Jasper County Democrat, Volume 21, Number 100, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 March 1919 — EARLY PEACE TO SAVE THE WORLD [ARTICLE]

EARLY PEACE TO SAVE THE WORLD

F.A. Vandarllp, New York Banker Asserts All Europe Is Facing Chaos. CALLS SITUATION APPALLIH6 Declares Great Productive Machine of Europe Must Be Started Soon to Prevent Another lUdgn of Terror. Paris, March 14.—“1 America has begun to comprehend the seriousness of the appalling situation which confronts Europe and the wreck which the whole fabric of civilization Is now facing,” Frank A. Vanderllp said to n correspondent here. lie ha« been investigating conditions in England and France and will continue hla Inquiry in Switzerland and Italy. "America was once told there might, be peace without victory," he said., "What we have is victory withoutj peace. Production has ceased and unless production can be speedily re i mimed one's imagination cannot comprehend the chaos which may ensue. “There la nothing to be gained by, stopping to question who Is to blame or by finding fault with the way events have been guided. The great pro* ductlve machine of Europe must be started or the world will be confronted with a disaster such as no experience has recorded. Here in France everything waits on the settlement of the question of Indemnity and the progress of events In Germany. Each, day makes the prospect of Indemnity leas possible. War Zone an Utter Wreck. "I have seen something of the utter, wreck which the central empires ln-< fileted throughout the war zone. It ha complete—no words can picture trulyi how complete It Is. That wreck, how-; ever, covers only a strip from that channel to the German border. There Is possible a wreck that wfll cover all Europe. If production Is not resumed, the horrors of war may be exceeded by the horrors of this after period, which Is neither war nor peace but a breakdown of the machinery of. civilization. In the face of such appalling disaster, every partisan consideration, every unessential difference or opinion, and every personal ambition' should be Instantly forgotten.

"Unless terms of peace can be speedily agreed upon and unless these term* are such as will permit the resumption of something approaching normal Industrial life, there is not merely at chance, there is a strong probability of Russian bolshevism overrunning, Germany. What bolshevism Is can, never be really pictured by a normal. inlnd. No description of it has been overdrawn. One may say that the temperament and psychology of Germany is not such as to lead that country to bolshevism. Hunger can lean any country to bolshevism and hunger lb what central Europe Is facing. Food Control Breaks Down. ' “The stories which our soldiers tell of apparent ample food supplies on the Rhine should be taken only as" indicating how completely governmental, power over food control has broken, down and how food stocks that ar® essential are being recklessly con-, mimed. Pictures that I have received! from highest quarters relative to foodl conditions in central Europe, both In, and out of Germany, are sensational. They are sensational because the facts 1

are sensational. “Whatever is belngsdone In the way of alleviating conditions of starvation is necessary, but that is merely alleviation. It does not get at the root of the thing. That root runs down Into the ground of production. If the situation is to be saved every effort must be bent toward solving the problem and again starting production. Must Look Facts In Face. "What can America do? There is certainly one thing that It cannot do nno that is to withdraw itself to rest In the belief that this chaos is remote ond that America can avoid taking her part in international responsibility. We must think in international terjps as we never thought before. There is no time for narrow or provincial views. “The first essential is to look facts in the face, and they cannot be looked ir. the face until the terms of peace are known and the available Indem-, nity measured.”