Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-11-29

OF tHlnES like the direct primaries re
form, the league of nations agitation
the labor movement, or whatever tn,
latest thing is, they will find that wha
you think controls what 81" think
that my emotions vibrate in response tC
universal vibration of emotions; that
!, ordinarily critical and sanely skepti
CAL have become extravagantly hopefu
because ''you" are eStravagantly hope.
full; that | lose the power to sc,
clearly because "you" have, all of you,
lost the power to see clearly. They vii
find mob, divincly mad mob, swept
along by that mad thing, unity of pur-
pose. unity of feeling, and unity OF
something which for the moment Is mis-
taken for thought. II is n unity not
often achieved. perhaps fortunately foI
the human race, for as ] have said be
fore, it takes much out of you. But
while it lasts it is a tremendous force
an irresistible inspiration And the in
yestigators will always find some one
at the head--thc mob always has q
leadcr-uttering large inspiring phrases
which he may believe for the moment,
himself carried away by the spirit he
has cOnjured up, phrases like ''all men
are born free aud equal" liberty,
equality and fraternity; not to ven
ture upon more recent shibboleths still
charged with deep feeling.
What Happened to Minor
Robert Minor. the cartoonist, radi-
cal if there over was one, was caught
in the Russian whirlwind and sacked
to Pctrograd. lie turned up in Paris
during the peace conference, disil-
lSoncd like many another at that
gathering, only for another cause.
why" said he to me, Its not so
different in Russia politically from
what it is anywhere else. You can't
take the words of Lcninc and Trotsky
literally. \ lot of what they say is
bunk. They talk to keep their own fcl p
lows going - lie was disappointed,
you see. For radical, stirred to the
depths, what happened in Russia
turned out not to be the real thing. And
certainly many of the things Charles
Evans Hughes said as governor
of New York about direct primaries
and what they would do to th"
bosses turned out to be what. William
Allen White and | in our depression
at Paris called "bunk." Words used to
keep his fellows going part of the
cXaggcration and self deception without
which no movement would ever really
get started.
Now at the height of the league Of
nations agitation what indeed was it
that ! expected, that you expected, that
your emotional exaltGtion made an
article of faith with me and my emo
tional cxaltation made an article Of
faith with you. and the emotional
cxaltution of both of MS made. suspect,
an article of increased faith with Wood
row Wilson? People, radical people,
talk of Woodrow Wilson's betrayal of
them. II is just as fair to talk of their
betrayal Of Woodrow Wilson. Each
misled the other by the mob spirit--for
lack of better name-that possessed us
all. What was it we expected in our
moment of highest expectancy? Well,
it is a little hard to define at this
distance of time and at this lowered
mental temperature what we did expect.
so that we can say just how far short
We have come Of realizing our expcc-
tations.
What we really expected was n sud
den perfection of mankind. achieved ns
n result of the war and through the
medium of fine phrases. which for ever
save the world. But We did not believe
our expectations in that way at that
time. If we had we would have re-
'luccd them to nonsense and let all of
the intense feeling out of the movement.
Ending Of All War"
One of the definite things was the
ending of all war and the organization
Of the world so as to make all war
forever after impossible. That is II
pretty large definite thing. Consider
what it means to make people believe
q thing like that. All our beliefs are
in certain scale. We believe now that
il will be possible to fly around the
earth because men have already flown
across the Atlantic ocean. We used
only a short time ago not to believe it.
We don't believe it possible to fly to
Mars, for nothing has ever made the
transit from that planet to this. If
some one does so it will then become
quite easily possible to believe that
man will fly to Jupiter or Saturn or to
the uttermost bounds of space, for that
matter. Since beliefs are relative.
when MIR. Wilson planted in mems
minds the belief that there would he
no more war and that the world would
be so organized that men everywhere
would live ever after in peace. he set
up a new standard of credence. He
took the limit of the game OF faith.
Believing that, you did mott did not
measure suggested impossbilities by old
by the old foot rule of ex-
1erience, but by the yardstick of faith
md by the standard of world in which
lll men were brothers and war was
m outworn game of perished Gynasties.
Here are some of the suggested
things: That there would erist-that
this organization of Mr.. Wilson's
would be-a sort of United Hrates OF
the world. This belief involved the
fallacv of the international SuDerstatp
with all the responsibilities of reconci-
ing races and religions, of obtaining
of adopting fair bases OF
and dozen others.
was not merely popular fallacy. II
was not merely my fallacy and your
fallacy. The French. that cleverest
of all races. persisted in it
right up till the time the League of
Nations was adopted without a super
state. and they may attach a rescrva-
ton in favor of one to their acceptance
Of the German treaty. Once your scale
of beliefs has been radically changed
by the unquestioning acceptance of the
idea that all war was at end and men
in perfect international har-
mony, you were mott was not at any
rate-critical of the idea of super
state. AsAd in further excusing some
of these beliefs later in this article /
shall show how the idea of a super
state was built up, "authoritatively. 4"
Perfect State OF Future
Here was another suggested thing
That in this democracy OF all nations,
the United States of the world, there
would be lessened international eco
organization would follow the lines of
the smaller, and one could not think of