ABSTRACT
Before the Franco-German war the populations of France and Germany were approximately equal; but the coal and iron and shipping of Germany were in their infancy, and the wealth of France was greatly superior. For a Peace of magnanimity, based on “ideology” as the Fourteen Points of the President, could only have the effect of shortening the interval of Germany’s recovery and hastening the day when she will once again hurl at France her superior resources and technical skill. It was commonly believed at the commencement of the Paris Conference that the President had thought out, with the aid of a large body of advisers, a comprehensive scheme not only for the League of Nations, but for the embodiment of the Fourteen Points in an actual Treaty of Peace. The honest and intelligible purpose of French policy, to limit the population of Germany and weaken her economic system, is clothed, for the President’s sake.
