. The material which Representative Tilson has collected in Europe seems to have strengthened his conviction of the need for immediate tax re- form. “It is dificult and unfair,” says Mr. - ‘{Continued on Third Page.) sur- | recently collabo- | | | OPPOSING POINTS OF VIEW HELD ON PHILIPPEAN Manila Lawyer Declares People Are Entitled to Free-! INDEPENDENCE dom, While Judge Williams Asserts They ‘Are Not Yet Read EDITOR'S NOTE—Eleven members ot Congress. i1 _addition to Representatt Bacon 'and Underhill. have visited ( Philippines during the past few month and indications are 'that the Philippine independence"question "will come’ up: for discussion at the coting session of Con- gress. This article presents both sides of ihe question from authoritative sources BY NORBERT LYONS, Secretary U'nited States Mission, American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippine Islands. An unusually interesting and author- itative presentation of the Philippine independence question from opposing viewpoints took place at the recent Institute of Pacific Relations, which closed its sessions at Honolulu on July 15. The protagonists were Conrado Benitez, a prominent young lawyer of Manila, educated in the United States, and Judge Daniel R. Williams, former member of the Philippine judiciary and author of a recent volume on “The United States and the Philippines.” Both were delegates from the Philip- pine Islands. Mr. Benitez based his justification of the Filipino plea for independence on two grounds—first, that the Fill- pinos had virtually achieved their in- dependence by their own efforts when the American military forces took over the islands, and, second, that the Undted States, through its leading statesmen and through legal enact- ment, had pledged itself to give the islands their independence on condi- tions that have already been fulfilled. In substantiation of the latter argu- ment, Mr. Benitez quoted at length from the utterances of Presidents Mc- Kinley, Taft, Roosevelt and Wilson, and also called attention to the pre: amble of the organic act of 1916, known as the Jones law, which in u mistakable terms holds out the hope of ultimate independence to the Filipino people, contingent upon the establish- ment of a “stable government.” Such a government, he claimed, now exists in the Philippines, and therefore the independence of the islands should forthwith be declared. People Trust America. The Filipino people, he added, have always had confidence in the good faith of the American Government, as exemplified by the altruistic acts of its representatives. He severely criti- cized those Americans who harp on the incapacity of the Filipinos for self-government and would deny the boon of independence. These critics, he said, gratuitously defame the civi- lized Filipino population and set up impossible standards for the realiza- tion of a “stable government.” It is they, he claimed, who keep the fires of racial hatred burning in the islands, Mr. Williams, in a paper replying to Mr. Benitez, took the viewpoint that the Philippines are not ready for in- dependence, and that it would be a serious mistake, leading to disaster, if the United States. should mow with- draw. No selfish- motives, he declared, cause some Americans to oppose pres- ent or early independence, but they “sincerely believe that such a step would be a betrayal of our trust to the Philippine people as a whole.” 1t would be equivalent to permitting “‘the great body of islanders to be ex- ploited and impoverished by a small coterie of their own people. American tutelage, he said, has thus far been unable to reach more than an insignificant part of the population, 90 per cent of which is still inarticulate, while a million or more pagans ‘and Moros, occupying 40 per cent of the land area, have scarcely taken the first steps on the long road to indi- vidual initiative in government. Must Learn to Be Free. “It is not given to any people to override ethnological truth,” he con- tinued, “nor to hurdle the slow proc- esses of evolution. If the Malay is to escape his inheritance, it must be’ by the same road we have traveled, and history records that the journey was a slow and painful one.” Without the “steadiness and self-control of politi- cal maturity,” he stated, any indepen. dent government launched by the Philippines is foredoomed to failure. The ingrained characteristics, habits and limitations of 10.000,000 people cannot be transformed in a genera- tion nor in many generations, he maintained. Mr. Williams denied the truth of the claim that the Filipinos had 'achieved their independence from Spain, and sald that it would have been tragical to abandon the Philippines to their fate in 1898. He praised the wonder- ful uplift work accomplished by this | country since that time, and asserted that the present stability of the gov- ernment in the islands