Evening journal., 1919-04-23

Aut ltdkut VI HdtlyuS Is utdu. iueit
can be no laborlng over tho fact. It
has been abandoned by its very crea-
tors. II was blown 10 a great size for
time; II lies now, prickled balloon,
on the doorstep Of the Quai d'Orsay. He
is a shortsighted statesman who would
waste time 10 kick IT, II has failed ut
terly OF It's grandiOse purpose.
The revised covenant may or may not
survive as a Hague tribunal and a we'll
meant gesture Of internatiOn0lism and
be adopted by the nations When the
full text Of the revised covenant has
been published Il will be time enough
TO decide whether or not the arbiiral
features Of its charter can justify the
acceptance. II may still be so inept and
c0nglomcrate and contradictory as to
compel rejection. Or it may seem an
unobiectionable minor aid to interna-
tonal understanding worth preserving
That will be as the facts fall.
But, whatever the decision shall be,
the league, as a means Of enforcin;
peace. has perished IL never pos
sessed any sufficient authority to halt
war; and whatever vestige Of authority
10 once had has been removed. When
another Germany bursts across from
tier the league cannot command a sin
Gle rifle or brandish a single sword. II
cannot even reach a judgment unless all
nine nations on the council can agree.
and. as The Springfield Republican,
staunch advocate OF the league, has
said An undue emphasis on the prin-
clple Of unanimity would wreck It So
ciety OF angels al the millennium, let
alone a league of nations in 1920 \. D.
The clauses of arbitration alone remain,
whether more or less efficient than
under the Hague treaties is not yet
clear
That is the fact at Paris, and the
sooner the peoples Of America ana the
Allies realize it the better. The rate OF
the league has become an Insignificant
and petty concern. The real issue the
vastest issue that ever faced an assem-
blage OF men, the fate Of France, OF
civilized Europe, remains untouched'
unsolved.
For four months "idealism' has
wrestIed with facts at the Quai dUrsay
and sought TO create a vast politlcal
machine from the sheer stun OF theory
Instead Of taking the alliance Of CIVIL
zation born of the war and establishing
n for slow evolution in the future, the
effort was to break with all the past
and sci m suddenly a Utopia CO.
extensive with mankind. The personal
faulis the greatnesses and pettlnesses
Of the conference. the episodes ana
bhlnders that marked the rise ana fall
of tbe league. are past and gone. Ihere
,,iu no an abundance of years in Wllch
to fix personal responsibility. Iue
Tribune conceiyes that today the peru
Is loo urgent. the time too briet, 10
hermit Of such criticism now. we ash
univ ihat our readers. that the Amerl-
can people face the facts as they are
and that they realize what was at
temned and what has failed, ana tnat'
AIMS realizing. they set their faces To-
ward the grave task remaining
Tbat task is the safeguarding or civil
Iizafion 50 far as human wisdom can
nv, achieve that end. Not the ahoh-
tfdn of war for that we conceive 10 DC
Levond the present capacity Of humans
mt an orcanization Of the civilized
gorces of the world in such fashion as
IN limit the chances OF war ana IN tue
event Of war to maGe the defeat u par
barism a certainty. .-.
In Il measure, the successful perform
ance of that task has already been COM
nromised at Paris The word mas heen
ied ostrav after a false hope. halNins
nnon n prospective league OF nations
Win poyyer and capacity, arrangements
have been made which now become pre-
MYSTERIOUS and dangerous. we must real-
izo this fact frankly and fullY. WEI
must see that with the collapse OF tue
foundation the whole unnatural sIper-
structure falls TO the ground. 81
The sum Of the catastrophe az f1rls
is that intcrnalionalism has failed. Ma
tionallsm must take its place. II the
world has indeed. learned this lesson
from The three months Of folly ane bick-
ering at the Ouai dOrsay. even this cost-
" and dangerous waste will have been
iustiAed. But the lesson must De
learned II VIII no The learned from
statesmen at Paris who have trled ana
failed and who have never shown ca
pacitv for admitting mistakes. Ihe can
dor. the self-examinations, the ruthless
cutting away Of fond hopes, the resolu-
tion for new action-all this the people
must supply. They supplied it once be-
fore when paci1sm failed and war De-
came imperative. They must supply u
again. now that internationalism has
failed and nations must return TO their
natural tasks.
The radicals are now writing scorn-
fully Of the Fourteen Points and the
treacherous breach Of them at Paris.
But we think the truth is already plain
10 most Americans. The Fourteen
Points were a well-meant attempt 10 ac-
compllsh the impossible. They sought
10 solve a most complex set Of practl-
cal human problems with set OF brief
abst,actlons. When the actual clash
Of phrase with situation came at Paris
the phrase necessarily splintered. The
central phrase was "self-determina-
tIon." It was simple, It sounded we'll
Il appealed to the democratic Instincts
OF the age. But we now see that II
was fitted to solve not single one OF
the real territorial problems that con-
fronted the peace conference. 1t said
nothing to the problem OF hopeless
mixture OF peoples. II said nothing TO
the great question OF natlonalism. The
conferees at Paris found themselves
expected to solve a complex alsebraic
equation with the assertion that two
and two makes four.