Evening Star Newspaper, December 26, 1926, Page 37

EDITORIAL PAGE . - NATIONAL PROBLEMS SPE Part 2—20 Pages CIAL FEATURES SMITH CASE GIVES SENATE NEW PROBLEM IN RIGHTS Authority to Deny Seat to Senator-Elect or to Expel Him Argued Pro and Con—Chances Not Bright. BY G. GOULD LINCOLN. ONTESTED appointment and election cases the Senate has had by the dozen, but the Smith case is a different thing. It is different bhecause there has been a formal investigation of Col. Frank I, Smith, Senator-appointed and Senatorelect from Tllinois, by a duly authorized Senate committee, prior to his appearance in the Senate with his credentials. Furthermore, the Senate committee—the Reed slush fund committee—has submitted a re. port to the Senate on Col. Smith, setting forth the result of its investi- gation. In the dozens of othe:r cases the contested appointee or Senator- elect has come with his credentials in his hand sceking admission before a Senate investigation h&s been had. This is the crux of the Smith case, and about it.will be {612t the battle to seat Smith immediately upon his presentation of his credentials. Col. Smith has accepted appoint- ment by Gov. Len Small to fill out the unexpired term of the late Senator ‘Willlam B. McKinley. It has been reported he will come to Washington after the holidays and seek to take his seat. Efforts even now are being made to get him to change his de- cision, on the ground that he will lose his fight and that the only result outside of his defeat will be a waste of the time of the Senate, which is needed for legisiation. Cases of Contests Same. While the Smith contest in the present session of Congress will be an appointment case and not an election case, as it will be when he presents himself, in the next Congress, the basis for the exclusion of Col. Smith at this time will be the same as that for his expulsion in the next Con- gress. He has been charged with ex- cessive expenditures in his primary campaign and with having been the beneficiary of contributions made to his campaign fund by public utility magnates, Including Samuel Insull, while he was head of the Public Utilities Commission of Illinois—the Commerce Commission. The testi- mony taken by the Reed committee shows both 'large expenditures and the contributions made by Insull and others. Insull's was $125,000. Smith’s opponents in ‘the Senate contend he has been disqualified because of these facts. They contend the Senate has 2 right to reject Smith’s appointment. They contend the Senate has the right to decline to permit Col. Smith to take the oath of office. The Senate is a great stickler for precedent, although not infrequently it has made new and contrary prec- Jority. I of Senator-elects William 8. Vare of Pennsylvania, which is to come in the next Congress—presents a situa- tion differing from that in which former Senator Newberry of Michigan found himself when he first came to the Senate in 1919. Newberry Charges Probed Later. Charges were made against Mr. Newberry similar to those against Smith and Vare, that he eéxpended, or there had been expended for him, excessive sums of money in his pri- mary contest for the nomination. Newberry was permitted to take the oath of office and the Senate privi- leges and elections committee there- upon began an investigation of the charges. This has been the custom since the earliest days of the Senate. But a Senate committee has already investigated the charges made against Col. Smith. If it had not been for the investiga- tion by the Reed committee, notwith- standing the charges lodged against mith and Vare, there séems no doubt t that they both would be sworn in immediately upon their appearing in _the Senate with their credentials. The late Senator Hoar of Massa- chusetts, as chairman of the Senate committes on privileges and elections reporting for that committee in the contest made against the seating of BSenator Reed Smoot of Utah more than a score of years ago, put the yeason very clearly for the swearing in of Senators who come with cre- dentials in proper form. He said: “If there were any other procedure, the result would be that a third of the Senate might be kept out of their seats for an indefinite length of time, iting of an objection with- ibility and never estab- e the Senate by any ju- y. ‘The result of this t a change in the political this Government which the lesired to accomplish would be indefinitely postponed.” “Judicial Inquiry” Issue. [h@#e, .Senator Hoar's argument ] ly the need of seating “~properly accredited but against whom charges have been filed, 1taih0efame time it furnishes the very mepsviy Smith and Vare may not ted-dmmediately upon presenta- tion of their certificates. He indi- cates that where objections have been established “before the Senate by any Jjudictal inquiry,” then the ‘would different. It may be sup- porters of the seating of Smith and Vare will contend that the inquiry made by the Reed slush fund commit- tee is not properly a “judicial in- quiry.” It is as judicial an inquiry, however, as the Senate can conduct, outside of an impeachment trial. -Col. Smith and Mr. Vare both were heard by the committee and givi. full op- portunity to make any statements in their own defense they desired. ‘When Col. Smith presents himself after the holidays to take a seat in the Senate, he will come, it is sup- posed, with credentials from Gov. Small in every respect regular. The