Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1921-12-15
YET THERE IS

Inc dellDeratlOnS OF the conference now IN SeS-
sion in Washington will not result IN disarmament
or in the removal from the field of possible dispute
all questions which may conceivably be provocative
of war. Therefore some lofty critics look on ST.
perciliously and declare that the whole thing is a
failure. ~
The first application of steam in a practical way
to the industries of men was not a conspicuous sue
cess. Watts first engine developed an up and down
stroke which actually pumped water, and the device
was regarded as a sufficient improvement over hand
pumping to warrant its use. Nevertheless, there
was no great enthusiasm for it, or for the locomo-
tive, or for the steamship p.
There was a perfect rain of ridicule when Lang
ley spent time and money on an apparatus with
which he hoped to be able to fly. When Langley's
machine went to smash it's failure was accepted as
another demonstration of the impossibility of hi
man flight. When the Wrights performed their
early gliding feats there was general conviction
that gliding would mark the limit of flight. And
when flight was actually accomplished there was
scant recognition of the potentialities of the air
plane.
Yet today we live in a world which has largely.
been made possible for us through the agency Of
steam, and it is now understood that, great as have
been the advances in the art of aviation, we have
merely touched the fringe of the possibilities which
the navigation of the air holds out for us. t#
The wise man who was asked of what use was
a child replied that the child might become a man.
The microscopic contributions which individuals
have made to human progress from time to time
nave grown until they nave affected the lives and
fortunes, OF millions. So the present conference,
while it will leave a multitude Of problems unsolved
and many untouched, will have been a valuable
agency for good if it lightens the worlds burden of
armament a little, if it settles some disputed ques-
tons, and more than all, if it fixes more firmly in
the thought of the world the conviction that the way
OF progress for all peoples lies, not in the adoption
OF the methods of the trickster or the savage, but
IN the friendly cooperation of all peoples, in full
recognition that there can be no lasting advantage
to any nation which is not shared in some appre.
clable measure by all.
The conference has already ACCOMPLISHED
enough to relieve it of the charge Of failure, and if
we go back a little further we may find that the
~ ersailles conference, which is just now so widely
denounced; was something other than the complete
failure which it is often held to be. That confer
ence, like the present one. dealt with tremendous
problems. Unlike the present one, it had before it
the entire field of international relations, not as
a matter of choice, but because the affairs of the
world had been thrown out of joint, and something
must be done at once to bring at least the semblance
of order.
Whatever errors were committed there the Yer
sailles conference did establish a status upon which
details of real peace might be worked out, and it
brought most Of the nations of the earth together
around the council board for the discussion Of their
problems and gave to the world the beginnings Of
an international court whose authority over cues
tons within its field are generally recognized. The
present conference is called to deal with a restricted
list OF special problems, and it's success thus far has
been phenomenal. Whether on the basis established
at Versailles or on that to be established at. Wash
ington, or perhaps at a later date at some other cap
ltal, the world is moving toward a better under
standing, the end OF which is peace and progress.