Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-01-01
GOOD RADIANCE TO 1919?
WELL, 1T TAUGHT US MUCHl
Although 1920 Has Difficult Inheri.
tance, the Completed Constructive
Work Of Its Predecessor Fur
nishes a Structure of Hope

1919! Inspirations of q TtrelUemCnth!
You cannot afford to miss this lecture in
the Hall of Time. Illustrated by facts"
IF 1T is a strain to imagine an "attrac-
tion" so billed it is still more exhaust
ing to picture a large and enthusiastic
audience. Who wants to hear 1919
eulogized? Why extol year of wran-
Cling and muddling, a year of prices
raised and ideals lowered, year of
withered hopes and Towering fears? OF
all the years within the memory of living
men, is there any more emphatically un-
popular than the one through which this
spinning ball has just whrled us?
"Good riddance" was the burden of
slast nights changing bells. "Good rid
dance,' shrieked the whistles. "Good
riddance," blared the mummers' horns.
Chronos himself as the advocate would
have hard time convincing some of us
that our contemporary judgment is cues
tionabe.
A somewhat stunned world is looking
forward not as it once did, ecstatically
and thrilling with high aspirations of
new deal all around, but in chastened
mood and with rather weary indifference.
1t is the negative, more than any pos
sible affirmative, virtues of the new year
which are welcomed today.
The taskmasters of 1920 are not exact
ing. They hail its presence with relief.
One dark chapter at least is ended.
Coming shadows cannot surpass their
! immediate and detested predecessors.
1t is not surprising that so many of the
commentaries on the past twelve months
were in this vein. Time is most un-
satisfactory commodity to appraise 1t
has too much fluX. 1t persists in start
ing things which nobody can live to see
ended Until Mr.. Wells tells us more
about his ingenious little machine for
| leaping through the eras, we shall have
to put up with several eternally continued
stories. And those which really are
completed often lack for recognition in
the midst of all the fret and fury over
Lpestiferous riddles of which no end can
| be foreseen.
If we can look back for a moment
without excessive prejudice, we may even
be forced to conclude that there were in
| 1919 certain definite accomplishments
to which there are not many parallels in
the previous ages.
Not much is known about the Hittites
but if we pass their era, start with Baby
| lon and the "later' Egypt look in on
| Greece, Rome, the Arabian ascendancy,
the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, on the
might of Spain, the brilliancy of Bour-
bon France, the Napoleonic upheaval
and the rest of the nineteenth century,
we shall search in vain for any recon-
struction job of magnitude comparable
with that which confronted the peace
commissioners when they opened the
! first session of their conference in Paris
on January Is, 1919.
Relatively speaking, the deliberations
at Vienna in 1916 were paltry. So were
| the transactions at Aix-la- -Chapelle and
| Ryswick in the previous century. So
was the treaty of Westphalia in 1913.
| The croakers last January were ex-
tremely active. at can't be done" was
! their opening slogan. But when five
months later it was done and the inevi-
table compromises and adjustments had
| been set forth in concrete form. pes
simism changed it's tune and informed
civilization that the whole thing was
done wrong.
| COMBAT.
The fuX of time being elusive, any argu:
mentative offensive conducted with a
| horoscope begins with an advantage. The
tragic prophet cries ''wait" and that is
really about all his unfortunate victim
can do. As he is unable to unro!I the
| future, any assertive ieremiad Of this
variety has him cornered.
The professional forecasters aside.
| however, the treaty, one of the hugest
tasks that mankind ever attempted, pro-
Voked proportionate amount of specific
grumbling. 1t has been repeatedly said
that no nation was satisfied with the doc
ument. Well. nations are but men of a
collective growth, and when any Individual
| procIaims his absolutely unalloyed con-
tentment it will be logical TO exact the
same announcement from governments.
With all its defects the treaty did re-
pair a host of historic wrongs, among
them the oppression of Poland, of Czecho-
| Slovakia and Alsace-Lorraine. 1t pro-
posed comprehensive and partcularized
plan of world reconstruction and a
formula for preserving peace.
That the league of nations should now
fail is unthinkable, but should all indi-
cations prove delusive and the charter
of international amity be imperative,
the net gain to civilization would still
be prodigious. Nothing can wholly null
I lily the tendencies and influences which
the mere formation of the league plan
and the sincerity of its advocates have
set in motion.
Though The Hague Tribunal has been
laughed at, it was a step in advance.
The correspondence of Cardinal Mercier
demonstrates the effect of The Hague
pronouncements even in the tragic day of
the German satrapy in Belgium.
Despite all the chorus of diatribes, the
accomplishment of the peacemakers at
Paris and Versailles ranks as the fore
most event of the year, the popularity
of which it is so hard to discern. 1t is
worth recording that the Austrian and
Bulgarian treaties were also made.
At home there is the overwhelming