Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-08-12
The Grandfather Complex. '

The Grandfather Complex"
Going the rounds Of the WASHINGTON
diplomatic circle Mt the moment is the
story Of 'the grandfather complex. e
1t concerns a report, the accuracy Of
which cannot be Judged that the
! Spearhead Of tho threatened Senate at
tack on the Keilogg anti-war treaties is
kinsman of tho late Senator Henry
Cabot Lodge. To that brilliant scion of
a statesman dynasty the story attributes
a resolve to kill a project to which. nc
is convinced. his distinguished ancestor
would have sworn undying enmity.
AS the date Of the signing of the
fifteen-power multilateral treaty at
Paris approaches. indications multiply
that there is to be an organized effort
| to Illustrate its ratification by the
United States Senate. The effort Savors
J Of infection with the grandfather COM
/ pick" II springs from the belief that,
! far from guaranteeing that America
will not be embroiled in another World
War, the kellogg treaties do in fact
/ bring us contractually nearer an obi
I cation 10 wage war--not SO much in our
own behalf as in behalf OF co-signato-
ries who some day may take the battle
field
A warning note to that end has Just
been struck by Frank H Simonds, we'll
y, Fry,,,,rS +r,- ~, x-,.~o,>nc,.
fairs, He bases his frankly lugubrious
forecast on the opinion of certain Old
World commentators. These assert, ac-
! cordine to MIR Simonds that the war
| outlawry project in effect pIunges the
United States back into that vortex Of
/ European Vaccinations and complica-
tons from which the wisdom of the
Senate in 1919 extricated us when it
( refused to ratify the League covenant
and the treaty of Versailles
In light Of Europes Interpretation.
MFR, Simonds admoniShes this country
/ that we shall unfailingly call down
Europe's maledictions upon our head,
should the time ever come when our
own, and not the European. "interpre-
tation" of the Kellogg treaties is i'm
sisted on
The attitude of the Coolidge admin
istration-and. be it observed in pass
ing, that of Senator Borah chairman Of
the Senate foreign relations committee
is that the multilaterai pact calls for
no more and no less than its language
specifically sets forth. no matter what
kind Of European Interpretation" is
placed upon it. The pact pledges each
signatory government TO renounce war
as an instrument Of national policy
as far as any aggressive national policy
is concerned. II leaves each signatory
government free to wage war In self de
Tense without violating either the letter
or the spirit of the pact. 1t does not obli-
gate any signatory government, by COW
enant or by implication, to fire shot
in behalf of any other signatory who
| goes to war III self-defense. II any
European or Aslatic government reads
any OtheF implication, obligation or in
depreciation into the treaty, that is its
business, not ours. and the rude awak-
ening. II any. will come in the CORE
spending quarter
For ten months following a certain
immortal affirmation by an American
statesman that he did mot choose to
run for President in 1928" his COM
patriots speculated passionateiy about
the true inwardness of that renunci-
alton. Many were stubbornly per-
suaded IL did not mean what ii said.
They lived to witness the ineptitude Of
their conclusion. In the Kellogg treaty
the United States says that 1t docs not
choose to wage aggressive war-~aggres-
sive war, Of course, either for itself or
for any one else. The opinion may
be ventured that Americans who are
succumbing 10 the grandfather COM
plex' win survive to see the holowness
OF their fears about the epochal choice
Uncle Sam now asks the world to make
IN the field It international relations.