The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-04-02
Conferences

It is now disclosed that the President has
been fighting mild bronchitis the last two
or three weeks, and still coughs Bit though
he is feeling much better. Winston Churchill
at his recent appearances in Parliament i'm
pressed observers as a tired man. But PEG.
pie are still wondering how soon the next
tripartite conference with Stain will come
off. On all sides we hear that the need for
such conference is pressing. But is it really?
Probably it would be all right for the Presi-
dent and the Prime Minister to accept the
risks and strain of flying 10000 miles round
the earth-in Mr.. Roosevelts case-to attend
conferences if the results were proportionate.
But people have now developed serious doubts
about tn definitive value of conferences. 1t
becomes therefore question whether it is
worth while for Mr.. Churchill to invite pneu-
monia and for Mr. Roosevelt to challenge
bronchitis.
If are to have, after the war; a really
cooperative One World, it cannot be run solely
or even chiefly by airplane. We shall have
to depend in greater measure on the long
distance telephone, on radio and on television
In other words, we cannot have the heads
of state jumping into planes all the time and
flying off to conferences half way round the
world. 1t will still be the main business of
chiefs of state to stay at home and look after
things from there, both domestic and foreign.
There may be occasions when an air.
plane meeting of heads of state may be use.
full, but it is absurd to suppose that diplomacy
is an exception to the general rule that
good business executive does not try to do
everything himself.
Sometimes it may be a good thing for the
top man to sit around a table and thresh
things out, and sometimes their names are
Woodrow Wilson. Lloyd George, Clemenceau
and Orlando Many of President Wilson's
friends implored him not to go to Paris They
told him he would be more formidable if he
remained in Washington And Mr.. Wilkes
recent trip to Moscow didn't do him much
good with the editor of Pravda.
But always there is this new temptation
called the airplane There is the feeling that
if need be you can make it in twelve hours
between Washington and London and only two
or three hours more to Moscow. So people
get to think of the future as way of life
which will be shaped by people stepping into
airplanes.
That is an error. The shape OF the world
to come will of course to some slight extent
be nodded by the airplane, but chiefly the
future will be nodded by people who do not
step into planes and fly to Chungking. The
fut, will be shaped by people who stay at
home and grow wheat in Dakota and cotton
in Texas; dig coal in Wales and make razors
in Sheffield; cultivate rye in White Russia
and caviar on the Volga; and also by people
in public office who stay at home and attend
to their duties in Washington, London, Mos
COW.
1t is easy enough to be satirical about ex-
perts and how often they are shown up by
the march of events. But matter OF fact
the worst thing that can be said about so
many experts is not that they are fallible in
long distance prophecy but that they are so
nervous about the day-to-day news.
1t is not really fatal indictment of the
expert if he predicted that collapse of the
Red Army before Hitler in three months, or
foretold the Allied occupation of Rome in
arrived at his opinion by a conscientious study
of the facts as he believed them to be. He
may have overlooked some valuable data, and
he may have Numbered in his logic. Neverthe-
less, as long as his verdict was a reasoned
verdict it does not invalidate his expert stand
guessed right about the Red Army because
we admired the Russian people, or guessed
right about the battle for Rome because we
disapproved of Allied policy in the Mediter-
ranean-New York Times.