Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-23
HIGHBINDERS IN DIPLOMACY
OFFER US A PARTNERSHIP!
A Separate Alliance Including the United
States Would Help, Not Hinder,
international Thuqgery

| MAR emotlonaliSm is world disease.
W 1t has blinded mutitudes in America
and in Europe. 1t makes clear thinking
difficult or impossible to millions. The
ignorant scntimentalsm Of newfangled
hyphenates has already confused the
heart-breaking tasks of the American
delegates a Paris. And the disastrous
nature Of its reactions is vividly revealed
in the talk of secret or Semisecret
alliances that has been filing the air dur
ing the last two days.
1t is clear that immense pressure has
been brought to bear upon Mr.. Wilson to
force him into agreements of a sort sug-
gcsted to bind Great Britain, France and
the United States into new Triple
Alliance within the league of nations.
The scheme as it has already been tenta-
lively outlined actually has found some
support in this country.
There are otherwise reasonable men
and women who are willing to permit the
emotions of an hour to affect decisions
that inevitably will affect the destnies
of the United States for century to
come.
We are asked to pledge ourselves to
| the defense of France and to Independent
cooperation with Great Britain. From
the viewpoint of the European diplomat
! lists of the old school this arrangement,
| rather than any rational system of hu-
name cooperation among nations, pre-
sents the only solution to present diff
cultics. The league Of nations itself is
clearly to be regarded as a mere bit of
rococo ornamentation on the face of the
situation.
Those statesmen who are unreconcied
to a humane view, who have been untem-
pered through the fire, are plotting night
and day for this ultra-practical arrange
ment.
Line up the great powers, continue the
conquest Of the Hun, talk idealsm but
practice force-that is the program Of
the obstructionists at Paris. And it is a
program to which all the emotionalists
and the hymn-of -haters in this country
have been lending gallant aid.
Mr. Lansing is said to favor the plan
and Colonel House is reported as willing
to consider it seriously. Until denials
come from both Of these delegates it will
seem to every sane American that Mr..
Lansing cannot return too quickly to
Watertown. N. Y. and that Texas rather
than France is the place in which Colonel
House can do the most good
The simple fact Of new and indcpend-
cnt alliance of powerful nations would
instantly imply new and opposing
alliance of nations ambitious for self
protection and prestige.
The world itself will be split wide open
if new alliances ever assume to dominate
the world without the universal CO.
operation Of all peoples.
There is a rule that runs through all
life; it is as apparent IN biology as it is
in world politics and human experience
that one destroying force invariably calls
another destroying force into being to
mako war upon it.
1t will not do in this instance to con-
fuse the claims of European peace dele
| gates with the desires Of the peoples they
are presumed to represent. For the poll
cies of the old world governments are not
directed by the people. Such policies are
formulated and exalted as national
phllosophc, by the class-conscous poll
,icians. tinanclerS and industrial priva-
tcers with an itch for foreign-trade do
minion and the >poils Of exploitation in
undcvcloprd or dcfenSeesS areas of the
earth.
The influence Of such groups. not the
ambitions of the common people Of
Europe. has done much to hinder and
battle the men who are trying to evolve d
livable peace out Of the political chaos
in the old world.
When there is talk of new alliance
to include the United States as unit
with France. England and Italy we have
only to wonder what these unseen forces
would do in the future if they felt that
their adventures and escapades in trade
expansion and political conquest were to
. have the support and prestige of a vir-
ualIv unbeatable alliance? Is it to be
doubted that we should inevitably become
, involved in the process of intrigue and
, ostIing that precedes all international
conflicts and find ourselves at the begin
ming of a nightmare of miltarism?
. It is plain that these closing days of
, | the Peace Conference have involved the
= eliminating tests of President Wilson'S
patience and strength. Those who know
him will refuse to believe that even under
the stress Of unthinkable burdens, with
, alternatives that appear hardly less ter
' rible than war itself, he has agreed tC
give support to any scheme of separate
e alliances.
r The American people will be content
e with no agreements that are not plainly
o written out and Understandable to al
t men. Mr.. Wilson's policy has been baset
$ from the first upon some such conviction
= as this.
: If there is to be an alliance, it will hav,
" TO be a universal alliance promising jus
! tice and safety for all people. If tina
: universal alliance cannot be made in tn
form of the league of nations as it wa
e proposed, then the President and his col
l. leagues had better leave Paris, returi