only way in which he can be attacked is through the right of the Senate to be the judge of his qualifications. In the appointment case, there is no question of election. It is merely a question of whether he disqualified uimself by what he did or permitted to be done in his primary election. Right here the supporters of Smith will question the authority of the Senate to pass upon his ‘‘qualifica- tions™” other than those specified in the Constitution itself. They are that a Senator must be 30 years of age, ihat ne must have been for nine years a citizen of the United States, that he must be an inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen at the time of his election, and, finally, that he must not have been engaged in in- surrection or rebellion against the United States. Each House Is Judge. The Constitution says: “Each House shall be the judge of the elections re- turns and- qualifications of its own members.” James M. Beck, former solicitor gen- eral of the United States, in a recently published volume. entitled “The Van- ishing Rights of the State: devotes a chapter to the provisions of the Constitution regarding the power of the Senate to ‘deal with the “qualifica- tions” of a man who presents himself for admission to that body. In it he contends that the Senate is limited | by the qualifications specified in the Constitution; that it cannot go beyond those qualifications in passing juds- ment. If he is correct, then it is obvious that the Senate has no right to reject the appointment of Col. Smith. “To permit the Senate to expel a Senator on the ground that before his clection he had been either a fool or a knave would revolutionize dur theory of constitutional government,” said Mr. Beck. Mr. Beck points out that the ex- press provision in the Constitution de- claring that no person who has been in insurrection or rebellion against the United States may be seated was in- serted in the fourteenth amendment, the result of the Civil War. The dis- ability which this amendment imposed upon those who supported the war of secesslon is no longer of practical importance. It has long since been removed. Amendment Was Needed. But Mr. Beck points out that this section’ of the Constitution is of the greatest significance in the present controversy over Smith, since it be- comes clear that “it required a con- stitutional amendment to invest the Senate with the right to exclude any one, even though he had engaged in a war to destroy the United States.” He argues that if the. Senate had au- thority to pass upon qualifications of Senators, other than those already specified in the Constitution .itself, it would not have been necessary to adopt the amendment concerning men who had taken part in the war against the United States. Mr. Beck’s contention, and it will be the contention of those supporting Smith, is ‘that the powers not delegat- ed to the United States by the Con- stitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the Statesgre- spectively or to the people. “The people of the United States,” says Mr. Beck, “may justifiably think the State (Illinois in this case) has sent to Congress an unfit man. None the less the State has the right (in this case the governor) to send him. It is its sole concern, and to nullify its choice is to destroy the basic right of a sovereign State, and amounts to a revolution.” _Expulsion. Provided For. Some " of the opponents of Col. Smith take ‘the opposite view. | They stoutly maintain that the Senate has the right to pass on all the’qualifica- tions of a Senator. They contend that if a man presents himself with a record of mjsdeeds he may be denied a seat; that if he is'd member of the Senate and perpetrates a misdéed he may be expefled. The Constitution itself provides for the éxpulsion of a member- of the Senate or House by a two-thirds vote of either body. If the Senate should: decide to per- mit Col. Smith to be sworn in and take his seat at this session, on the appointment of Gov. Small, the next move would be a further considera- tion of his case by either the Reed slush fund: committee or the commit- tee on privileges and elections, as the Senate might direct. The wording of a resolution bron? into the Senate would either de Smith a seat or providé for -his expulsion. The belel 45 éxpressed by Senators who have-looked into the matter that Smith, once seated, would have to be expelled, -and ‘that a two-thirds vote would be necessary to accomplish this. Not all Senators take this view, however, some them insisting that m: Sen:te %I)llllfl dzn:uh!m a right to seat on his qualifications by a majority vote, even after he had been formally admited to the body. Those Wwho believe that Smith would have to be expelled” by a two-thirds vote if he were seated are asking to halt him at the door, to send his credentials to the Reed committee without delay, and to take action upon a resolution denying him a seat without his ever taking the oath of office. Different Status Next Session. ‘When the case of Col. Smith comes up.in the Senate ‘in.the Seventieth Congress and he presents himself as Senator-eelect to be sworn in, the situation will be somewhat different. The contest will become one not only of his qualifications, but of the valid- ity of his election. His opponents will contend that the primary elec- tion is an essential part of the choice of a Senator, and that if there was fraud or