The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-12-15
WE UNDERTAKE Al DUTY

There are some political writers who perceive behind the diplomatic agree ment for a reparations inquiry the pressure of business and commercial urgency. Diplomacy may check and counter during the process of an in- terminable game of international fenc- ing, and the longer the game the more there is in it for the diplomats. For the people they represent, however, the reverse is true. The longer an important settlement is delayed the more the public welfare suffers. The situation in Europe has now reached the stage where material sacrifices, not only in business and property, but in the very comfort and peace of mind of the people are daily becoming more pronounced. The diplomats have been fencing and nimbly stepping in and out, parrying, lunging. riposting, swerving and all that, just for the sake of the sport. But the world wei fare now demands that the nations proceed to decision, in order that the serious business of the world may re- sume it's service to the peoples of all lands.
 The influence which our nation all along might have been exercising was revealed in the recent aboutface of Premier Poincare, when it appeared that MT. Hughes would not fence with him, but would deal with him sincerely or entirely withdraw. This attitude, new in the European situation, so- bered M. Poincare, and he at once came back with a serious proposal which acceded in the main to the po- sition of Mir. Hughes. Now there will be an inquiry into German repara- tions; it will not be involved with con- alterations of interallied debts; and it will discover all the facts, and not the facts within the narrow limits prescribed in the original French counter-proposal. This is a triumph of sturdy statesmanship over diplo- matic fox-trotting.
 The economic condition in the United States is affected directly by the economic conditions prevailing in other countries. We are prosperous, to be sure, but our prosperity is all ready showing signs of being limited by the confusion and uncertainty of foreign trade. We are rapidly filling the void made in our own supplies by the war demand and within a twelve month must look abroad for more capacious outlet. Within that twelve month our diplomacy properly looks abroad to see what it can undertake along the line of bringing about a foreign economic betterment. The situation in Europe does not so much demand our money, as some declare, as our judgment in forwarding the work of reorganization. Europe could reorganize herself, if the nations were able to establish some mutual policy based on an agreement which is now denied them because of mutual jeal- ousies. It is in the role of mediator that the United States actually steps into the arena of European affairs.
 We assume no military responsi- bility, nor are we international police- men or bailiffs to enforce law and order abroad or to levy on the na- tions for their faithful observance of pledges. Rather does the fairness of our counsel command the confidence of the nations, and on their underlying eagerness to come back to normal must the world rely for the adoption and support of some wise policy of rehabilitation. Our own welfare de- mands that some solution of the Eu- ropean puzzle shall be forthcoming, and on that basis alone, if no other, are we justified in making the effort. Having set our hands to the task, we must not fail, but must exercise our best intelligence to bring it to success.