The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-03-22
THE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
PLAN

L TNDER unreal OF european war, uIenSlueQ
~ by the Hitler dictatorship in Germany,
the powers are seeking another peace agree
ment.
Prime Minister Ramsay Macdonald, in his
visit to Rome worked out a general plan with
Mussolnl which has been accepted with res
ervations by France as basis of negotiation.
There have been too many peace and Sc
curity agreements between the powers in the
past for this latest one to be accepted popu-
larly as a road to the millennium. The qUes-
ton is being asked Why are not the Locarno
and Kellogg pacts and the European agree
ment of last December serving the purpose of
peace?
The answer to that question seems to be
that the sundry no-war and no-force treaties
and agreements are inadequate in themselves,
because they failed to remove the cause of
war. All the solemn promises and treaties in
the world will not preserve peace if the torches
of hatred and strife are left to drive peoples
and governments to war.
Among the many causes of war which still
are operating in Europe are economic, military
and political factors. The economic causes
include tariffs, trade BARRIERS debts COMPETE
ton over raw material sources and foreign
markets, and the like.
The coming world economic conference is
supposed to deal with these questions, though
the prospect of success is not bright.
AS to military factors, ten years of almost
continuous disarmament negotiations and con-
ferences, resulting in almost complete failure,
seems to indicate that effective disarmament
will not be achieved until some of the major
economic and political strife behind the arma-
ment race is eliminated.
Hence the necessity of facing the political
conflicts
The hope in the so-called N1acDonald-NTus-
solini plan is that the European political dis
putes growing out Of the unjust and unwork-
able Versailles and other peace treaties will be
modified.
The nations conquered in the last war will
continue to seethe with revenge and belligerent
nationalism under their respective Hitlers,
leading to eventual war unless the humiliating
Versailles determinations are removed and
unless certain territorial wrongs are righted.
For example, no amount of treaty pledging
or OF disarmament can make the POllSn cOITl-
dor any less powder mine Of war.
The issue is basic. The price of Franco
British hegemony over Europe, which has ex-
listed since Versailles, is that the subject ma
lions will plot to throw off the yoke, and that
France will insist on keeping a super-army
and Britain will insist on keeping a super
navy to maintain the status quo.
The top dogs will have to choose between
peace and the status quo; they can not have
both. Either the top dogs will give the under
dogs more of the bones, or there will be a
fight.
The official statements regarding the Mac
Donald-Mussolini plan still are too vague, and
the unofficial reports too meager, to determine
whether the powers are dealing seriously with
the political and territorial war causes of Eu-
rope or whether this is just another futile
sleight-of-hand performance.
There is not much the United States can
do directly about that political issue, even
though our destiny is entangled unavoidably
and irrevocably in European war or peace.
But we can and should lead in the settle
ment of the world economic confict-tariffs,
debts, raw materials and markets-which I'M
derlie and multiply the political conflicts that
threaten