The Washington herald., 1920-12-26
"To Perpetuate Peace and Demoeratize
the World"

A reading OF the provisional verbatim
records OF the ptenary session of the as
sembly of the league reveals more clearly
than the excellent press reports the oppos-
ing currents which have been contending
beneath the surface at Geneva. 1t was, of
course, fatuous TO expect unanimity of pur-
pose in any assemblage in which are repre-
sented such diversity of interest, such a
variety of temperament, and in which the
suspicious, fears, and enmities engendered
by the war are still very much alive
No one, unless he were determined to
hnd no good in the league, would set up as
a measure of its accomplishment a standard
Of perfection which national legislative bod
les of long standing are able only to ap-
proximate- In several instances this first
assembly of the league has failed to ac-
complish many of the things which liberal
opinion of the world desires.
These failures have been due, not only to
the opposition of reactionaries, but also to
the fear lest the powers assumed by the
league conflict with the sovereign rights of
s the nations which compose it. Contrary to
= the claims and apparent expectations of the
opponents of the covenant the representa-
tives at Geneva have jealously guarded
their national prerogatives.
In the case of the provisions for a
commercial blockade as a weapon for the
enforcement of the leagues DEGREES, it was
the smaller nations which insisted on re-
serving the right to determine when such
blockade should be applied by them. 1t
was the great powers which blocked the
plan to give the international court COM
pulsory jurisdiction.
. The decision of the assembly not to act
at once on the amendments proposed by
. the Scandinavian, Argentine and Canadian
delegates is an indication of a determination
on the part of the assembly to go slowly
rather than a proof that the covenant is
merely new instrument in the hands of
European statesmen to control the destinies
Of the world In short no enactment of the
league at this session can be fairly con-
strued as an assumption OF supersov-
ereignty or as menace to independence of
: any nation.
The danger that the league would mean
{. the beginning of the end of nationalism and
the establishment of superstate dominated
% by European imperialists has been most
emphatically and persistently stressed by
the opponents of American participation.
Many of their declarations on the sub
ject have made up in extravaganza what
they lacked in logic. Statements to the
effect that the covenant hands over the
government of the world for all eternity to
fave nations" and "any little monarchy, such
as Hedjas or Siam, has an equal voice with
our great republic" are,>in the matter of
, tone and accuracy, not unlike the proclama-
tons of the Third Internationale.
This menace of the superstate has like
wise been used as a smoke screen for OPP
position to the league based on racial pref
udices and hatreds. There are those who
oppose II because they are anti-British,
anti-Japanese, or anti-French. There are
also those who oppose it because they are
pro-German. pro-Irish, pro-Soviet, or pro-
something else.
Finally there are those who are Just
anti-Wlson and who cannot bring them
selves to approve anything which has been
contaminated by the Presidents touch.
For such as these argument is vain, and
evidence, no matter how conclusive, is
meaningless.
There are undoubtedly, however, some
who honestly believe that the isolation
recommended by Washington is possible
and practicable today, who believe that
, our participation in the great war was
merely an incident unrelated to the change
which has taken place in the world in the
last century and a quarter, who believe that
If Americans stay at home and behave
themselves, the problem of foreign rela-
tons is definitely and finally solved
Our present economic ills, which car
Il be attributed in part at least to the refusal
Of Europe to purchase our surpiuses, are
apparently succeeding, where argument has
failed, to convince this latter class of our
population that isolation is not all its ad-
yocates allege it to be.
Back of all this opposition to Americas