Evening Star Newspaper, March 15, 1931, Page 35

Editorial Page EDITORIAL SECTION he Sundiy Star. Part 2--8 Pages WASHIN GION,: D. O, SUNDAY GENEVA A BATTLEGROUND | OF BICKERING Staiesmen Continue NATIONS| Clashing Over Ver- silles Boundaries—Impatient Peoples Looking to League BY FBANK H. SIMONDS. ENEVA—In addition to the economic and political crises, which are at the moment profoundly disturbing Europe, there is a third, which can perhaps be properly called the League of Nations crisis. In the larger sensc this Geneva difficulty follows upon the general disturbances, yet it has aspects | wholly its own. In fact, the general situation has brought the League of Nations to the most acute crisis in its | 11 years of history. There is not, to be sure, any question | about the survival of the League. On the institutional side it has already established itself as a permanent | mechanism for the performance of va- | rious international tasks. It has de- | veloped a large, highly trained and | devoted secretariat snd it has become | the center of activities, whose number and extent are well nigh bewildering to the visitor who wanders into the rather gloomy structure that still houses the League and consults the bulletin board for the day's business. Again, as the recent council meeting once more demonstrated, the League remains a meeting place for European statesmen and a kind of court of last resort for difficult issues, which might otherwise long poison the whole Euro- pean atmosphere. Thus in the case of the dispute between Poland and Ger- many over alleged Polish atrocities in Upper Silesia it is difficult to see how disastrous results could have been avoided in the face of rising German resentment and indignant Polish re- Joinder had the discussion continued | to be carried on directly between War- saw and Berlin, instead of being sub- mitted to the council of the League. Temporary Compromise. | Thanks to the Geneva opportunity | both Zaleskie of Poland and Curtius of Germany were protected from the im- possible demands of their nationalist extremists, a temporary compromise was agreed upon, which took the dis- pute out of the headlines at least for some months, and all this happened without any injury being done to the prestige of Poland or the genuinely disturbed sentiments of Germany. It is not difficult to believe that had the statesmen of June and July, 1914, had a League of Nations to resort to and a public opinion in the world in- sistent that this further step preceding mobilization and war be taken, the great catastrophe might have ' been avoided, particularly since now each new memoir makes it clearer that ln; the last moments Europe went to war because its leaders were on the one hand overtaken by panic and on the other without means of decent retreat. When one has said all this, however, | o it remains true that the fortunes of the | League are today in full crisis because, | despite its proved value both on the institutional side and as an escape valve, it has so far been unable to | make any real tribution to th supreme problem, wifich is the organ. ization of peace itself. The failure has been double, too, equally complete on the economic side and the political. Thus at the moment when the whole continent has been stricken by the economic depression, it has been unable to devise any means of co-operation between states whose intelligent co- operation is patently one of the first | steps in arriving at & general recovery. Equally it has failed to insure com- bination between agrarian states and | association between industrial and | sgrarian nations naturally comple- mentary. Basis for Experiments. Underneath Briand's grandiose scheme for a united states of Europe there was at least a measure of solid and at the | moment pertinent basis for local and | regional experiments, but all came to | nothing and a Dutch speaker at the | moment of final flasco pronounced an | address in a League committee which | was at once an indictment and a con- | fession; indictment of the responsible | ien, confession of the failure of effort. All that this conference to attain European unity could offer was a hotly contested proposal to in- vite Soviet Russia, whose recent dump- ing had prostated world markets, to| join in the furthering of European union and co-operation! i This failure on the economic side was | of course a consequence of the failure on the political. And the political fail- ure is due to the fact that Europe is today divided into groups, into two camps, one demanding the revision of the peace treaties, the other their pres- ervation untouched. And the League has become the battleground of the groups, while every question of real moment raised becomes the basis for the maneuvering of the two groups for