New-York tribune., 1921-11-13
A Conference of Good Will

- &Otk SI SnCG Oh N3OOQ Will
The Washington conference is in
the broad sense a supplement to the
Peace Conference. It's task is to dc
a part of the work left undone
at Paris in 1919. 1t will have
all the better chance Of success be-
cause it will operate in an atmos-
phere of good will
There was no such atmosphere at
the Peace Conference. Most of the
nations went there with justified
anger against Germany in their
hearts. They were determined to
exact retribution for Germany s
crimes. They also were eager to
get out of the peace settlement the
largest possible nationalistic advan-
tages. A plan for an international
veto on national aggressions and
for the preservation of peace by a
world concert was put forward by
President Wilson. 1t went into the
treaty in form in which the
United States, nonlinally its pro-
ponent. couldn't accept it. Other ma
tions supported it, only half believ-
ing in it and using it largely for
trading purposes.
The public's psychology in the
period following the armistice was
fantastic and abnormal. The world
was sick of war. 1t tried to put the
war out of mind. 1t refused to
think out soberly what the war
meant. Publishers, theatrical pro-
ducers and motion picture men-all
the purveyors of ideas-were STAN
peded into the belief that what the
people wanted was TO be allowed to
forget the war. There was, on the
one hand, recrudescence of the
needless pacifsm which had caught
SO many nations unprepared when
the war came. On the other hand,
governments cynically discounted
new wars and strengthened them
selves against them so far as their
weakened finances would permit.
Since the armistice Europe has
been almost continually at war. Rus
sia for a time dreamed of Bolske-
vizing the West by force. Lenine
prevailed at home over Kolchak,
Denikin, Wrangel and Yudenitch,
but lost to Poland. The Greeks and
the Anatolian Turks have been
fighting for eighteen months in Asia
Minor. The League of Nations was
organized, but it was too weak a
mechanism to keep the peace in
Europe or even to disarm it's own
members.
In the mood of 1919 and 1920
the world was unwilling to think the
war through or to envisage any
thing but intensified nationalistic
rivalries in the future. The mood
of the present movement is differ
ent. Blind pacifsm cannot stop
war. There is only one genuine
pacifist nation and that nation is
China. Nor can wars be averted un-
der the present regime of national
istic exploitation of economic ad-
vantages unless the great nations
which control are willing to put
moderation and good will into their
dealings with one another.
War has become more horrible
and monstrous than ever. States
men and diplomats still are inspired
with an excessive amount of what
the Italians called Sacred egoism."
Paris showed that. But there are
indications to-day that statesmen
and diplomats are beginning to real
ize that the selfish hardness and
narrow jealousy which underlie a
war of aggression are as monstrous
as war itself.
The war has nearly bankrupted
many states. They cannot go on
printing fiat money and piling up
debt. But for economic restoration
there must be peace. The minds of
statesmen are therefore becoming
more attuned to self-restraint and
friendly cooperation than they
were in the gusty, passionate, ac-
quisitive days Of the Peace Con-
ference.
The Washington conference has
many difficult problems on it's hands.
But it will have turned corner in
world affairs if it brings into these
rasping concerns new spirit of in
ternational sobriety and good will.