Evening Star Newspaper, July 18, 1926, Page 37

EDITORIAL PAGE NATIONAL PROBLEMS SPECIAL FEATURES ‘WASHINGTON, D. €, SUNDAY MORNING, JULY 18, had utterly escaped human control and nations - enemy, the rival, the diplomatic and political - Viewed in retrospect thy “monisters” are dis- because all my plans of defense depend upon ] ‘ ITH the coming week we pass the twelfth anniversary of the begin- ning of the tragic 10 days extend- ing from the Austrian ultimatum to Serbia to the German declaration of war upon Russia, which ushered in the World War. And it is interesting and perhaps a little sig- nificant to note how great have been the modi- fications in opinion since the passionate ex- plosion of the first months of the conflict them- selves. Already the world views with a degree of objectivity the actual as contrasted with the imagined origins of the supreme conflict and more and more the phrase and the idea of “war guilt” is vanishing. Even the concep- tion of war responsibility, which lingers, is un- dergoing a change. The war, which every one in' Europe had been talking about with increasing certainty . all the way from the Tangier crisis through that of Bosnia and Agadir, which seemed in- escapable at the moment of the Balkan Wars of 1912-13, took the universe by surprise. Be- fore the archduke was assassinated in Sera- Jevo it had been the reasoned judgment of most diplomats that European relations were. calmer than at any time in 10 yeavs. Nerves\which had been frayed by the long series of crisis and alarums had begun to escape from the * tension. * x % % Up to the closing days of June, 1914, Europe was calm with a calm which, looking back- ‘ward, may seem ominous, but at’the moment seemed real and well founded. Yet a month later the wholé continent was shaken by an upheaval, the consequences of which are still to be felt from one end of the planet to the other. It was perhaps natural then that the mere surprise of the arrival of the storm should have served to convince nations as well as individ- uals that the explosion was the result of plots, conspiracies, that one group of politiclans in the cant phrase “willed” the war. Yet after 12 years, with most of the records now spread upon the table, with innumerable volumes contributed by the principal and even the minor actors’ available, the conviction is growing and taking root-that the war was not “willed.” More and more students and com- mentators are going behind the crowded and tumultuous days when diplomacy dealt with the actual crisis and are turning backward to find the causes of the struggle in conditions which were created by various circumstances during the full generation and more which separate the treaty of Frankfort from the §tempest of 1914, * o* % % We see now quite clearly that not even the German Kaiser and his advisers deliberately ‘willed the war. The whole picture which was drawn by fevered imagination and inflamed minds in the period of conflict, the picture of the deliberate precipitation of the war by wicked . master minds, disappears when one examines the record. On the contrary, the more one studies this record the more com- pletely absent is all suggestion of a master mind. Instead there was the dominant and paralyzing conviction in each capital that the BORAH STARTS STUMPING TOUR opponent desired war and that therefore all efforts to avert it were futile. It is true, of course, that the Austrian rulers resolved upon a disciplinary course with. re. spect of Serbia which was bound to amount to the extinction of the independence of this little state. It is true that this resolution was taken with the full cognizance that it might, that it would ‘perhaps almost inevitably involve Aus- tria and Russia in a dispute which at the least would be dangerous in the extreme. It is true that the German government, fully aware also of this possibility, gave its promise of support to its ally. It is equally true that Russia from the out- set of the later phase in European history as- serted the right of protector over Serbla despite the obvious menace to Austria inherent in Serbian aspirations, and indicated that she would go to war rather than permit Serbia to be crushed. It is true that France was pre- pared and under promise to support her Rus- sian ally, if war came through the Balkan mess. The questions of the prestige of Rus- sia and of the safety of Austria were alwa; bound to rise when that Serbian issue was touched. ¥ ok ok % But that the Austrian statesmen—who must certainly be held to bear the greatest burden of responsibility for what did occur-—ever con- ceived of plunging Europe.into flames, that the German rulers ever saw in the Serbian affair a pretext to precipitate that which they ‘were commonly supposed to have been plan- ning for over 40 years, this is qyite