Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1921-06-15
THE ROAD TO NOWHERE


blockaded and forced to accept the terms
that made Belgium free and independent.
This excerpt from history is presented
to enforce the point that a supreme coun-
Gil whose members are subject to be
swayed by groups so blind and dull to
all interests but their own is perilous
company for a nation sensitive about en-
tanglements.
But If European associations SO
abound in pitfalls we should shun them
altogether and especially should we repel
all solicitation from the League of Ma
| tions-that will be the retort from the
quarters of the irreconcilables. In such
I minds reason finds no Judgment. The
! supreme council Is war body, concerned,
| in theory, with the details of treaty APP
passing skill in manufactures stood in
! has become a European concert, a balance
| of power arrangement, with not so many
kof the virtues and practically all the
vices of the old European system. Its
| sanctions are the designs, the coverings,
the rapacities of it's members. It's only
Checks and restraints are opposition and
resistance of some to the predatory aims
| of others, and so, instead of a safeguard
Of peace, 1t becomes a perpetual breeder
Of the causes of war. H. is made up Of
statesmen some of whom are in a way
to believe that the affairs of Europe can
be quite well enough looked after by
four or five gentlemen sitting about
table in the council room of a chancel-
lery. If they are cynical about the League
OF Nations, 1t is because they feel that
the League night be too confoundedly in
quisitive about mysteriously acquired
titles to oil fields and coal districts They
are arrogating to themselves the func-
tions of the league. They want to con-
sign 1t to the limbo of innocuOus desue-
! tude.
Inc supreme council Is Europe the
League OF Nations is the world-lthat is
the difference between them. Rechris-
tened an association" the council will
still be Of and for Europe. Sitting as
a member of it. the representative af the
United States will be fifth wheel, an
outsider, a stranger to its inner pur-
poses and policies. The league is a free
assembly Of the nations Of the world,
working under a written constitution,
with defined purposes, expressly deGlcat-
ed to works OF justice and right and
public safety, subject to the limitations
Of unanimity and the assent of home gov
ernments to its decisions, a body In
which the interest of all in assured peace
far transcends the advantage of one or
few in some encroaching adventure. In
| that council this Nation can regain its
| abandoned place and par: IN the moral
! leadership OF the world.
This plan of an association Of nations
based upon the supreme council divides.
and never could unite, the peoples OF
the world. 1t leads straight 20 two So
cieties OF nations, mutually hostile des-
| tined sooner or later to fly Mt each 9TH
er's throats AS Mr.. Fosdick has point
ed ont in letter to the Times, The
supreme council was and remains essen
TALLY a war institution. 1t is by
reason of its origin and purpose newt
ably one sided and partisan, designed to
sustain the interests Of one group of ma
lions against those OF another group"
and "an association directly sprung from
It must necessarily partake Of the ma
ture Il the parent body" The defeated
powers viii not be keen to join such an
association Of the victors 1t would be
repulsive to them. It is as idle SnS
childish to expect their adhesion as IT is
to expect tie nearly half a hundred ma
I tons now members Of the league TO re-
nounce the covenant and, as the French
view the matter, submit to "9n attempt
ed dictation by America TO meet the ex-
| igencies of domestic politics" Germany
would hold aloof She could never in
good faith and with sincerity and a
united national sentiment inscribe her
name on the membership roll Of the or
ganization that welded the scourge which
brought her to submission in respect to
separations. Russia and Turkey are i'm
possible. It Is far more probable that
Germany, the future Russia and Turkey
ultimately Bulgaria and Japan, and. In
view Of her unstable political conditions,
IL may be Italy, would come together In
a league OF their own. In rival leagues
there can be no protection against war;
rather the certainty OF provoking It. The
spirit exhibited by the assembly of the
league at Geneva IS evidence enough that
the two score smaller nations would have
scant liking for an association dominated
by the members of the European supreme
council Besides, why should they quit
the present league?
Standing in the presence OF 5000 Of our
soldier dead on May %, President Hard
ing said that there was ringing in his
cars like an admonition eternal, an
insistent call 1T must not be again,
IL must not be again." Two ways lie
open by which the attempt may be made
to take measures that It shall not be
again, the true way and the false way.
VIII the country pardon or condone the
choice OF the false way, nowhere APP
proved save In those circles where
political opposition TO the treaty kept us
out OF the world compact against wary
This administration is going to be held
to account The country win insist that
1t keep its pledges to unite this nation
with others for peace, not by some i'm
provised and barren futlity, but in
sound and sanctioned union, approved
by our wisest, by the wisest Of all the
nations. Failure will bring its reckon
ing. There is no power Of salvation
in the much-vaunted majority OF seven
millions. 1t was not Republican, but
made up OF votes against England,
against the war and those who waged It.
Hiram Johnson viii draw 1t all, and
more, to himself in 1924 If he becomes a
candidate, as his friends intend. And
with pro-league Republicans going over
by hundreds Of thousands to the only
party that espouses the cause Of peace,
reduction of armafaents and military and
naval costs. the disaster of 1912 may
easily be repeated, as it would certainly
be deserved.-New York Times.