Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1946-05-17
Was 1!sZ:@5s{iy Digest
Nations Must Submerge
Sovereignty for Peace
BY BAUKHAGE
Ne,Us analyst and Commentator.

WNU Service, 1916 Eye Street, NV,
Washington, d. C.
HUNTER COLLEGE, THE
BRONX, N. Y. - These notes are
being jotted down in the basement
of room that once sounded to the
dull staccato-thud of rubber-soled
gym shoes as the girls came trip
ping downstairs from the floor
above to scamper into the show
ers, pull on their bobby socks and
other strange accoutrements which
distinguish the modern female col
legiate.
1t is during a lull in the session
of the security council of the
United Nations. There are no bobby
socks present but there are some
rather solemn-looking females here
in the "press lounge" along with
their NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. male coun-
terparts, snatching a pause that is
supposed to refresh. I hear the
rapid flow of French, some gutteral
Slavic, sing-song Chinese and liquid
Spanish. In a corner is a tele-
vision set which, at the moment, re-
veals Americas representative, the
white-haired, handsome Mr.. Stettin-
ius, scratching his left ear. He is
speaking and his words come over
the loud speaker. The camera
moves and we see the delegates
one after another, some listening,
some whispering - for Stettinius
has stopped and the loudspeaker is
translating his. words into French.
I have just gone over these notes
and others that formed the basis
of later broadcasts from the studio
which looks down on the council
chamber. am seeking in them an
answer to the question which has
been asked of me many times since
I have been here in New York,
question that perhaps you would
ask, too, if we could reverse the
sound waves and let the listener
speak and the speaker listen.
Is the United Nations really 60
ing to get anywhere?
First, let me admit that as l
write we are walking a tight-rope
SlA SlSilCd DCI"CCll I"o SlloCS, CllllC1
of which might wreck us or might
be forgotten by the time these lines
reach the printed page.
And, of course, the rock upon
which the United Nations may
founder is the veto. Most people
don't understand the veto. Briefly,
it is the right of any of the Big
Powers, the permanent members of
the executive council, to say mo-
to the discussion of any matter
which said power doesn't want
raised.
PoUer Politics
Still in Force
In other words power politics" is
still in force and the only advance
we have made is that compromise,
which is the basis of all democratic
action-is the only possible solution
of controversial questions. The un-
democratic alternative is the use of
power, which in this case may be
exercised without the will of the
majority. The right of the veto is,
as was brought out in a recent
University of Chicago round-table
discussion, really the insistence on
the expression of national sovereign
ty; the sovereign right of nation,
if it gets mad enough, to promul-
gate the organized savagery of war.
We can, it is true, never hope
for any permanent peace until we
are willing to yield that sovereignty
to a higher authority which ex-
presses the will of the majority of
all peoples.
The United Nations at present has
not been granted that authority.
But there is hope which l have
watched grow as International pro-
ceedings move forward under the
impetus of will to peace and the
implementation of ever growing
publicity which creates the under
standing to bolster that Wilt is
this: as the United Nations con-
tinues to discuss those matters
which are not affected by the veto,
as it deals with social and economic
problems, as it plans to do. such a
strong public sentiment can be
built up behind it that nationalistic
world-minoritieS cannot stand up
against it.
There is that hope. There is an
other. Atomic energy.
AS Chairman Corbett of the de-
partment of political science of
Yale university put it:
"When it comes to that (con-
troll of atomic energy) think
that the discrepancy between the
legal situation in the UN (he refers
to the power of the veto and the
nationalistic insistence on SOW
ereignty and the actual needs of
international collaboration are 60
ing to become so glazing that we
are going to have to make a di-
rect attack upon this problem of
tha -