Nitti Is Furious

Particularly With His Neighbor, "Civilization's Enemy" Francesco Nitti, whilom Premier of Italy, has chronicled* the post-war conditions and problems of Europe. He condemns France as the greatest enemy of civilization and says that she is planting the germs of a mighty retribution in the heart of every German.

In the opening chapter he places the Europe of 1815 in juxtaposition with the Europe of 1919, and compares the aims of the Allies of 1815 with those of the Allies of 1919. In short the chapter is a comparative digest of the history of the two periods.

The remaining chapters are devoted to a comprehensive discussion of the effects of the Versailles Treaty; the cupidity of France in particular and the Allies in general; the inefficacy of the League of Nations, which he terms " nothing more than a servile instrument of the victors "; the futile endeavors of the endless chain of conferences that followed the armistice in their efforts to reconstruct a war-stricken Europe. Germany is represented as having been dispossessed of intrinsic possessions--territory that had belonged to her for hundreds of years. He says that her economic life has been deliberately ruined, and yet she is asked to pay huge sums for reparations which, he says, are an euphemism for indemnities. Finally he calls upon the Anglo-Saxon race to unite in saving European civilization.

It is impossible to deny that this is an extremely biased book, but it is from this fact that it derives its principal merit. Even though the light in which events and facts are shown is always entirely unfavorable to France, the book has a distinct interpretative value for the student; to the layman there is always the shadow of an impartial truth in Signer Nitti's most fiery denunciations. His Francophobia must, however, always be borne in mind.

Francesco Nitti sat in the historic halls of the Chateau de Versailles when he was Premier of Italy as the head of the Italian delegation during the whole of the first peace conference that followed the war. He had, therefore, some small part in framing that notorious document known as the Treaty of Versailles, and as a corollary, his book is based mainly upon first hand information. Signor

Nitti has already writen one book on the war, Europa senza Pace-Peaceless Europe. An indefatigable worker, he has never ceased to labor for what he considers the rightful cause of the Allies and, as his book proves, he is not afraid to speak out when occasion demands such a course, even though what he has to say is against popular belief. His book is an eloquent tribute to his sincerity.

*THE DECADENCE OF EUROPE-Francesco Nitti--Henry Holt ($3.00).