as difficult to believe now as the alternative that Russian and French statesmen embarked upon an ag- gressive policy with deliberate foreknowledge of the consequences. The simple fact now seems clear to most impartial minds that Europe blundered into war. Grant if you please a’greater criminal obstinacy and recklessness on one side or the other, assert, as one can with greater accuracy, 1 believe, that the stupidity on one side was more \colossal than on the other, and the con- clusion remains unshaken that Europe came to its, supreme disaster not because any one nation or group of nations plotted to precip- itate a war, believing conditions were propi- tious, but that all, all with no exception, werg caught in the mill-race of events. If you read and reread the documents in the “ case, there is very little to warrant the view that London, Paris or Berlin, to say nothing of St. Petersburg, moved steadily and deliber- ately toward a foreseen event. Paris and Pet- rograd bélieved the conflict could not be avolded. From start to finish there is a. pes- simism in all Russian and French expressions which is arresting. Berlin, on the contrary, steadily refused to believe that conflict could result, utterly misread and underestimated the gravity of the situation. Vienna was absorbed in the parochial problem of Serbia. As for London, it was plainly and completely baffled, bewildered, appalled to see itself daily becom- ing more involved in a tragedy which it more exactly appraised. closed as rather weak and tallible human crea- tures. The war criminals that public opinion in the respective. alliances assailed for four years and more of struggle seem very far from possessing any considerable stature. 'Without exception they are t0o small to have played the ‘part once assigned to them. The simple and once satisfylng. conception that a group of prominent men met about the Kalser at Pots- dam on July 5, and resolved upon war, upon the war, has gone glimmering. Even the con- ception of militarism sweeping aside the civil- ian governments and suddenly plunging the world into the conflict it desired will not now square With the facts. 3 On the contrary, the soldler shows himself to have been quite as Incompetent as the states- man, the general as inadequate as the diplo- mat.. Why, after all, did the conflict come on August 1?. Becaupe the German general staff had based the whole defense of Germany.upon certain technical conclusions which formed it to go to war under circumstances which it could not control. It had to go to war automatically, if Russia mobilized. It had to go to’ war be- cause its plan of campaign involved exploit- ing the inevitable slowness of Russian mobili- zation by an attack upon France. It decided that it could win thé war by sending all but '« handful of its troops into France, crushing the French army and returning to meet the Ruu?ln masses in time, * k k¥ Thus when Austria mobilized, at first and in part against Serbia, and then extended its mobilization, and Russia after partial mobiliza- ‘tion passed to complete, the military men of Germany had no choice but to see their plans scrapped and the safety of Germany compro- mised, unless war were declared. But there is not a shadow of evidence to suggest that Russia was mobilizing with the deliberate pur- pose to attack Germany. On the contrary, all the evidence indicdtes that Russia was mobiliz- ing because Sazonoff and the rest were satis- fled that Germany meant to attack, that the central powers had already “willed the war.” In later times we have had a whole school of interpreters of war responsibilities who in- sist that the Russian mobilization, the general mobilization, precipitated the war and that Russia is the real criminal. But the fact re- mains that it was the precipitating cause only because of the plans the German general staff had made. - German mobllization did not in- volve a French declaration of war, nor French German. But Russian did for the patent rea- son that the Schiieffen plan of the German army contemplated the rush against France. ‘When the crisis arose the diplomats carried on their futile discussions, the situation worsened and as it worsened the respective armies began their preparations, the soldiers did what was their business to do. But at a certain point the fallure of diplomacy led to the accentuation of military preparations. Then Russia mobilized and the German soldier came to the German statesman and said in effect, “I cannot be responsible for the defense of the country unless you stop Russian mobilization, - the time I have to crush France before Russia is ready.” & P Hence the frantic German Wltimatum of July 31, which was tahtamount to a declaration ‘of . war, because great power will yield to a summons of that sort. Hence the declaration of