Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-07-01
Shall We Insure Europe?
BRIGGS
[From the Kansas City starl


Frank H. Simonds, returning to
America after six months in Europe,
notes a complete contrast in the dis
cussion of peace. In America the dis
cussion centers around the League
of Nations. In Europe, he says. the
| League of Nations has ceased to
exist
OF course what he means is that
while Europe has acquiesced in the
league it has no confidence in it's
provisions except in so far as they
may bind America to come to it's aid
in the event of war. Peace will con-
tinue to be based on force, not on
promises. The powers of the En-
tentc expect to take care of them
selves as they always have. France
will resume its ancient vigil against
the enemy on the Rhine. England
! will maintain its naval supremacy.
Whatever value the league has to
! them will be measured in the as
sistance its terms bring them from
America in time of need. All the
evidence. except that coming from
the fervid upholders of President
Wilson, is to the same effect.
Now that the main work of the
| peace conference is finished, we can
understand perfectly how this out
COIIlG u6NGlODeu.
AS everybody knows, the President
dwells in a world apart He takes
counsel with nobody He tolerates
no differences of opinion. Phrases
! appeal to him. He uses them lavish
| ly without considering their conse-
quences. No public man has con-
tradicted himself oftener. He lives,
as someone has said, in the smoke
, screen of his own words His
speeches before the United States en-
tered the war-reca'l for instance
the too proud to fight" and the
peace without victory" speeches
and the assertions that America had
no concern in the roots of war and
should be neutral in thought as we'll
as in act-showed almost incredible
lack of comprehension of the issues
or the war and of European affairs
in general.
This same lack of comprehension
he took to the peace conference. If
was his aim. as his supporters put il.
to make a healing peace'-that is
a peace which should deal gently
with Germany-and then guarantee
that peace by League of Nations.
He failed to understand that a
| world that had been nearly ruined
from German aggression would NOT
! toerdle q peace which left Britain.
France and Italy to bear the burden
OF war and left Germany unscatbed
He failed to understand the force of
those national rivalries that now and
again convulse Europe and that
state OF mind that regards war as n
natural instrument of diplomacy.
With his clustered mind he an
preached the problem of European
peace as if it were a dispute between
Princeton and Harvard universities
over the eligibility of a football
| PLAYER.
The inevitable happened. The
PRESIDENTS beautiful rhetoric COL
lapsed under the pressure of the
great realities of the struggle for ma
tonal existence. The Entente Powers
imposed severely just terms on the
enemy That was what they were
essentially interested in.
AS for the League of Nations thev
tossed 1t lightly to Mr.. Wilson after
so molding it that it would not ham
! per them. and that any effective bur
den 1t might involve would be laid
on the United States. They would
have preferred a straight British
Franco American alliance. But as
American tradition is strongly
against alliances thev took the league
as the best substitute to be OBJ
| tanned.