The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1931-02-18
RUIN FACED BY
WORLD IF WAR
FLAMES AGAIN
Cost to America Placed at
81 Billions by Head
of Treasury.
U. S. HOLDS PEACE KEY
Europe Turns Across Ocean
to Look for Salvation
From Disaster.
U. S. HOLDS PEACE KEY
Ely WILLIAM PHILIP SIMMS
Scripps-Howard Foreign Editor


hon dollars would have bought the
whole United States, with everybody
and everything in it, lock, stock and
barrel.
Today hfty-one billion dollars
would buy sixteen states Like Ala
nanla, or three enormously rich
CALIFORNIA;, with a couple of Colo
radoS thrown in for good measure.
IL would buy the entire state of
New York-including the metrop-
OILS, wonder city Of the world-and
tneTe still would be left over enough
change to acquire four states like
Maryland.
Ransom Of Empire Wasted
If you had started throwing wav
uoilars the day Christ was born,
ana had kept it up ever since at the
rate OF a dollar a minute, without
pausing either to eat or to sleep.
you now would be starting only on
your second billion. with $4,000
years to go.
At per cent, ffty-one billion dol
lars would provide an annual in
come of $3.50 900 900, or enough to
pension 2,l25,000 old and broken
down workers at 500 a month, vir-
tually abolishing poverty in this
country.
That is what the World war has
cost you to date. and the end is not
yet. Former President Coolidge
estimates the total cost will be
more like 100 billion dollars. or
about the present value of all the
states west of the Mississippi. The
ransom Of an empire burned up in
battle.
And now, observers are warn
ing, another world war is Just
around the corner-a war which,
unless it is headed off, will make
the last lcok like piker, in money
cost, in life and property destruc-
ton and in social and business de-
n1oralization.
World In Tug of War
Two powerful forces admittedly
are at work in the world. One is
driving the nations for all they are
worth in the direction of war. The
other is pulling in the direction of
peace and cooperation. Literally
speaking, tug of war is on.
Lined up on one side are clashing
political systems, international
fears, suspicious, ambitions, eco !
nonlic disturbances, unemployment, |
trade rivalries, armament races, high
taxes, and other factors.
On the other are the various world
peace agencies, notably the Kellogg
pact, outlawing war, and the world
court, without which the rest are
practically worthless.
OF the two, the war forces today
seem the stronger. The peace side
is slipping. The Kellogg pact needs
strengthening and the world court
is crippled seriously by the absence
of the powerful United States. With
out America, the peace team is so
per cent handicapped and can not
pull its weight, in the epochal tug
of war.
u. s. Still on Sidelines
Every president since Mckinley
Roosevelt, Taft, Wilson, Harding,
Coolidge and Hoover-haS urged
such court as indispensable, if law
is to take the place of high eXplo-
sives and poison gas.
Nationwide surveys time and
again have indicated an overwhelm-
ing sentiment in favor of member
ship. And the United States senate
wears ago, by vote of four to one,
uneouivocally put itself on record
in the same sense.
Yet America still is on the side
lines, out of the game while a show
down in the contest between the
forces Of peace and war draws
nearer and nearer.
The crisis may come even more
quickly than people generally think.
On Feb. 2, just a year hence, will
begin what many believe will be one
of the most Hateful events in human
history.
At that time between fifty and
sixty nations, including the United
States, will meet, probably at
Geneva, in a supreme effort to limit
arms, and the decisions then reached
are more than apt to affect the flu
ture course of all mankind.
Up to America
Now comes what is perhaps the
most disturbing fact of all. The at
titude of the United States, Euro
pean statesmen are inSistently urg-
ing, more than any other single fac
tor, will determine which way the
conference goes.
Bluntly voicing the thought of
many, Gustave Herve, famous
French editor, fatty asserts that
world peace is wholly in the hands
of America"
Unless international security is
given a firIner foundation, Viscount
Cecil OF Great Britain warns, the
nations of Europe are not going to
disarm. On the contrary, they will
co right on building their fighting
machines until the explosion comes.
To the frightened, burnt children
of the old world. the kellogg pact
is not quite enough. They want to
know what would happen when the
test comes.
Key in u. 5. Hands
To inspire the necessary conf
dence, they insist, it must have the
backing of a world court made
strong by the presence of America,
and be in fact, as we'll as in theory,
reasonably able to curb or limit war.
The key to world security, arms
limitation and a new and better
order OF unbroken prosperity, there
fore. rests in the hands OF the
United States, and the first step in
that direction, by almost common
consent, is to enter the world court
promptly.
Delay may be fatal. The danger
is growing. Fhe already depressed
world is at a crossroads. If it is
not 70 be overtaker by economic