Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 76, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 December 1919 — THE NEED FOR PEACE [ARTICLE]

THE NEED FOR PEACE

There can be "no doubt that the situation resulting from a failure to ratify the peace treaty is*inenacing to business. Buch certainly is the feeling of those best qualified to speak on the subject. The New York Chamber of Commerce recently spoke very strongly, and

said that the failure to ratify would bring a moral and trade crisis. J. Pierpont Morgan, who has recently returned from London, says that “nothing can be done’’ till the treaty is ratified. The exchange situation is clearly most unsatisfactory.' Foreign countries are buying heavily from us, but at a cost which is dangerously burdensome to them in their weakened condition. Of course they buy only what they must have, and can not get elsewhere. They can pay only in gdods, securities, gold or credits. There is a shortage of goods abroad, and very little gold; securities are not available; and our government has so far failed to furnish creditsThese latter are indispensable. Yet they can not now be had. “Pending the ratification of the treaty,” says the New York Chamber of Commerce, “thus establishing a known basis for the continuance of international trade, no adequate credit plans, can possibly be established.” And Mr. • Morgan says: “Nothing can be done.” Business men know, if politicians do not, that bad business In Europe will ultimately mean bad business here, and that economic distress and disorder must necessarily affect us. Mayor Thompson may think that we ought to “get out of Europe and keep out," but those who know anything about international relations know that we can not get out ofi Europe without leaving it prostrate. The Springfield Republican does not put the case too strongly when it says: \Here Is a situation that threatens American business and finance ultimately with a greater catastrophe than this country has suffered in 50 years, for while Europe may not yet Jae bankrupt or ruined, it is but a short distance from the worst economic collapse since the Thirty Years’ war. And this collapse might be brought the nearer at any moment by a fresh outbreak of war somewhere on the continent. It is going to require the combined efforts of the world to save the world. If this Is not an American problem we do not know what Is. “It is not possible, says the New York Times, “that the United States should drop the burden it assumed nearly three years ago and leave the world in a welter.” Then the Times continues: Should such a disaster occur, it is easy to see where the responsibility will be fixed. If the treaty should fail altogether, and if the United States should thereupon try to negotiate a separate peace with Germany, it would perhaps, or even probably fall through Germany’s insistence on terms which we could riot accept. It is ev'en conceivable that some great calamity might befall. Those who trifle with such a situation as this are exposing the country—and the world —to the gravest hazard. It is not a time for party bickering, or for wafting by one side for the other to make the advances- 'What we should

have, and at once, is a firm and solid union of all senators who favor the treaty, and realize the pressing need for prompt action. When business men accustomed to dealing with largp affairs, and having a knowledge of International trade, tell us that the failure to ratify the treaty will precipitate a moral and trade crisis, and that “nothing can be done" till ratification is had, even politicians, whose thought is of votes, should take heed.—lndianajmlis News (Rep.)