Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-07-14
Wanted, a Definite Policy


I'VE seem to be standing without policy,
without a courage of ce&yiction, without any
thing that goes to make q man a man or a
government government" Seeing the prob
iem clearly and as a whole, he urges the
adoption of definite policy looking to the
ultimate peace of the world and to rehabili-
tation"
These are essentially the views with which
all Americans who survey Europe at first
hand and without binding prejudces, re-
turn. Some may consider the perils of the
time less acute than does senator Under
wood, others more so; some may think that
one way leads out of the morass, while others
are for an entirely different course. But
there is virtual unity of opinion that the
United States, as a matter both of self-inter-
in disentangling the present and in safe
guarding the future of our common civiliza-
ton.
The readiest and simplest means to that
end lies in the League of Nations. 1t is the
only eistixng fundamentally through which
the friends of a just, stable, and fruitful
world order can cooperate: 1t is not as eff
fectiYe as it's founders hoped it would be, and
certainly not as powerful as it's opponents
feared. But it has done much good and has
disarmed many misapprehensions. Writing
in the New Republic, which has been as crit
ical of the League as any fair minded and
informed observer well could be, Walter
Lippmann says: considering the peril now
threatened by the conflict between French
and anti-French alliance it seems to me
more than ever important to throw what in
fluence we possess to organization which
in principle and in all sincerity does look in
smother direction. And this organization is,
after all, a remarkable event in the history
of mankind. Even after we have written off
all false hopes and admitted the Leagues
mistakes and emphasized its present impo-
tence, one fact remains: Fifty sovereign ma
tiOns have actually organized somehow for
peace. They created machinery of consul
tation and Cancellation. They have estab-
lished the first permanent machinery for the
impartial investigation of disputes They
though they have agreed to do some things
they do not mean, have done things they
nrOmiSQd tn nd of
thing undone we may wish they had DONE
this fact of union turns the scales in favor
OF the League decisively. That there is
union in the world seems ever so much more
important than the pros and cons of how
that union in the first few years of its ex-
istence has behaved"
Those who refuse to cooperate with the
only organized forces for unity, peace and
progress in international affairs, will have
themselves to blame if the trend toward re-
action, and chaos continues unchecked
and results in ruin. President Harding has
seen fit to describe the issue of the LeagueI of
Nations in this country as being "as dead as
slavery" That is his Interpretation of the
election of 1920; and if world history had
ended there or if American interests from
that time forth could have been bounded en-
tirely by our continental borders, then his po-
sition might be tenable. But unless we are
to say that the need for international CO.
working and the hope of international peace
are ''as dead as slavery" and that the United
with that need and that hope, then President
Harding is deplorably visonless on this is
sue. -.
Let us qualify. 1t is not so much the
President himself as the dominant politicians
Of his party who are visionless. His years at
the helm have shown him Gas they would
show anyone, sobered and enlightened by
vast responsibility that America must CO.
operate for peace in the earth, or find her
self paying the penalty of a bankrupt and
shattered civilization. Hence his proposal
that this country join the World Court-a,
short step, it Is true, but in the right difec-
ton. Six months ago he was urging this
with eloquent earnestness; and there were
high-beating hopes that, at last our govern
ment would move with the courage of a firm
foreign policy. But, alas and alack! the IT.
reconc1la bles have turned the Presidents
rofro 10