Speaking at a luncheon of the Liberal Club yesterday, Mr. Scott Nearing discussed labor and labor problems with special reference to the conditions in the Ruhr valley. Mr. Nearing, in exeplaining the French policy, pointed out that the French had three alternatives in their plan to destroy Germany's power, these being by political weakening, by economic depredation, or by propaganda, and stated that, since the French were inadept at spreading propaganda, they had resorted at the other methods, and were trying to overthrow Germany politically and economically, by separating Bavaria from the rest of the German state, and by depriving Germany of her coal and iron resources in Silesia and in the Saar and Ruhr valleys.

Army Cannot Combat Industry

"The recent conception of the state", Mr. Nearing said, "is that of an agent of the ruling class to be used to their own advantage and an enemy of the poor. This view is illustrated in the Ruhr where we see the influence of the powerful steel trust of Nance using the government to its own advantage. On the other hand, the German government is employing the trade unions to vitiate the force of the French, not through actual strikes, but by a withdrawal of efficiency. The situation in the Ruhr", the speaker pointed out, "is an excellent example of the inability of an army to combat an industry, and of the great power of organized labor in a modern industrial community.

"France and Germany", Mr. Nearing concluded, "are at each others throats. They both expect to fight soon, and France is trying to make Germany, naturally a more powerful nation, as impotent as possible. Unless there are some immediate steps taken to stop the growth of hate and ill-feeeling, the economic civilization of Europe will collapse."