Evening star., 1939-04-17
Suggests Plan to
Stop Future Wars
Believes Strong Motions Must
Guarantee Territory Of
Smaller Stutes

Smaller Stutes
To the Editor Of The STAR
1t begins to- look as If Woodrow Wilson
was right when he said that If the
weaker nations were not given "the
guarantee of the strongest nations of
the world that nobody shall invade their
liberty" the attempt at aggression would
be made again and another world war
would start. IF you keep out of this
engagement" he said, referring to the
United States and the League of Ma
tions. that sort of war will soon come If
you go into it, it never will come" Well,
we kept out of the League, and war
OF that Sort or worse, seems to be in the
immediate of1ing, if not already begun in
the current undeclared fashion.
In his st. Louis speech, quoted above,
Mr.. Wilson went on to- say: I'VE are in
the presence, therefore, of the most SOL
emn choice that this people was ever
called upon to make" That choice was
made, and the events since then seem to
indicate, not necessarily that the choice
wac uliWloC tildt lllle, UuL JIldL II may
not have been a final one.
I am absolutely against having the
United States 60 to war, with shot and
shell, under any circumstances; but
particularly in the light of the growing
indignation here against the barbarous
bombing and machine cunning of help
less non-c -combatants-men women and
children) 1 see no hope of our keeping
out of such war honorably unless we
can find an effective means of combat
ting such barbarism in a non-m military
way.
The machinery for such non-mlitary
compulsion is provided for in Article
XVI OF the League of Nations Covenant.
SAID Mr.. Wilson: Suppose some
lnation does not abide by [itsl engage
ments, then what happens? War? No,
not war. Something more terrible than
War-absolute boycott of the nation
violating the Covenant"
In my opinion, Mr.. Wilson's (and the
Covenants) conception OF the applica-
ton OF this boycott was headed in the
prevention OF all intercourse between the
aggressor nation and other nations
which were not members of the League
or parties to the boycott. Such a pro-
vision is not only unnecessary, but it
would inevitably require the patroling
OF the coasts or borders of the offending
nation by the sanctionist nations, and
va co taI ,1,, l>,,f
arms.
l should say that in all cases where
sanctions were found to be necessary,
they should be applied wholly within the
borders of the sanctionist nations. They
could be made SO effective in this way
that no aggressor nation could stand
against them. 1t would mean that no
aggressor nation could have any diplo-
matte or trade or financial relations of
any kind with any sanctionist nation,
and that there could be no financial,
commercial or personal intercourse be-
tween the nationals of the aggressor ma
ton and the nationals of any sanctionist
nation. No ships would be allowed to
leave or enter the ports of any sanction
1st nation directly or indirectly to or
from the ports of the aggressor nation,
and all mail or other matter in any sane
zionist nation addressed to any one in
the aggressor nation would be returned
to the senders.
Even though some of the nations
should refuse to enforce such drastic
sanctions, if the United States and the
rest OF the American republics, the Brit
lsh Commonwealth of Nations, and
France (and perhaps RUSSIA stood pat
behind such program, and as the
Covenant provides, agreed among them
selves to share equitably the losses sus-
tanned by the interruption of trade and
commerce, no nation or combination of
nations could withstand the seige. Such
a boycott could, and should, be imposed
upon any aggressor nation, whether a
member OF the League or not
1t seems as if the course of human
events were once more bringing the
United States to the verge of a Solemn
referendum to see whether we should
join the League with reservation to
safeguard our political sovereignty and
independence, of course) and play our
part In the maintenance of world peace
IN a peaceful but strenuous way, or sulk
IN our tents, superciliously viewing the
misery and injustice from afar, while
their effects come stealthily upon us like
creeping paralysis-the signs of which
| are already ominously evident in the cur
rent business and stock market indices.
l should like to see this issue injected
forcefully into the next congressional
campaign by having Mr.. Roosevelt (who,
oy the way, was candidate for the Vice
PRESIDENCY in 1920 on a platform with a
colleague plank in it, arrange for
cne Immediate introduction of a bill in
the present Congress which would make
each Senator and Representative COM
NIT himself on the matter of our joining
the League.
II they voted to join the League, sus-
pect that that alone would be enough
to put the fear of. the Lord and the
courage OF their real convictions into the
hearts OF the peoples of the nations now
on the rampage. If our present Congress
did not vote to join, it would make a
clear-cut issue for next years election