corruption in the primary it should disqualify Col. Smith. .His supporters, on the other hand, will insist that the Senate has no juris- diction over the primary election, which they will hold is a State affair entirely. However, it is as difficult to disconnect the ‘primary and the gen- eral election as it is to nullify the connection which exists between a chicken and an egg or between the egg and the chicken. In the interest of Col Smith and of Mr. Vare, the argument will be ad- vanced that the people of Illinois and of Pennsylvania elected them to the Senate after the publication of the revelations before the Senate slush fund committee; that they are the choice of the voters of these States, notwithstanding the public chargés, sentatiVes in the Senate. The arguments pro and con Smith the Senate and of the States under that instrument. In cases where there is so much to be sald on both sides, however, including the right of the Senate 1 protect itself or to purge itself, the questions are likely to be decided according to the centiment of the majority of the Senate, which in turn may be influenced by the sentiment of the people. The chances for Smith at this sesslon or for Smith and Vare in the next,Con- gress do not appear bright. —_— Graduates Immigrate. The Italian impulse to emigration extends to the workmen and peasants, but also, according to recent advices from Rio de Janiero, to the intellec- tuals. Complaint {s made that every ship arriving from Italy brings many Itallan university gradua hoping to mak hlw::'hl:ndly oping to make thelr wapin the newv world by thelr wits. ey~ which were made against them, and| that to deny them seats in the Sen-| ate would be to deny the States the| right of frep choice of their: % . . elf TePre- | o and in order to have uniformity in and Vare doubtless will deal much; with the Constitution, the rights of’, - @The Sund WASHINGTON, D. C., ~IT PAID TO SHUT THE DOOR HE morning's mail of a Fed- eral department which closely touches the lives of 40-odd millions of wage earners and their familles js a falrly ‘good barometer. of what ‘those peoplé are thinking ahout and an index to the | trend of their prosperity. - To answer the queston, ‘““What benefits are the. people receiving from restrictive. immigration?” ‘one only needs to read the dally mail. For in- stance, a letter from Detroit describes serious unemployment *situation . with thousands ef men out of work. One of the measures of rellef asked {s that all privileges of work- ing in Detroit be reserved exclusively for persons who maintain their homes on the west bank of the river. It is evident to all those who are out of work that if one of the avenues of labor supply were cut off there would be more general employment for those who remained, and this ap- plication of immigration restriction is immediately the first remedy sought. * ok ok ok But, of course, there is no law re- | stricting the number of natives of Candda who may.come into the United States, and if these people meet the required standards, they may be ad- mitted either. daily or to remain per- manently. So the only change such a measure would bring about would be this: Employes who had been com- muting @afly from Canada- would get | residences on the Deétroit:side. So far ias the unemployment situation is con. cerned, no-relief would come without a change. by Congress in the policy toward natives of adjoining countries, This development in Detrolt is in- teresting, for it is an excellent illus- tration of what might now be the condition in all our large cities if the United States had not taken steps to protect its workmen from unlimited competition. . Forty thousand men, say, have.left Detroit seeking employ- ment elsewhers, and I am glad to be able to say, from reports which come to me from other parts of the country, that if “their ‘éfforts are -intelligently directed those 40,000 will not be long out of work. It is estimated that only about 18,000 cross daily from Canada to work in Detroit, and yet Detroit's unemployed claim that these few in a city boasting of nearly 1,600,000 in- habitants are sufficlent in the balance of supply and demand to depress the market. kXX . Unemployment at present is only serious in a few communities, to which large numbers of workmen have gone during a period of over- rapid expansion, and in few industries, such as the textile and boot and shoes, which are overdeveloped. But when one reflects how great was the un- employment in 1921, before the limita- tion principle in immigration was ap- plied, one_feels instinctively that a great good has come to the country ihrough the policy. of protection to American workers. . In the early part 6f 1921 a survey of employment. showed: that 5,750,000 workers had nothing to do. For- tunately, the practice of a little thrift { during the boom time just before had i 8lven many of the workers who found EDITORIAL SECTION . UNDAY MORNING, y Stad DECEMBER 26, 1926. BY JAMES J. DAVIS, SECRETARY OF LABOR. SECRETARY JAMES J. DAV themselves out of employment some- thing upon which to live during the readjustment. For a moment just after the war Europe was unable to meet the world demand for many commodities. America stepped into the markets, with the result that through 1920 American industr 1S very active. Then the slump came. In feverish haste other nations began to flood the world's markets. With their rapidly depreciating