Omaha daily bee., 1920-02-01
LEAGUE WORLD
HOPE OF PEACE,
SAYS bALF0UR
future Dark II Reservations
Are Made-WouId Kill
Fruits of Allied
Victory.
BY RT. HON. t7THUR J. BAL
FOUR.


From His Armistice Day SPECIFY
London. Jan. 3l.-The league Of
nations has had many critics. but !
am not aware that, among the null
titude OF criticisms that have been
offered, and suggestion makes its ap-
pearance for finding a substitute for
that organization which we desire
tc see entrusted. l admit. with the
great task OF preserving the peace of
the world. Those who criticize the
league of nations have no substitute
tor the league of NATIONS. They are
prepared. it seems, for the civilized
world to go on in the future. as it
has gone on in the past, oscillating
between those scenes of violence and
sanguinary disturbance and the in
tcivals in which great and ambitious
nations pile up their armaments for
new effort. To me such an ideal
appears to be absolutely intolerable,
and | am not prepared, seriously, to
discuss with any man what the fu-
ture of the international relations
should be unless he is prepared eth
er to accept in some form or another
tlte league of nations. or to tell me
Whit substitute he proposes for it.
There are those who think that
TIE horrors of the last five years
will cure mankind for an indefinite
series OF generations from any repe-
ti''on of those denominations. Well. l
think it is true that not in my life
time, at all events, will mankind
willingly plunge again into the abyss
from which they have been with such
difficulty extricated. But, after all,
we have to think not merely Of the
next few years. We have to cast Cur
eyes forward and think of the fate of
those who are now young and the
fate of their children, and. again, of
their children. Memories are short.
The weight of misfortune once
thrown aside is apt soon to be for
gotten, and you may depend upon t
that if we let the critical moment
pass, il we permit the instant at
which all mankind is conscious of
wlla. it is that war means, we shall
have gasted one of the greatest op-
portunities that heaven ever gave
mankind.
Critics Say Impracticable.
But we are told that the project,
however we'll meaning. or however
beneficial. however consistent with
all that is great in mortality, has this
one fatal elsa advantage. They tell you
it is impracticable. Human nature"
say these critics, never changes.
The world has always suffered from
wars What has been will be; the
future must resemble the past, and
war. which we have never succeeded
in escaping hitherto, will dog our
footsteps to the end of time"
All that | ask these critics of the
league of nations is that, if they can
find no substitute for the machinery
which we propose, they will at all
events, throw themselves into the
task of making it work if they can,
and that they will go forward in a
spirit of hopefulness and faith con-
scious of the difficulties, recognizing
all the obstacles in their path, and
will nevertheless say: THAT is the
path which we must pursue"
Two Conditions Necessary.
But there are two conditions at
least which must be fulfilled if the
league of nations is to be success.
The league OF nations provides the
machinery, but machinery without
motive power, a body without soul,
is utterly useless, and behind the
machinery. if the league of nations
is to do all that it ought to do, must
be the motive power derived from
the wills Of the peoples Of the world,
and their action must be founded
on the common conscience. That
is the first condition. Another con-
dition is that all the powers, and
more especially the great powers, on
whose action so much in the near fu-
ture must inevitably depend, should
take an equal share of the burden,
which I do not for moment deny
that the league of nations is gong
to throw upon them. 1t the de-
scription I have given of what the
league OF nations may be has the
slightest truth in it, do you suppose
results so tremendous can be at
tanned without some risk and some
effort? OF course they cannot. and
all the great nations responsible for
this great undertaking should ac-
cept the same risk and be prepared
to make the same effort.
If one of US begins to make reser-
vations / confess that | think the
future Of the league of nations is
dark indeed, for the reservations
that one great nation makes will
be copied inevitably by others. The
whole sense of equality Of effort will
be thrown aside; solidarity will be
dissolved. Great statesmen will look
more and more to the narrower in
terests which influence public opin-
ion. More and more they will turn
their eyes away from that common
object which all must pursue in COM
mon, and for which all must be pre-
pared to make the same sacrifice.
Therefore, I venture to say to any
friends of mine in any country who
are considering their responsibility
at this great moment of the worlds
history that they ought clearly to
understand that. unless they are pre-
pared to bear an equal share in an
equal task, they are threatening with
ultimate dissolution the whole OF
that new system which all Of US,
in common with the great nations,
must sincerely desire to see work
ehectually. Now is the appointed
hour, for, If the world--still stagger-
ing under the effects of the terrific
struggle of the last FIVE years-if
the world now is not prepared to
undertake the great task which lies
before it, l despair of the time