Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1925-12-20

continued from llSt rage
a national point of view. Yet there
has been a striking return to the old
attitude with respect TO the elements
which represent civilization. There
has been a renaissance of the old
admiration of the achievement in lines
which represent peculiar national ge-
MUS.
Barriers Collapse.
What | am trying to say, with evil
dent difficulty and vaguenesS, is that
in the year now ending there has been
a sudden and very far-going collapse
of those artificial and harmful bar
riers which the war and its conse
Quences erect between people, bar
riers which while ostensibly seeking
to exclude the dangerous things COM
ing from the enemy country, actually
excluded precisely those things which
alone make international relations
possible.
A very great. a strikingly, profound
appeasement has been taking place
relatively unseen and unnoted. The
psychology of war has at last broken
down and the stranger in recently
hostile country is no longer exposed TO
all the fatal consequence of fear and
again. If the entente between states
men of various countries is still little
adva need, although progress has been
made. that between scholars and the
artists, and quite much between the
workers. is we'll nigh restored.
The intensity of fears. hatreds. sus
picions has burned itself out TO an as
tonishing extent in the last l. months.
Almost every one. looking backward
Unexpectedly, must be conscious of
the modification within himself, so far
as his view and beliefs are concerned
In the matter of questions which have
absorbed so much of our attention in
the recent years.
If | might be permitted to cite
rather amusing illustration in the
French Foreign Legion now fighting
in Morocco. the minimum punishment
inflicted for the offenSe of calling
German a ''boche" is so days of what
our doughboyS would call kitchen
police. There is nothing sentimental
or romantic about this regulation. it
arises from the fact that Germans,
many Germans. serve in the legion
and existence would be impossible if
racial rivalries were permitted
State of Mind Most Vital.
There is a tendency in this country
to look at agreements like those made
at Locarno as constructions which
will clear the way for the making of
peace. But in this respect the Euro
pean sees much more clearly. He
recognizes that the documents of
Locarno are of little value construc-
lively, he understands that they. like
all treaties. derive their importance as
they disclose a current state of mind.
He appreciates that peace is now as
sured for long time to come. not be-
cause of what was done at Locarno.
but because Europe was i'll state of
mind that made Locarno possible.
In America we talk. about the
treaties of Locarno, in Europe they
talk about the spirit of Locarno" and
the distinction I am trying to indicate
is all in this difference of definition.
The European believes in peace now
and for long time to como because
he is aware within himself and about
him of the complete change in the
spirit, in the atmosphere. He has
come to appreciate the fact, if he is a
Frenchman. that his German neighbor
desires peace and vice versa. What is
now taking place is a great and
perhaps a futile effort to insure that
the fact of peace shall survive even if
the spirit in which it has now been
1llduc SLdu presently Dc SiidIl5cu
Action Is Changed.
Unconsciously all international &C
ton has changed from a desperate
effort to prevent Immediate. recur-
renee of conflict to the discovery of
some method of preserving a state of
peace now universally recognized to
exist. And along with this has come
the growing absorption of all peoples
in their own parochial difficulties and
problems. This too is indicative of the
degree to which apprehension of
eternal menace has passed away.
The reason i believe that 1925
marks the end of one era and the
beginning of a new, a point where
history changes cars, II you please, a
break as complete as that which came