currencies the bottom fell out just as forefgn goods began to be felt in our markets. But, as though that were not enough, American workmen were threatened still further with competition from European people who sought residence on our shores. * ok ok ¥ Now, for a moment, let us look at the character of the workers who make up our own population. The war forced thousands of women into industry in office, mill and factory. Many who but for the war would not have joined the ranks of the gainfully employed have now taken definite places in the Nation’s work. They enjoyed their new industrial independ- ence found in war experience, and when the boys came home large num- bers of them did not go back into the homes they had left. This, coupled with the decrease in production which ame about early in 1921, resulted in a tuation different from any we had ever experienced before. There was need to absorb more of our own work- ers, and just at that time a new wave of immigration set in. ‘Who would have suffered most by this growing surplus of labor had it been permitted to increase at the rate indicated during the fiscal year 1921, when the better part of 1,000,000 im- migrants were received? Reports “which came to us from abroad - indicated that millions more might be expected to come just as fast as ehips_could race back and forth across the Atlantic to carry them. The tide had already set in when the special session of Congress called by President Harding put up the emer- | Maj. Francis §; Key-Smith, a promi- nent member of the local bar of the District of Columbia, has prepared for the American Arbitration Association of New York City, composed of many prominent men, numbering among them -HerYert Hoover, ' Secretary ‘of Commerce; Charles Bernheimer, Charles Evans-Hughes,:former Secre- tary of State, and Moses H. Grossman, honorary presidents, ‘and Anson W. Burchard, -president, & very compact, yet tull and exhaustive, survey’of the subject of arbitration in the.District of Columbia, with reference: té both the presént:jaw and previously exist- ing laws covering arbitration in the District of'Columbla. In his surysy he st ws by ¢ of the courts dnd ‘ea and Maryland statutes in force in the Dis- trict of G:‘itznbh '-m:g to!ll;:‘ adop- tion of thé. nt. lo of:Jaws, as well as \mden,?;fmng laws, that trial by arbitrators 18:as well ‘established and fullyswarranted as trial by jury. This was so held by’ ths Supreme Court of the United States in the early case of Alexander Canal Co. against Swann, reported in 5 Howard, Supremre Court Reports, page 83. The most recent utterance of the local courts upon the subject is prob- ably contained in & decision of the Court of Appeals in the tase of Camp- bell against Campbell, reported in the fourty-fourth volume of the Court of Appeals Report, page 142, wherein the court says: i “It is the policy of the law to up- hold the peaceful, swift and inex- pensive method of terminating litiga- tion by arbitration.” The: States.of New York, New Jer- sey, Massach ts and Oregon have recent legislation upon the subject of arbitration ‘and on February 12, 1925, a * rather - comprehensive law was passed ; by ‘Congress covering litiga- tion jn the United States dlstrict ourts. ¢ This Jaw, however, does not apply to litigation in the District of Colum- sions the law of arbitration in the courts of the Disgrict of Columbia with those of the ,United States district courts, further legislation will be necessary. Under ‘the law of arbitration, as at present existing in the District of Columbia, any suit pending in the courts may be referred to arbitrators by order of court signed -upon-the consent of the parties, and when an award is made it has the same effect as the verdict of a jury and judgment of the court can be entered on it in exactly the same manner as.a judg- ment may be entered upon a verdict of ‘a ju the judgment having the same £ and effect in the one .case as in the other, with the same right of appeal therefrom to the Court of Appeals. the courts of the District of Columbia have always refused to enforce a pro- vision in a contract providing for the arbitration of a future dispute arising out of the contract. The law. which the American Arbitration Assoclation fosters legalizes such a provision in contracts, thus increasing materially the opportunities for arbitration of -disputes, especlally those arising out Maj. Key-Smith also points out that ! CAPITAL ATTORNEY PREPARES | SURVEY OF ARBITRATION LAW Ma;j. “Francis S. Key-Smith Reviews - Situation in District in Paper for National Association in'New York. of commercial transactions anpd con- tracts. by The present provisions of ‘the Dis- trict Code are analyzed and compared, section for section, with the recent :;;50{ Congress passed in February, As Maj. Key-Smith further says in his survey, an award of arbitrators made upon a reference of a case under the law cannot be set aside by the court for any other reason than the corruption or misconduct of the arbi- trators or their having exceeded thejr powers or improperly executed them. TRANGE how a sound will sometimes set the chords of memory to vibrating, It ‘may be a woman’s laugh, or a snatch of song, or even the barking of a dog at twilight. The other night | left the train two - stations away from home, and started to walk the rest of the way across the hills. It began to snow after a little. From the houses