Evening star., 1933-12-17
What Americans must see, hoy

WIldI americans must see, nov
| Is that Europe has now recognizeC
failure of the League and while t.
will be delays in the construction
some form Of substitute these dela,.
will not imply any return to Geneva
That chapter Is over. The chapter
which is coming will doubtless be filled
| with the story Of some concert of
Europe. composed OF Britain, France.
Germany, Soviet Russia and Italy,
which will try to prevent any immedi-
ate war by diplomatic operations.
Since no country wants war at the
moment, such a device can work for a
charged with electricity and III cir
cumstances which insure a rapid
rearmament Of Germany and consider
able increases in the armamtnts of the
| British. notably III the field of air.
craft. And along with these details
VIII go a succession Of incidents which,
like those that preceded the World
War, will show the several nations
divided by irreconcilable purposes and
inspired by ever increasing resent
ments.
AS for the proposal that , if the
League is divested of all its existing
| resources the United States might con-
| sent to join it, that is Sheer nonsense.
Europe is plainly and progressively
| moving toward another war If the
United States should consent to 20 to
Geneva and sit with the four or five
great powers of Europe in the discus
sion Of the problems of war and peace,
| 1t could not escape taking RESPONSE
bility for decisions reached and it
would be bound to be involved in war
when IL came.
If Europe had been ready to accept
the League. to recognize its utility as
the agent Of the collective will for
peace in the world, to adjust its
nationalistic purposes to such a body,
then the United States either inside or
out OF it could have co-operated with
Geneva. But only as it was prepared
to sacrifice its own neutrality and as
sumo responsibility with other people
for enforcing peace in the world and in
Europe particularly. That possibility
was clearly sketched when Mr.. Hoover
undertook to cooperate with the
League alike in the matter of Man
churia and in the question of dis
arms ment.
But the German Revolution-and the
Italian course thereafter-showed that
Europe had not become international
but had remained immutably national
iStic. In the Arms Conference Mr.
Norman II. Davis was put into the
position OF making common front
with the British and the French
against the Germans because he had
| otherwise to throw up his hands and
quit. We had to take sides or abandon
the whole effort at cooperation, but
to take sides was to become involved
not in peace programs but in war
preparations.
U. S. Faces Propaganda.
All that is done now. No American
can mistake the fact that the League
is dead, so far as its larger mission /;
concerned, that disarmament has be.
come out of the question, that Europe
is reverting to its accustomed course
and that all that will now be asked OF
the United States is to support one set
of powers against another. And that
viii be true whether something is
patched up in Geneva to preserve
momentarily the semblance of living
League or MuSsolini's favorite four
power combination is established.
On behalf of the League the United
States is now going to be subjected to
an intense propaganda. From Geneva
there is a constant stream OF news and
views flowing, the sources of which are
easy to detect. The withdrawal OF
Japan and Germany, the threat OF re-
| tirement of the Italians have combined
to convince the Secretariat that the one
hope remaining is to get the United
States to enter and thus counterbalance
the deserters. And because the Secre-
tariat exercises an enormous control
| over the news which comes from
Geneva, the campaign will doubtless
make quite a showing in American
papers. But it will be a campaign with
out substance because the United States
! could not now save the League whatever
| it did.
The failure of the League was assured
always, unless Mr.. Wilson was right in
assuming that as a consequence of the
war the majority of all nations had be-
| come not merely peaceful but pacifistic.
| In such case they might have con-
sented to sacrifice their own sovereignty
to a super-state and surrender their
armies and navies to League control to
be used as international police. The
League had to have the authority and
the resources of super-state or it was
doomed from the start. And, Of course,
it never acquired these.
As a result Geneva. collapsed under
the first test When the Japanese
stuck bayonet through the Covenant
and the Kellogg pact as well--and got
away with 1t, that was the end. Geneva
like prohibition, was just another noble
experiment" which had collapsed be-
cause, once peoples had appreciated its
unforeseen consequences, they aban-
doned it universally.
Copyright. 1933)