Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-06-19

Continued From First PageO
tiation must concern. from the very be-
ginning, all interested naval powers and
should have not a partial but world
sanction. While, in the course OF the
discussion, may refer to the principle
Of equality Of naval power as between
Great Britain and the United States
only because the outcome OF previous
conferences shows that this is the
agreed policy of both governments.
MY theme is, what measure of pro-
cedure had best be adopted to trans
late a policy of naval reduction into
fixed agreement between the nations
q step so important to the peace Of the
world and the happiness hereafter Of
mankind.
Edmund Burke in his Observations
On Late Publication on the Present
State of the Nation once made pro-
found remark about politics which he
could have made with equal truth OF
Law. of government systems, and OF
dealings with international relations OF
all kinds, including methods of nego-
tiAtion for reparations settlements or
reduction in naval armament.
Politics said he, ought to be adj
iusted not to human reasonings, but to
human nature, of which the reason is
but part, and by no means the great
est part
Method Adjusted to Reasoning.
''The long time which elapsed after
the ending OF the great war before a
proper method of negotiation for
reparations settlements was evolved was
because the first method was adjusted
to human reasoning and not to human
nature. That method was to have rec
commended settlement prepared by the
continuing and concurrent work of eco
nomic experts and statesmen combined.
"Since the reparations settlement in
Volved, in each one of the nations IN
terested, both an economic and politi-
cal problem, 1t was reasonable to sup
pose that 1t would be best determined
by the Joint effort of statesmen and
economists working together.
This futile effort continued so long
before its abandonment that all Eu-
rope was brought to the brink OF eco
nomic and political chaos. And then
only. in the latter part of 1925, did
the Reparations Commission as an ex-
pertinent decide upon the separate for
nation OF the first committee OF ex-
perts.
Viewed as Almost Hopeless.
"This expedient, viewed at that time
as almost hopeless by most economists
and entirely so by all politicians-then1
DESIGNATED by one great member OF
the Preparations Commission as the
prescription of a pill for an earth
quake-proved successful.
1.-The formation of that committee
was not q triumph of intellect--it was
a triumph. of despair. 1t was adopted
because nothing else had worked Its
success was due to its unconscious but
proper adjustment to the law OF human
nature.
what happened thereafter demon-
strated that by accident the world had
discovered that the proper method OF
settling an international problem, in
volving a separate economic and politi-
cal problem in each country, was to
use Independent experts whose sugges-
lions involved their Interpretation OF
the correct and fundamental economic
principles involved in the situation.
Their formtila then TO be handed over
to statesmen who, reinforced by the
general public confidence in the i'm
partially of expert opinion, could better
bring the respective public sentiments
into acceptance Of the necessary word
ing OF the compromise between polit-
ical expediency and economic prin-
ciplcs.
In committees formerly composed of
collaborating statesmen and economists,
Ghe economists had always stood rigidly
for conclusions endangering the states
men and the acceptance of the plan,
and the statesmen for conclusions
which would stultify the economists and
endanger the success Of the plan.
Under such circumstances the ar
rival of constructive compromise was
well nigh impossible. The method was
not adjusted to the law of human
nature.
Problems Are Different.
Economic and technical problems
are one ng-governmental and po-
litical problems are another.
THE rigid attitude and determined
expressions of international economic
and technical specialists. as to the in
volatility and sacredness Of technical
principle, is perhaps praiseworthy, but
We must remember that these express
sions are always incident to a doubtful
embodiment of them in a personal in
depreciation of their applicability to
international political situations, OF
which experts are not always
competent diagnosticians
"One who is inclined to believe that
economists and technicians, claiming to
be guided In their intellectual voyages
by the stars and compaSSes and high
lighthouses of fixed principles, never
compromise, as do the alleged unworthy
pOlLlClanS, Is lacking IN experience Ah
international negotiations.
For six years after the war the I'M
happy reparations commission, besides
its other nisfortuneS, was surrounded
by an army of economic experts repre-
senting different nations interested in
the problem. These experts delivered
innumerable written ultimatums as to
the correct economic principles which
linderlay their divergent recommends
tons, which filled vast untouched lie
braries and moulded in their unrufned
dust.
Overwhelming DiSagreements.
1.-THE disagreements of these experts
with each other swearing devotion to
infallible principles, were as complete
and overwhelming as those which char
acterized the deliberations Of supposed
" less worthy entirely confused, but
fully as determined politicians and
statesmen.
1T remember during the last two
weeks of elaboration on the part of
the first committee of experts appointed
by the reparationS commission that, as
the inside expert committee was labor
ing with the formulation of It's con-
illusions, almost all of them more or
less the result of a compromise, they
faced q snowstorm of protesting papers
filled with voluminous but disagreeing
advice of outside experts removed from
the field of negotiations.
What ! have said has a most direct
hearing Inn1 the nlIeStion of the method