war, not because the German statesman or soldier planned ‘war, not because events had moved to the conclusion which they hea fore- seen and foreordained. Nothing' of the sort: Ratber because in the supreme anarchy of the situation one nation had permitted its soldiers to stake national existence upon a single line of action. # “If war comes after delay, if diplomacy fails and the struggle follows after Russia has com- pletéd her mobilization, we shall have lost the war already.” This is what Moltke told Beth- mann and the Kaiser. Had Germany waited I do not think there would have been a war, because Eufope was at last awake and aware of the colossal destruction which was impend- ing. Falkenhayn, the minister of war, later to become the vanquished of Verdun, believed Germany could have waited at least another day, and that might have been enough. But tne question was technical. i ~Nevertheless in all this I do not see any sign. that the German general staff intervened for the purpose of precitating a war which might- otherwise have been averted. Their's was the position of a fire department which ruled that ‘when a conflagration had reached a given point it would be necessary to dynamite a whole mass of public buildings to save the city. The fire did reach that point, not because of the desire or weakness of the fire department; and at that point it acted. * ok k% Meantime In the, discussion of ‘war guilt the proponents of a mnew set of criminals, the critics who would largely absolve the Germans and indict the French and Russians, who would hang not the Kaiser but Poincare and Sazonoff, ultimately came to grief over the same set of circumstances. The Russians mob- ilized not to provoke or promote war, but be- cause they believed that Germany was delib- erately forcing war. And certainly Austria’s whole course with respect of Serbia warranted the conclusion, even though we know now that Germany was far from viewing with approval or enthusiasm, or even in the end with silence, the Austrian maneuvers. 7 X For myself, as one who during and since the war has studled the documents, talked with the statesmen, read the books, I find it utterly impossible now to retain even the smallest fraction of the belief that the World War was a eriminal act to be charged to any one set of national politicians or for that matter laid at the door of any one nation as a deliberate and willful action. If would be simple and satisfy- ing to explain the war as the act.of one or more human beings following in the footsteps of Frederick the Great, when his wanton -in- vasion of Stlesia set Europe and indeed the 1d by its ears. There is nothing which can- ' o \ ou percelve that what happen i in 1905, in 1808, in 1911 and in but one to this ous gambling. As late as the Winter of 1912-13 the peace of Eu- rope turned uporl the of Djacova, Ipek and Dibra; again in 1911 it turned upon the exchange of a few thousand square miles of African swamp smitten with the sleeping sickness for a free hand in Morocco. Mussolini’s favorite phrase is “to live peril- ously,” and it was all Europe which, from 1905 to 1914, not only lived perilously, but with increasing risk; Statesmen took enormous chances and general war ‘each time seemed inevitable. With each escape they became not more cautious, but more adventurous. They were not seeking to precipitate the war, but they more and more came to the conviction that no matter, what they did the general war could not come. ¢ Bethmann-Hollweg, Poincare, Sazonoff,*Sir Edward Grey, all; in my judgment, equally de- sired to avoid a European conflict. I find noth- 1ing to suggest that any one of the four either acted to procure the conflict or was pushed aside by others who did desire the conflict. Nor does such evidence as we have suggest that the soldiers willtylly intervened. When they did act, both in the Russian and in the German~ cases, it was because as technical men, charged with the defense of the nation, they believed the situation was becoming so critical that one party was striving for a decisive advantage by acting before the other. * ok k% There were men and influences in every country which favored war, although none, I believe, which favored a war of-the magnitude of that which came, but they did not control nor can I see that they exercised a decisive and precipitating influence. But when the war did come the masses of every nation were s0 convinced that they had not desired the con- flict, that they were innocent of all desire or wish for it, that they easily concluded that it came as the result of the desire and will of an enemy people. 