Evening star., 1953-10-24
Not q FutHity


with the voice of disenchantment and cyncism.
The bright hopes of the past have been unful-
filled. Things have not worked out as the
dreamers and ideaistS once predicted. Instead,
the world is divided by dark gulf across which
governments shout and Snarl at each other.
There is no peace worthy of the name, and the
U. Mas seen by some of the acutely disillu-
sioned-is nothing but futile debating society
arguing itself to death.
Such an evaluation. however, falls far short
of being either sensible or just. For the United
Nations, despite its many serious imperfectionS,
is not in itself to blame for the continuing
bleakneSs of the international outlook. Actu-
ally, if all it's members were cooperating in
good-faith effort to apply the high principles
of the Charter, the u N. would today be far
advanced toward the goal of a decent and en-
during peace. It's great deficiency in that
respect is not really its own fault but the fault
of the men of the Kremlin who have refused
to let it do the great job it was founded to do
namely to develop and maintain a system of
law order and collective security on a global
scale
Certainly, it is not because of the United
Nations, but in spite of it, that grave tensions
exist throughout the world. Most of these
tensions are directly traceable to Soviet policy
q policy of obstructioniSm, SubverSion and ag-
gression expressed in wide variety of ways
ranging from hot war in Asia to a persistent
cold war elsewhere against all efforts to settle
crucial issues like German uni1cation and the
grim ornaments race. Clearly, it is because
of this, and not because of any basic perversity
in ITSELF that the U. N. has failed thus far to
fulfill the hopes reposed in it at the time of its
founding Nevertheless, although it must con-
tinue to fail in that sense as long as the Rus
slams decline to live up to the Charter, it still
is, as it has been for the past eight years,
forum exercising-morally and otherwise
positive influence for peace.
To appreciate this we have only to ask our
selves what would have happened if there had
been no such organization operating in these
postwar years. After ALL despite it's belittlers,
the United Nations-a although in fact diSunted
as between the five-member Soviet bloc and the
overwhelming majority-has number of sig
nilcant achievements to its credit. Thus,
wholly apart from the good work done by a
number of it's subsidiary agencies, 1t can be
proud of itself for accomplishments like its
action against the Russian threat to Iran, its
peace efforts in Palestine its role in the Berlin
blockade, and its moral and physical resistance
to the Communist aggression in Korea-the
first resistance of its kind in history and an
undertaking that may yet prove to have been
one of the finest blows ever struck in behalf of
freedom and world peace.
Everything considered therefore, it seems
shallow in the extreme to scoff at this organiza-
ton as if it were mere futility. True enough,
in the eighth year of its life, it continues to
be weak in several particulars, but it is by no
means Ineffective in terms of acting as safety
valve for grievances, moral prod, search
light on wrongdoing, and an international
Judge and jury capable of placing very real
oi,otc -hroo ia0 Go fhnr iC
still good reason for the world to repose faith
and hope in it, Given the possibility of even
tual Russian cooperation, it can be improved
upon until it becomes a genuinely powerful
guardian of peace. In any event, there can be
little doubt that the United Nations, even in it's
present imperfect state, serves the safety of
mankind. without it. our dangerous age could
hardly fail to be more dangerous than it
already is.