The Alaska daily empire., 1921-08-01
America Finds Herself.
(NeW York Post )

I (NeW York POSt)
 President Harding, in making his bid for con ference the limitation of armaments and settle ment in the Far East, has redeemed his pledge of America First in a nobler sense than events mme- ldiately after his election seemed promise It is tc be America First in the pursuit of seIf-inter Test, not in grubbng isolation, but in cour- Iageous leadership for the solution of the world prob lems which the Paris Conference left unfinished brought into being tf. eet aes
 Under present circumstances it is minor con sderation that the Harding disarmament plan in cIudes, the military well the naval Powers. lOnly fortnight ago, when the very principle of larmaments conference, embodied in the Borah resolution, in doubt, it the thing because it the easieB thing, concentrate on the naval program. The solution of that problem Is i'll the hands of three Powers only Land armament brings in France and Italy and all the complexities lof the European situation. But at that time the Pacihc phase of the situation not yet in the forefront. The Far East and the Anglo -Japanese alliance had not tied themselves up with the ques- ton of ornaments. In other words, were not facing then what We are approaching verit- able second world conference major issues. In such conference the earlier objections to intro ducing the problem of military armament is much more difficult than the naval problem. But it is a tasks to separate committees and to it that the broader and more difficult question of disarma- fment land shall not interfere with disarmament lon the
 The conference when it meets, will present a sharp challenge to the peoples distinct from the governments of the world. The conference will
 
 Iof their peoples. And it is for the latter it that traditional proprieties and midities of diplomacy allowed to stand in the way the realization of great ideal We hear altogether too much of the caution with which the govern ments must proceed lest the failure of the confer ence should make matters worse than they are now. The answer of public opinion to this warning is simple one. The conference must fail The need for it's exists everywhere in a world sick of war and bending under economic prostration The desire flor it exists everywhere Where there is the will there be the way No doubt the difficult ties present. When it the deermina- tion of the respective naval quotas shall doubt less be confronted with the old argument how really impossible it is to get a common standard of naval strength We shall have matching of bat
 eships against battle cruisers and cruisers against destroyers and destroyers agant submarines, all aimed at the happy conclusion that there is really nothing to be done. But public opinion must simply insist that there is enough technical knowledge and common among the admiraltes of the world to give adequate index number of naval strength by which armament reduction can be regulated
 The approaching conference is challenge tol the peoples We have had altogether too much vail ing and wringng of hands how the peoples were betrayed by the statesmen at Paris If that is in- deed what happened Paris, then it is for the peo- peto to it that it does happen again The eyes ot the world must be fixed the conference in more than sense