along the road lights flickered through the haze; and as | rounded a curve, a little dog ran out and barked. In an instant my mind leaped ‘back twenty years or more, to the days when | carried a news- paper_route in Boston. | re- membered how long the way used to seem—two miles out and back—and how dark it ®, in Winter, when the sun had gone. And how | hated one newspaper that used to issue a great edition of 24 pages on Sat- urday :evenings! The editors must: be heartless creatures, | thought to myself; surely they had never been boys compelled to travel a paper route. In a big house up on the hills, in the district where rich men lived, therc were two dogs that every night barked at me. “Oh, they won't bite,” said the owner. “They bark, but they're perfectly good-natured.” How serenely confident every man is that his dog is perfectly good-natured! ght | had to gird up to start out on that route, thinking of those two dogs that would run out and bark. | wag just a little fellow, in short pants, and the space between my knees and my ankles seemed pathetically unprotected — just made for dogs to bit: BY BRUCE BARTON b gency bars which constituted our first immigration limitation measure. * ok Kk Who would have suffered first? It would have been those least able eco- nomically to compete in the labor mar- kets. The older men and the women would have been compelled to step aside and give their jobs to the Euyo- pean laborers, who would have taken any wages they could get to keep body and soul together. This labor had so recently left adverse living con- ditlons abroad that .any wage with which they could have made a bare existence would have been acceptable. 1t is unfortunate that industry looks so much to the strong arm and pays so little attention to the head and brain. I am convinced that in the economic struggle elderly men, capable of clearer and stronger reasoning in the tasks to which they are assigned, are frequently pushed aside when young- er men, full éf energy, present them- selves at the factory gate. And yet in the long run the former class prob- ably can accomplish a8 much or more in many types of employment than the youth of less training who are given preference. During times of lax employment these older men find it exceedingly difficult to keep the grade. ERE The women, too; who have recently entered occupations formerly filled by men naturally feel the press of unem- ployment conditions. And right here let me ask you to think of the office positions which men filled before the war and which now are held by women of your acquaintance. All occupations had to be readjust- ed to new conditions, and it was quite apparent that the veadjustment could not be made until there was Some | semblance of stability in the so-called lahor markets. Two measures were adopted to bring about that stability. One was the emergency . tariff, the other the restriction in number of im- migrants. The result was almost immediately apparent. Gradually the crowds at the mill gates thinned out, until two years later we enjoyed a safe and sane prosperous condition among our wage earners. The disastrous lower- ing of wages anticipated by thou- sands who saw the wave of immigra- tion coming and felt that things must go back to pre-war standards - was checked, and with the check came sta- bility in the purchasing power of the workers and confidence to,our busi- ness. The individual who loses his job during a perfod of oversupply of labor is not the only one who suffers. The effects are felt. by every member of society. The demand for many products decreases when money is scarce, and this means less employ- ment in every line. The prices at which commodities can be sold even In the most limited quantity. must be kept down to attract purchasers, and to cut the prices of commodities which are largely manufactured there must be a corresponding out in wages. * ok ROk You have heard. this called the viclous circle, but it is never vicious so long as the circle is a wheel with motive power. behind it which will (Continued. onl Fourth Page.) - CHECKING CAUSES OF CONFLICT LEADS TO PEACE, BLISS HOLDS Chief of Staff Claims Issues for War Will Exist for All Time, But Finding Means of Making Them BY¥.GEN, TASKER H. BLISS, Chief of Staft, U..8. A. 1917: Member of Supreme War * Council i France. and Member of thdh American Commission to Negotiate Peace, 1919. - | ° ' Gauses of war exjst and will exist for all time; nio agreement can abolish ‘them, byt checks may be pit upon them that may gradually make them inoperative. The finding what these checks are and making them oper- ative is the gradul and slow process of laying the foundation of interna- tional peace. All 'the so-called causes of war be- A:Dog Runs Out and Barks | The owner caught them sn; ping at me one night; and | re- member ‘yet how he laughed. It seemed to him a’bully joke—a little boy worried by two big barking dogs. 1 shall never forget'that ownep —nor the®man whose house stood next to hi: E: g the night before Christ- Snow was coming down, it seemed more dark than usual, and the papers more heavy and the route more long. I had just come out of the yard of the man with the dogs, and as | stepped onto the porch of the uddenly the door big jolly-faced man stood smiling in the lamp- light. o “Hello, kid,” he.cried jovially. “I've been waiting for you. Do you know what day' tomorrow is?” | answered. “It’s “Right you are,” he shouted.. “And here’s something from Santa Claus.” He opened his hand, and there was a big silver dollar. | do not know his name; 1 have not seen him in twenty but last night, walking n the snow, | remembered him with a warm feeling around my heart. And | fell to think- ing that'| must be pretty nearly big now as he was when he ave me that dollar, and about as old. And' | wandered how I, look to the kid that .brings my paper and the otl kids | meet, and whether | am the kind of man that is always too busy to take time to be kind to them—or whether | am the kind that they would like to run into, when it's cold, and the route is long, and the burden is heavy. And a dog runs out and barks. (Copyright. 