New Ulm review., 1922-02-22

consent but from force. The chief busi-
ness of any vital association of nations
will not be to execute the Treaty of Yer
sailles but to discover and work out the
most available and least costly means OF
revising it. Such obviously is bound to.
be the chief business of the association.
of nations proposed by the American
government. It will begin to. repair a
grievous wrong and to start a. genuine null i
process of reconciliation by summoning
Germany as an equal. i to the c'lr council I
tables of the nations. ItsWIl begsdriYenl
BY the same logic eventually Hto issue a.
similar invitation to Russia. 1t will then
consider what it can do infallibly to
check the landslide of economic and social
disintegration which is threatening Euro
pean civilization It's deliberations can
reach only one conclusion. The European
nations must agree to disarm or perish.
They must finally substitute a new settle
ment for that of Versailles, because the
present legal basis of political order in
Europe derives it's authority exclusively
from ornaments and the threat of war,
and because as long as it endures, thor
oughgoing disarmament IS inconceivable.
EThe calling of Germany and Russia into
conference is a necessary means of OBJ
tanning their. consent and assistance in
substituting new settlement ssse3d5tl ne for that
of Versailles. = III q sofffo sh3o7os, E4a, y -
A satisfactory or!t even a Semi i-satis:
factory revision Of 7theotTreaty is isg1a task
of colossal. difficulty f may be, simpos-
[sible, as long as the, temp peroand' the power
of the French nation remains anything
like what it is. France will probably
pursue, at Least for a while, the perilous
and arrogant path Of national egotism and
try to block the work of creating q con
cert of Europe based upon certain general
principles of national development and
international comfy. But we do not
believe France will either desire or be: able
indefinitely to obstruct the work of re-
covery. The French are ,stoutly and an
grily rowing the boat of. French policy
against the rising tide of world feeling,
opinion and need, and in the end the tide
will rise too high and run too strong.
1t will swing them back. It has risen
steadily since the Senate Of the United
States discredited the Treaty of Yer
sailles by refusing to ratify it. When
at that time the New Republic
first suggested the calling Of a new con-
ference in order to- revise the Treaty and
LAY solid foundation for. international
.cooperation, the suggestion was charac-
|terized by well-informed men like Mr..
Hoover as preposterous. It appeared at
that time to be sufficiently remote and
dubious. But it was not preposterous.
For one truth about it was clear to any
one who was willing to face the facts.
Not only was conference the only possible
existing substitute for armaments and
war but the Treaty Of Versailles stood
in the way of calling the substitute into
real existence. The 'preposterous' sug-
gestion is now adopted in substance by
/ the American government. The United
States in cooperation with such govern
ments as Great Britain, Italy, Germany,
Austria, Hungary and others will try it
out. The first trial may well fail. But
they will try it again and again until they
obtain sufficient measure of success.
They must and they will.
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