Evening star., 1923-07-29
BY G. GOULD LINCOLN.
N NINETEEN nations. great and
small. demonstrations are being

T n NINETEEN nations, great and
small. demonstrations are being
staged against future wars today
the ninth anniversary of the
outbreak of the world war. thou
sand cities in forty-four states of the
United States are taking part in the
demonstration-the National Capital
is one of them.
Every one-or nearly every one
it appears, desires peace. Few, if
any, will admit they believe war a
good thing-certainly as it is carried
on today. The great stumbling block.
however. is the means to be adopted
) to assure international peace. The
league of nations created by the
powers under the terms of the Yer
satlles treaty Is the panacea advanced
by some. An association of nations,
advocated by President Harding be-
fore his election. is the goal of Others
The world court, the outlawing of
war. total disarmament, a League of
free peoples" proposed by the farmer
labor party, an international par
lament" put forward by the socialist
party, are some of the measures pro-
Iposed to preserve peace.
Demonstrations Non-Partisan.
The demonstrations today in this
country-and abroad also-are nom
partisan in that they are seeking to
advance primarily the idea of world
peace. The National Council for Pre-
vention Of War has taken the initia-
tive In staging the demonstrations in
this country. Thirty-five national or
ganizations. representing a member
ship of over 100000 men and
women, are affiliated in the council.
The council has taken as it's slogan
for the demonstra tions "Law-Not
War"
Political leaders are insistent that
the coming national campaign in this
country will be fought out purely on
homestic lines-that the league Of
nations and the world court are not
to be issues, or. in any event, major
issues. They may be wise. however.
II they give heed to the demands of
the peace advocates and do not over
look International relations in their
platforms. The substitution of some
method of peaceful settlement of in
ternational disputes for war has been
the dream of many Americans since
the founding of the republican fact,
since the colonization of the North
American continent. 1t may be well
TO remember also that Woodrow Will
son was reelected President of the
United States in 1916 on the theory
that he kept us out of war" More
powerful than any other plea ad-
vanced by his adherents was this.
The National Council for Preven-
tion of War and its member organi-
cations have devised an efficiency
plan for advocating world peace
They have organized a movement ex-
tending from the individual to Con-
gress and the administration. The
lever they propose to use is public
opinion. They are using the local
peace committees. the libraries, the
ministers, the press. the teachers. the
children, labor organizations, farm
organizations women's organizations.
commercial, fraternal and church or
ganizations and state legislatures in
their drive upon Congress and the ad-
ministration.
Harding Has support.
There is no doubt but what Presi-
dent Harding will have much of this
support when he undertakes at the
next session of Congress to bring
about the adherence of the United
States to the world court. 1t is true
that advocates of the. world court be-
. lieve he weakened his position in his
recent utterances proposing to re-
vamp entirely the court as now con-
stituted. so as to prevent split in
the republican ranks-or so it ap-
peared But the effort in the Senate
for some kind of world court is to
be a great one, it is said. The out
standing feature of the Harding ad-
ministration has been it's success at
the Washington conference on limita-
tion of armaments and problems of
the Pacific. The final ratification of