Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-09-15
BuLLitfs Evidence
Stick of Dynamite

thi CEVh NhV
inflated, knew nothing. They proved
it out of Mr.. L%ansing's own mouth. But
Mr.. Bullitt calls Mr.. Lansing, as chief
witness, that the league should be de-
feated, and this is hailed by the very
men who proved that Mr.. Lansing knew
nothing and ought to have resigned.
Now, you can't have it. both ways.
Either Mr.. Lansing is a valuable wit
ness on the league or he is not. The
truth is, he is not. He ought to have
resigned during the war, when he was
ignored for the sake OF House he
ought to have resigned at Paris. when
his humiliation went further. The one
moment when he ought not and cannot
resign, is now. Moreover, you cannot
have 1t both ways that the league is too
international and not international
enough. Mr.. Bullitt's objection is that
it is not international enough it ought
not to include Russia.
7 We now know the whole story of the
Bullitt- Steffens Russian exploit, ex-
cept who suggested it. Probably Bull
lit himself suggested it. The accept
ance of the suggestion reduces the Peace
| Conference more than anything else to
a Joke. Bolshevism was one Of the big
issues for the world. If any mission
was to have been sent to Russia. it
should have been composed Of states
men of the highest ability-of General
SHUTS, Lord Robert Cecil, Lord Bryce,
for example; Mr.. Baruch, perhaps, for
his economic ability certainly no one on
the American delegation short Of the
President himself, and that would have
been impossible the rest were made
quate.
Instead of that. a young reporter
whose stability and discretion have just
been revealed before the Senate com
mittee. was chosen to 60 on this mission,
Not merely such innocents as Housf
and Lansing fell into the scheme OF
sending Bullitt, but the President surely
and Lloyd George enthusiastically. AND
these are the worlds great men:
Would Commit Nobody
The idea was, apparently, that Mr.
Bullitt could go without committing
anybody. He has committed them al
enough. The sending of him was tn
timid subterfuge Of small minded poll
t%iciaps. The President evidently triet
to extricate himself after Bullitt's re
turn, but not in time. The inciden'
shows up the Peace Conference as moth
ing that happened there did.
As to the league of nations, Mr.,
Bullitt's testimony indicates merely
what radicals assert, that there is toS
much kinship between it and the Holy
Alliance; that it fights reorganization
Of society that if a better world is pos.
sible one of the forces it must overcome
is the conservatism in the counsel of thu
league of nations. But Mr.. Bullitt't
testimony adds nothing on this point.
But after all, Mr.. Bullitt &nd tn
rest of the evidence only establish thi!
about the men who sat in Paris, thu
men who sent the secret mission. tina
might be ~disavowed, to Russia, of which
Lloyd George, in spite of lunching will
Bullitt, once tried to deny IN knowl'
edge. These men are timid politician
without convictions. But the league vii
not always remain in the hands o
Wilson and Lloyd George. The hope o
the league is bound up with the hop
of mankind and depends upon fndin
better, drawer, more understanding lead
ers in the future.
Mr.. Bullitt's touch about Colone
House was fine. That amiable auto
graph writer had to give something
nice, even to Mr.. Bullitt, if it wa
only a souvenir. And he was the big
gest American at P~aris-ne1t to tn
President.