The Washington herald., 1921-11-06

The first Of an tn1portdHt ser1es o.
fhirtsen t1seklv articles on the de-
eelopmsnts Of the conference for I'm
HatioR Of ornaments BY Americas
lsadiag s00HGR pTbItcist. This article
,csu be roHotOed BY others tortttsH up
70 Bsinste on the EsIos Developments
Of the conference proceedings
By IDA N. TARBELL-
When men rally for peace with
the same intelligence and determi-
nation that they rally for war We
shall begin to march toward our
new world The difficulty is to get
them to realize that peace no more
than war is to be achieved merely
BY eloquent talk and noble resolu-
lions.
We all admit that war means sac
rifics and effort, untiring and TO
the limit; that when we make war
we must get down to cases-work'
spend, die. We have never grasp
ed that peace like war has her sac
rifices, that like war IL Is only to
be won by endless labor and pain.
Upon the understanding of this fact
n going to depend in the main the
effectiveness of the present deter
naination Of this nation to make the
coming conference for the Limitation
Of armaments a success.
Insist on Pledges.
That the nation is rallying for this
purpose is unquestioned. There Ii
an impassioned and growing deter
mInation among powerful bodies OF
men and women to make II succeed.
That Is, to insist that there come
out of 1t such mutual understand
ings and pledges as will convince
the governments concerned that IL
Is practical and safe for them to cut
their navtes and their war estab-
lishments.
What substantial reasons-rea-
sons outside of our conviction that
great ornaments are madness, an
offense to common sense, an intoler-
able burden on people-what rea-
sons beyond these, have we for be-
lievinE that the coming conference
may succeed7
A first, and an important one, Is
that the difficulties to be adjusted
are, as at present defined, confined
to one side of the earth's surface
which. II huge, is nevertheless fairly
simple. being mostly water. 1t is
the problems Of the Pacific Ocean
that we have to handle.
Pacific Problems Definite.
These problems are comparatively
definite-the kind OF thing that you
can get down on paper with some
thing like precision. They have one
great advantage. and that is that in
the main they do not involve a past
running into the dim distance.
England has held Hongkong. a con-
quest Of the opium war, for only
about eighty years. We. the United
States, have had port privileges In
China only since 1874. France first
got a stronghold in Cochin. China.
IN 1852. and her protectorate over
AMMAN is less than forty years old.
1t was only twenty-five years ago
that the war between Japan and
China over Korea began; the COM
plications in Eastern Russia are
still younger. So are those in Shan
tung, zap. the Philippine Islands.
That IS, the chief bones Of conten-
tion in the coming conference are
freshly picked. In most of the
cases there are men still living who
helped in the picking.
Can Trace Intrigues.
It Is the same when II comes to
concessions. The questions around
the ownership and administration Of
railroads and mlncs-they belong
20 our age. We can put our fingers
on their beginnings, trace with
some certainty what has happened.
find the intriguers, the bride siyers
and takers, the law breakers, II
such there have been. In the case Of
most of the concessions we can get
our hands upon the very men in
volved in securing them and in
carrying on their development.
How different from the problems
of Europe, running as they do
through century after century, in
volving as they do SUGGESTIONS of
tnvasions, of conQuests. Of settle
ments, Of incessant infiltration of
different races, and the consequent
mingling Of social, political, indus
trial and religious notions. The
quarrels OF Europe are as old as
civilization, their bases are lost in
the past Without minimizing at
all the difficulty OF the questions on
the agenda of the coming confer
ence, they have in the main the ad-
vantage Of being Of recent date.
There is encouragement in the
relations of the conferees. These
are not enemy nations, fresh from
wars, that are meeting to make
treaties They are nations that for
i've years have been allies, and
from the life-and-death necessity
OF corporation have gained a GER
tain solidarity. True, their machin-
cry Of cooperation Is pretty we'll
shot up. The frictions of peace are
harder on international machinery
than the shells of war. The former
; rack II to pieces; the latter scolIdI-
~ It That Is, the nations that are
coming to the conference are on
terms Of fairly friendly acquAint-
ance, an acquaintance which has
stood q tremendous test
These nations have all committed
themselves solemnly to certain de-
finite pacific ideals, laid down by
the United States Of America. True,
their ideals are pretty badly bat
tered, and we as a government are
in the anomalous position of tenn
porarily abandoning them after
having committed our friends to
them. However, they still stand on
their feet, these ideals, and they
are gaining fresh vigor and conn
dence every day in this particular
nation.
Leaders Well Acquainted.
II should be counted as a decided
advantage that the associations OF
the years of the war have made the
men who will represent the differ
emit nations at the conference fair
ly well acquainted with one an
other