Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: IV THE ECONOMIC OUTCOME OF THE WAR FOR many years before the Great War, the statesmen and diplomats of Europe pursued, let us say patriotically and honorably, the interests of their respective nations as they were given to see those interests. To accomplish their purposes, they relied upon secret negotiations, alliances, ententes, conversations, and understandings and upon huge military and naval equipments. There were some critics who protested against these methods and these reliances, but the statesmen and diplomats were above all things practical men. Their ways were old and tried while all new ways were the ways of visionaries. The practical men had their day. The Great War and its results are the- full fruit of their planting and their cultivating. The present state of Europe is a tribute to their powers of divination and to their genius for the instant need of things. There is no doubt about the present state of Europe. Every day news, every book, every article dealing with Europe bears witness to the chaos that has followed the armistice. Statistical tables that will not be denied tell of staggering debts,mounting deficits, paralyzed industries, inflated currencies, and growing bitterness. At the end of four years of peace, Europe is, in many respects, in a worse condition than at the end of four years of war. Conference after conference has been held and the assembly of the League of Nations has con' vened, but these things have not brought health or understanding. In the midst of gathering difficulties statesmen are frantically talking about "restoring the economic order of Europe," "getting back to normal conditions," and "re-establishing prosperity." This is uppermost now in the minds of leaders like Mr. Lloyd George who, weary of the snarling voices of the O...