Evening star., 1937-05-06
Angles g on Neutrality
Past Performances Give Little Reason to Believe Law
Solves Problem

to prevent all future wars. All the
nations, everywhere. could turn their
swords back into ploughshares. But
today the League Of Nations, As re-
spects preventing war-well, Ethiopia
knows.
And there was the Washington Con-
ference for the Limitation of Arma-
ment, held with great eclat In 1922
That Is long over the dam. So are
the two London conferences for the
same purpose. There Is no limita-
ton Of armament anywhere-on the
contrary, an immense competition In
al mament Is under way And there
was the Kellogg pact, and the Geneva
pact, indeed, several Geneva pacts
and Geneva conferences.
Plans for Germany.
If anybody still has faith in the
power OF conferences and pacts and
slogans and laws to prevent war, con-
slider few in another field. The
Peace Conference was going to make
Germany pay reparations, pay to
the last farthing," as Lloyd George
said when he was asking the British
electorate to renew his wartime lease
of power. On paper, the Peace Con-
ference did fix German reparations.
But presently we learned reparations
must be refixed. So there was an
other conference, from which emerged
the Dawes plan" Do you remem-
ber that? Some Americans do-the
ones who bought those German bonds
that were called Dawes plan" bonds.
After the Dawes plan blew up, there
was the Young plan" Once more
the world thought reparations were all
fixed up. But presently there was yet
another conference, from which
emerged another phrase, German
moratorium" In the end Germany
isn't paying any reparations.
Then there were those other con-
Washington. in which Britain, France
and some Is other nations contracted
to repay us the money they had bor-
roWed during the war. And what
President Coolidge said, They hired
the money. didn't they?" We thought
that was very smart, the essence OF
Yankee common sense, and we made
it into a slogan, meaning, Of course,
that they would pay But they didn't
only sturdy little Finland Is paying
the installments regularly in full.
No, we can't keep out Of war by
rplVlnU cnNforancnc c10DonS
or laws or formulas. Keeping out of
war when war is under way, Is ac-
complished by meeting each situation
as it arises-and they arise with great
suddenness and frequency. It's a job
for hard thinking and prompt acting.
Building Up Navy.
It's a 24-hour job, literally a day
time and nighttime job. In 1914, it
was 2:3o Of Spring morning when
three of Wilson's official family,
Joseph Tumulty. Josephus Daniels and
William Jennings Bryan, telephoned
the White House and got Wilson out
Of bed to tell him Of a critical turn
in the already strained relations be-
tween the United States and Mexico.
The crisis was one which might have
been solved by patience, without
bloodshed But Wilson, obliged to
decide quickly, told Mr.. Daniels to
have the Navy take Vera Cruz Then
he went back to bed. Next morning
when he got up he called in Chief
Usher Ike" Hoover and admonished
him never again to rouse him in the
middle Of the night. Wilson added
bit OF wisdom, saying a man can't
have his best judgment when wakened
from sleep. That was sound. Had
Woodrow Wilson had his full nights
sleep on the night Of April 81. 1914.
he might have taken some different
course.
For keeping out Of war, if we must
have a slogan. the best one is Theo-
dore Roosevelts Speak softly-and