technical advantage. | Veitson believed that he was going o establish a just peace in Europe and make the League the instrument to| maintain this peace. His League was to'perpetuate a peace already made, bu his program fell through when th | League it is clear that such a deadlock, | peace | to Construct Peace. | peace actually made was rejected by the losers of the war as unjust. Thence- forward the League was inevitably con- demned to be for the lcsers a means of obtaining a revision of the peace treaties and for the winners an instru- ment to preserve the status quo of the | | treaties. German Revision Aims, The difficulty was not felt in the first year of the League, when the Germans were not yet members. It was not even felt seriously after German en- trance following the Locarno pacts, because Stresemann confined his efforts to accomplishing various things, like the hastening of the evacuation of German territory and the modification of the Dawes plan, | When, however, evacuation had been accomplished, the Dawes plan modified and the temporary handicans of defeat removed; Germany, at last recovering her freedom, turned to Geneva to ac- complish the modification of the treaty, permanent circumstances of the treaty, above all the revision of the territorial clauses of the Treaty of Versailles as they affect the eastern frontiers of the Reich. And Hungary, Bulgaria and | Lithuania for similar reasons followed the German lead. | Against any such move, however, the | Germans found the French, backed by the Poles, Czechs, Rumanians and | Jugoslavs, standing’ firmly at Geneva. And in the face of such opposition it | was impossible to bring the question up. In the matter of armaments, on the con- trary, the issue was pending and Ger- many sought to obtain through the disarmament conference either the re- duction of the armaments of her ne bors or the cancellation of the clauses of the peace treaty that set a limit to her own military and naval establish- ments. But here, again, she found the same powers opposed, this time measurably backed by Great Britain. The result of the double disappointment was that “The Truth About Women!” MORNING, MARCH 15, 1931. Famous Author Discusses a gubjecl Which Is Certain to Arouse Storm of Objection and Criticis there grew up a strong demand in Ger- many for withdrawal from the League, and in the Foreign Relations Commi tee of the Reichstag a resolution for withdrawal was recently defeated the vote of 13 to 12; that is, the | change of one vote would probably have | led to a parliamentary majority for withdrawal. | Postponed Until 1932, } As 1t stands the issue has been pos poned until the Disarmament Confer- ence of 1932, but all my German friends of all parties and ranks unanimous in many does not get h armament—namely, proportionate re- duction by her neighbors or equality in armaments for herself—she will go | t year. signs point thercfore to a dead- lock in the conference, following a battle in which disarmament will nom- inally be the subject under discussion, but relative positions and prestiges vill be actually involved. And for the are followed not improbably by the with- drawal of one and even of several na- tions, will prove a disaster of the first magnitude. Here is the fundamental | Teason for the present demand for an | American presiding officer—and Chief Justice Hughes is most favored today. | An admirable rhechanism for pr serving peace, once it has been estab- lished through the voluntary acceptance of peoples, the League has as yet de- | veloped n® resources as a constructive agency for creating peace. But noth- ing is clearer in the Europe of today than the fact that while no people wants a_war, there are at least a hun- | dred million’ of people who believe the | existing circumstances, territorial and otherwi insure a new conflict, while an equal number are satisfied that an attempt to change spells war. Place of Collision. More and more the col these views is coming to else in Europe, as it has at transforming Geneva from a of tranquillity to a place of collisi Meantime at home, in all the count t odds, the publ beginni lose confidence in the League because they resent its failure to pro- duce a change or are indign: the possibility that it may undertake such change. In a word, Europe has no Actual war is out tion now, and probably for s But by every other means European states and peoples are reling over armament and ter questions, and these quarrels, transferred eague an in- | on. | es alike in council and asse tives of opposing theses get together themselves at home. fault is not League but European put it is the League that is now pay- Ing for the broken windows of reckless tatesmen. (Copyright. 1931.) | Famous Property of “Red Prince” ® To Be Converted Into a Hotel BY FREDERICK OECHSNER. 