, 1923-09-17
Belittling Moral Efforts

There is a vast amount of propaganda being
distributed throughout the country reiatlNe u
the action of the United states IN conhecSrpn
with the suppression of the opium trafflc. Inc
limited States has a commission in Geneva at
present to attempt to induce the League OF Ma
tions to do as much in the suppression OF thls
traffic as the United States has already done.
whether or not the American delegation will be
successful is at this moment a debatable ques-
tion.
Most of the propaganda being distributed in
this country upon this subject is for the purpose
of discrediting the efforts of the delegation from
the United States. Some of it is paid for by
League of Nations partisans in an effort to
make it appear that the League of Nations is
doing all that could be done and that the United
States is not assisting much.
Some of it may be paid for by those who arc
DESTROYS OF having the efforts to curb the drug
traffic come to naught. This would happen if
the League of Nations did not adopt the resolu-
lions and the program insisted upon by the
representatives of this government. In that
event, upium and cocain would still be produced
in unlimited quantities and the traffic in them
would increase.
Some idea of the fight which Is carried on by
the American delegates may be obtained from a
cable printed in one of the New York papers
from which the following is quoted:
Mrs. Hamilton Wright, chief champion of
the American resolutions, who was recently re-
appointed assessor to the Opium Commission,
issued a warning to Americans this morning
that the league council would never accept the
American resolutions without n stiff fight. Con-
trary to popular opinion, Mrs. Wright says,
the council took no action on the committees
report other than to make flattering remarks
about American participation and passed the
full responsibility to the assembly.
Americans must be satisfied with nothing
less than acceptance of the American resolutions
N their widest possible sense, and the calling
Of a conference to put the principles into prac-
IDEAL effect, Mrs. Wright says. If the assembly
treats the American resolutions in the same
manner as it did the Koo resolutions, which
we're identical in spirit, the fight will be lost"
Because a number of nations belonging to the
League Of Nations are making tremendous
profits out of furnishing opium and cocain to
the world, there is a quiet but determined fight
upon their part to prevent any league action
looking to the limitation of the production of
these drugs.
Because it is impossible to suppress the snug
Cling of opium and c%ocain, the United States
long since decided the only way to rid the world
of this menace was to limit the production of
the plants from which opium and cocain were
made TO that quantity that would provide merely
sufficient opium and cocain to supply the legiti-
mate medicinal and scientific requirements of
the world. Such a quantity would be but a very
small fraction OF the quantity now produced.
1t remains to be seen whether the drug traf.
fickers can control the situation. The fact that
propaganda is being widely circulated in tho
United States TO belittle the effort of the Amer.
lean commission indicates they are making n
terrific fight TO do so.