Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-08-08
HARDING'S CONTINUING LABOR
FOR A NEW PEACE CONFERENCE
The Presidents Addresses Are Intended
to Halt the New Race Toward
CataelYsms In Europe

TN SOME of the foreign capitals obvious
L attempts are being made to narrow the
scope of the proposed disarmament con-
ference at Washington. President Hard
ing reveals in each of his public addresses
n desire and n determination to broaden 1t.
Not once during his stay in New lIamp-
shire did the President talk merely of DIS
armament. But he did talk repeatedly OF
hope to see the world permanently at
peace. He would like, he said, to see our
Nation committed to the task of reforming
the world and teaching mankind that it is
not good to make war
Mr. Harding knows of course, that man
kind does not need to be taught that lesson,
that peoples left to themselves do not wish
to go to war. He is addressing himself
with such drcctncss as the official restraints
of his office permit to the leaders of gov
ernmcntS everywhere and the people who
have it in their power to innamc and stam-
pCdc peoples into made to order Catas-
trophies.
In broadly implying that the Washington
Conference should attack questions left un-
solved at Versailles and even attempt to
take some of the high explosives out of the
Paris plan, he has moved forward to new
battle for the causes and ideals that have
guided the United States since the first days
of the Republic. And that is as it should be.
1t was not supposed that the President
would so soon throw himself into a conflict
that brought the preceding Administration
to an end in tragic confusion 1t was pretty
generally believed that the new Administra-
ton would be content to drift for while
and observe the trcachcrous winds Of polit-
ical circumstance at home and abroad.
The President himself may have had some
such intention. 1t seemed for time that
a policy of watchful waiting would be
justifiable So we may be witnessing again
the operation of unconsidercd forces that
are never abatcd in Washington-the forces
of suggestion and tradition that crowd the
White House and often silently change the
purposes and the temper and the plans OF
the men who, in successive genera ions, live
in the midst of them.
The very walls of that place have voices
that make it impossible for any man to be
passive or even patient when any great
issue that may affect human destiny for
good is in the balance. There was the
Gethsemane of Lincoln's spirit, and there
many other men have had to sit alone and
decide between the course of practicalncss
and expediency and ease and the course OF
hard and heroic and often thankless effort
and sacrifice that the saints and pioneers
And no President ever chose the easy way.
Congresses and Cabinets sometimes would
prefer to do that. But in rooms and cor
ridors where the proudest memories OF the
Nation are concentrated. where the voice
of magnificent tradition is never STILL where
great souls always have given themselves
unquestioningly to plgrimages for the light
without a thought Of the pains and diff
ficulties of that quest. no man will find it
easy to do the easy thing.
President Harding follows naturally in
the footsteps of his predecessors. lie is
not the first President to revise his plans
and concepts because of the sense of obliga-
ton and opportunity that is inscparable
from his Office and that can be felt nowhere
else. in no other walk of life. The great
past is speaking through him and so it will
speak through all the Presidents who come
after him.
All the moral advantages are on his side.
No one knows better than he the difficulties
of the task he has undertaken. Thus far
his tactics have been flawless and simple
The race toward new Cataclysms had begun
in Europe, and the plain people whose lives
and futures were involved could only look
on in DESPAIR and bewlderment. Suddenly
the governments which rule over all people
have been given an opportunity TO stop and
look and listen again. Ihoy are permitted
to seek other ways to desired cnds-ways
that need not be drcnched in the blood of
the innocents.
The Power that refuses to make the best
of the opportunity soon to be presented in
Washington will be indicted and convicted
in the eyes of the whole world. The chief
value of the Presidents invitation to the
foreign governments was that each had TO
accept or refuse. None has had the courage
or the rccklessness to refuse, and each must
now submit to general scrutiny its reasons
for desiring to go armed to the teeth. We
need not teach mankind that it is not good
to make war But if we can teach man
kind why wars are made and let mankind
know Just who the war makers are, we
shall have done much for civilization and
we shall have gone far to get incurablc
paranoiacs out of the seats of the mighty.
The President has achieved one victory.
The need for another and a more difficult
one is great The disarmament conference
should be public. Its aims and all the
subjects of debate should be kept in the
omen light Of day. For that Mr.. Harding
should fight to the last ditch.