Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-12-10
WORLD OPINION DEMANDS
A LEAGUE OF NATIONS
The Unrest in Europe Represents a Spirit.
ual Revolt From Prospects of
Future Wars


given to the conviction that wars will be
inevitable in the future as they have
been in the past because of the ineradi-
cable factors Of pride, peversity and
selfshness in men and nations.
There is another type of mind which
perceives in all warfare merely the result
of hatreds and jealousies and suspicious
artificially created between peoples by
archaic diplomatic systems. 1t is as
serted, on this side Of the question, that
the old diplomacy was maintained in the
interest of sinister minorities which used
established governments as the agencies
of private empire and usurped the pow
ers Of government without accepting
any Of its responsibilities.
The sum of human experience, with all
its accumulations of pain, is not suffi-
cient to grant absolute validity to either
theory. And it is certain now that these
two opposed philosophers will meet in
epochal conflict in the Peace Conference
at Versailles. The impact will carry the
Peace Commission and the mind of the
attentive world to the very inner heart of
the greatest question that ever troubled
humanity.
There will be debates and discussions
about a Thousand extraneous and related
issues. But all that is said and done at
Versailles will revolve about the question
of wars origins as wheel revolves upon
a pivot.
If governments cannot prevent war
and make militarism unnecessary the
world will want to know the reason. So
it will not do to consider Versailles in
the light of any precedent. History
records no state Of human affairs like
that which will confront the Peace Con
ference. Mr.. Wilson and Lloyd George
and NJ. Clemenceau and Signor Orlando
have not only to make terms of peace.
There is an insistent desire that they
find means for permanent peace. They
must quiet deep unrest that is general
over Europe, where the nations, even
those that are victorious, look up from
their appalling wounds and put the
question that never has been answered
for them:
"Why must acs march 10 slaughter
every t~enty years? Why must 're
die?"
1t is an ancient query. In the past
rulers could afford to ignore it. Can
they afford to ignore that bitter COM
plant now, when it comes in i yell out
of Russia and is audible always, even
beneath the cheers, echoing clearly wher-
ever there is civilization and the habit
of ordered thought?
II is because arar is fagraatly unred-
sonuble that world being insistently
{ trained to reason is determined to be rid
of it.
! Even the stately beauty OF some OF
wars processes, the glitter and the
! drama of it's events, can serve no longer
to drug the nations and make them for.
get their agony. War has become toe
| hard It has become intolerable to the
minds and the bodies of men. Its cruel
ties are too terrible for human endur
/ ance All of Europe knows this-ano
! k1aolrs, too, that the machinery OF aca1
lrW continue to grO1r more monstrous
more fu,iously cruel, slVifter u, deStruc-
ton and more a1VfuL to contemplate.
Still there are men who say placidly
and cynically that war must go on-tha
armaments must be maintained. 1t i!
such men who, while they talk of put
ting down destructive radicalism, uncon
sciously do most to encourage it. Thei
reconciliation to the hideous principles O.
modern war, their unwillingness to admi
that there is force in human affair
better than brute strength is oil to tn
torches that madmen like Lenine ar
waving for the eyes Of tormented peo
pies.
Europe is frightened out of its ole
habits of thought. 1t is frightened ou
of its old acquiescence. That is the eX
PLANTATION of the unrest" spoken of S
frequently on the cables.
Censorship still prevails in larg
part of Europe. We are not permitte
to know all that is happening-just a
we have yet to learn how agonizing tn
modern battlefelds were for the million
who endured them. There is enoug
visible between the lines Of news dis
patches, however, to show that war i
hated with a passionate and cumulativ
hatred in every country of Europe an
that distrust and suspicion are directe
ut svery man and ereT'Y d1etiou dispose
to accept it as natural phenomenon
Even victory is not worth the price ths
would be demanded in future internf
tional conflicts. There will be weapon
available in twenty years from no
powerful enough to obliterate civilizs