The daily times., 1922-01-11
SECOND BIRTHDAY
OF LEAGUE FINDS
IT QUITE ALIVE
TREND TOWARD LEAGUE
The Whole World is Beginning
to Realize a Need for Such
an Association of Nations,
the Proposed Conference at
Genoa is a Step in That Di-
rection.
BY David Lawrence.)
Copyright, 1922, by The Daily

/ (COpyr1gnt, 19ZI, Dy The Daily
Times.)
Washington, Jan. 1.-Two years
ito a day have passed since the
League of Nations was born but only
lin the self-imposed seclusion of his
|private citizenship does the man who
had most to do with it's creation cele-
brate the birthday. Woodrow Wilson,
admittedly the parent of the League
lof Nations which now embraces fifty
EQae nations, did not interrupt his
silence to point out that the League
which had been declared "dead' so
many times was indeed alive and
functioning. Nor did he lift his voice
to contend that while America had
not yet joined the league, there was
no association of nations in existence
as yet to take the place of the Lea
que.
Nor are there any spokesmen for
the Wilson viewpoint arguing the
case one way or another. The Demo-
Gratis who followed Wilson when he
was in Office are not the same. Most
of them have drifted from the Will
son standard and taken it for grant
ed that the league is dead affair so
far as the United States is concerned.
Only small group clings to the
notion that the league has nine lives
and can't be killed and that the ma
jor issue of the 1924 presidential
campaign will be the league of ma
tions again. In the recent speech of
Cordell Hull, newly elected chairman
of the Democratic national commit
tee, is seen the germ of the Wilson
doctrine as it may be applied to
future campaigns-an argument that
the present business depression is
due directly to the failure of the
United States to join with the other
powers in the preservation of the
peace of the world, particularly Eu-
cooperation and his statement that a
worldwide economic conference is
essential is but the cOrrallary to
the Democratic argument that the
lack of economic cooperation in the
last two years is responsible for
present conditions
But Mr.. Hull's ideas are by no
means shared by his party in Con-
gress. 1t isn't that he is opposed. 1t
is simply that the Democrats have
no pronounced policy on foreign af-
fairs and that when President Hard
ing shrewdly took under his wing
for the Armament Conference, the
Democratic leader in the Senate
Oscar Underwood-he left his poll
ltical opponents to founder.
On the other hand, if the Demo
Gratis are divided and have no OBJ
jective, the Republicans have awak-
lened to their new responsibilities in
foreign affairs. There are Republican
here who believe the Armament
Conference, the sending of Ambas-
sador Harvey to the Supreme Coun-
Gil Meetings, the dispatch of observ-
Iers to the financial conferences on
L
international exchange and the pro-
bable participation of the United
Estates in the economic conference
icalIed for next March in Genoa are
all straws which show the wind as
blowing in the direction of a league
of nations or association of nations
| s the case may be.
No account of what has happened
since the League of Nations came in
to existence would be accurate with
out a statement of the gradually
changing spirit of the Harding Ad-
ministration toward the League OF
Nations itself. President Harding
! and Secretary Hughes are as deter.
mined as ever not to commit the
United States to membership in the
league as at present constituted bu,
in more ways than one they have
Continued on page three.)