1926.} & " Inoperative Will Bring End of Strife tween civilized states can be summed up by saying that they origihate in disputes about. what one side or both claim to be vital rights or interests. The whole problem: centers on that one word - “disputes.” ~ These may Erow eut of just causes, or unjust, but the trust is solely to find a ra- tional way for their settlement. The genius of man has not been able to devise other than four ways by which to settle disputes amicably, hether between individuals or be- tween states. - Three ways—friendly -discussion, mediation: and conelliation and arbi- tration—the ‘world “has ‘always- had. The first two have doubtless settled in a frlendl§"Way"' counfless. cantro- versies’ betweem: states and are, of course, a vastly impertant element in the foundation of imti f peace; but the spirit underlying them is rather in thé nature of a Cement Which binds tegethsr the ather blocks. The third method—arbitration—has also settled a ‘great and increasing number of questions during the whole historic period. But also, manifestly, # 1s not firm, solid, rigid enough to bear its full share of weight. It is like one of those valuable bullding stones which, when ‘taken from the quarry, are soft and which become fully suited for their purpose only by .lapse of time, hastened perhaps by skillful treatment. What treat- ment? There is only one. Law—a caretully formulated codd-of interna- tional law—ohanging somewhat and growing from time to time as all codes must—which will specifically define the rights and duties of states, = |3°t form&l:,\-i] accepted by their legislatures, with a formal agreement to abide by it. o6 i Those who believe in international law cannot get away from the fact that all human law is, essentially, the exercise, by the community, of sur- rendered rights. But just es -the community found that it could exer- cise them only through law made the very individuals who surrendered them, so it learned in practice that there can be no law except it bp ad- ministered by a court.. If it could exist without this, it could only" be as_the arbitrary will of the strongest. With this surrender of the exercise of certain rights for the purpose of preserving them, and with _their preservation by law, came the demili- tariztion of domestic society, the dis- armament of the individual man within the State. And with all that, in rapid strides came civilization; nor could it have come in any other way. Now, can any one show that this law of progress, which has been slow- 1y operating for all time to bring the individuals of states from barbarisim to_clvilization, stops with the indi- . vidual and .does not apply . to' the states? 1If he can, then, even if we continue to have civilization within the state, we are doomed forever to recurrent outbreaks of savagery be- tween them. . Who believes this? We can have no disarmament with- out a suffiglent code of law and an effective gourt to administer it. We will havey neither of these without such an g on of the commu: nity of sion to “will of the Society Newsj — Vitality of Nation REICHSTAG FIGHT SHOWS GERMAN REPUBLIC STRONG Demonstrated; Lo- carno Seen as Releasing Democratic Forces of Young Republic. Is, had there been mo allied armies of occupation and no complete:ruin of German economic and financial sys- tems as a result of inflation, it is hard to believe that there would not have been in 1928 another attempt {o_re- store the monarcHy, such as had actually been made earlier in the Kapp Putsch. As it was, all saw this to be hopeless. People’s Party Aided. " The situation was temporarily;saved because while the Republican parties had Jost their majority, the party of big “Business,” ‘the People's Party, recognizing that the recovery of Ger- man industry and German prosperity could:onlysbe possible with allied help and allied‘loans, whicheware. gromlled in the Dawes plan, joined thé“Repub- licans both in & negotiating. and later ratification ef this X The People's P vas ‘on: the whole monarchiktfe’sdn - ) hy and naturally conservative 1N “tém- per. It was hostile to a Soclalist control of domestic affairs, because such a control was inimical to suc- cessful business administration, But although on questions of domestic policy it mnormally and naturally worked with the nationalists and the monarchists, on the other hand it saw quite clearly that the time had come when it was inevitable that Sermany must break with the policy of passive resistance which had so far, to be sure, prevented the col- lection of all considerable repara- tion, but had also ruined Germany. Headed by the first great German statesman_of the post-war period, Gustav Stresemann, :the