Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-11-08

attitude toward the League OF Nations
caused a shiver of apprehension among
thoughtful people in many countries who
know that war in the Far East may mean
the continuance of misery in the West.
The problem of India looms ahead.
Gandhi'S demand for independence would,
If abruptly granted, lead to religious and
racial warfare which would be hideouS IN
tragedy beyond our present imagination,
although recent history not Is years old
has hardened US to horror.
Thirteen years after the armiStice there
is no spirit of peace in the world. The
miracle is that, apart from minor con-
flicts, these jealous nations have kept
their hands off each others Threats so
long.
That has been due to groups of men
and women in many countries who have
served the cause of peace with courage
and devotion that was proof against
despair, ridicule and hatred. Remember
ing those millions of dead boys, looking
back to those four and hah years of
ruin, slaughter and madness, they have
tried to carry out the pledges made to
huma nifty by it's leaders that never again
should such thing happen. They kept
the League of Nations alive, though many
times it was reported dead They stood
at the thin front line using weapons Of
Cancellation and compromise against the
upholders of militarism and sacred ego
iSm. Reaching out across their own
frontiers, getting in touch with men and
women with the same ideas, they formed
a spiritual force in the world which has
not been without its victories and which
still stands as the only hope Of humanity
in the struggle between intelligence and
cave man instinct. It was their spiritual
support which brought Germany into the
League Of Nations, which forced through
the Kellogg pact, which created the naval
truce and which stamped out many
smoldering fires that otherwise would
have blaZed into war.
Their success is by no means assured.
Intelligence is still limited to small
groups and lonely minds. The mass still
thrills to the beat of drum and the call
Of passion. The old slogans of national
hatred and egotiSm still have a power
enormously more appealing than the call
to international justice or human CO.
operation. To youth, careless of danger
and eager for service and sacrifice for ad-
ventures sake, the SenseleSS Dragging of
the loud-mouthed patriot sounds more
heroic than the quiet words of the philoS-
opher who advises them that in modern
warfare victory has no value and that
civilized nations must unite or perish.
In France and Germany, in England
and the United States, as in other coun-
tries, there are many minds who see
world problems in larger aspects than
mere selfish nationalism, but they are
outnumbered by the hordes of unthink-
ing souls who respond only to passion and
prejudice. That is world danger more
alarming now than in the old days be-
cause democracy, which is all powerful
in many nations, rules by quantity and
not by quality of brains.
THIRTEEN years after the first Armis-
tice day we must admit that we have
utterly failed to build secure system
OF civilization upon the ruins of the war.
There Is more poverty, more sharp-edged
anxiety more hopeleSsneSs among the
masses Of people in this thirteenth year
after the armiStice than in the years that
Immediately followed the war. So far
from getting better, economic conditions
OF life are getting worse.
They are so bad that it is no scare
mongering statement to say that civiliza-
ton Is menaced with economic collapse,
threatening starvation to great popula-
lions. The monetary system of the world