1 BERLIN, February 28 —Debt, that specter which has played too lively a role for comfort in the affairs of most German nobility since the revolution has now claimed the ancient Glienecke Palace, near Potsdam, property of the | “Red Prince,” Priedrich Leopold of | magnificent old estate ned into a week end hotel under lease for the pleasure of Ameri- can and other tourists and the fu ture and art treasures are to be sold putright by auction. Prince Priedrich Leopold, once the wealthiest member of the Hohenz:l- Jern family and richer than the Kaiser himself, is a son of the late Field Mar- shal Prince Priedrich Karl of Prussia, vicior in many battles against Den- mark, Austria and France in the last | century. | The father, originally yclept “the | Red Prince” because, even as field marshal, he would wear no other uni- | form than the scarlet tunic of his favorite Tegiment of hussars, collected a large part of the magnificent an- tiques which are now to be sold by his son. The latter derives his til of “Red Prince,” not hereditarily from his father, but because on the day of the German revolution (November 9, 1918) he, 8 member of the royal Ho- henzollern clan, hoisted a red flag over Glienecke In sympathy with the republic. This audacious and friendly act did | not save his property from confisca- | tion, along with that of all the other ichenvollerns. Up to that time he | had been the wealthiest of German princes; although his great estates in foreign countries had been seques- trated during the war, he still owned Glienecke and smaller mansions and 25 large farms in the vicinity of Pots- P is to be tu dam. A lawsuit against the new regime yesulted in his favor; nine farms were T zelurned Bd he received & cash upon he Lugano, indemnity s creditors 1 against them $1,000,000 gave a brief breathin; His creditors count, hounded him Leopold offered the city of Berl part of Glienecke Park for $800,000. | Forty years ago he had bought the | patch for $1,700. Berlin did not con- | sider it a bargain. The transaction | and sale mentioned at the opening of this story ere the next steps. The | Bankruptcy Court may be just around | the corner. | Prince Friedrich Leopold and Kaiser | Wilhelm married sisters, but the prince was never on good terms with his monarch. This was often rumored to | have been due to complaints lodged | by the prince’s wife with her sister, | the Kaiserin, and once, as the culnina- tion of a domestic rumpus, Friedrich Leopold was ordered, like a bad boy‘{ to Temain at Glienecke. The Kaiser, | to insure the arrest, sent a company | of soldiers from Potsdam to surround | the palace so that the noble but im- | penitent culprit could not sneak out. | Glienecke was built by the renowned Prussian _architect, Karl Priedrich Schinkel, in the early part of the past century. Schinkel also designed much of the furniture. About 70 spacious rooms and halls are filled with rare pleces, some of them dating back to the time of the great Elector of Bran- denburg. ® (copmisht, @ paid | in the new capital. | toward their diplomats. THE WORSHIP OF WOMEN HAS EVER BEEN THE INSPIRATION OF GENIUS, BY E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM. VERY one is pretty well agreed, and the historian will without 2 doubt confirm the fact, that the two worst pieces of legisla- tion for which the war was re- sponsible are prohibition in America and Baldwin's gift of the vote to flap- | pers in England. Unfortunately, while | | cohol,” the flappe: the hitherto law-abiding citizens of the United States, as soon as they had recovered from their paralysis of sur- prise, treated their bombshell as a jest and doubled their consumption of al- of Great Britain girded up their knickers, played the Joan of Arc and started out to free men from their cheerfully borne fet- |ters. In all the generosity of their | young hearts they sent pealing through | the ccuntry that soul-stirring slogan which found prompt and regrettable response in the bosoms of their | mothers—Equality With Men Means | Equal Service. The whole masculine world is still | thrilled with the glorious magnanimity | ~From a Palnting by C. J. Monro. the humbler but the militant section | (Continued on Fourth Page.j Diplomats Ask for Walls Legations in Peking Fearful of Boxer Specter as They Discuss Move to Nanking. JAMES W. BENNETT, ‘The Yellow | Eic. | BY VEXING problem now confronts the foreign offices and chancel- leries of half a score of Occi- dental nations. It faces the American State Department. This problem is: To move or nct to move their legations in China. At present the legations are in Peking, the former capital. The government of China, however, functions a substantial number of miles away—in Nanking. That self-same