Tue Economre Coxsequexce oF Tue Peace. By John Maynard Keynes, C. B. Fellow of King's College, Cambridge. (New York Harcourt, Brace & Howe. 1920. Pp. 298).
This volume was first issued about a year after the Armistice, and so represents the sober second thought (and a multitude of after thoughts) on the subject of the Peace Treaty. The writer was temporarily attached to the British Treasury during the war, and was their official representative up to June 7th 1919. He was also the deputy of the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the Supreme Economic Council. He resigned from these positions: when to him it became evident that the hope could no longer be entertained of substantial modification in the draft Terms of Peace.
Following a brief Introductory chapter are five others treating of Europe Before the War, The Conference, The Treaty, Reparation, Europe After The Treaty, and Remedies. The first of—these chapters considers the Population, The Organization, The Psychology of Society, and The Relations of The Old World to The New. It is po-nted out, that even before the war the equilibrium between the old civilization and new resources was being threatened. In 1890) Europe had a population three times that of North and South America combined. By 1914 the law of diminishing returns was asserting itself, and Europe could not afford the disorganization of any of her sources of supply. The psychological instability of the labouring and the capitalistic classes, coupled with the complicated and artificial organization' of economics in general paved the way to the catastrophe which shook the whole system to its foundation. It was the task of the Peace Gonference not merely to satisfy justice, but: to re-establish justice and to heal wounds.
Unper tHe Microscope.
Mr. Keynes considers that M. Clemenceau was by far the most! eminent member of the Council of Four. He alone had an idea—the guaranteed safety of France—which he had considered in all its consequences. When President Wilson left Washington, he enjoyed a prestige and a moral influence throughout the world unequalled in history. According to—the author the British Prime Minister had an unerring sensibility not unlike that of a "medium" to every one around him. He had six or seven senses not available to! final chapter of Remedies. The ordinary men, judging character, provision requiring unanimity in motives, and subconscious impulse, all decisions. of the League is perceiving what each one was characterized as converting it into thinking, what he was to say next,!a body merely for wasting time. and compounding with telepathic! Article X (so much antagonized in instinct the argument or appeal! the American Senate) is considered, best suited to the vanity, weakness, together with article V requiring or self-interest of his immediate! unanimity, as going some way to auditor. destroy the conception of the In that company. the President, League as an instrument of pro-ignorant of the ins and outs of gress. and as equipping it from the European politics, was but playing outset with an almost fatal bias a game of blind man's buff. "This toward the status quo. blind and deaf Don Quixote was! i entering a cavern where the swift Tae Oxty Way. and glittering blade was in the! The author maintains that the hands of an adversary." He had an Reparation and Occupation pay-admirable spirit and purpose, but; ments by Germany must certainly no constructive scheme for clothing, be reduced to. $10,000,000,000—itself it with flesh. His mind was slower) a sum of which no human mind than that of the agile British} can really take account. There Prime Minister. He did not! must be an entire cancellation of remedy his defects by seeking aid|Inter-Ally indebtedness incurred from the collective wisdom of his, for purposes of this war. "It lieutenants. He allowed himself would be an act of far seem, to be drugged by the Council|statesmanship for the Unite atmosphere. In these few sentences Kingdom and the United States, is epitomized the author's point of the two Powers chiefly concerned, view, and it is amplified in details; to adopt it." pon which it is unnecessary to} In the present temper of mind of the Allies and of the World the Tuerice axe-Eoonoures. reader can estimate how much More than fifty pages are devot- chance there is of the adoption of ed to a minute examination of the any such programme. provisions of the Treaty, which it) This pessimistic volume closes is said the British people gladly with tie remark that "for the agreed to without reading it. AS immediate future events are taking these treaty provisions are highly huree "und the wear destiny of technical they cannot within any europe is no longer in the hands Reasonable space be, so sumniaTized cee ne one ce tan as to admit of rational comment. e influence the hidden currents In the Reparation chapter, consi- owing continually beneath the derably over 100 pages in! surface of political history, by length forming the centre of the stting in motion those forces of book, it is shown by minute speci- instruction and imagination which fication of many Kinds that it is) change opinion. The assertion of inherently impossible on economic rane' ae veiling "of illusions grounds alone, not to mention the dissipation of hate, the en-others, that Germany ever will or jorgement and instruction of men's can, fulfil these obligations. A re-) hearts and minds must be the action on 2 gigantic scale is in- means. We have been moved al-evitable. "The policy of reducing) -.aqy beyond endurance and need Germany to servitude for a genera- reef," Never in the lifetime of men tion, of degrading the lives of mil- now living has the universal ele-lions of human beings. and of ment in the soul of man burnt so depriving a whole nation of hap-) ent 3 Piness, should be abhorrent, and "07" tu. people of the detestable abhorrent and detest- rated States seem to be turning even if it. enriched ourselves, tewaed s.nomible candidate for the lo even if it were possible Uni even if it did not sow the decay! Presidency, who has "done some-of the whole civilized life of thing." who is able to work with Barone, 'Boms. press: 38 gel ternational mind," it is interesting events of man's history, in the to come (p 374) upon the following unwinding of the complex fates of fomeiote a pateatet Pics maT HE ie eeee, mention mee' not ordeal at Paris with an enhanced ions. Justice is not so simple. y eme authorized, by religion or byjTeputation. This complex per-natural morals to visit on the sonality with his habitual air of childeon of their, enemies the mis- weary Titan' his ated fats of icings of parents or of rulers" 7 From the author's standpoint the the European situation, imported in atmosphere and the methods of) to the Councils, of Paris,, when he Paris are fatal. Tt is, therefore,|took part in them, precisely th necessary to have a revision of the atmosphere of reality, magnanim-Treaty, an adjustment of inter- ity, and disinterestednoes which if Ally indebtedness, an international had been found in other quarters loan, and a reform of the currency. also, would have given us a These topies are elaborated in the Peace. It is rather refreshing to
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.