The labor world., 1921-11-26
=SECRE TARY'S COURAGE SHOWN IN
.oPEN|NGD DAY OF; BIG CONFERENCE
Day for Which the Working Glasses Have Strin and Prayed
These Hundreds Of Years Is in Sight; Other Nations
Look Favoraby on American Proposal.
BY LAURENCE TODD

0ucrdCeU fFcSS SC811 correspondent
WASHINGTON Was it real?
Could it be true?
Had the day for which the working
class had striven and prayed these
hundreds Of years begun to dawn?
One wondered as amid the aston
ing the conference of the Allied mill
tary powers the Secretary of State Of
the United States whipped out the
proposal of his government that the
United States, Britain and Japan
scrap nearly 100000 tons of new
and old ships of war and that they
begin Immediately a ten-year naval
holiday.
True, it was not a. proposal that
navies be abandoned. It did not dis
arm any Of the principal naval powers.
It merely sought to tighten the fl.
nancial burden of the navies-to save
from bankruptcy the governments
now leading the competition in arm
aments. 1t might be- described as a
plan for the petrification of the pres
ent naval positions Of the powers with
allowance for shrinkage in the process
Of hardening. War would still be
possible. Conquerors would still be
able to hold the conquered under the
iron heel. A premium would be: put
upon less expensive modes of inter-
national massacre. At best the sug-
gested step was merely to abolish the
construction of big warships.
But the manner in which the plan
was put forward-suddenly, almost
rudely, at the very outset of the dip
lomatic conference, by the chairman
of the conference and the spokesman
of the American government, credi-
tor to the European powers and nee
essary banker to Britain, the naval
ally of Japan-gave it peculiar
meaning. It was a challenge by
Hughes to the evasive strategy of
Britain and Japan. It pinned them
down, from the start, to make answer
on the issue Of immediate reduction
OF naval armaments. It challenged
them to agree by action to the prin-
ciple' that the peoples Of the world are
entitled to an immediate Stoppage Of
naval building as symbol of conces-
sion to the peoples demand for
peace.
Hughes had, by his concrete pro-
pOsal, embarrassed, at least, the An
glo-Japanese scheme of pOstponement
Of disarmament until after the "set-
tlement" of the infinitely complex
questions of imperialist finance and
imperialist politics in the Orient.
From that minute the public. opinion
of the world would begin to pile up an
irresistible pressure against the dip
lomat's reluctance. Open diplomacy
had scored its first point. Far East
ern intrigue could wait; disarmament
every country supporting a warship.
In the series of formal speeches by
the foreign delegates that followed
Hughes challenge, there was but one
plain reference to the inspiration of
the American plan. The spokesman
for Portugal alluded to the fact that
"Greater than the power Of govern
ments is the power of the submerged
millions, their feelings outraged" by
the waste of militarism. Yet one
felt, in the electrified atmosphere Of
the hall, that the fear Of these sub
merged millions wrath If the diplo-
mats failed to achieve drastic reduc-
tions in the military burden, was
present in the mind of every man
about that great horseshoe table Of
the powers.
OF course, Britain and Japan have
not accepted the American proposal.
They probably will haggle over it for
a long time. And before they agree
to even the fairest scheme of proper
tional reduction of the cost of naval
predominance they will bring forward
in committee-behind locked doors
a hundred dangerous counter propos-
ais such as led Woodrow Wilson
astray and made up the crime of Ver-
sailles. Nor can we be sure that even
the American delegation will stick to
its guns. We know Elihu Root and
Henry Cabot Lodge and Oscar Under
wood to be Of the stuff Of Balfour.
Chicago of ten book
binderies in this city. have locked out
$50 union book binders following a
refusal of the workers to accept a cut
of $4.75 week or return to the 4S-s
hour week.
Officials Of the Bookbinders and
Paper Cutters union are negotiating
with the rest Of the firms and expect
to reach a satisfactory settlement
without a strike. -
BLOOMINGTON, Hi John "
Ross, formerly OF Champagne, Ill.
president OF the Illinois State Typo
graphical union,a has been. made ,busl-5
ness manager of The Searchlight,.
Federated PresG member paper which