People's Party intervened, giving Its. alle- giance -to the republic in the domes- tic field, because it saw all real ad- justment of conditions with the allies would be impossible if the monarchy were restored and openly adopted the policy of conference and settle- ment with the allies in the fleld of foreign policy. Broad Policy Undertaken, But Stresemann and his group had no idea of mere acceptance of the allled vlews without return to Ger- many. They undertook the broad policy of making fulfiliment of rea- sonable conditions the price of ob- taining the rapid freeing of Ger- many from the most onerous and in- tolerable of the burdens resulting from the war, such as continued occupation, military supervision and above all the allied policy of treat- Ing the Germans as a morally in- ferior people. For a long time the Stresemann policy,. for-it- may fairly .be called that, - was" afn_experiment which was assailed bysghie’ VASt. of Ge! mans, who now ,belleved that the allies” meant to turn vietory into a BY FRANK H. SIMONDS. HE outbreak which has just Reichstag over the question of seeret, armaments is at_once the ‘most interesting and the of the republican sentiment .in the Reich since the declaration of the re- public itself. It is fnteresting, too, as several of the great newspapers which are republican in sympathy.. _ The profoundest error made by the ference, expressed in the treaty of Versailles and in an effort to enforce their victory beyond, ihe :limits of weaken the German demogracy. dn point of fact allied.policy from the armistice_ to thé London: agreement Locarno ‘conference; almest resulted in the destruction of the republic itself. 3 to Germany was very much the same as that which had existed after the fall of Napoleon a century before. exactly the same reason for desiring the permanence of the German Re- public as those of a hundred years of the Bourbon monarchy, which they had restored. Republic Offered Sole Hope. strength of the republican sentiment in Germany in the first months of 1919, however weak it was and how- about the sincerity of the whole transaction by which the kings and princes had been permitted to de- republic offered the one solid hope of the ultimate arrival of a democratic Germany. by those who made peace at Parls Shd the treaty of Versailles itself became a sort of body of death to ¢ ded tally attached. The men who hea the. republican parties in Germany were from the outset caught between olicy of evasion of what was re- :all:‘dedyas an unjust treaty and the force of the allied victors seeking to t the outset the first elections gave thg three republican parties—the So- Clalists, the Democrats and the Clerl- , and that majority con- fifi‘fif;‘i‘iwn to the elections which followed the occupation of the Ruhr can parties- sought at home to con- solidate the mew regime and abrm:i to make peace on any.possible basis, British prevented any readjustment.’ Republic Grew Weaker. As a result the republic grew cated fulfillment, Erzberger and Rathenau, were assassinated as: men who were betraying- their cauntry. nd more convinced that the gfi’r';fas: of the allies was to destroy Germany; that her economic recovery -cupation of the Rhineland would ondure permanently, and -that the French would thus obtain their dream of all the peoples and rulers ;fr the reglons west of the Rhine since the Roman ers. the final proof to. the -German.mind of this allied purpose and the elec- tion followlng, that event at last de- the Weimar bloc, of a majority in'the Reichstag, which they have hever since recovered. But during all their ever able to act against the military 2lements because the sentiment of the country was opposed to any act ing of German power in the face o the forelgn. purpose to destroy _the country. into the hands of the monarchist and nationalist elements which had been back of the old regime and in the weakened the Republican parties, | whose control of German affairs gave the sirigle reassuripg promise for the taken place in the German most promising sign of the vitality it follows a similar. demonstration in victorious allies in the Paris con- German..popular “éndufance, was to over the Daweés plan, and even to the In 1918 the situation with respect The victors of the later century had before had recognized with respect And whatever may be said of the ever much there was to question part, it was not less true that the Yet this fact was little perceived which the German Republic was fa- a national sentiment which demanded compel performance. cals—a clear majority in the in 1923. But although these republi- the quarrel between the French and weaker at home; the leaders who ad- The German: people as a mass became’ was not to be permitted; that the strategic frontier, which had beeri’ the The occupation of the Ruhr brought prived the three democratic parties, period of gctual control they were which would involve further weaken- Actually all allied policy had played same sense allied policy had steadily future. The occupation of the Ruhr acted as a final disaster for the Republican elements. . e § Dawés Plan Laid Foundation. When the Dawes plan at last laid the foundations for a possible adjust- ment—and to the German mind the Dawes plan was acceptable, not merely or mainly because it substituted pos- sible for impossible reparations terms, but because in the making of it Ger- man representatives had been per- mitted