Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-03-29
SCRAMBLE FOR LAURELS
BULWARKS PEACE PACT
Acceptance of Revised Covenant Seems As.
sured Now That Both Parties Want
Credit for Their ExertiOns

Credit for Their Exertions
ALL DIFFERENCES of opinion, how
4 A ever bitter, concerning responsibility
for good thing. even the league of ma
tions, are grounded in a heartening pre-
mise 1t is necessarily admitted that the
high accomplishment has been made.
Sir Francis Bacon, say some investi-
gators. wrote Hamlet" The Stratford-
ian author Of that unsentmental last will
and testament leaving his "second-best
bed" to his wife has more champions.
But while the lively war of experts"
RACES the much more vital fact that we
possess shakespeare" gloriously re-
mains.
Whether we owe the instrument of
railway transportation most to George
Stephenson or Oliver Evans is still de-
bated. Meanwhile, however, the locomo-
tive is a substantial and civilizing fact.
Hamilton, Madison, Roger Sherman,
James Wilson have all been respectively
lauded as the "father of the constitu-
ton" James Bryce dismisses them all
with the contention that much of the
great document sis as old as the Magma
Charta" Philadelphia may be loath to
yield to Runnymede in this matter, but
even if the English publicist could con-
clusively prove his point would the bene-
fits we enjoy under the fundamental law
of 1887 be modified. Not jot.
And not jot Of intrinsic merit can
BIS subtracted from the league of-nations
pact by contending that Mr.. Wilson
voluntarily revised it, or that he was
frightened into changing it, or that Mr..
Lodge indirectly made it. or that Lord
Robert Cecil was its real inspiration.
Here is a situation-and the case of
the American constitution closely paral-
lels it-when the act is of infinitely
greater significance than single contrib
utors to it.
If the citizens of this republic will
realize this condition they will preserve
a fortifying sense of proportionate
values against which political prejudice
in each of the two parties powerfully
operates. The beclouding process is well
under way now, since the fate of the pact
is very much less debatable than is the
query, "Who made it right" AS we
emphasized, the very existence of such
an argument is the best possible evidence
that something admirable has been done.
The wrangling of credit-claimers may be
exciting, but the firm base of accom-
plishment usually survives the turmoil.
- .-,t
cerned, the league of nations was in ex-
istence before any member of the special
commission at the Quai d'Orsay had put
pen to paper. The mass of mankind
throughout the globe passionately de-
sired an international pact to preserve
peace.
The Reeds, Borahs and Poindexters of
America and their counterparts abroad
have been a noisy crew, representative of
some extremely silly interests and others
blackly malign and selfish. But the en-
tire aggregation has composed a mi
nority.
There cannot be the slightest doubt
that world poll on the subject would
sustain the verdict which the EVENING
PUBLIC LEDGER is recording in its local
referendum. Whether many statesmen
and diplomats in Paris were averse to
the league plan is relatively immaterial.
The conference, whether it wants to or
not, is lending keen, even an anxious.
ear to ~'orld opinion. The eventual
formulation of some project to police
civilization was inevitable.
That being the case, political drama
of a very familiar stamp was staged in
this country. Naturally the party in
power is the party that does things. De-
structive tactics by anti-administratio
factions are trite political strategy.
Cynical as the statement may appear,
it is entirely conceivable had a RepubIi-
can President been in power during these
times the majority of Democratic Sena-
tors would have sobbed for American
isolation and the Republicans have
cheered for world solidarity. Certainly
such was the state of affairs in 1893
when the present "ins" and "outs" were
reversed.
The play has run conventional
course. Republican opposition to the
league of nations has been made I'D very
little of inherent antipathy to the idea.
which the bulk of mankind indorses, and
very largely of antagonism to programs
which might by any chance be labeled
Democratic, or more particularly VIII
sonian Hence the cry for amendments.
hence the extremely disingenuous con.
tention that the President was opposed