New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-08-29
Making a New Start

Il - WV oSSAA
So Senator Harding would repair
1 bad start by making new one.
Hs voted twice for ratification with
reservations, and under similar cir
cumstances would do so again. But
/ conditions, he thinks, have changed.
The Wilson league to him is OF
such demonstrated impotency as a
zpreventer OF wars that he would
hsve something better. 1T is so
obviously impotent," he says, that
1t has not been tried. It could not
endure a single test. The original
] league, mistakenly conceived and un-
1 reasonably insisted upon, has un-
1 dOubtedly passed beyond the posi-
bility of restoration"
4 So ne would start anew to build
/ III International peace structure. He
4 would combine the good in the
] Hague conventions and the good in
lthe Wilson covenant. His plan is
4 The Root plan, plus, it would seem,
the conceptions Of the organization
known to America as the League of
.ree Nations.
4 The arguments in favor Of a new
start are weighty. In face Of the
Polish crisis the Wilson league I'M
lestlonably broke down--took on,
] IS The Tribune remarked, the aspect
u !. cadaver. The leagues council
] Id not even assemble. It's agent at
Danzig, who happened to be an Eng
lshman, in plain disregard of the
| Versailles treaty closed the port to
Polish munitions. He took orders
| IRON London as a British national,
Lot from Geneva as an international.
n Lloyd George has acknowledged the
/ leagues failure. French or Italian
opinion, as shown in acts, is the
/ same. 1t is needless to retell the
story.
/ The Tribune, though never I'M
smlndful Of the pitiful weaknesses OF
sthe Wilson league, has thought, and
still thinks, that the balance Of prac-
stcal advantage lies in favor of
sDatching it up and accepting it.
SHuman institutions are not to be
Judged with strict logic. If they ex-
BIS. they tend to change and to grow.
ave have not seen why the Root idea
could not be added to the Versailles
structure and half a league devel-
A9ped into whole one.
] But the President and his obedi-
Gent followers would not have it this
way They cold-bloodedly defeated
] ratification with reservations when
aNwas offered Since then they have
sparsued a course which has made
4 any sort Of ratification almost i'm
aQosslbe. They stand for blind mega
non. If Cox energies as a fiat rati-
Aacatlonlst there is no chance of his
snustering two-thirds of the Senate
lot this. II he energies as reser-
a'atlonlst the quality of his reserva-
aon, not yet disclosed, will become
me turning point Of the discussion,
and 1t is practically certain he can
ao1 muster two-thirds Of the Senate
4 Inc hope Of ratification except I'M
Ger Republican auspices, in truth,
alsappeared when President Wilson
made the treaty issue a partisan
H0Ae If there was to be ratification
" was essential to keep the question
'ut Of partisan politics.
Inc friends of the league princi-
HUe thus face the alternatives of fol-
a""lng Cox as he lodges back and
1"F'h' and getting nothing, or Of fol-
s""ihg Harding and getting a better
assgue II ne can secure it. They may
n'' Ike either of these options, but
a~ere are no others. 1t is not diff
.ul' TO predict what a great major
dry OF them will elect to do. The
1afolng program promises no mil
sahium, but it is definite and af-
~'native, whereas the Cox program
a"Vague and negative.