Evening star., 1925-11-01
WORLD COURT VICTORY
FORESEEN in THE SENATE
More Than Two-Thirds of Senators
Counted as Safely Favoring
Protocol of Adherence.

Senator Swanson, the ranking
Democratic member Of the foreign re-
| lations committee of the Senate. who
| Is to lead the fight for the World
| Court. is jubilant over the prospect.
1t falls to the lot of the minority party
to take the lead when the court is be-
fore the Senate in open executive ses-
sion because the four ranking Repub-
| licans ON the foreign relations COM
mittee-Borah, Johnson, Moses and
iWadsworth-are anti-court. The op-
position" said Senator Swanson to
this writer, lis conscious that the jig
is up. Some of its shining lights have
admitted as much to me during the
past few days.
They will register their hostility
! when the time comes, especially, I
suppose, Senator Borah, who only a
few days ago at Chicago voiced
afresh his antipathy to any court
not wholly divorced from the
League of Nations. I know of no
episode in cotemporary foreign re-
! lations that has enlisted so wide
! spread popular support in America
as the proposal that we should join
| the World Court. The churches are
| virtually a unit for it. Our great
! the Nations voting population-is
practically solid for ii. Current
events in Europe have immeasurably
strengthened the World Court cause
in the United States. The people
have not failed to note that the Lo-
carno peace pacts provide for even
tual settlement by the World Court
of differences between the contract
ing parties that are not adjudicated
by the arbitral bodies provided in the
pacts themselves. From my point Of
I Wis n 7 a
of Nations idea i, visibly vanishing
| in our country. l expect to live u
see the day when the United States
will be a member of. the League of
Nations, though there is not the
! slightest danger that adhesion to the
/ World Court. with the Coolidge
! Hughes reservations, which the Sen
ate will presently adopt, Will auto
matically put us In the league. That
is talk which our irreconcilables use
to frighten political children. 1t
never had any real foundation and
| it has none now"
Concede Sufficient Votes.
Well known opponents of the
| World Court. like Senator Borah.
! concede that President Coolidge un-
doubtedly has the votes to carry the
adhesion proposal by considerably
more than "a two-thirds majority.
They are certain he will have them
| if, as they put it, he applies the
| lash" to hesitant statesmen. Some
Of the latter, anti-court spokesmen
point out, face reelection campaigns
in 1926. They are not in position
to fight the World Court If Mr.. Cool
idge converts it into a major admin
istration measure. That he is about
to do so there Is every indication.
Despite the apparently safe mar
gin In favor of the court In the
Senate, its opponents contend there
is widespread and bitter hostility to
1t in the country. Influential news
papers, especially in the West, are
| named as unalterably opposed. Anti
courters point to the recent failure
of the American Legion and the
American Federation of Labor. at
their annual conventions, to indorse
the court. Both organizations ap-
proved American cooperation in in
ternational affairs and instructed
their executive councils to give that
subject continuous study. But each
of them refrained from giving Amer
lean entry into the World Court spe-
cific approval.
lConrrI1h, 1oo5l