government is urging the powers to accept the various plots of ground that it has set aside for them 1t is begging them | to box and crate their legation archives these south to Nanking. It is| envoys themselves to pack 1s, ribbons, swords and braid- to leave their northern | . and enter the Promised nt says, and | justice foreign office it is no longer in Peking. Id not our joint business be done e quickly and efficiently if your en- 1 direct touch with us, on | governme: ‘O Yet there is no unmannerly scramble | among the various chancellories to ac- cept these plots of Nanking ground. No hasty erection of buildings. . No setting up of skeletonized legations while houses and compound walls are being built. Walls! That is the rub. The Chinese sovernment is opposed to walls. In fact, it is opposed to any joining of the for- eign legations in a compact group—so opposed that it has been careful to divide the plots of ground it offers. It has dotted these grants over a wide arca. And it is behind an encirclement of solid, well fortified walls that the lega- tions in Peking now cluster. The en- voys retire at night knowing that their sleep will be guarded by armed soldlers. Knowing that their archives are housed in fireproof, lootproof safes. Legations Have Gardens. Furthermore, their quarters in Peking delight the eye; each legation boests of its gardens. Their rooms are heated by chauffage centrale, and hot wafer is available. All this cculd possibly be duplicated in Nanking—but the process would require money. And, in this day and age of distress at home, their gov- srnments are not making lavish gestures But these pre minor items. The main —Drawn THE SIEGE WENT ON, AND THE DEFENDERS BECAME HIGHLY KEYED. theme is that of protection, of safety— of walls, Thirty years ago the Peking legations were not so well fortified. As a result, the ministers were given such a fright that their successors in office have never recovered from it. ‘The odor of fear—like that of sancity—lingers in every corner of the Legation Quarter. It mingles with the very alr that the legates breathe. The siege of the lega- tions by the Boxers—so ably abetted by the Chinese government of that day its ecto) confront for The Bunday Star by Cyrus L. Baldridge. the diplomat as he first sets foot in China. And during his stay there the specter continues to materialize to & vivid and startling degree. Nor is the menace entirely psycho- logical. ~Alarums and excursions have occurred in recent years with almost the seasonal regularity of those high tides which come roaring in at Hang- chow Bay. There are bewildering alignments and realignments of political power—and the lanes of Peking sud- denly fill with Chinese troops. Soldiers, bent on taking their withheld pay in loot. To the Chinese infantryman the foreigners arc all devils of the first category. To rob them is to gain merit; | it is almost an act of piety. In addition, the Mei-guo and Ying-guo and Fan- guo—those outer barbarians from America, England and France—are all fabulously wealthy. Five minutes of good, healthy looting in their domiciles will set up & soldier not dnly for his life but for that of his sons and grand- sons. He can retire from the ardudus and not at all pleasing vocation of man-killer. Prepared for Eventualiies. But the legations today can view the threatened coup d'etat, the sudden in- vasion of armies, with something like equanimity. They are prepared for eventualities, And they offer their protection to all the foreigners of Peking living outside the legation ‘wall These foreigners are booked, eac” at his own legation. The moment word comes that Chinese soldiers are marching on the city, notices are sent by telephone or chit to the outlying homes, warning their occupants to be packed and prepared. Further warning will be sent if need arises. Thus the foreigner is given ample opportunity to reach the shelter of the legation walls and to remain inside until the menace has disappeared. Actually the final tocsin has not been | sounded, although on numerous oc- casions the preliminary warning has been sent out. The ' legations themselves are kept continually in readness. Inside those solid walls are stores of food, deep wells that will supply water, field pieces with ammunition to match. The gates are of armor-plate steel. And lastly, there is a Legation Guard. This body of troops varies from season to season according to the state of peace or war in China; but at all times it is a siza- ble force. ‘Thirty years ago, to repeat, this was not the case. That brassy-hot Sum- mer of 1900 the 11 legations in Peking lay cowering, as helpless as 11 ewe lambs clustered together for mutual protection—while wolves with good appetites snapped and circled rapidly around them. It was a tragic