BARNES FIXES WAR BLAME ON RUSSIA

Last night Professor Harry Elmer Barnes of Smith College faced an excited and sceptical crowd of Debating Union members, swept them off their feet by his speech, and won them over to his side by sheer power of oratory and convincing argument. The final vote of the audience was 81 to 25 in his favor, with 29 not voting.

"Resolved: That this house favors the revision of the Versailles Treaty in respect to the war guilt of the Central Powers" was the question before the house in the Living Room of the Union. Speaking in defense of this motion, Professor Barnes presented an unanswerable case, and so carried his audience along that at the close of his speech C. P. Wright 1G rose and moved that there be no vote on the question. This motion was seconded, but defeated by 75 to 50, and the subsequent poll supported Professor Barnes.

Russia Guilty

Upon Russia Professor Barnes fastened the guilt for the World War of 1914. Precipitating a general European conflict to serve her own political aims, she shares with France and Serbia the responsibility of the war.

"Russia's desire for the Bosphorus was the root of all the trouble," maintained Professor Barnes. "This strait, her only outlet to the Mediterranean Sea, was owned by Turkey, and for three years Russian played fast and loose with Turkey, with her eye on the strait. Turkey saw through the device, and Russia turned to stirring up the Balkan States against the Ottomans. The Balkan War ended this plan, and the Czar saw that only in a general European War could his ambitions be won.

"Negotiations were begun with President Poincare of France, a hot jingoist for a war to regain Alsace-Lorraine, and plans were laid for a sweeping continental war. Poincare's correspondence of this period shows this. Austria had aims in the Balkans, and as these conflicted with Russian plans, and irritated Serbia, the Balkans were the logical seat for war.

"So the Russian designs on Turkey were the spring of all the dissension and the events leading up to war were all of her engineering. The guilt is Russia's and France's and Serbia's."