Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-10-08
IS THE LEAGUE BEING LOST
IN AMERICA OR IN EUROPE?
Mr.. Hardins's Flat Opposition and One
Way In Which II May Be Made
to Operate for Good

| rejection Of the League Of Nations in its
| present form and his expressed datermna-
| tion to disregard the scheme formulated at
| Paris in the interest Of world peace and to
ignore all that has been done thus far toward
| its perfection is news Of immeasurable i'm
portance.
The policy cnunciatcd at Dcs Mones may
affect the history of mankind for hundred
years and it may profoundly influence the
whole future destiny of the United States.
lmmedinte reactions to the Drs Moines
speech may be expected in London and in
Paris. in Warsaw and in Rome. in Moscow
and in Berlin, in Pckin and in Toxic.
Powers still capable of making war
which have been wavering for almost two
years between belief in reason and the
belief in might will do one of two things.
They will move automatically together in
new bloc or they will be shocked out of their
cynical preoccupations with new plans for
conquest and brought to sudden sense of
an abyss to which they are drifting. For
If the American people are disillusioncd and
willing to abandon utterly the Versailles plan
some justification for their new point Of
view can be found in the present state of
affairs in Continental Europe
But 1t is not yet time to say that the
world should drift backward to darkness.
The United States will be accused of abau-
doning it's noblcr convictions. Our people
will be said TO have turned away from rea-
son.
1t would be far better to say what Is true
that the cXigcncies of a national campaign
have forced the candidates and spokesman
for both parties to explicit statements at a
time when no simple and explicit statement
can properly express either national feeling
or party policy.
A year ago no man in public life would
have dared or desired to oppose the one plan
which seemed TO offer to the world an only
way to escape from the catastrophes of flu
ture wars and means by which western
civilization may be protected against the de-
stroying forces that have risen within it.
1t is stupid to talk of tho Versailles plan
as Wilson's League or England'S League or
Il Bankers League The League of Nations
as it was contemplated at tho opening of
the Peace Conference and later was the
league Of the plain people everywhere who
are dragged into wars by forces which they
do not know or control. Taft and Roose-
welt and Root. Morley and Bryce and Cecil
and men of similar mind everywhere whose
concern has been with common humanity
were among the ablcst prOpagandistS of
new system of international relationships
which Mr.. Wilson cndcavorcd to achieve at
Paris.
The League of Nations was in Its most
importaut aspect the league of oil the chill
drcn of the world who are still little ana
for whom cannon and poison gas and tanks
and liquid fire may yet be made. SO we
viewed it in America.
What. then. has happened in year:
What changes have taken place in the minds
of the people who can applaud statements
like that which Mr. Harding has just made
at Dcs Moincs?
Europc in it's present state provides the
host answer to such queries as these. To
soy that the League Of Nations Is being
wrecked in the wild currents of presi-
dontiol campaign, or that it is being de-
stroycd by the influence of Senate OIL
rorrhv, or scrappcd by Mr.. Harding, or
ruined by the President. is to withhold 1uIl
iustice from America and Americans
If the League of Nations is wrecked it will
he wrecked on the Continent of Europe by
c,ioues and individuals who, because OF an
unfortunate series of delays, have been using
tbc advantages of victory for mean and dan
gcrous ends. Allied infucnco-and tins does
NOT moan the influence Of the allied peoples,
but tbc influence of powerful mlnoritles-
bos bccomp almost hopelessly entang"d with
ro,r and ambitious schemes OF empire ana
with the aspirations of new states, which,
creotcd in the belief that they would be Tor
q long time under the guidance OF organized
international opinion, have been LETT TO run
into Wild adventures and conflicts OF their
own.
If nv England we mean the English
ncoplr; If by France we mean inc great
hearted folk who may be said to nav" saved
tbo world from Germany; il by Italy we
,,,oor thc masses of Italians, then 1t cannot
Lo sold that France England or Italy or
.ho poIcs have had any interest in tn"
rocrIiar enterprises that lately have made
',.hoIc. hearted American participation IN the
Ioogro of Nations difficult matter Ihe
..,o-,,,,, obrond rre tired or voiccless.
7. yos intended that the league should
.,a,os. Immediately be made to include all
ai,,,Ii2cd countries. But terms or peace
o,,,,nciotcd at Versailles under pressure from
hord driven European politicians, who sought
ohioAv TO fiatter and comfort their peoples
g.. short period made that impossible
~, .oro man believed that the Germans
III he made to pay all the costs of the
',,or But because the British and the
Ir.ancb neople were asked to believe that
cormony would pay all the costs of the war,
,, ~ settlement were made elastic and
ss1aerite Those who, in the absence of a
"''a , Ieopue of nations, have sought to an
-,suoto Germany and Austria and dominate
n,'ss;o have taken advantage of the vague
terms of the settlement. Lately they have
had to admit that, much as the enemy ma
| 49, -. 5osarva n they can be anni I