Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-10-13
WAY FOR PEACE is PAVED
BY MCDONALD AND HOOVER
Work for international Agreement
Which Will Affect World for
Several Generations.

| the less important. Profound changes
| in the old order have been brought about
without great dislocation in the life of
| the people. Mr.. Macdonald believes in
evolution rather than swift and de-
structive revolution. His Socialism is
hardly the kind. to cause alarm in any
| democracy. His Socialist cabinet col
league, Philip Snowden, is considered
| in the city as one of the ablest chan
cellors of the eXcheQuer Britain has had
| in many years.
When the second Macdonald govern
ment was formed it had the choice OF
tackling domestic or foreign problems.
1t lost no time in choosing the foreign
field as the more profitable to cultivate
at the outset. The Baldwin government
had been able to accomplish so little in
the last few years that Labor was al
most bound to make a better record.
At the same time Labor was able to
avoid such controversial questions as the
naturalization of the coal mines and
the remedies for unemployment. Nat
urally Premier Macdonald and his col
leagues have been anxious to make a
record which would entitle them to even
greater support in the next general cleo
tion--to a support large enough to give
Labor a clear parliamentary majority.
Mr.. Macdonald is an internationalist.
He is happieSt when engaged on inter-
national problems. He is an admirer Of
the United States. He can see no rea-
son why there should be any funda-
mental differences of opinion between
his country and America. The failure
of the last Geneva naval conference
opened the way for him. His confer
ences with Ambassador Dawes. the ex-
changes between Premier Macdonald
and President Hoover have paved the
way for an international agreement
which must be set down as one Of the
most outstanding developments since
the war-perhaps so far-reaching as to
affect world relations for several genera
tons He has been no less Skillful in
handling public opinion at home, espe-
cially at time when the British people
have chafed under the heavy burden off
their debt to this country.
Premier Is Tenacious Fighter.
If Premier Macdonald is a pacifist
he is also a tenacious fighter. We
fought to satisfy us Oh this point, prob
ably because he considered it would be
an exceedingly wise compromise for
Great Britain to make. His country
is in no position to carry through the
naval program which must be followed
If no concessions are made at the forth
coming conference. America has no
desire to enter into competitive build
ing, but the fact remains it could stand
the gaff longer than any other nation.
Mr.. Macdonald would like to cut naval
appropriations and use the money in
more productive ways. And in this
policy he is assured of the support Of
British Liberals and a large number Of
Conservatives.
There is another phase Of the same
question. A real internationalist, he
does not believe that powerful navies |
and armies are the best guarantees Of
peace. On the contrary. he holds that
peace Is best assured by limiting the
weapons of war and establishing an un-
derstanding between or among peoples.
He believes in taking the people into
confidence by creating in their minds
the responsibility that carry under a
democratic form of government, by
making them understand that states
men are their servants. He has brought
out these facts in many of his speeches,
and his countrymen have long since
learned that he believes in them inn
plicitly.
Labor Scores in First Play.
Chancellor Snowden and Foreign Sec
rotary Henderson returned from the
Hague conference to win the plaudits
of the people. Mr.. Snowden proved
that he was stubborn fighter-and the
British love fighter. Mr. Macdonalds
two bowers were forced to make slight
concessions, but they won their main
point in financial conference where
great issues were at stake. The Labor
government did we'll in its first big play
In the foreign field. Now comes the
prime minister himself to exchange
views with the President of the United
States. They knew each other IN Lon
don. In the days when they met there
at informal gatherings neither could
have had an idea that in IA years they
would be attempting to negotiate an
agreement which would affect the sea
power OF the nations of the world.
The great war leaders are gone
Wilson, Asquith, Haig. Miner, Bonar
Law. Fourteen years ago Hoover was
feeding the civilians of Belgium and
Northern France, humanitarian serv-
ice in the midst of the ravages of war.
Fourteen years ago. Macdonald was
suffering what must have seemed to
him almost persecution. The American
was salvaging war victims; the Briton
was preaching the evils and the idiocy
OF war. The tall. gray-haired Scots
man and the broad-Shouldered Ameri-
can must subscribe to the statement
lord Miner made in his last DAYS:
The great thought of the immediate
future is the shrinkage of the world"
Because Of the interdependence of peo-
pies and nations, such conferences are
not only possible but essential to
civilization.