to discuss on a basis of equality with allied governments—Republican sentiment ‘and prospects in Germapy had sunk to a very low estate. During all these years the republic had been the symbol for the German people of misery, defeat and intoler- able foreign oppression. It represent- ed the government which had not merely surrendered to the enemy at the close of the war, but in the reaty of Versailles had signed the ‘guflt - clause,” which in the German minds amounted to a confession that he- German people were a guilty m; which they did not and do not “Had it been physically possible, that them on this all-embracing problem of the substitution of law for force. And that will come when all the great na- tions—our own included—recognize, as individuals within them long have done, that all law is the exercise, some agreed-upon authority, of sur- rendered rights; and that with nations as with individuals more essential justice will be obtained, not by sur- tender of the right to justice, but of the anclent, savage right of each to be the interpreter and the judge and the executor of the law. " We may not like the’ present form of an association of nations as repre- sented at Geneva, as many do no we.may net ‘like:the present form of ‘World Court or an effective court of arbitration. Who does not urge th adoption of a code of-internationa law which will define the rights of nations and under which will be sur- rendered the present right of each state to interpret that law at its arbi- trary pleasure and make international war as it ‘pleases is working against effective disarmament and is playing no part in laying the foundation of ons as will give the expres- internat S0 (Copris, 1936, steady policy of keeping Gesmany in subjection. In this time the new combination of ‘parties -which sup- plied the cabinet was just as power- less as all predecessors {n’dealing with the nationalist and military ele- ments which continued in ‘military affairs to -evade all disarmament provisions of thestreaty of peace. ‘Whatever may have beef the actual wish of the cabinet, it was powerless in the presence of public sentiment. But, little by little, the fact became clear that peace was to be obtained on conditions which left German re- covery" possible. The evacuation of the first zone of the Rhinelandlast rear gave a final refutatfon to- the charge that the French meant to stay on that river always and to annex the German lands on the left bank.. The working of ‘the W 4 the oazitnpl#::" Ger- coming . of dlied’: . man ‘hysiness- ang, lm to reeove: although the i wa marked: by great -depressio) feringi =+ R Finally4n. the-Lacarno negotiations Germdn delegatés” were at last re- ceived upon the basis of full equality. Stresemann, Briand and Chamberlain sat down as equals to discuss the future organization of European peace. The moral effect of thig_change is hardly: to pe calculated by: any one who does not know thé German feel- ing. At Versailles the German dele- gates had been summbned as crimi- nal$ to recelve sentence; unheard, they had been sentenced, and under co- ercion they had been forced to sign a confession of ‘guilt,, Which ' at’ one time thé Gernian pedple’ replidiated and concstved made of them a’ parigh people.:.' * . piat A a8 With the making of the Lacafno pacts. the républic at. last recovered a measure of authority and power within its own country. It began fo be associated in the popular mind not with the period of. degradation which contested so unhappily with the era of European power under the sm- pire, but with months and evén-years during which recovery was taking place—recovery at home and abroad. The Strésemann poli¢y had amounted to a declaration to the German -péo- ple that Germany could be saved by a. policy - of co-operation with the con- querors; that it could be saved no other way, and that incident to the salvation ‘would come the restoration of Germany to the rank and position belonging of right' to a natioh of J - 000,000 of people, the most consi 1 able ‘and powerful group, after the Russian, which was out of the reckon. ing, on the continent of Europe. « % Momentary Reaction Felt. delay in the admission of Ger to the League of -Nations produced a momentary - tion it the events of last September restor the balance. Germany at last could feel that despite the defeat in the war and despite the sentence of Versailles, she had escaped alike the national destruction and the enduring national humiliation which had been to the German mind threatened.. There suf- The Hordh v | remained the necessity to push for- ward with the Stresemann policy to obtain evacuation of German soil by occupying armies, which would nor- mally stay until 1925, and at the same time to transfer military supervision from allied hands to those of the gue: 4 Meantime, however, an inevitable change ‘was taldnf place within the nation. The Soclalists, the Democrats, most .of the, Clej . were from the very nature of things opposed alike to mifitarism and to military methods. They-had been silénced before by the fact that to attack albevasions were merely to arm the foreign enemy and give him the legal justification for im- posing more burdens upon the Ger- man people. But once the settlement of Locarno had_ intervened, the evacuation of the Rhineland was as- sured and the policy of evasion be- e no more than an ebstacle to the nige of the. the Zontinued -on Paged