Omaha daily bee., 1921-12-08
The Use Of Mr.. Shaw
&C. B. S. Good indication OF
What VIII Not Take Place.
(From the Boston Transcript

Mr.. George Bernard Shaw plunged almost al
| badly on the Washington conference as he die
on the fight between Dempsey and Carpenter
| Ii will be remembered that Mr.. Shaw predicted
| an easy victory for the Frenehman at Jersey City
| Carpenter, il seems, had wonderful intellectual
qualities as we'll as superior strength and agility
| II was all impossbity that mere yokel like
| Dempsey should overcome such man. Mr.
Shaw. as all the world knows, is always iniaibl,
beforehand. And we now perceive, from highly
interesting article OF his which was published in
the London Nation OF November l2-nominaly
the very day after Mr. Hughes famous deliver.
ance but. under the publishing arrangements OF
weekly journals, actually day before t--Mr.
Shaw was Enthusiastically infalibe in forecast
ing the work and the prospects OF the Washing
ton conference
"ro begin WITH" says Mr.. Shaw in this ar
tiele, though the conference may stage one or
two public meetings within earshot oil the press,
nothing real will be done or told there. 1t may
not even 20 so far. In Washington the dele
gates who really mater will confer; but they will
not confer in public" What they really do, he
was sure, would never come out unless the dele
gates could take part in Gargantuan banquet
and upset their discretion with wine. But Mr.
Shaw reflects. such banquets would have to be
quite wet: and America has gone dry Through
knowing so much about the habits and weak
nesses Of statesmen, Mr.. Shaw knows just what
the conference will do. ats business is not dis
armament, but the old task OF arranging bal.
ance OF power that shall be satisfactory TO all
parties; and as no arrangement will be satsiac-
tory TO all parties, the conference will find itself
pursuing a will-o't the-wisp." Japan will bid
against America, he says, for British support,
and America for a makeweight will first look to
building up "a strong China (but not too strong),
and n strong Germany Gas strong as you like)'
Amazingly clear sighted Mr.. Shawl! How could
he have known beforehand that all America
would be groveling at the feet OF Germany for
an alliance by this time! He says moreover that
Anglo Japanese alliance after what she has re-
Gently gained by it, Wonderful prescience Of
the mani
Mr.. Shaw, like Mr. Wells, says some
enormously interesting things about the confer
ence and about diplomats and politicians in gen.
eral. They are interesting because it is Mr..
Shaw who says them. But really the only sig
nihcant thing about his article is the proof that
it affords that a man may be the most enter
taining living writer and at the same time know
absolutely nothing about what is going on in
the world. His case, with Mr.. Wells raise the
question whether after all, the charm of popu-
lar writer is not in proportion to his ignorance
of public affairs. The human mind, in this age
Of the world, is necessarily so much concerned
with realities that it ceaselessly Graves unrealties
plausible delusions delightful contradictions of
fact as relief, distraction. Things are in the
saddle and ride mankind" But along comes an
Oympan paradoxist who can, by the magic OF
word-mastery, reverse the process and enable us
to prance around on the back of facts and cir
cumstances like triumphant cowboy on buck
ing bronco that can not dispace him by any wild
effort whatsoever. And wondering fact-weary
world finds the process delightful
Mr. Shaw, who was invited to attend the
Washington conference as a professional journal
ist would have been, like Mr.. Wells, nothing but
nuisance there. But sitting in his library in
England and illuminating every event in the re-
verse sense he is altogether invaluable