Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-05-31

ana all men VINO nave any nanu IN inc
direction of human affairs might as well
realize now that they will have no peace
until they prove that they are done with
blOodshed
Little groups of self satisfied gentle
men in pot hats. functioning in all the
capitals of the world. thrust the plain
people into the background when the
fighting ceased and now assume to speak
for the armies that are gone. We hear
some of them every day in Washington.
They are the voice of the people
The voice of the people indeed The
consistency with which these men ig-
more the motives that were uppermost
! in the hearts of fighting men brings
something like despair to every ra =
tional mind. Again they are talking of
war and Of victory in terms of national
advantages and imperial expansion.
They are re establishing the ugly bar
riers which millions of young men died
tO break down. They are rekindling the
fires of artificial hate and bigotry and
suspicion that regularly burn up the
! youth of the world.
II there is anything that can relieve
the earth of the destroying curse and
the successive agOnies of war it is the
achievement. by the nations themselves
of that common understanding that our
own men found with ;heir associates in
battle before they died. These soldiers
didn't brag. They didn't sit down with
pencil and paper to calculate their win =
nings
Such preoCcupatiuns have been left
for the worthless in the pot hats.
Thr men whose graves are in France
weren't afgaid to venture in a great
cause or to meet other men on equaI
ground to share a common task that
had to be performed if life was to be
tolprable or even safe.
That sort of fear was left for the
gentlemen in the pot hats.
Soldiers who went to France knew
war a. an endless horror, an indie
scribable misery. 1t has remained for
men who sat comfortably at home tC
think of war in terms of trade eXpan
sion and new spheres Of influence. /,
it because many statesmen are very ole
that they cannot think and talk in the
terms common to the plain people
The people whom they are supposed t.
represent have no special concern with
new trade routes and frontiers revised
in the interest of one or another grouy
Of ambitious nationaliStS.
To know what is unspoken in the
heart of bcwldcred muItitudps every
where on a day like this you woulC
only have to wait in any war cemetery
anywhere in the world, for the woman
who surely would appear after tn,
crowds departed to kneel at some frest
mound and touch her lips to the new
grass and whisper, My son NV son -
That cry has not been wrung from
women alone. 1t is a cry of nation
benumbed by grief and left desolate a
il fires had passed over them. Thei
youth is gone. They cannot bear I,
look backward They fear to lift thei
eyes to the future. But they are read
to demand that their governments Iiv
nearer to the ideals and purposes of th
>Odiery in the recent war.
The meanings of this particula
American holiday are not foreign T.
the people Of the old world. Oddl
enough. it was the patient Russians
whose fate seems to be successive be
trayal, who lost most heavily in tn
tight for a civilization from which the
have retired as outlaws The loss i
: the French armies was almost as grea
rs the loss suffered by Russia. Eng
, land paid almost as dearly as France
Is it surprising that every gOyernmen
in the old world is being viewed crit
n Cally, that European statesmen ar
r aware Of broOding unrest on all sides
There may be new understandings be
, tween nations and. on the other hand
every present plan for fixed peace ma
+ fail The fact remains that any one VIII
suggests or appears TO suggest a reppti
Y zion Of the cataclysm Of a new intcrna
- rional war in Europe will bring upo
y himself storm Of hatred and dprisio
without parallel in history.
n Those who advocate the Leaguc &
. Nations have merely sought to take th
o powpr for mischief out Of the hands (
the small groups who in the past. b
. methods known only TO themselves. hay
steered great nations to disastrous col
lision. If the chief purpose of Nh
League of Nations plan might be define
in sentence, it should be said that
Il represents an effort TO give the peop
d who have to fight in wars the right
/. ,rcvent wars by forcing every interns
/. Itional issue out into the light Of day
;, where it can be seen, measured an
o understood without the interference ,
z furtive diplomatists,
9 For sogis such cause American so