The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-12-05
A Dis-Service to History and to Peace

We have nothing personal against Frank B. KEEL
Iogg. Nor do We wish to diminish his satisfaction
with having received the Nobel peace prize. But we
can not refrain from declaring our belief that the
award is distinct ds-service to the cause Of peace
as well as to clear historical understanding Of facts
1t gives wrong impression of the facts as to the
authorship of the whole idea embodied in the Kellogg
pact The real father of the outawry proposal in its
modern form was distinguished Chicago lawyer
Salmon Oliver Levnson who set forth his plan in the
New Republic of March 9, 1913
BRAND was the first sponsor Of the present pact
He apparently wished it to be an agreement between
France and the United States which would jockey
us into position where could interfere with
French policy in the dictatorship of Europe.
The credit for Transforming the BRAND proposal
into multilateral pact to renounce war must be
assigned to Leynson, Senator Borah John Dewey
Professor James T. Shotweu and Nicholas Murray
Butler
That Kellogg was amiable and friendly to the
project can not be denied but that he deserves any
thing more than formal credit can not be asserted
truthfully If anybody deserves the Nobel prize in
connection with the Kellogg pact it most certainly is
Levinson.
But the main point is that as yet the Kellogg pact
should not be honored or dgnifed by the Nobel award
The motives Of Levinson Borah and Kellogg certainly
were most immaculate and praiseworthy. But the
Kellogg pact as finally signed was than the
empty shell of what originally had been in their
minds.
The reservations insisted upon by France and
Britain have made the Kellogg pact Of today hollow
sham and an especially glazing bit of international
hypocrisy.
The public never sees these reservations but they
nulfy the treaty. They except from its remuneration
program: % Wars of self-defense; 90 wars in
Ct4oJ
canal and India; 90 wars in fulhllment of certain
previous treaty obligations
We submit that diplomacy will have to sink far
beneath its present level of adroitness before any
diplomat will be unable to justify any war waged by
his country on one of the three above grounds.
They would cover the official of every state
which made war in 1914. So ever likely to
arise in practice really is renowned by the Kellogg
pact
Even worse, as Professor E. NJ. Borchard of Yale
has so clearly explained the Kellogg pact, by its
reservations implicitly puts the moral sanction of the
world behind the wars it excerpts from the text Of
the treaty.
Thus the signatory powers by implication glority
and dignity all wars which any nation ever is likely
to wage The pact therefore turns out to be inter-
national approval Of war exactly the opposite of its
ostensible purpose.
Therefore to award Kellogg the Nobel prize is only
to continue a very dangerous procedure OF further
Kidding" the people into false sense of security.
The League of Nations is worried about the opium
trade of the east We submit that the psychological
opium in the false public notion of the real nature of
the Kellogg pact is far more of menace to the peace
Of the world than all the actual opium smoked.
Let The real friend of peace expose the hypocrtical
reservations to the Kellogg pact Let him who secures
their elimination divide a Nobel peace award with
Levinson Then both history and peace will be
honored rightly and rewarded deservedly.