Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1933-07-23

the worlds totaD, compared to 5000
tons for the United States Tor two
ffths Of l per cent of the totaD; In
other words. at this moment Britain is
building 100 tons for each that we
are building. Is there any wonder that
our shipping industry is intensely ir-
ritated at the British suggestion, de-
chant marine?
And so it goes, with each nation tell
ing the other nations what they ought
to do, but in turn doing to suit itself.
Starting with the very best of inten-
lions and DESTROYS Of promoting world
peace in an extraordinarily unselfish
way, the United States has earned for
itself the almost universal reputation
OF being a dangerous busybody s..
BY its very nature the international
game Is one of put and take. Since
the United States has ceased to be an
international Santa Claus and has
Withdrawn from the exclusive putting
end Of the game they are all potential
takers but no putters. In view of this
situation 1t was inevitable that prac.
teal international cooperation was out
OF the picture for the present. After
the nations have retired to their re-
spective homes and have had a chance
to think over things undisturbedly they
may few years hence be In a better
mood to realize that, as in poker. all
the players must ANTE up" before the
game can proceed very far.
In the long run. international CO.
operation Is essential to every important
nation and particularly to the United
States. However, at the present time
such an impasse has been reached that
the only sane thing to do is to call
tln.e out" SO that nations can calm
down to such an extent that the game
can be resumed at q later date with
some prospect of success. In the mean
while. the only sound solution seems to
be the one that our Government is now
apparently embarking upon-namely, BIZ
lateral agreements reached on a COM
mon sense quid pro quo basis and with
as little public discussion as possible.
Chain Has Weak Links.
International cooperation is like q
chain-it Is only as strong as its weakest
link. At present not one but most or
the links are weak and hence it is not
surprising that the chain breaks even
under small strain. The weakness re,
suits from two reasons. First, the in
dividual nations are not ready to give"
which Is essential for international CO.
operation. The second land probably
more importantly reason is the chaotic
domestic conditions weakening the in
ternal structure of the individual ma
tons. For example the IL 900 900 uu-
employed in the United States are a
menace not only to us but to the
world and q tremendous barrier to
effective world cooperation on the part
OF the United States
It would seem that the quickest way
to strengthen the chain as a whole Is
to strengthen the individual links
Translated into terms Of the present
international situation this might wen
mean the policy that Mr.. Roosevelt Is
following OF having each nation set lis
own house tn order at home so that
when the time comes q few years henct.
to build the links into q chain that the
chain will be able to withstand reason
able shoaks
We believe that the greatest contr1-
button that this country can make
toward world prosperity during the
next several years Is to restore pros
perity within our own borders. Our
greatest contribution to world peace
and disarmament will be to build UP
our national defense until it is second
to none, and that when we speak IN
the cause Of world peace we will be
listened to with that respect which has
the last several years when the upper
hand was held by so-called peace
lovers, who felt that the only effective
way OF producing the desired results
was for the United States to disarm as
an example. 1t is significant that one
OF the leaders Of this group has but
recently become converted. and in q
very Illuminating article advocates the
immediate building up of our Navy to
full treaty strength as the best possible
guarantee Of peace and friendship with
Japan and for the purpose of promot-
ing sound understanding with that
leading nation Of the Far East
Apparently many leaders of American
public thought have learned consider
able about the international game in
the past decade. Unfortunately, the
results show that they have learned
more by hindsight than by foresight
It is to be regretted that there were
not more expert bridge players among
our international negotiators Events
indicate that all too often we waited
until all So cards were played before
figuring out what the results would T..
A reasonably good bridge player nas
some idea Of how the hand is going
to work out when he examines his
own cards. Just as soon as the
card actually IS played he ought to be
able to forecast with considerable &C
curacy what tricks he and his oppon-
ents will take and how much will be
gained or lost by the hand.
Farley Failure Evident.
To illustrate this point. casual ex-
animation Of the diplomatic hands In
November, 1881. should have enabled
an intelligent observer to forecast that
the Geneva Disarmament Conference
was due to fail, and for what reasons.
foreseeing the practical inevitability Of
the results, the intelligent observer
might well have urged that the con-
ference be postponed indefinitely.
rather than ;:old 1t and create ali Tao
friction and misunderstanding thai
has resulted from that lamented
gathering. While the sudden dropping
Of the gold standard by the United
States, and the embarking on the
domestic New Deal" had an impor-
tant effect on the chances Of the Lon
don Conference, even without these
factors 1t was evident months before
the conference started that its chances
OF success were less than zero, and
again it would have been the part Of
wisdom to spare the world the recent
farce by postponing indefinitely this
conference. No intelligent person
should be fooled by the temporary
adjournment" of these two confer
ences, because this Is merely diplo-
matte way for arranging decent funeral
obsequies without too sudden a shock
to the sensibilitics Of the friends q
the deceased
There IS no use crying over pilt
milk. However. it Is hoped tnat the
American people will give careful eun.
alteration to the facts stated above
and spare US the expense, trouble and
danger of any more general interna-
ttonal conferences In the near future.
Almost single-handed the United States
can put into effect the moratorium
proposed above because Gas demon
strated by the experience Of the past
decade, the economic and political
power, Of the United States Is such that,
while AllrR0IVAa VII eanvNt ose,Yra thu