0 Could the war have been prevented? Since the judgment of 12 years after is pretty solidly in all objective minds that there were no war criminals and that there is no war guilt in the familiar sense, would it not have been possible to have avoided the supreme tragedy? In 1914, perhaps, just as it was avolded in 1905 and the successive crises from 1905-1914, but not defi- nitely, it seems to me, because the forces whiok had been set in motion during a half centun, had embarked upon policies which led inevitably to collision:” Nothing which happened in 1914 made war more likely than it was in 1905, in 1908 or in 1911. But the factors which made 1t possible and alffost precipitated it in these earlier years finally did bring it about in the final yeaf. * ok ok k . For nearly a decade after the outbreak of the conflict men studied the records of the July days of 1914 convinced that in them they would find the explanation of the arrival of the war. But on the whole, the examination of the docu- ments has disclosed surprisingly little which explains, although it has turned an amazing amount of material which contradicts and de- molishes the war-time -explanations of the causes on either side of the firing line. The attempt to fix guilt convincingly falled utterly, first with respect of the Germans, whose declarations of war laid upon them presump- tive guilt, and then upon the French and Rus- sians, who were inevitably caught in the re- bound of world opinion. In the larger sense, it is plain now that the war brought no victors and no vanquished. Europe lost the war, not Germany or her al- les. And in the same sense it was Europe and not eny. individual people or government, monarch or prime minister, who willed the struggle, not deliberately, not directly, but by the acceptance of a system which, sooner or later, could only end as it did end. And it is the growing belief in this inter- pretation which lends supreme interest to the present-day evolution of Europe. Toward what new system is it turning? Or Is it, in fact, slowly reverting to the old? * * k% On' the whole, it seems to me that the last two or three years have mirked a very real transformation in European thought and con, ception. It may be temporary, it may be the passing effect of the consequences of the last struggle, yet one cannot be long in Europe to- day without feeling that in every natlon there is stirring a certain movement for broader and deeper international understanding. It is not organized, it is hardly defined, but it does ex- ist and it is hopefully discoverable in the com- ing generation. All this was impossible as long as minds were imprisqned in the conceptions of war guilt and war criminals. But on the twelfth anniversary of the outbreak of the World War, while every European country is still manifest- 1y passing through a severe crisis which has its origin in war disasters, one can at least say that war , war prejudices and war bit- ternesses be men and nations have be- come less vital and less important than at any time since the conflict came. In fact, the war, with its’ causes and its origins, is now almost completely removed from the region of propa- ganda and transferred to that of history. And as the change had come slowly and almost in- sensibly the present anniversary supplies a useful and perhaps a necessary ocgasion for appraisal. “ (Copyright. 1926.) RECORD STREAM OF TOURISTS WILL VISIT CAPITAL THIS YEAR TO REFORM REPUBLICAN PARTY Kdahoan Sees No Chance of Being President Under Present Organization—Will Hit World Court and Tariff. BY FREDERIC WILLIAM WILE. Eventual reorganization of the Re- publican party on progressive lines is the declared purpose of Willlam E. Borah of Idaho, who has just em- barked upon a speech-making cam. paign that will carry his voice and views into all parts of the country. The campaign has no time limits. It L. will begin at Augusta, Ga., today and continue throughout the Summer and Autumn into the Winter. ‘It will prob- ably be carried on during the short session of Congress. Borah considers that he can render more genuine public service by filling proffered speaking engagements than by answering roll calls on routine measures like appropriation bills in December, January and February. ‘The forum of popular discussion, therefore, rather than the . Senate chamber, will claim his interest. Borah will open his campaign of national education on public questions with a defense of the elghteenth amendment. The Idahoan is a dry, but he voted against the Volstead act. He opposed it because he believed that the law violated fundamental con- stitutional ' principles. Borah is tak- ing the stump for the eighteenth amendment from similar motives. He is not at all concerned with the amendment from the prohibition standpoint, but wholly becauise he sees a dangerous trend towardy'‘nulli- fication” of the Constitution. Sees Nullification Issue. Concretely, Borah looks upon pend- ing proposals for State referenda of the teenth amendment, such