The Weber Literary Journal the nation for at least 50 years. What signs of destruction can Germany show? Not one village was destroyed; not one house touched and every mine today is turning out thousands of dollars worth of materials. Last year France spent 14 billion francs for reconstruction; this year she has set aside in her budget for the same purpose, 16 billion francs. According to the Treaty of Versailles, Germany should pay to the allies this money. But this destruction of property is incomparable with the loss of life inflicted upon the allies a loss for which reparation Germany can never make. France alone lost 1,400,000 men in the war, and is paying pensions to 3,500,000 to countrymen, many of whom will never again be able to earn a living. Does it seem just that France, already overburdened with debt and suffering, her lands devastated and with 3,000,000 men less to aid her than in years previous to the war, does it seem right that she should pay for the great havoc Germany has played with so many human lives? Fellow Americans, there is a higher law of justice proclaiming fair play among men, and therefore, because of violation of this law Germany should pay the indemnity. Let us come closer home and see in what way we are connected with this problem. Have we forgotten that somewhere in Flanders Field lie thousands of our own American soldiers? Have we forgotten that a great per cent, of our boys who saw active fighting are unable to enter into any service? That they have been stripped of their youth and future as a bitter frost strips a budding tree of its fruit; that their beautiful dreams and ambitions are shattered forever. What does this mean to us? That perhaps buried beneath that sod lie some who might have been our greatest statesmen. Perhaps, among the thousands of our soldiers in hospitals who are incapacitated, and many of whom are mentally deranged because of shell and gas effects perhaps, among these are the true artists of our countrymen who might have placed our nation on a par with others in music, literature and art. These, the fruit of our nation, lost to humanity. Why, fellow students, do we listen to 12 The Weber Literary Journal those who say it is not for America to interfere with the war indemnity? Was not our purpose in entering the World War to save the world for democracy? Is not that the reason for so many little crosses in Flander's Fields, and for the many hospitals erected in our country for incapacitated soldiers? Today a principle of humanity is still in need of our protection. When 4 billion marks is set aside for army and navy appropriations by a country supposed, according to a peace treaty, to be disarming, then we have reason to believe that the principles of liberalism and world peace are not yet secure. If Germany were forced to pay the indemnity, she would be retarded, at least for a number of years, in her personal ambitions, which may again endanger the happiness of mankind. Are we now, when the world is facing another crisis, to lay down those principles for which thousands of our boys gave their lives? Are we going to let Germany say to the world, "I am yet unconquered. My homes, my farms, my factories, my mines, are without a scar. Yours all are bleeding and worthless. I am still master of the world". Do you realize, fellow students, what this would mean to us? For the sake of humanity, we as Americans, must support our statesmen and the statesmen of our allies, in their insistence that Germany pay the reparatory demand. There are those who say that Germany is unable to pay. We have already stated that 4 billion marks has been allotted for military purposes, and that the amount which Germany is to pay annually is only $1,350,000. Her business companies are paying from 15 to 30% dividends. The consumption of champagne has risen from 6,000,000 bottles in 1914, to 10,-000,000 bottles in 1920. During the racing season of Berlin in 1920, the totalizer turned over 440,000,000 marks, as compared with 200,000,000 for the previous season. When Germany is wealthy enough to live in such a manner, then surely she is wealthy enough to pay at least a part of her debt to humanity. Fellow Americans; if the sun is to smile again over happy homes in France; if those principles for which thousands of American soldiers now sleep in Flander's Field, are to be made secure; if Germany, herself, is to regain that position of inter- 13