The Washington herald., 1921-07-31
Holds Direct Interest for American People and Will BE
Help to Business, Declares Mark
Sullivan.
Nv MARK SULLIVAN.


a;sarmamept conference is less dramatically staged,
and because il comes aferward the world thinks OF
Il as much less important than the peace conference
The fact is not apparent now, but will be before the
end Of the year. that the disarmament conference IN
Washington Is to be fully important as the peace
conference.
Some of the most thoughtful statesmen in America
and in Europe-men entirely without partisan bias
believe that the fundamental mistake of the con-
ference lay in It's attempting things 1t attempted
in the first place lay down the terms for ending the
war; and In the second place. 1t attempted to set up
q scheme for the permanent management OF the world
IN times of peace These two purposes were irrecon-
ciabe, and it was the effort to handle them as one
that led to most of the difficulty.
TIME peace conference ought to have provided for
II the ending of the and for all that pertained
specifically to that purpose 1t ought also to
have provided for the management OF the world dur
ing the two three five years it would take Tor
war actually to disappear and peace to come At the
end of this period and is the time for second
conference which shall look not to the past but to the
future and shall direct itself the settlement Of
war, but to the perpetuation of peace
For the peace conference to attempt to lay down
the for ending the and also to attempt to
set up a scheme for permanent management of the
world in times of peace was one statesman ex-
pressed it, like holding discussion about the future
management of ship at time when a violent storm
was on. The belief of this and still is
that the peace conference should merely have set down
the of peace and should have left the enforcement
of those terms for period of FIVE years in the hands
Of the Supreme Council.
Thereafter should have what going
have-a second conference free from the passions of
war; free from the angers and resentments inherent
In reparatons and devoted wholly to the perpetuaton
Of peace already achieved. That is what the coming
conference in Washington will be.
q ONE of those who most earnest in bringing
- about this conference deplore the fact that it is
- to have wider scope than disarmament merely.
There is a good ground for this view 1t is theory
which visuazes the nations saying to one another:
"We have many problems ahead of'us and many vexa-
tious issues settle. Let begin the process by
binding ourselves fight any of these issues
Let leave pistols outside when enter the
ference room"
That was a good theory about the coming
ference But if that theory had been adopted would
have followed that must have not one, but two
conferences We would have to hold the first
ference for disarmament, and then would have to
hold second conference determine the other issues
What really happened in the evolution of the
negotiations leading to the coming conference the
determination to lump disarmament and the other is
sues, and settle them all at The theory in the
minds of those American leaders who have brought
about the coming conference is that you canngt log-
cally securedly do anything about armament unless
you at the same time consider the of armament
and treat them adequately.
That is how it came about that the coming
ference has been designated to take up merely
ament, but questions arising in the Pacific.
= OR the present the group of questions to be dis
cussed in addition to armament is merely de-
scribed those ARISING in the Pacific" But
there is nothing obvious than the pressure to
take up still other questions 1t lies in the nature of
the If it is sound say that questions of arnfa
ment only be considered in connection with those
issues because of which nations take up arms then it
follows that the coming conference should properly
take up all issues between nations.
What is likely to happen is that those who will