The Wilmington morning star., 1944-06-02
Our Place In The Peace
By ANNE o'HARE MCCORMICK

Eight members of the Senate Foreign Re.
lations Committee, four Democrats and four
Republicans, are now holding regular meet
ings with the Secretary of State to dicuss in
ternatlonal organizations; the fifth session is
scheduled for today. The wisdom and value
OF this new method of approaching the prob
lens of peace are too obvious to need en-
phasizing. Secretary Hull is more concerned
with obtaining Congressional support for the
peace plans Of the Administration than with
any other aspect of American foreign policy
His long service in both houses makes him
acutely sensitive to the reactions of the leg.
lative body, its reluctance to get out in
'front.' Of the country, its Suspicious of forcing
governments, its fears Of secret commitments,
and particularly to the effect on the Senate
of executive fats accomplis
There is no question any more, either in
Congress or in the country, of the acceptance
of the principle Of participation in collective
security system. Both parties have agreed on
that; the great majority of Americans take it
for granted But apparently the Senate sub
committee disagrees on whether the United
States should go in at once to initiate or help
create such an organization whether we
should wait until the end Of the war. Accord
ing to report from Washington by James
D. Reston, published in this newspaper yes
terday, the arguments on this key question
now or later?-will come to head soon, per-
haps at todays meeting. The expectation is
that Mr. Hulrs view will prevail, and steps
will be taken in the very near future to set
up a new League of Nations in which the
United States will take leading and decisive
part.
There is something unreal in an argument
about the timing Of our entry into organi-
cation we are resolved to join. There might
be some logic in retiring again to the bleach
It10 al into %tn fyrrh+
It is the logic of arrested development but
it shows consistency in its determination to
ignore the facts of life. To accept the neoes-
sity of international cooperation, however and
then hold back at the most important stage
of the enterprise, waiting to see what other
nations will work out by themselves, is an
impossible act of abdicaton on the part of
| a great power and an incredible act of trust
in other powers. For Americans, who always
want to be in on the ground floor and voci-
ferously present when the rules made, it
is strangely out of character
1t must be clear to everyone by now that
the only way the United States can hope to
| get the kind of peace it wants IS to be in
on every step of the making of peace If
there is anything like a Versailles conference
! at the end of this war, which is unlikely, it
will have no function except to ratify terms
| and agreements not only made long before
but already in operation The peace confer
ence is being held now, before the fighting
reaches it's climax. It is being held while the
Senators debate whether to take rfrt in it
or wait until everything is decided
The alternative is not now Or later but now
or never It is not whether to get out in front
of American opinion and the movements of
the WORLD it is whether to lag so far behind
that settlements are made without u.s. We
give 'sblank check to our allies not bv
Joining now in building a peace organization
but by postponing action until they have to
build Whether the United States underites
the peace settlements or not, it will have to
live in the world shaped by these settlements
and the only way to make them conform to