s due solely to the presence of American sove. reignty there. Regarding the premise contained in the preamble of the Jones bill, as cited by Mr. Benitez, Mr. Williams declared that “the authority of a party ma- jority in Congress, influenced by sup- posed political expediency, thus to categorically and finally interpret the will of ‘the people of the United States’ as to the Philippines, is open to serious question,” and cited the elections of 1900 and 1924, when plat- forms favoring independence were rejected by the people of this country. He also qdestioned the constitutional power of Congress to alienate sover- elgnty over any territory belongin, to the United States. s To cast the islands adrift now, he maintained, would stultify our every tradition and would be a “shameful betrayal of every principle of decency and fair play for which our country stands,” and he challenged any one to prove that our withdrawal from the islands would be to the physical, mental or material advantage or in- terest of the Filipinos. Those who question the wisdom of Philippine in- dependence, he concluded, are better and truer friends of the Filipino peo- ple than those who for various mo- tives and ends proclaim otherwise. There was considerable general dis- cussion of both of these addresses, but no action on the subject was carried on with marked amicability, taken by the conference. (Covyright, 1925.) Princess Alla Mestchersky, whose family and fortune were swept away in the Russian revolution, is now working as a chambermaid in a Lon- don’ hotel. . £ BY FRANK H. SIMON] | HAT is the ierman purpose | with respect of Russia This is the outstandin problem of the present Fu- | ropean situation, and it is | directly by the several state ments and by the official papers of Dr. Stresemann, the German Foreign Minister, relating to the proposed se- ity pact and to the accompanying proposal of German entrance into the League of Nations. This aspect of the security issue— and, indeed, of the whole Kuropean | problem-—has so far attracted nothing like the attention it deserves, hecause the world, and America in_ particular, is thinking of the past and not of the future. Yet it is unmistakable in the persistent effort of the Germans in all the present discussions to keep their Lands free and avoid any undertaking which might in any compromising ashion affect their future relations with Russia, not merely or mainly with the present Soviet mess, but with a restored Russia, with a Russi turned to her place as a great F pean power. German Future at Stake. Germany believes—this is patent that her own future as a great power is contingent upon Russian recovery and a Russo-German understanding raised RUSSO-GERMAN ALLIANCE HELD STRESEMANN’S AIM Ambition to Return to World Power Believed Basis of Berlin’s Reser- vations on Security Pact. France has no concern in Europe, her future greatness turning on her sue- cess or failure in organizing her great north and west African colonfes Yet the heritage of the past is that It is unlikely that the Franco. Germhn alllance can be realized. A detente is well nigh inevitable, but an entente is for a generation practically unthinkable. Moreover, for France, as for England, the German .alliance would, have no real raison d'etres for France, like Britaln, wants peace in Kurope, and perceives more clearly than the British that any disturbance of the status quo, any effort at terri- torial change, would mean not alone war but probably general conflict. On the whole, there are fewer obgtacles to ultimate peace between France and Germany than between Germany and either Italy or Britain, but there is no {Teal temptation on the French side to | partnership. i Germany, then, cannot hope to make |a Western combination witheut sacri- | ficing her real interests and objectives | to an arrangement which wouid thus, ipso facto, become profitless. On the | other hand, she has every need for present peace with the West, an | deed, for permanent peace, ‘pro |no Western nation undertakes |thwart her true interests—that is, un- less France mounts guard on the {lower Vistula, Italy on ths middle such Economically, German recovery is now assured. Within a relatively brief time she will become, what she was before the war, the greatest industrial state in continental Europe. She fs certain, too, within a decade at most, fo escape from the restrictive {influences of the Tr of Versaill to become master within her own house when the armies of occupation of the allies leave, as they must in 1925 | "Bt thus freea from | constraint, what restraint and is Germany to do? | Having freedom of choice, will she | seek to align herself with western powers or eastern—that is, to make | some form of entente with one or more of her foes of the World War or to join with renascent Russia in a new association? This is the most impor- tant