Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1918-12-23
Work for League of Nations
New York Evening Post.

1t was once said that If Austria had not been
in existence she would have had, for the peace
of Europe, to be invented. But now, for the
peace of the world Austria has been destroyed,
The half-truth contained in the epigram, how
ever, still remains valid. Something must be
invented to take the place of the badly fitting
hoops of oppression, called the dual empire
which kept that almost inextricable mixture of
races and languages in middle Europe from
constant explosion. A political philosopher
might we'll point out that the League of Ma
tons, far from being remote Utopia, must be-
come a reality if the broad swath of discordant
elements from the Baltic to the Adriatc is to
develop in peace and prosperity, with justice
and an equal chance for all. The league OF
Nations must take the place, and indeed much
more than take the place, OF the discarded
Hapsburg monarchy; must substitute justice
for the time serving Austrian policy that played
off racial hatred against racial hatred in order
that, by the plan of divide ct impera, the EN-
pire might survive.
The chief problems of middle Europe con-
Germ national boundaries and minority rights
The peace conference will do its best to settle
national boundaries to make as equitable a map
as possible for Lithuania, Poland, the Ukraine,
Czecho-Slovakia, Hungary, Roumania, and
Jugo-Slavonia. But island minorities, of vary
ing sizes and Importance, will be left within
the boundaries of each new state. This would
be unfortunate enough if these majorities
and minorites were mutually compatible; but
where ages of competition under oppression
have bred hatred and mistrust, so that race
groups in the same town, living on opposite
sides of the street, to put it concretely, boycott
each other you have a situation full of dyna-
mite.
Lituhania if erected into separate prnci-
patty, will nude many settlements of Poles
and Jews; the new Poland must include col
onies of Germans in Prussian Poland and the
-, &c
Jews and a considerable number Of Russians
and Ukrainians as we'll. Czecho-Slovakia will
have to cope with a German Ulster; Hungary
must contain many islets of Roumanians Ger
mans and Savs; Greater Roumania, in Tran
sylvania, will have not one, but two, listers
of Hungarans numbering almost 100000 and
of Germans fewer in number Jugo-Slavonia
will attempt the most difficult task of all. 1t
will try to unite not only the Austrian Serbs
and Croats, two elements which, till little more
than decade ago, had not acted together
politically, but it will also attempt to absorb
the kingdom of Serbia, Bosnia with about $780,
600 Mohammedans and Herzegovina and Mon
tenegro The magnitude of this task can be
appreciated when one considers only the ques-
ton of religious differences, leaving aside sec
tional antagonisms; Since in addition to its
Mohammendan citizens, the new state will con-
tain Roman Catholic and Orthodox Greek pop
ulations in about equal numbers. The Ukraine
Will have very acute Polish, Russian and lew
ish problem, though in the event of federation
with great Russian republic, the final appeal
for the Ukrainian minorities will be to the
Russian central government.
Current events must convince the veriest
skeptic OF the need for some higher authority
to protect mnorities in middle Europe The
wave OF antl-Semltsm that seems to be sweep
ing through Poland, the terrible conflict that
is going on at the present time between the
Poles and Ruthenians in eastern Gaicia, the
complaints of the Magyars that the Czechs
are taking over more than true Slovaka from
Hungary, the outcry of the Dalmatians, of the
new Jugo-Savonia, against Italian irredentism,
are but few symptoms of the strife that even
peace the Justest peace ever devised by mans
honest intention and utmost ingenuity, will not
lay Be it remembered how the Congress of
Berlin in 1870 provided that Roumania give the
Jews equal civil and political rights, and that
the Roumanian government never paid the
slightest attention to this provision. No peace
treaty will enforce the rights R.anted race mi
norities. There must, therefore, be tribunal,
sitting always, to which these minorities may
League of Nations. Its courts will be full of
middle Europe's litigation for years to come,
and by this litigation the great nations will
benefit. The world-public will gradually be
come accustomed to seeing international dis
putes settled peaceaby. Then, when serious
difference between two of the great powers
finally arises, it will, as a matter of course, be
referred to the league. The small lawsuits
will serve to develop new body of interna-
tional law, and to accustom mankind to discard
the arbitrament of machine gun and hand gre
made for the law court