The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1933-07-03
Unwarranted Complaints
New York TinneS)

summoned the press correspondents
and reproached them for giving mis-
leading reports OF the Economic Con-
ference. Secretary Hull on Saturday
took up the tale more indirectly and
gently. He intimated that mistake
had been made in picturing the
American delegation as divided, and
in representing the whole program of
the Conference as made up of pro-
posalS warning with each other. Mr..
Hull wants his fellow-countrymen to
understand that there is, in fact, a
united front" both on the part Of the
American delegates and generally
among the representatives of other
Yet the facts are of public
record. They do not depend upon
the say-so Of any particular news
paper man. Mr.. Macdonald himself,
in his hortatory address to the cor
was forced to admit that
there had been a setback" In the
plans for the Conference, and
that the order of business had been
radically changed. His rebuke was
really for telegraphing not much more
than what he thus confessed to be
the truth.
It is palpably absurd to try to blame
the press for what has been happen
ing at London. The correspondents
do not invent; they merely report.
Their endeavor is to make their in
quiries as broad and impartial as pos
sible and then to state honestly what
they find to be the truth. The respon-
sibility for such confusion and cross
purposes as developed in the first two
weeks Of the Economic Conference is
not theirs. It necessarily falls back
upon governments and authorities
that did not sufficiently prepare the
way, were not sure of their own
minds, and interviewed from time to
time wi it'll unhappy effect. What was
there for the correspondents to do
but set forth the case as they saw it?
They are not novices. Most of them
have had experience with previous in
ternational conferences, are familiar
with the personalities and idiosyn-
crasies Of the public men with whom
they have to deal, and have no pos
Slble motive except to make their
work informative and accurate. One
or more Of them may, indeed, be SUBJ
ject to a certain amount Of prejudice,
individual or nationalistic, but that
can be always checked off and bal
anced against other accounts, so that
the total impression to be gained
from the dispatches and reports Of
competent correspondents for French
and English and American news
papers can be taken as very near the
actual fact. If Prime Minister Mac
Donald has reason for complaining Of
anybody, 1t Is not the representatives
Of the press at the Conference.
They are not infallible. Especially
when they too readily or prematurely
don the mantle Of prophecy they may
go astray. It Is true that at the Lau-
same Conference many Of them pre-
d1cted, almost to the very end, that it
would be failure. There was some
force In Mr.. MacDonald's reminder
that the first two weeks Of any inter-
national conference always disclose so
many conflicting interests that sue
cess seems well-nigh impossible. On
the other hand, the history of such
gatherings does not justify his too
easy assumption that they cannot be
permitted to fail. The naval confer
ence at Geneva did fail. Mr.. Mac
Donald himself knows from melan-
choly experience what has been the
fate Of the successive disarmament
conferences. When he went before the
last one in March Of this year he was
1nsistent that it must succeed unless
civilization itself were to be further
disheartened and thrown into despair.
But his own plan was accepted mere
ly In principle, and has since been
postponed from week to week and
month to month, until it has now
been put over to next October, with
nothing done. The British prime min
lister, when giving an account of his
stewardship to the House of Commons
explained that the slow and unsatis-
factory progress Of the Disarmament
Conference was due to the "extraordi-
nary difficulty" caused by diverse in
terestS, diverse points of view and
diverse needs" Of the nations con-
cerned. He spoke also of the "trem-
endous differences that divided "del.
egation from delegation and nation
from nation" Finally, he reminded
his hearers that "the last word ir
these matters Is the political word.
If that was true at Lausanne anc
Geneva, why Is it not at London?
It Is as certain as anything in thu
future can be that the Economic Con.
ference will reach certain agreements
The danger is that these will be EN-.
bodied in pious aspirations ane
meaningless forms Of words. But tn,
business before the delegates really /,
control Is to make the proposals i,
which they unite definite, timely
healing and with all the plans fitte<
to fact and urgent needs.