Evening star., 1938-02-15
Will Rogers Was Right.

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Will Rogers once wisecracked that the
United States never lost a war or won
a conference. During the fifteen Years
IN which that quaint political philoso-
pher was contributing to the gayety of
the Nation on stage. radio and screen,
there was succession of conferences
wherein this country was conspicuous
participant. None of them passed into
history as success. On the contrary.
as Will would have put it, Uncle Sam was
nearly always thrown for loss"
The 1922 Washington Armament Con-
terence, out of which grew the $3.50
naval ratio and the Nine-Power Treaty
on China, long since became a byword.
The 1926 Coolidge cruiser conference
at Geneva was fiasco The 1880 London
Naval Conference only paved the way
to chronic chickering's over "quantitative"
and qualitative" limitation. The general
disarmament conference at Geneva in
1882 collapsed ANONYMOUSLY. The 1893
London Economic Conference. although
staged by Mr.. Roosevelt in spectacular
advance discussions with European prime
ministers at Washington, was torpedoed
by the Presidents own action in mid
stream. In 1885, when the naval powers
reassembled in London to renew the 1922
and 1886 limitation agreements. their
deliberations came to naught because
Japan refused to stabilize a ratio of
lnferlority. The latest effort to achieve
international accord. in which this
country joined, the Brussels Far Eastern
Conference in October, 1896, duly took
its place in the parade of blasted hopes.
Will Rogers was right.
Senator King of Utah, undismayed by
this record thinks the way out of the i'm
passe created by the prospect of renewed
naval competition is another conference.
He has introduced resolution in the
Senate asking Congress to instruct"
president Roosevelt to convene an inter-
national arms parley. The praiseworthy
motives which inspire the proposal spring
from an unsound premise 1t is there
fore condemned in advance to futility.
In the present state of world tension,
unparalleled since the Great War,
nations nowhere are disarmament
minded. A nervous Europe. mainly be-
cause Of the incalculable menaces pre-
sented by the Fascist relationships, has
its fevered being atop a powder barrel.
Asia is house already afire. The Old
Worlds most ardently peace-craving
powers, Great Britain and France, feel
compelled by conditions in Europe. Asia
and Africa to arm on the most intensive
scale ever known outside of war.
Disarmament conference proponents
Ignore the fundamental fact that until
you remove the causes which impel
nations to tax-burden themselves to the
point OF bankruptcy you cannot hope to
persuade them to cast off defensive
armor. Britons and Frenchmen, for
example, do not care to bleed themselves
white for upkeep of gigantic armies and
navies any more than Americans yearn
to squander their substance for non
productive purposes But until the
London and Paris governments, or any
other governments of have" countries.
are certain that the territory and inter-
ests for which they are trustees are not
in danger Of attack by have not"
regimes, you might as we'll expect them
to weaken their armed establishments as
you would expect an American who
knew that kidnapers were on the way,
to discard the shotgun he kept in
readiness for an emergency.
When the Hitlers and the Mussolinis
and their co-ideologists In Japan can
furnish reliable guarantees that they
are prepared to rely on orderly proc
esses-call it international law, or what
you will-for qualification of their
longings for more room in the sun, then,
and not a second sooner, disarmament
and disarmament conferences will move
from the sphere of iridescent dreams into
the realm Of practical possibilities.