Evening star., 1924-09-05

himself at Geneva, switzerland,
during the week when John w.
Davis speech of acceptance, with
its strong pro-League of Nations
Endorsement, elevated that issue
to paramountcy in the United
States presidential campaign. Mr..
Vile spent week at Geneva. OBJ
serving league wheels going
around and sounding sentiment
there as to Americas attitude to-
ward the organization. With
81 nations now owning allegi-
ance to the League of Nations, he
describes it as a fully functionipg
machine, anxious for the United
States to join, but no longer Sc
riously concerned as to whether
we do or not)
No investigation of what Europe is
saying about America would be COM
plete without finding out what is be-
ing said at Geneva, so this writer
spent an instructive week acquaint-
ing himself with views of the League
OF Nations. Let it be said at once
that the league bears every external
sign OF being one of the lustiest four
year-olds ever reared. With 81 mem
Der nations owning earnest allegi-
ance to its cause, the league is firmly
established. 1t claims record of
achievement that is both unique in
international annals and that out
runs the fondest expectations of its
supporters. 1t is convinced il has
emerged from the experimental stage
and has come to stay. 1t has not re-
formed a naughty world, or turned
It's swords into ploughshares, or abol-
lshed war. But the league has at
least diverted the worlds attention
away from war and toward peace to
degree never before attempted or
even held possible; has actually pre-
vented several threatened armed con-
ficts. and unquestionably is steadily
attuning the worlds mind TO the idea
OF settling disputes by arbitrament
instead of by battle.
Wants L. ). In.
1t goes without saying that the
League of Nations wants the United
states to join. 1t is extremely anN-
1ous for us to do so. 1t would well
come us with wide-open arms. ut is
conscious that until we come in" the
leagues very title will remain bit
of misnomer. 1t is observed at
Geneva, without any trace of malice
in the thought. that the whole world
has come in" except the United
States, Germany. Mexico, Turkey,
Russia and Ecuador. But eager as
the league is for our adhesion, one
gathers the distinct impression at
Geneva that the time has passed when
there will be any indecorous kow-
towing for the purpose of bringing
il about. Two or three years ago
it might have been possible for
US to dictate a sweeping revision OF
the covenant as the price of our ac-
cepting it. That would hardly be
possible today. The ardor to have
US in" is not a $ hot that. We can
come in" on our own conditions. with
all the reservations in the dictionary,
but we could not impose those con-
dtions on the tifty-odd nations that
are already in For during the
four and a half years of our absentee
ism, the League of Nations has be-
come a fully-functioning, going con-
Germ, far cut of its swaddling clothes
and well able TO walk erect. 1t might
navigate a little more briskly II the
United States were a member, but the |
point is, that the leagues gait is in |
no wise affected by the fact that we |
are total abstainer. That, in a nut
shell, is what is being said at Geneva
about America
Davis Stand Pleases.
Naturally, John w. Davis warm |
advocacy OF the league and the World |
Court evoked responsive echo in |
Geneva The writer was there at |
the time and experienced the warm |
glow generated by the Clarksburg |
speech of acceptance. Leaguers re- |
joiced that Davis had the courage to |
go further than the Democratic plat |
form, with its eyasive referendum !
proposal Geneva is confident that if |
there is to be Davis administration, |
American entry into the league Will |
be in sight, for, having elevated the |
issue into emiparamountcy in the
presidential campaign, ii is considered |
that Mr.. Davis in effect is asking for
a referendum. One is violating no |
secret when one records that Geneva's
prayers in November will be not for
Calvin Coolidge, who considers the
league "a closed incident" for the
United States, but for John w. Davis,
who avows that he has never wavered
in his opinion that we should enter
the league. There will be Bengal
lights along the Quay Woodrow Will
son, from which the dignitied palace
of the league looks out upon placid
Lake Geneva. if the 1des of November
are kind to John Davis.
Could Have Done More.
Although the league has prospered
without American membership, a
psychological conviction prevails that
it could have done even better if
our broad shoulder had been at the
wheel. When Poland and Russia
were at war in 1920, the League was
futile, many of its adharents think,
because the great, disinterested in
fiuence of the United States was alb
sent from the confused counsels of
Europe. The powers let the conflict
come on and rage because no unset
fish, powerful finger, such as Uncle
Sam could have raised, was upllfted
to bid the beligerents to hold the
dogs of combat in leash.
When Italy defied Europe and the
league on the Corfu incident in 1923,
Geneva feels that the presence of the
United States at the council and as !,
sembly would have had a nightly re-
straining influence on Mussolini. In
Germany, reactionary element has
been opposing the fatherland's entry
into the league on the ground that
the United States boycotts it. Who
can say, Geneva asks, how German
membership in the league since 1919
might not have changed the chaotic
fortunes of Europe? Those three
episodes the Russo Polish war. /
Corfu and Germany-are named as
the sorts of things regarding which
other history might have been writ
ten, If the United States were at
Geneva That is water over the dam
now. The league INDUCES in little
renorse on that score. Having ac-
complished as much as it has without
the United States. it simply and Sc
renely contemplates a greater future
on the basis Of its past
Feels Treatment Shabby.
As a proud and prosperous organi-
cation representing the overwhelming
bulk of civilized mankind, the league
hesitates to carp at America; yet un-
doubtedly it feels it has been the re-