New York is about to hold, as ‘‘nulli- fication” pure and simple. He holds it to be ‘“anarchy” for individual States of the Union to assert the right_to say whether this or that article of the United States Constitu- tion shall or shall not be obeyed. Borah contends he gdoes not care a fig whether referenda deal with pro- hibition or with some other feature of existing' constitutional law. He would oppose any and all referenda that in- volve clothing people of certain sec- Court as against the League of Na- tions itself. % After the ‘eighteenth amendment and the World Court, the subjecws which his audlences, South and North, East and West,” will hear Borah expound are the tariff, which he considers iniquitously high; the cost of living, which he holds to be burdensome beyond all belief; despite signs and protestations 8f “‘prosper- ity”’; the dominance of “big business" at Washington, never s0.much in evidence, Borah contends, as during the recent session of and last, but not least, the necessity to do something real in the realm of farm relief. Borah opposed relief on corn-belt or McNary-Haugen - lines, but he is as anxious as any corn- belter fer some kind of fundamental help for agriculture. He seems to be- lieve that tariff reduction is econom- feally the soundest form of agricul- tural relief. Will Visit New York. New York State will hear Borah early in August, following his inva- sion of the South; then the Middle ‘West, the Northwest, the far North- west, and eventually New England. Senator Borah will return to the South ‘before his campaign is ended. Tili- nois, Minnesota, North Dakota, Idaho, ‘Washington State and Massachusetts are among the widely re- gions in which he will speak during the next six months. In some States he will make several gddresses. In every case he will talk to mass meet- ings, the sort of audience Borah prefers. | Borah is not swinging across the country in th® name of n\{m orllmnl-r tion, party, group, or' individual, Least of all, he yehe- mently insists, in his own interest. On each occasion will appear in response to invitations ,in _hand and urgently re) waves aside all suggestions that he is “run- nil for t.” That would like to be President few of his friends doubt. But when they ask him to avow tions of the country with the privi- | this ¢Jege of respecting or flouting the Con- stitution as they please. renda on constitutionalism, in ment, are_ a process of g” the United States. the doctrine that John C. Calhoun tried %o establish, and for espousing : Andrew Jackson is quoted as ha; said Ne “was sorry I didn’t hang houn.” The eighteenth amendment will be the theme on which Borah will first harp, but he .purposes hammering away on half a dozen other national issues which he believes will soon rivet public “attention. He will, of course, hit the World Court hard, fm- mediately and persistently, When ' The Tdahoan predicts in Wisconsin will be the would fit as a the Idahoan has a personal taking the national stump time, that is it. - 3 (Copyright. 1026.) —_— LLOYD GEORGE-STILL GAY AND LEADER OF POLITICS BY JOHN GUNTHER, ; 'l;.?..!‘lrlndW‘ London E sat’ smiling, bowing his H white bobbofll head perkily. to a group of newspaper men. “And how does it feel, Mr, Liloyd Geor y from Chicago asked, “to be the great- est diplomat in the world?” Mr. Lloyd George didn’t second in answer. “It. makes me feel,” he said, “some- what' shy.” : # That was in Minneapolis. The year was 1923.° I saw him again on his pause a was tric, abrupt, jovial. When he laugh- ed- he started the echoes chasing. When he talked, wit leaped from his tongue. When he - moved, energy danced from theé very curves of his puckered red ‘cheeks. The speedy pungence of his wit is legenad. ““There are fanatics in every party,” shouted the Irishman Healy, sitting alone in one corner in a House of Commons debate. Lioyd George paused only long enough to let the interruption reach the house. “Even in a party of one,” was his thrust in reply. At a Birmingham meeting - Lloyd “And for hell, wo,,* I suppese,” shouted a heckler. “Quite ht,” remarked Lloyd 3 "Ir:fi(e to hear a man stick was greeted tables ‘from_the gallery. Hi over and picked up a turnip. He held | it forth. = “Some one,” he called.out, “has lost his head.” N ey " Bows to Mississippl. I saw him in special train, and a day or two in Chicago. His instinct for the dra- mw::tonsdflwlnuw formation L” & ig:n-,wiu, on his|the ‘he 8ec: | 1 influence in Englsh politics o« fights a 43 now. Mr. Lloyd George difterent battle from all the many batties of his stormy career. He is fighting time. He is almost 65. He expects power and office again. His intrigues to that end are unceasing. %llufifll the greatest of opportun- unscrupulous. Even. his friends hint the word “dictator.” $ and what comes must come soon. His