New-York tribune., 1920-02-24
Hoover Urges
League and
Reservations
Continued from page 4

long as we hang the treaty in the air,
TOT we are part of it.
Il do not believe the adherence of
the American people to the league re-
qulres any demonstration. l believe
that the majority of our people are
convinced of the necessity of reserva-
tions with the league. Both parties to
the conflict appear to concede this.
The conflicting groups over the char
acter Of the reservations have grad
ually abandoned their extreme ground
and have come closer to a common
mind. 1t would appear to an outsider
that both sides were in agreement on
all the great major ideas of the league
and the major ideas of reservations,
but that they are ir disagreement
mostly over secondary questions in the
reservations.
''In the mean time the world is held
in suspense. Infinite misery goes on
accumulating. Forces are set in mo-
tion that may yield new conflicts. AL
ready the distrust and undermining of
confidence and credit in the world have
crippled our export market. Our
farmers are the first to suffer. The
prices of our farm products are rapidly
falling below the cost of production.
If we are to have economic stability
at home it can be maintained only
through stability in our agricultural
population.
Sees New Peril in Delay
"There seems to be a notion that
advantage could be gained by Pres
idental election upon the minor diff
ferenceS as to reservation. | cannot
believe that such notion is sincerely
held by the dominant groups in the
70
shall continue this accumulation Of
danger for another year 1t means that
we will obscure our pressing domestic
issues by conflict over a question on
which the, country has already made
up it's mind. This means that we will
allow these things to happen simply in
order that some advantage can be
hoped for in domestic politics. 1t is my
impression that there is no party credit
IN this position.
1T appears to many of US that the
most practical nope o. immediate
ratification lies in the lesser reserva-
the mild reservationists' The two
combined can pass the treaty. 1t also
appears to us that even from the
point Of view of the lesser reserva-
tionists' they will have secured all Of
the major functions and values of the
league. If it be put into being and if
it prove its living value in the world
no one can doubt that any necessary
changes will be granted to it by com
mon consent as years go on. For my
part, it the league cannot prove its !
value under the latest proposals of the /
mild reservationists' it will never
prove them under the proposals Of
the lesser reservationists'
Opposed to Mandate in Europe
"Some of us hope that the league will
not interpose in international differ
ences except at the last stage necessary
to mitigate the growth of conflict. Some
os us have no liking for mandates Of |
any European state. for we would thus
plunge ourselves territorially into Eu-
rope itself, with a long train OF dam
gers. Most of US have no ambitions
to moral or other domination.
I'VE have great responsibilities of
sympathetic character to some of our
sister democracies in Europe. They
involve no political commitment. They
spring from the human heart. Had we
not intervened. Europe to-day would !
be governed by autocracies from the /
Baltic to the Mediterranean. We gave
freedom to many nations.
"The American people, who have
been the advocates of human liberty
and of democracy during this whole
$50 years, cannot stand here, having
stimulated all these efforts, and then
desert them to starvation after we have I
launched them on the road to Freedom (
We have a plain duty so long as VIC
have a surplus. We have no duty to
involve ouselves in support of quar-
rels among democracies with arms"