Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-05
BY RAYMOND B. FOSDICK
Former Undersecretary General Of the
League of Nations.

TEN years ago when the issue of
the League of Nations was under
fierce debate in this country,
i the argument was largely one Of
representation. The League
would become this or that, or such
would involve such and such a devol-
opment. The prophesies were hopeful
or gloomy, dependent upon the likes
or dislikes Of the prophets. There was
no way to measure the experiment in
advance. Those who felt adventurous
we're willing to take a chance, while
others were disinclined to run the risks
involved.
Now, after 10 years of operation, it is
possible to appraise the result with some
degree of detachment, and certainly with
more exact instruments than were avail
able a decade ago, when with the war
hatreds still blazing the enterprise was
launched.
To begin with, the great fear of 10
years ago that the League would become
"supergovernment," robbing the ma
tons Of their sovereignty and initiative,
has not been realized. This fear, we
now see, was based upon the conception
of the League as an instrument more or
less divorced from the governments COM
prising it. On the contrary, the League
has accurately reflected the public or
official opinion and desire of the nations
in the Council and in the Assembly.
Sometimes this opinion has been liberal;
sometimes 1t has been reactionary. Oft
en- it has been effective in correcting
some abuse or in promoting some COM
mon purpose; occasionally it has been
impotent and even Spineless In CRAP
ping with an international difficulty.
Agency of Its Members.
The Council was magnificent in set
Ting the Greco-Bulgarian quarrel In
1925 and the Albanian ugoslav out
break in 1921. It was feeble in its han
ding of the Polish-Lithuanian dispute
in 1920, and none too courageous in its
attack on the Italian Greek difflculty
arising out of the occupation of Corfu.
In every case. however, the League has
been merely the agency of its constituent
members. It has been horse that could
be driven in any direction. Whether it
went forward or back depended upon its
drivers wishes, which had to be reduced
to the common denominator Of a unani-
nous vote. The DOGGY of war horse
out OF control, breathing FIRE from its
nostrils, and trampling on the independ-
ence of minority states, has not ma
terialized.
In the second place, the question of
sanctions which bothered us so much
10 years ago-the Leagues teeth
showing behind the phraseology of Ar
ticles XII to XV-has ceased, in the
practical working out of the expert
ment, to have the overshadoWing i'm
portance that was originally given to
it. The teeth are still there and pre-
sumably they could bite. indeed, the
mere threat to use them availed to ar
rest Jugoslav incursions into Albania
in 1921. But the emphasis had, I'M
consciously perhaps, shifted to another
kind Of sanction.
It is not by economic boycottS and
armed intervention that war has been
averted during the last 10 years. It is
by the slow development of an interna-
tional public opinion. It is by focusing
the attention Of half a hundred ma
lions upon special dangers that
threaten peace. 1t is by periodically
bringing together around q table the
representatives of both hemispheres-
blacks and whites, yellows and
browns-in an atmosphere in which
frank discussion Is natural and griev-
ances can be ventilated It is by the
development Of a forum where ma
lions not only may explain, but where
| they must explain, where q small ma
ton can call a great nation onto the
carpet. II ths League had existed in