unfailing zest for the dramatic was fllustrated very prettily in his last few moments in Chicago. He stood on the back platform of the train' which was to take him to his enemies say the most|Springfield. Thin rain was slashing FREER FLOW OF TRADE SEEN AS EUROPE’S HOPE OF PEACE To Extent That Nations Develop Economic Relations With Each Other, Says Noted Authority, Will International Antagonisms Disappear. ’ BY ROBERT S. BROOKINGS. < ‘While partial or entire disarmament ‘would save the nations a vast amount of money, there is little evidence it ‘would prove an important preventive of war. Where people are to fight, they never seem to lack the nec- essary arms, through source of supply. The only method of war prevention. is to eliminate the cause to whieh we can easily trace the great majority of wars—i. e., the over: development of an intense nationalism. ‘While we honor that love of country call iotism, we have witnessed in Europe the development of this sentiment until it has taken ‘the form of an ion. which ' as. sumes - that love ‘of one's country necessitates the hatred of other coun- _Hence we have armaments for self-defense, which * have “well-being, which co-operation through the of one or 'more customs nomic conferences of the European nations to be held within the next few months, called by different interests, but all of which have for their pur- pose the discussion of ways means for promoting a freer flow.of trade between the ingries. This indicates a hopeful beginning of what I belleve to bé Europe's only ‘way_ ou . Another . influence which . will be direct ‘and | repeated, now with his eyes s the air. “A cuttmig widd.leaped down a toward the train. venue waved to the little The crowd tightened to a Some ex» combed by the wind, stood bare-head- ed with arms about them, “Never,” he called, “have I been to a city which tredted me more kindly.” Greets Friends in Rain. The train was about to puil out. The ends of Megan's brown- bobbed young man rushed up through the police lines; the knot of people un- raveled to give him way. ' “Fourteen years I've waited to shake your hand!” the young man shouted. ‘Fourteen years! God bless you, sir! Liloyd George almost toppled off the platform to lean over and crush the ung man's hand. “I'm a Welshman,” the youngster treaming +“My name is Llewellyn. T waited fourteen years for: thi: hlgr-: you, sir; God bless you! Me- gan turned abruptly and left the plat- form. Then a curious thing hap- pened. Evidently many Englishmen 100,000 Auto Travelers Expected to Bring Great Economic Benefits to City During Four Hottest ~ Months ahd to Stimulate All'Business. BY WILLIAM ULLMAN, Automobile Editor of The Star. Riding down from the horizon thick with dust or glistening in the glossy grandeur of wide, smooth q a seemingly endless stream of motor tourists is ever pouring in and out of the Natlonal Cupital, leaving in its wake a very definite contribution to the economic welfare of the city and its environs. Is there adequate appreciation of the great importance to Washington of this annual influx of motor travel- ers, which makes itself felt most strongly during the months of June, July, August and September? thinks not. While it is hardly possi- ble to estimate accurately the total 100,000 persons. = There “should be fuller recognition of' the fact that in a very definite measure Washington occupies a po- sition in the Summer much the same as Paris, Atlantic City, the mmmm e J il.( from the West making a patriotic East is killing two birds ment.. In other words, the extra at- traction of the Sesqui is bringing an additional group of motorists to ‘Washington this year. Every phase of Washington's varied business interests finds benefit in the continually expanding volume of tour- ist travel coming to ‘the city in the months which usually are featured by small but marked declines in trade turnover. The hotels, of course, can find immediate and clearly traceable returns, while the restaurants are placed in the same gratifying position. Really vast sums of money find their way into other channels. ' Re- tail establishments, including the de- partment stores, come in for a goodly share of this transient business, so ‘welcome during the Summer months, while sightseeing lines, always busy in the warm months, are finding new , business in those tourists who garage their cars while in town and inspect the points of interest from huge com- fortable coaches. It has become prac- tice among motor travelers here to put up their own machines and take a ‘The plan has two. quickly—when everything is pointed out and explained. 4 Benefits to Increase. The growing total of motor tour ists heading into Washington has, st then, a very distinct and a very favor- able effect upon the business life of the. city at a time when the trade i