The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-02-07
TWO FORCES

rcontlnued From Page one.1
discussed and contemplated. these
things happen in Paris.
Yet, more often than not, and al
ways when public sentiment is
awake, a convention, in spite of ma
chine politicians who have the appe-
title, but no courage, nominated good
tickets and adopted good platforms,
and side by side with all this bargain
ing. Of which the Syrian Episode is
an example, one can feel and one can
count on an infinite number Of cases
in which the claims of the old sort.
greatly pressed in the beginning, are
being modified or abandoned.
Practical principles are being form
ulated which If they ever are adopt
ed, as l believe they will be, will in
the future limit exactly the evils Of
which ! have spoken.
Finds Evidence
You may believe in Paris and find
evidence to support the belief, that
nothing has been changed in European
diplomacy and methods since the days
Of Machiavelli or Metternich, and you
may find proof of it in score of ques-
tions of which the Syrian and Adriat-
ic problems are perhaps the most i'm
pressive.
You will find many people impress
sed by these things to the extent Of
believing that the faint of the old
order runs through everything in the
new conference. l am sure that vol
umes Of testimony will go back to
America that nothing honest or real
can be expected in this Paris atmos-
phere.
But by contact it has now become
rea sonably certain that the people Of
Syria will be permitted to decide their
own fate, which never could have hap
pened at the congress of Vienna or
at the congress Of Berlin. 1t is be-
coming fairly clear that all the little
politicians with their petty bargain
inPs are going to miss the big prizes
and that, in a word. things that they
are working for are not coming off.
Hiding Real Intent
The bargain which the British made
with France. and then abandoned to
sell the same goods to the Arabs. does
not express the present spirit or tenn
per Of the English people nor do I
believe for single moment. that the
demand made by certain sections Of
Frenchmen in the matter of Syria ex-
presses the real character Of French
spirit at the present day.
do not see much difference be-
tween the French and the British aims
in this respect, except that the Brit
ish have been fortunate enough to
fortify their policy after the event by
the fact that it falls in with the new
principles. But the big thing seems
to me first that the job isn't going to
be done, and second, that this is the
first time in the world that 1t could
have been precented.
The thing that I am trying to say
to my American readers is that the
world peace conference, like nation
al political convention in it's day-to-
day procedure, particularly before the
main tasks are undertaken, does not
give any true index of the real forces
which are going to control 1t or the
real results which are going to be
achieved.
Politician In Evidence
1t Is great pity in Paris as 1t Is
a great handicap in national conven-
tons, that the machine politician is
in evidence and doing his job. In a
sense 1t is a pity that the preliminary
reports Of the conference like those
OF a convention must be replete in
this kind of detail; but IL one exagger-
ates 1t in either case, one loses the
proper perspective. and adopts dan
gerous cynicism.
The fact to which return over and
over again. is that thei coming Of Mr..
Wilson to Europe conceded with the
great general human aspiration for 4
new order in the world, and that Mr..
Wilson's coming gave new vitality and
force to this yearning.
And in its new form this popular