The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-04-26
HARDING AND THE COURT

| President Harding will no doubt hay,
 difficulty in persuading the irrecon
 ciliables that our entry into the worlt
 court would not be step in the di rection of league membership. Tn,
 only thing that will convince politi
 clans of the wisdom of any course i
 evidence that it will further their owl political destinies. Perhaps in th
 long run the present disunited ele ments in the Republican party vii come together, perceiving that divided they will all lose. Argument and logi' will not do it.
 The presidents attitude is not in consistent with his previous senti ments, for world court has been ad vocated by the farsighted of all par ties without regard to parties. As the president says, such vital factor ir our foreign relations is not a party question, and party which for DO litical purposes goes back on its tenets needs to take stock of it's assets That is just what the Republicans have done and are doing, however, ir spite of.the valiant effort of the presi. dent to make them see wisdom. In this case, as on the question of our merchant marine, the president has shown courage and a determination unexpected in one accounted such a strict party man. MT. Harding finds it difficult to head party which is not party, as he himself says, but is split up into blocs which know no al- legiance except that of expediency. The party has not split on the ques- ton of the world court; that question has merely served again to emphasize the schisms that have for some time existed.
 If the president believes that mem bership in the court would not be an indirect advance towards league mem bership, the Democrats just as firmly believe that it is certainly not a fur ther withdrawal from league mem- bership. The court is the fruit of the league, and those who enjoy the fruit are in measure indebted to the tree, nor can they properly maintain that without the tree the fruit would have evolved anyhow. The court of The Hague was an artificial fruit which never ripened into it's projected ser vice to the world. It was only when the majority of the nations were fed erated together in a league to pro- mote peace and establish medium for the settlement of international contro- versy that there came to fruition and universal enjoyment world court having the confidence of the nations and the prestige necessary to insure respect for it's decrees.
 The president makes a good point when he replies to those critics of his own party who say that the court per sonnel is decided by the votes of Great Britain and her colonies. Says the president: "I do not hesitate to say that if the other great powers can ac- cept without fear the voting strength of the British dominions, when they are without ties of race to minimize international rivalries and suspicious, we ought, in view of the natural ties of English-speaking kinship, feel our selves free from danger" This is well said, and proper rebuke to those who would inject hostility and national jealousy into a discussion predicated on the integrity of the nations.
 The Democrats perceive a swing back to the ideals and principles of the Democratic party at the close of the great war, and they detect in the political situation a tendency to re- turn to the party which first made such ideals part and parcel of their platform and policy, with them to win or with them to go down to a tempo rary defeat. The next time there is reason to believe that it will not be defeat.