Republican farmer., 1919-11-28

of the doctrine of Force, so weary are their peoples of the application of the doctrine, that the British troops have had to be brought away from Archangel, French troops will not fight in the Black Sea, the Ital- ian Government has had to promise to send no more munitions in Italian bottoms into Russia against the Bo1shevikin.
 The peoples of the Great Powers have largely abandoned Force from sheer weariness. But their govern ments were wholly unprepared for such consummation. The diploma cy of the governments still depends on the same old elements. They still act as though Force was behind them. But it is not, and they have no substitute. If you abandon Force IS the ultimate means or making your will prevail in the world, what is the alternative to be?
 The idealists put forward the exception of a League of Nations which would be inspired by certain ethical notions of the relationship of peoples. But the Allies have not up to the present succeeded in translat- ing the League into action. There is a scheme, but it only includes a part of the civilized world and some even on that part, which has ostensibly adopted it, openly acts in violation of it's principles.
 This is the secret of the impotence of the Paris Supreme Council. It cannot rely on Force nor can it ap- peal to principles of Right freely ac- cepted and applied by a great Lea que of Peoples. It can apply neither violence nor the moral authority of g united public conscience to the problems of Europe. For this reason it is Inistrusted or condemned or openly defied, and opportunity passes to the hands of anyone who is still disposed or has the means to apply Force. That is the key to much that is happening in eastern Europe. There the Nationalist and territorial passions of the less civilized, the
 more primitive, peoples have been awakened with disastrous results. They are not yet satisfied with the idea of fighting, which comes easy to them as the natural means of ex- pressing their will
 That is why the Roumanians to- day are in so strong position. For themselves they are willing to ap- ply the old weapon of Force and they know that in all probability they can do so with impunity, for not only are the Powers at Paris divided in counsel but-as the Rou- mnaians calculate rightly-they are in no position to send a military ex- pedftio1. against Roumania; their peoples and their armies would not suffer it. The same reason has en- abled Won der Goltz and still ena- bles D'Annunzio to hold lis ground against the Allies, and the chances are that by no means has Europe seen the last of such adventures and adventurers. It may well be, for in stance, that the German military and monarchfst clique may argue that if by Force of arms they overthrow the German Republic the Allies will be unable to intervene against them by force of arms and that it would be worth their while to run the risk of the blockade.
 But the main question is, how are the Allies and Associated Powers, how is the civilized world, to grapple with this state of anarchy which af- flicts so much of Europe?
 The critics of the League of Ma tions are fond of pointing to the pre- sent confusion a sign of the inn potence of the League. They do not see that what is wrong is precisely that we have not too much but too little League. There is as yet no true League in spirit or in substance and the consequence is that every high handed Power or impu1sive adven- turer can take an independent course secure in the knowledge that there is no tribunal of the nations welding a moral authority to which it must re- z ope France is pursuing a policy of her own-a policy of the encircle- nent of Germany by a ring of Pow CTS which are to preserve a balance in the French interest against a re- vived Germany. For that reason France was not wholeheartedly with the United States and England in the measures by which it was pro- posed to bring pressure on zRouma- mia when her army occupied Buda- pest. Again France and England have been barely able to compose their differences over the distribution of the Turkish provinces. Germany, up to the present, is debarred from entering the League. Russia cannot enter because she is a prey to civil war. Whatever the future may bring, there is so far no genuine League of
 
 edy, it is to be feared, for the dis temper from which a large part If Europe is suffering. There is a fever in the blood which must work itself out Grandiose ambitions, allied to the misery and want of peoples, make inevitably for civil and foreign war. But insofar as a partial reme- dy is possible, it lies still in the ideal which inspired the world with hope during the war-the realization of a sincere League of Nations. Some, with the bitter experience of the last twelve months before them, say that this is now an idle dream. They say that the Imperialistic Govern ments of Europe have been tried and found wanting and that it is now clear that they will not subscribe to the principels of justice and fair dealing and of respect for the rights of nationality on which MT. Wilson sought to found the League.
 But it is too soon to despair. Above all, every effort ought to be made to put the machinery of the League in operation, to make all it's proceed ingx public, to raise popular feeling in it's behalf. Those who believe in it 1 must work for it in order that the , principles of conduct on which the League is founded may be enforced on the reluctant governments As rOSSfhJa clao4,15 y,a