THE TERRITORIAL AND ECONOMIC ROOTS 
OF THE RUHR* 
I 
THE TERRITORIAL ROOTS OF THE RUHR 
Why is France in the Ruhr? Is it to obtain further pay- 
ments in reparations? Is it to secure control of great areas 
of coal and make certain French economic supremacy? Is it 
to satisfy a feeling of revenge nourished by the French since 
the invasion of 1870? What is back of it all? A survey of 
the historical geography of the Rhine Valley, particularly that 
portion adjacent to France, helps answer this perplexing ques- 
tion. It does not tell the whole truth, but it does throw 
light on the subject. One of the chief reasons for the study 
of history is to find help in the interpretation of the present. 
Bishop Stubbs expressed a great truth when he said, 'The 
roots of the present lie deep in the past.” Clemenceau spoke 
for thousands of Frenchmen on April 25, 1919, when, con- 
cluding a speech, he directed these words to Poincare : 
Mr. President, you are much younger than I am. In fifteen years I 
shall be dead. In fifteen years the Germans will not have complied with 
all the terms of the treaty, and in fifteen years, if you will do me the 
honor to come to my grave, I am convinced that you will say, “We are 
on the Rhine, and we will remain there.” 
Today France is not only on the Rhine ; she is across it. She 
was across it once before when Napoleon, in command of 
his matchless soldiers, said the last word on French policy. 
That was more than a hundred years ago — too long for 
Frenchmen of today to remember. But they know their his- 
tory and can point to the time when the Rhine served as a 
boundary line between their nation and the Germans. The 
World War has revived this history and caused many of them 
to exclaim with Ernest Babelon, "It is the Rhine and not the 
Seine which must determine the future of France.”^ 
*Note: This paper was submitted by the author with the feeling that “although 
relating to a foreign country, it is distinctly American history, first, because of its gen- 
eral nature ; and, second, because of our participation in the Great War.” 
^ William H. Scheifley, “France and the Rhine Frontier”, Indiana University Alumni 
Quarterly, VIII, 161. 
( 323 ) 
