Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-09-08
ARMED CONFLICT IS PRICE
OF PEACE FOR MEDDLERS
U. S. Congress Has Notified World 1t
Will Not Stand for Interven.
tiOnal Experiments.

ropean or African controversy at the
risk of becoming involved in war as
well. It would, moreover, protect
Presidents from the coercive tactics Of
the organized peace societies.
In point of fact, we are entering the
last phase of the battle between the
internationalists and the isolationists
which began with the Peace Con-
ference. The issue arises from the
conviction Of one group that every
body's business is our business, and
that Of another group that American
security depends upon our minding
our own business. The former holds
that we must join in all efforts to
prevent war because We are bound to
be involved in any future conflict. The
latter insists that we shall only get
into other peoples wars If, as the
slang phrase has it, we stick our
necks out"
In the first and greatest of all the
battles, that over the treaty, the VIC
tory OF the iSolationists in the Senate
was followed by an impressive endorse
ment at the polls. After the election
of 1920, American membership in the
League Of Nations ceased to be an issue
politically. Precisely the same result
followed the long debate over Ameri-
can membership in the World Court.
The sudden explosion of popular hos
tility to this proposal last Winter and
the wholly unexpected defeat Of the
resolution which would have taken us
into the court closed that debate, too.
But while the internationalists have
by slow degrees learned that they can
not hope for any success In Congress
and that popular opinion always ends
by backing Congress in these battles
between involvement and isolation,
they have continued to believe that
they could use the executive branch
to serve their own ends. Thus they
exerted great influence upon the
Hoover administration in the Man
churian affair and have tried to do
the same thing with the Roosevelt
administration in the Ethiopian quar-
rel.
Fail to Appreciate Change.
The American peace societies have,
however, so far failed to appreciate
the complete change in the problem
Of peace which has followed the dis
closure of japanese, Italian and Ger
man purposes. They do not yet realize
that when great nations have decided
upon policies and actions which must
produce hostilities, when they have, in
fact, adopted war as an instrument
of national policy. then there is no
longer any question Of preventing war
but only the choice between neutrality
and belligerency. In order to believe
in the efficacy Of the alleged peaceful
means to prevent war today, you have
to believe that Hitler and Mussolini
do not mean what they say and that
Japan is not in Manchuria.
But the fact is that both dictators
are in deadly earnest and, in addition,
the truth is that Japan is advancing
not withdrawing-in China. Italian
soldiers, too, are on the line merely
awaiting the order which will launch
them upon their campaign. AS for the
German situation. every well-informed
European knows what is coming just
as soon as German rearmament
reaches certain point. And the in
evitable may arrive even sooner, II
the Stresa combination against Ger
many breaks up. What the interna-
tionalists are therefore doing-actually
but not intentionally-is attempting to
involve their country in wars which
have already become inevitable be-
cause those who control other nations
are resolved to wage them.
The American people were pre-
sented with the choice between de-
Tending China and thus making war
upon Japan or getting out Of the
Japanese way. Japan was resolved to
go into China and to fight any one
who set out to stop her. The British
people were confronted with an identi-
cal dilemma by Italy in the Ethiopian
affair Both countries will have to
face another problem Of the same
sort when Germany goes into Austria
again-as she set out to do last
year, only to surrender to Mussolini's
We were not ready to
fight Japan and the British were no
more ready to fight Italy; therefore,
although we each in turn tried to in
tervene, we both had to back out
with enormous loss Of face and after
having run grave risks of war.
Wisdom in Principle.
Congress, then, seems to me to
have acted not wisely in form perhaps,
but with extreme wisdom in principle
The laws it has enacted will hardly
bear analysis; they will doubtless in
due time be amended beyond recogni-
ton. But. by contrast, the legislative
branch of the Government has put
the world on notice that 1t will not
stand for any interventionist expert
ments. It will not back the President
or the Secretary of State in any repe-
tition of the Hoover-Stimson per-
Torrance in the Manchurian episode.
It has indicated that 1t accepts the
Mussolini- Chamberlain dictum that
sanctions mean war" and will have
none Of them. For all practical pur-
poses, too, what has been accom-
plished could have been done by reso-
luton and not by legislation.
Personally, am not very appre-
hensive over the likelihood of Ameri-
can involvement in the next European
war provided we do not, in the period
before it arrives, surrender our neu-
trality by committing ourselves to
one side or the other by means Of
gestures or actions designed to pre-
vent the outbreak of that conflict.
But II we join one nation or many In
attempting to restrain the aggressive
actions Of still another. we shall not
be in a position to retire to isolation
and security when the fight has
opened, without convicting ourselves
Of cowardice in the eyes of the world.
Once, moreover. it does become clear