Evening star., 1923-04-29

sbrinks from. You cannot at all
times and under all conditions say
that 1.-The world is being. overdoc-
tored" and let it go at that There
are times and conditions when the
world needs doctors who use strong
medicines, and deep cutting surgeons.
The presence of some such bold doc-
tor in 1914 might have prevented the
war 1t was audacious and much
needed surgery on the part of Wilson
that took America into the war, and
to that extent. worked cure earlier
than otherwise would have come
Now, the present may or may not
be the sort of time and condition that
calls for strong medicine and cour-
ageous surgery. But the fact is that,
for good or for i'll, two of the points
of highest leverage in the world are
now occupied by men who are gong
on the theory that the world has been
overdoctored; that what is needed for
healing is time and the curative
effects of letting things take their
course to their natural ends. One OF
these men is Harding; the other is
Bonar Law. 1t has been the pollcy OF
both of them, once the French deter
mined on their Ruhr action, to let
events take their course; to refrain
from talking or advising. The Ruhr
action, once it had been taken. be-
came a contest of moral and economic
endurance between France and Ger
many; SO, whatever is the outcome OF
that tug of war of morale. the Ruhr
situation must go on without inter-
ference from outside.
1t is apparent that the American
government will never take any
initiative toward ending the situation
in the Ruhr. Not only will America
not take any initiative on Its own
mart; it will not yield to any solicit
tation to intervene which comes from
only one of the parties involved in the
controversy. The present tension be-
tween France and Germany is a new
phase of that series of events which
started with the opening of the war
1t is a phase in which two nations
have tense relations with each other.
For an outsider to take any steps
upon the solicitation of one of the
contestants would be to bring us the
i'll will of the other for a generation
to come. When the northern and
southern parts of the United states
were in the tenseness OF civil war
Great Britain yielded to the tempta-
preted by the north as favorable to
the south. That action on the part
of Great Britain led to a hostility
against her from the American pubiic
that lasted for nearly generation.
The lesson of this is too fresh In the
American mind to permit us to make
the same mistake in relation to the
present tenseness between France and
Germany or between France and
Great Britain The situation between
these two nations must work out to
its natural end. America will not
intervene except upon an invitation
in which both parties Join or as part
Of some broader settlement of world
affairs.
As regards Great Britain's relation
TO the Ruhr situation and her rela-
tion to France 1t is a fact that this
situation, by virtue of the policy of
the new prime minister. Bonar Law,
is working out wholesomely. When
France made it's final determination
to go into the Ruhr the British gov
ernment stepped aside, and ever since
has refrained from rendering advice
and from any other sort of action.
AS a result, the hostility between
Great Britain and France, which ever
since the war has been one of the
worlds sorest spots, is now subsiding
toward calmness and cure. Bonar
Law is of the Harding temperament