New-York tribune., 1922-01-05
Gains Harvested

The Washington conference is so
near adjournment that it is possible
TO begir. to assess the value of its
work. It is already rated great
success. What has it done to justify
this opinion?
The most important item is not the
particular pledges which have been
exchanged. 1t is rather the recogni-
ton of the principle of limitation.
The degree of the application Of the
principle is not the big thing. If the
agreement had gone no further than
to prevent the driving of single
rivet in a single battleship the con-
ference would have taken q great
forward step.
For we have something new in
human history-the acknowledgment
that what any nation does in the way
of military preparedness is the con-
Germ of all. Heretofore nations,
jealousy guarding their independ-
ence, have held that no questions
could be asked as to something that
was peculiarly their private affair.
This assumption is upset. With the
nose Of the camel of limitation once
in the international tent, some day
the whole body will push in and limi-
tation become disarmament.
0f coo~co1,y lace 1,o1,,o &c tho
demonstration that progress comes
from proceeding from the particular
to the general, rather than from the
general to the particular. This is the
way Of science, the way of all growth.
At Paris, in the preparation of the
covenant, the scholastic view pre-
vailed that the first thing to be done
was to agree concerning generalizcd
truths and to postpone consideration
of practical questions, such as dis
armament, the enlargement of the
domain of international law and the
like. Not willing to sign a blank
check, the world fell into wrangling.
The Harding Hughes method is
exactly to the contrary. 1t has
tackled definite evils, in the belief
that as they arc removed one by one
a habit of concert will be established
which will create league of nations
in fact, even though there is not one
in name; that in due time the signifi-
capce of preccdents will be seen and
a foundation thus laid for codifica-
ton and the fashioning of now inter
national machinery at future confer
ences by further additions to the
sum OF things done; and thus, as it
were, common law system built up
for the world at large.
Another great imponderablc has
been In the successful use of pub
1icity and focused world opinion
on the business of an international
conference. From the day when Sec
retary Hughes publicly opened the
whole case and the galleries applaud
ed the negotiations have not been
screened. It is not yet feasible to
hold a conference in Yale Bowl, but
an entirely new technique of diplo-
macy Is established. Mr.. Hughes die
not stentoriously advertise that he
was for open covenants openly ar
rived at He preferred to let his acts
speak. He threw away the wells OF
secrecy, and other delegates were
forced to initiate him.
In this review nothing is said OF
ratios or of self-denying ordinances
like the four-power treaty, or even
Of the momentous illegalization OF
submarines as commerce destroyers
These specific things speak for them
selves-rather direct attention to the
ideas and the methods which lie back
Of details, and which, if we mistake
not, are even more vital to the future
than the particular agreements
reached.
II