The evening world., 1920-11-23
THE NEW INSURANCE.


A MERlCANs who pride themselves on being
" practical should take slrewd look at the
latest argument advanced by Mr.. Tafts League to
Enforce Peace for getting the United States into the
League Of Nations
From the tentative League of Nations budget
calling for approximately 100000 for the COM
ing year, the League to Enforce Peace shows that
it is now possible to make fairly correct estimate
"of what the world will have to pay for the new
form of insurance represented by the League"
II is proposed to apportion the total cost of the
League by dividing that cost into certain number
of units and then dividing all the member nations
into seven classes required to pay from one to
twenty-five units each
"If the United States had belonged to the
League from the start it would have been
placed in the first class, paying twenty-five
units. This means that Il would have had to
pay $1O4.76O for expenses incurred up to the
end Of this year, and that for next year 1t
would have been assessed a total amount of
S22O296"
In 1913, during state Of absolute peace" the
Congress of the United States appropriated to cover
the expenses of the army, navy, forts and fortfca-
tons and military academy total Of S2t9, ,2ii,i55.
In 1913, after year of war, Congress had to ap-
propriate for the same purposes &c., ,231,43S
Such a comparison shows that belonging
to the League next year would cost us almost
exactly One-tenth Of / per cent, on what we
spent armaments during a single year be.
fore the war. while It would amouut to some
thing like one two-thousandth OF per cent.
Of what the direct cost of belligerency
reached in 1915"
As an investment to lessen the probability Of war
and. 50 cut down the cost Of necessary armament
how does that modest S22o,296 strike the average
levelheaded American interested in any progressive
plan to preserve peace and keep down taxes1
Isn't It about time to dSentangle the League of
Nations from the late Presidential election and see
if 1t doesn't after all, contain plain business propo-
Son which this Nation cannot afford much longer
10 ignore1
Surely a majority OF the people OF the United
States are not willing to put an indefinite handicap
on their own commerce, surely they are not willing
to choose the expense of isolation rather than the
economy Of partnership and disarmament merely
to show continued spite toward an Administration
already Overwhelmingly beaten at the polls.
In the calmer judgment of these pos-election
days, a new association OF nations TO supplant the
Versailles League is more and more recognized to
be impossible.
The Chicago Tribune quotes Lord Robert Cecil
as saying in an interview at Geneva:
America must abandon the Idea that the
rest Of the world is willing to scrap the pres.
ent League and to Join with her to organize
1t never will bo possible to get
together again these fortytwo nations for
the formation Of another league. Also there
is no reason for such action. since the pres
ent organization can be modified 30 that It
can embrace all the amendments and reser.
vations which tho United States demands"
No American denies that the United States de-
sires to see the world better insured against war
The League is the one established insurance COM
pary-the only going concern
It's bad business for this Nation to refuse to pay
the premium.
It's bad business Tor this Nation to camor for an
impossible new corporation.
What are the costs or the risks OF membership
ana risk Of going it alone"l