The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1921-07-29
OPEN PARLEY
Will PRODUCE
BEST RESULTS
Demand for Open Conference
Sessions, Fostered by
Borah, Seen as Favorable
Omen for Peace.
new WORLD INFLUENCE
BY MARK subway


The preparation of what is known as
the "agenda" for the Washington con-
ference on limita ton of armaments,
is now beginning. Strictly speaking.
the term "agenda" applies to the sub
jects, to be taken up.
There is one aspect of the manner
of carrying on the conference, however
which is fully as essential to success
as any one of the subjects to be dis
cussed. or all of them put together.
The aspect is the degree to which the
session shall be public.
Senator Borah. who feels and has
right to feel, kind of fatherly guard
ianship over this conference, spent
the last six months advocating the
calling of it, For the immediate
present, he is now laying emphasis on
the demand that the sessions shall
be open, with the sunlight of public
opinion strea ming through the Win
dows.
Secrecy Taboo
II can be said that the coming con-
ference should be managed with as
much secrecy as the Paris peace con-
ference was then it is doomed in ad-
vance, and might as well as not be
held at all
The Paris peace conference lasted
for about six months. During that
six months there were about II hours
open sessions. All the rest was as
secret as anything could well be.
For the secrecy several reasons
were given. In fairness it should be
said that some of them had merit.
So far as the American delegation
was concerned. its first impulse to-
wards agreeing to secrecy came when
it became apparent that If all the ses-
sions were public an interminabie
amount of time would be wasted by
statesmen from large and small ma
tions who wished to make long and
tiresome speeches for consumption In
their home countries on each and
every subject that came up.
Feared Disaster
Another reason for secrecy was the
fear that certain conclusions OF the
conference, if made known at the
time and telegraphed back to some
of the countries concerned, would
cause so much feeling as to lead TO
the oyerturn of existing governments.
Undoubtedly this would have happen
in some cases, and considering the
unstable condition of the world al
that time, there was some merit IN
this argument
Essentially, however, this reason is
based on the theory of protecting
statesmen in office against their home
electorates by not permitting those
electorates to know what the states
men were doing. The world is more
stable now and that sort OF jusurlca
ton does not exist in so great de
gree.
Openness to Prevail
II can be taken for granted thai
America, as the initiator and host o.
the coming conference, will advo
cate a greater degree of openness ane
publicity than France did in the cap
acity of host for the peace conference
France did not want an open confer
ence. The French government wa!
implacably opposed to an open confer
ence, and the more important French
newspapers, having relations of in
did not want open sessions.
The fight for open sessions, at thu
Paris peace conference was made al
most wholly by the American journal
lists, and they had the thorough-goinl
opposition of all the more importan
French journalists.
OF course, there is no such thing a.
any conference being 100 per cen
open. There was degree of common
sense in Clemenceau's impatient vi
terances that You can't carry on ne
in "a
Understandings Certain
Let the sessions be as open as the
may. there will always be a certain
amount of arriving at private under
standings in the cloak rooms and else
where. This is unavoidable and witt
out harm. 1t happens in the Amer
can house of representatives and i
the American senate, whose session
are as open as any such body's can b'
II will do no harm for Senate
Borah to keep his insistent deman
for openness and it will help if tn
public backs him up as consistent
as it backed up his demand for tn
calling of such a conference
The disposition toward an ope
conference will always be stronge
with America than with almost an
OF the other nations concerned, an
any expressions of public feeling
America which would strengthen th
position of our country in arguin
with the others for open sessions wi
be useful.
copyright 1921 by the New Yor
Evening Post, Inc.)