question in Europe today. In examining the western possibili- ties, it is manifest that of the three possible combinations, namely, with Britain, Italy or France, that with Great Britain is, on first glance, the most obvious, and, one may say quite accurately, the single partnership in the West which now has German ad- herents. Nevertheless, despite its ap- parent possibilities, it is not an exag- geration to say that, on the whole, it has been rejected in advance by the majority of Germans. Great Britain Her Rival. The re simple. Despite all | recent B irritation. at French | policies, it is undeniable that France |is in no sense a rival of Britain. No | territorial ambition of France menaces the colonial empire of the English, while, despite a_ certain increase in French industrial importance, France is totally unlikely ever to be a dan- gerous competitor in _the economic field. Moreover, while French popula- tion tends to increase somewhat more rapidly than before the war, due to a large immigration, there is no prospect of any such expansion as would make France formidable in this direction. By contrast, Germany is already | showing signs of regaining all the | challenging position she held with re- {spect of British industry before the war. Her population is increasing at a much_swifter pace than the French, and she has already avowed a deter. mination to re-enter the colonial field and to regain some of her lost colonies, which in the main fell to British man" date control. British policy, after a certain hesita- tion during the post-war years, and particularly during the Ruhr episode. has finally come down on a course of action which, while aiming at avoiding any separate alliance, accepts the guar- antee of French security—and Bel- glan—as the basis of British_conti- nental policy. In a word, the British have recognized that Germany will be in the future the dangerous rival, and the very gravity of the economic challenge eliminates any possibility of political alliance. War Germany’s Goal. Moreover, assuming an alliance were possible on’the British side, it would be founded upon totally dissimilar in- terests, and would be fatally crippling to the Germans, for the main British concern is the preservation of peace at all costs, while German policy is directed at the remaking of certain territorial decisions of the last war, which can_only: be changed by war. And what, from the British standpoint, would be worse, the involved state of Europe would make it almost impossi- ble that such war would be localized. All British influence, then, in case of an alliance, would be directed at re- straining German action where Ger- man wish was strongest. As to a German-Italian alliance, this is superficially conceivahle. Ger- many and Italy were partners for many vears before the World War. | Nevertheless, the test of war showed | the alliance to be without real founda- tion, and the results of the war have erected new barriers while they have reinforced the old. Thus for Italy union of Austria and Germany would be a fatal circumstance, for it would not alone restore all the old Austrian dangers, but it would replace the weak Austrian by the powerful German. It would be, in effect, to put not alone the Brenner region, with its German population, but Trieste and the whole Adriatic coast in jeopardy, while it would exclude Italian influence from the Danube and the Balkans. Not only is no German-Italian alli- ance conceivable, then, but in the nature of things, as Mussolini's recent speeches have disclosed, it is Italy, not France, which effectively mounts guard to preserve the status quo as far as Austria is concerned. It is possible that in time and with the growth of confidence in their own security and_ the German recognition of the status quo in the Rhine region the French might cease to be interest- ed in the Austrian question, but such a time can never come for Italy. Frauce Out of Question. On-the material side—that is, leav- ing out all practical considerations—a Franco-German combination is by all odds the simplest and the most nat- ural, because, now that Alsace-Lor- raine has returned to France and Ger- transfer, there remains no political or economic barrier to partnership, once the French are freed from any real or imaginary peril of a German attack. French and German coal and iron are, in the nature of things, the basis for economic combination, while, save as "she has sought domestic security through foreign alliances in the East, the | many _concedes the finality of the| Danube, or Britain employs naval su- {premacy to block German commercial |activity. ' | | Russia Offers Much. The Russian alliance by contrast offers much at once. If and when tussia recovers, the Russiam market | will be the obvious field for German i«u ploitation, while there will be no |rivairy between the two peoples, one {of whieh js industrial, the other agriz |cultural. On the political side both | have obvious reasons for seeking the curtailment, if not the suppression, of* Poland, while the German advance to Vienna would mot disturb Russian statesmen if they were in turn assured of German assent to their resumption of the traditional march to Constanti- nople. In a word, the essential inter- ests and objectives of the two great peoples are often identical and always reconcilable. Now, if you brush aside all the clever 'dialectics of Dr. Stresemanm over German objections to an uncondi- tional entrance into the League of Na- tions, it seems to me that it must be clear that what he is seeking to pre- erve is an unmortgaged future in so far as Russia is concerned, He i§ | striving to prevent the use of German |soil for the transfer of troops to Po- land to meet a Soviet invasion. He is insisting that Germany shall not un- dertake the vague but actual obliga tlon of the covenant to assist any member nation attacked in defiance of the Led@ue of Nations. He is saying, while 1ot _sayipg it. “We will join the league, provided only-such action does not in any dirdction affect out present and future Russian relations.” Escape from Inferiority. All of which means that he is de- fending that more or less mysterious Treaty of Rapallo, which the unfortu- nate Rathenau made at Genoa—a treaty which was, more than all else, eloquent of the fashion in which the Germans read their future. I do not believe Stresemann is afraid that Ger- {many may be eventually the battle | ground between the West and Russia | His ingenious arguments around thi: | and other points seem rather. to cover | the main consideration, namely, that, looking to a future, perhaps still dis- |tant, Russia offers the best possibility of alliance and association for Ger- many. I hasten to add that I do not mean suggest the Russfan alliance is a detail or a part of a grandioge scheme to wage a war of revenge or to achieve German hegemony in Europe. On the contrary, it is the single obvi- ous.reute to an escape from the state of relative -inferiority which the war imposed upon' Germany. If it is the single avenue of approach to a release from the territorial servitudes of the Treaty of Versailles, not in the West but in the East, it is in reality more than that; for, apart from all terri- torial questions, it spells independence for Germany politically, and indepen- dence not otherwise obtainable, since in one way or another all of her re cent foes remain obstacles in her path- way. Furthermore, it is almost self-evi dent that the real drive of British policy: at least in seeking. to bring Germany into the league is the appre- ciation of the fact and the danger of a Russo-German combination. Such a combination would ave “economic menace for the British, and it would have_ political consequences all over Asla and in the Near East. To tie Germany into the Western constella- tion would perhaps exercise these dan- gers or at least moderate them, and this argument is written in all Britlah action and is discoverable in many British comments. Helped by Dawes Plan. All German policy today centers in escaping from the immediate restraints of the war. The Dawes plan has given her comparative economic fréedom, be- eause while she complies’ with its terms she is protected from all inter- ference. The proposed pact would give her the same measure of political freedom, because inevitably it would abolish all such restraints as occupa- tion and supervision. But, with all of these things accomplished, Germany would not obtain real independence, because she would be a single great power set in a Europe made up of great and little powers whose vital interests were divergent from and even conflicting with hers. Moreover, she could not hope singie-handed to accomplish anything important, for, although at last independent, she would be practically isoiated. True, a Russian alliance now, in the present state of Russia, would be more of a handicap than an advantage, and would consolidate the rest ‘of Furope against Germany. But, assuming that presently Russia will emerge from her eclipse, the situation would entirely change.’ Therefore, the objective of German policy must be to avoid Rus- sian complications and escape any em. broilment with Russia incident to as sociation with Western powers in the League of Nations which mizht maka ultimate alliance impossible. And since in Russian eves the League of Nu- tions, dominated by anti-Soviet na- tions, has a markedly anti-Russian character, Germany must give definite demonstration of the fact that shs does mot share this view and will not assoclate herself with this policy. In sum, the present diplomatip game, while on the surface revolving around points familiar in 'recent his- tory, actually involves the future and (Continiued on Third: Page.)