Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1921-12-03
by Beck

least that is true up to date. During
the next week or two 1T may be posi-
BILE that the role of Elihu Root will
be seen as large as those of Harding
and Hughes. We are just getting into
that part of the conference which has
been Mr. Roots especial task, and If
his role in the conference does not hap
pen to become spectacular in the news
of next week, it is very sure to be
realized in the years to come, when
the historians have access to all the
papers and are able to weigh what has
been done with the detachment Of time
and distance.
Root, as he stands today, is spec
! tacle to command attention like some
| splendid monument. There he stands,
! at the age of 76, with a brain that was
| richly endowed in the beginning, and
: has now the acute refinement and fine
efficiency that comes of lifetime of
| hard intellectual work. 1t is easy to
/ envisage him, at his age and with his
the world from the standpoint of one
who must have begun to consider the
| time when he shall leave it. Looking
! at the world with this serene abstrac
| ton. and determined to bequeath to it
| the heritage of the best work of a ca
| rcer already crowded with achieve
ment, he considers the tides of evolu-
| ton and the stars Of direction and
| puts his mind upon what is best to be
! done about that 400.000,000 human be-
L
nation on the earth's surfacc-what
!. is best to be done not only about the
/ 400, 100000 for their own sake. but
about their big and close relation to a
the no mans land between chaos and
! order.
| 1t would have been appallingly easy
to get off with the wrong foot about
China. and it would have had tcrrify-
Ing consequences if that had happened.
The theory upon which the subject of
| CHINA was taken up was probably an
axiom of intellectual habit with a man
of Mr.. Roots discipline of mind. A
less competent brain might readily
/ have chosen the more obvious way,
and the more obvious way would have
/ been the fatally wrong way. The OBJ
! v1ous thing would have been to take
UP the disputed aspects of Ching. one
| by one--to begin by quarrcling about
post offices and then to pass to tariffs
| in state of mind made acrimonious
DY dispute. That course would have
led to the maximum Of controversy.
| Statesmanlike Treatment Of China
But the theory upon which Mr. Root
led Off was based on considering, first.
rot the points Of controversy about
China but the points of agreement
set down those aspects of China as to
which there was no dissent, and leave
for later discussion those things. which
We're described in the invitation to the
conference as the remaining causes
ether advantages this method of APP
proach had that of creating in the
conference spirit of harmony and
agreement with which to take up aft
erward those aspects of the question.
differences. In this spirit Mr.. Root
| formulated the statement OF principles
to which all subscribed. Since then,
for the present and SO long as the dis
! n
ly question of testing one detail
after another as to whether it falls
within or without the principles
agreed upon.
BY this mechanism of discussion OBJ
stacles fall aside like cards and dis
sonsion or angry emotion has literally
/ no chance to arise. 1t is mere matter
OF matching the given set OF facts
with the principle involved. colby
intellectual process that not only in
wolves no heat or emotion but actually
puts all anger or selfishness in the DO
sit'on of an impossible intruder.
Mr.. Root engaged in this process Is
spectacle to enrich the imagination.
At an age and with relation to the
world that frees him from any neces-
| sity for considerations of party or fac
tional or personal interest, he takes
the visible universe for his client and
results will have fairly large deter
| mining influence on what the world is
to be a century after Mr.. Root has de-
/ parted from it. 4,
F, China is infinitely the most perilous
| and difficult part Of the conference;
but there can he no possible doubt that
mon of reason. following Mr.. Root s
(! method of approach. will arrive al
| agreement. Here is a world in which
civilization has become relatively
| small island surrounded by the chaos
OF Russia's 200000,O0 with Central
Europe's 100.000000 tottering towards
a degree Of collapse that the men In
the, conference know better than any
! one else. Under this set of condi.
| tions. is it possible that the nations
that compose this receding and i'm.
perilled island of civilization viii
choose to add 400. 900, 900 more to the
/ sea. OF chaos? Even on the basis OF
cold self-interest, the short sighted
selhshness that would divide China ur
must yield to the more enlightened
/ self-fnterest that will restore it and
maintain it for civilization. The mer
OF reason who compose the conference
/ Will see that the thing to do about
/ China Is not to steal II but to heal It
/ Copyright, 1921, by N. Y. Eyenins
! Post, 1nc.)
Falls from Bed, Breaks Neck
! John B. Cannon, aged a. q gro.