Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1920-10-29
LEAGUE OF NATIONS
STOPS TWO WARS
Without Drafting a Soldier or he.
fectfng u Ship, 1t Twice Prevents
the Appeal to Battle.


There is no use any longer for
prejudiced or partisan critics OF the
league idea to pretend that the
league, as constituted in Paris, can
not prevent wars. 1t has. Even
without the powerful backing of the
United States and with Europe still
in a state of hair-trigger excitement.
the council of the League has head
ed Off one war and seems to have
stopped another actually in progress.
If it really has succeeded in bring
ing to an end the conflict already
begun between Lithuania and Poland
and the leaders Of these two ma
tions have formally pledged thei,
governments to stop fighting-then
the League council can put to it's
credit an achievement that approach
es a miracle! The case of Sweden
and Finland was more nearly normal.
1t is more like the average case
which would come before the council
of the League in a period of settled
peace. Sweden had not been at war
at all; and the Firms, though in
state Of nervous tension from their
rightful experiences ever since the
Russian revolution, are at bottom a
sane people and quite likely to trust
their interests to an unbiased inter
national court.
But both Poland and Lithuanil
are in a condition Of dangerous in
flammation. Poland is fighting for
her life against soviet Russia, with
the terrifying prospect Of having to
face a new Bolshevik drive" in the
spring. The Bolsheviki in their re-
cent retreat practically handed over
a part of the territory they had cap
tured in their great offensive this
last summer to the Lithuanians, who
are more than suspected of being
friendly toward them; and the Litb-
forth as their rights" had opened
hostilities against a nation already
interlocked in deadly combat with
the Red armies. Undoubtedly, on the
other hand, the Lithuanians fear
strong Poland, and would naturally
be quite ready to join with the Reds
or any body else in keeping it weak.
We have here many of the elements
which make nations believe that the
only way out is to fight it out.
Had there been no League there
would undoubtedly have been war
between these two little republics.
The Western powers, as powers
were too publicly partisan to have
been able to intervene successfully,
either by moral suasion or an offer
of judicial mediation. Nor is 1t at
all likely that they could have agreed
upon a policy Of force vigorous
enough to prevent this petty war any
more than they can agree upon
joint solution of the far more impor-
tant and pressing problem of dealing
with Russia.
| But the League, after all. is an in
ternational body. The two statesmen
chosen to inquire into and report on
the Polish-Lithuanian dispute are
Spaniard and Japanese. Had the
League not been constituted, neither
Spain nor Japan would have felt itself
sufficiently concerned to delegate
publicists of frst-rate ability to I'M
dertake the labors and responsible
ties of adjudicating between two red
hot nations on the borders Of still
rumbling Russia. They would fear
to get their fingers burned for their
pains. The League, however, enlists
them for the task; and the repre-
sentatives of Poland and Lithuania
shake hands over the compact.
II this agreement results in keep
ing the peace, and so in removing
Lithuania from the formidable posi-
ton of fianking menace to Poland
as she faces soviet Russia, it will
have stopped a war in mid-career and
have taken one of the longest steps
feasible at this time toward reducing
the Russian peril. The first achieve
ment is one of the most difficult pos
sible to imagine--far more difficult
than merely preventing war before
shot has been fred-and the sec
ond achievement is contribution of
incalcuable value to the warld's
most vital task today-the SOLDERING
up of Europe.
1t will be noted for fearful persons,
who are always seeking to make
our flesh creep" by insisting that this
horrible ogre of a man-eating league
would infallibly drag our sons off to
die on distant battlefelds whose very
names we would have great difficulty
in pronouncing. that both these gifts
of peace to the volcanic regions about