Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-29
A PACT WITH RESERVATIONS

7 TNQUESTIONABLY the tinkering
with the league of nations covenant
has strengthened the prospects of its
ratification. The pact as it stands now
is not so formidable that aggressive
nationalists in the various countries need
be afraid of it. The accommodating
reservations render possible withdrawal
from the society, Safeguard" the Mon
roe Doctrine and eliminate the element
of compulsion in the acceptance of man
datOries.
If the sole object of the league COM
mission was to draw up document
which would silence the timid, these
changes are to be commended. But it
so happens that very few mop'"S ago
the world was led to believe that tho
prime desire of the league makers was
to devise an instrument so powerful that
future wars would be impossible. 1t is
hardly deniable that this purpose has
been somewhat blunted.
Incredible as it may appear, it cannot
be disputed that mankind's loathing Of
war has ominously abated since Armi-
stice Day, and hence criticism of the
original pact has largely taken the form
of objection to those provisions which
were to have operated against nations
doing what they pleased under certain
conditions.
When the President more than year
ago enuncated his fourteen points, civil
lization longed for the most binding
league conceivable. "Stop all war for
ever" was the passionate cry of man
kind. The Monroe Doctrine, Fiume, even
national pride were subordinate sub
iects then. No ideal was regarded as too
lofty for fulfilment if thereby the future
could be safeguarded against return of
the carnival of death.
But the wings of forgetfulness are
terribly swift Even the first covenant
draft was milder than the sort of agree
ment for which men longed while the
carnage was going on, and the revised
version, so scrupulously careful not to
involve irrevocable pledges, is weaker
still. In principle, of course, it is still
admirable, and it contains provisions
which will render the starting of the
war machinery much more difficult than
in the past. The situation is somewhat
as though the Bryan arbitration treaties
had been made of universal application.
Nobody is to blame save everybody in
general. Human nature is forever clam
oring for ideals which in the end it is
reluctant to support
Of late the pressure upon the cove
nant commission has been urging it to
some kind of peace pact to which all
the nations would agree. This feat has
evidently been accomplished.
For all its shortcomings the covenant
is infinitely superior to no compact at
all. The hope of the world lies in its
virtue as basis. Should it prove
to be the foundation for an eventually
more binding society of the nations, one
with sufficient teeth to render war really
impossible, wondrous structure will
have been reared in Paris.
At present it is the moral buttressing
of the covenant which constitutes its
strength. It's practical armor is not of
the sort of which war-weary humanity
WAS dreaming when Ludendorff struck
the British line But that happened four
teen months ago!
If the present chain which is to bind
the nations is no stronger than its
weakest link, it must be considered that
the thoughtless new world has exhibited
an antipathy to anything less frail.
What we have now is rather the best
pact possible than the best possible pact.