farce that was played that Summer, fantastic and incredible. It could have happened nowhere but in China, the whimsical, the paradoxical. It began while the legations—and the world they represented—still were os- tensibly at peace with China. True, for some time the legations had been hear- ing of that fantastical organization, the Boxers. Bands of this avowedly anti- (Contigued » o i’ ROOSEVELT’S 1932 LEAD HAS VARIETY OF PERILS |Wet Position Stands Governor in Favor With “New York but Not in BY MARK SULLIV NE way to clarify the Demo- cratic presidential situation (which is really very much mixed) is to describe the rela- tion that Gov. Franklin | Roosevelt of New York has to it. Gov Roosevelt's name—as of today—leads all the rest. He is far out in front. As of today. Roosevelt should easily have, as his initial strength in the conven- tion, the immense delegation from New York State, almost a tenth of the whole. Whomever New York supports, so will the “New York group of States” sup- port. By the “New York group of States” .is meant (in addition to New - Connecticut, Massachusetts, Jersey. classification, “the New York group of States,” should be included, perhaps, Vermont and New Hampshire, with part of Maine and more than half of Pennsylvania. This territory, in Democratic National Conventions, commonly acts as a unit. It does so, not by any artificial ar- rangement, but by a natural homoge- neousness. This territory, within the Democratic party, has the same ways of looking' at things. The parts of it understand each other. It has the same point of view about prohibition; it has the same economic interests and, therefore, the same point of view about other issues. As of today—but very much subject to change—this territory would normally "express itself in the Democratic National Convention by supporting Gov. Roosevelt. This solid block of support would amount to close to a third of the whole convention. First Ballot Assurance. ‘The “New York group of States” with their almost a third of the delegates, should comprise Gov. Roosevelt's ini- tial support. This territory would prob- ably vote for him in the first ballot. Thereafter, on early ballots, there should come to Gov. Roosevelt the sup- port of other States or portions of States in which the prevailing Demo- cratic point of view is kin to that of New York—the wet portion of Illinos the wet portion of Michigan, of Mt souri, of Ohio, perhaps all of Wisconsin, the wet portions of delegations from such States as Washington, perhaps all of wet Maryland—after and if Mary- land has finished standing by its fa- vorite son, Gov. Albert Ritchie. Some of these States will have, as Maryla: will, favorite sons. Some of these favorite sons will be formidable and in certain eventualities may have & real chance to get the nomination, New York will show high strength on the first ballot, and m&mlflx that the tide runs his way in the subsequent ballots, all the States or portions of States named above should gradually fall in behind the New York Governor, Practically the entire wet portion of the party would be likely to be lined up with Gov. Roosevelt before many ballots had been concluded. All this is as of today. It—this whole picture and the political fate of Gov. Roosevelt—is very much subject to mere fact that Gov. Roosevelt at a time 15 months in advance of the convention is so far out in front is itself an impediment and a peril. To be so conspicuous in the race at so early a time invites the fate of the shining mark. Actions taken by a candidate So far in front, statements by him, in- cidents that happen around him, take on a significance, often disadvantageous, not attending men more obscure. Peril in “Too Early” Hope. An interesting book could be written about the men in American history who | suffered tragedies of hope defeated | largely through having arrived too near | of this divine gesture. The efforts al- | ready made toward our emancipation have stirred us to the depths. There has appeared, however, in the clear sky of our content one little ¢loud no big- ger than a man's hand, a tiny ques- tion mark, a shiver of doubt. Are we, | the goal at too early a stage in the | | race. In addition to this general peril to Goy. Roosevelt there are in his case at least two specific dangers. gers are at this time dangers only. They can readily take the form of concrete, aggressive opposition. Either of them can become very formidable. | To survey the remainder of the Dem- | ocratic presidential field, a good way to | begin is to consider these possible men- | aces to the New York Governor. The most obvious menace to the New York Governor—so obvious as really not to be terribly formidable—is the Demo- cratic drys in the South and elsewhere. The dry South wants a dry candidate —and Gov. ‘Roosevelt, of course, is classified as wet. The dry South added to sporadic groups of drys elsewhere could, if all the dry delegates should stand continuously solid throughout the convention, prevent Gov. Roosevelt’s nomination. In Democratic conventions it takes two-thirds to nominate (con- trary to the Republican practice, which Trequires only a majority). Consequent- ly one-third of a convention can, so to speak, veto a nomination. ‘The drys will have fully a third of next year’s Democratic National Con- vention and may have materially more. But to be effective they must stand together. To stand together they must have a rallying point. ‘The rallying point must be a man. In short, the drys must have a candidate of their own-—one outstanding candidate of their own. If the dry delegates should be divided among several dry candi- dates it would be the easiest trick in the world for the experienced wet poli- ticians to pick the dry delegates off, group by group. It seems likely the drys will have a candidate, and it seems possible this candidate may fulfill the necessary con- dition of being a single outstanding candidate. The man about whom ap- parently the drys will have their op- portunity to stand is Senator Joseph T. Robinson of Arkansas.. Mathemat- ically and every way it is possible to visualize the drys standing firm behind Senator Robinson and thereby prevent- ing the nomination of Gov. Roosevelt of New York. Not Implacably Hostile, But the fact is the drys are not im- placably hostile to Gov. Roosevelt, They think of him as being wet, but not terribly wet. They have heard that the New York Governor, while wet po- litically, is dry personally. They have heard that his wife, Mrs. Franklin Roosevelt, is really as earnest for mini- mizing the liquor traffic as the drys themselves, differing from them only about the means through which to bring about minimum consumption of liquor. ~Gov. Roosevelt has agreeable associations with the South. He spends some of each year in Georgi He be- fln the national part of his political ife in association with a Southerner as Assistant Secretary of the Navy when Josephus Daniels of North Caro- lina was Secretary in the presidency of Woodrow Wilson. Furthermore, the drys are so much in terror of the nomination of some one who would be to them more dis- tasteful than Gov. Roosevelt that their opposition to New York Governor becomes _secondarys. themselyes, and are taken in so thinking, as pel to face the possibility of the of former Gov. Smith. The be very glad, would un' D. | Within this | But, assuming that Gov. Roosevelt of | The dan- | Group of States,” Dry South. as having done well, to accept Gov. Roosevelt as one way of averting the ination of former Gov. Smith. The ys, in short, a ¢ no means im- placable in their opposition to Roosevelt. ‘The contest for the presidential nomi- nation is goinz to be overlapped and |in all respects mixed up with the eon- troversy over having or not having & wet plank in the platform. Taking this | into account, the drys in many possible | pictures of the situation as it will le |in June, 1932. would not be extremely | hostile 'to the nomination of Gov. | Roosevelt: in some possible variations | of the picturs they would even welcome the nomination of the New York Gov- | ernor. Sympathetic to Southern Drys. Finally. Gov. Roosevelt has made himself ‘sympathetic to the Southern drys through what he did in cophec- | tion with the struggle 10 days ago over | Chairman Raskob’s proposal that the | Democratic National Committee and | the party should go wet. On that oc- | easion Gov. Roosevelt actually helped | the drys to avert what threatened them. | The threat lay in the fact that Chair- | man Rasikob proposed that the Demo- | cratic National Committec now, and the National Convention next year, should formally adopt a wet plank. " For such a proposal it would be supposed | that, the Democracy of New York State | would loudly cheer, since the Democracy of New York State constituies about the wettest portion of the population of the United States. Actually, however, the New York State Democratic organ= ization paseed resolutions disapproving | the notion that Chairman Raskob put | forward. The New York State dels- | gation, in short, identified itself with the wishes of the dry South. That this action was inspired by Gov. Roosevelt— that the New York State organization would never have taken such a step | without Gov. Roosevelt’s approval—is universally taken for granted. ‘This constitutes a tie of liking between the New York Governor and the dry South. | The two have stood side by side in op- | pesition to a common adversary—the adverfary being Chairman Raskob and | his wet proposal, backed up by former Gov. Smith. By that same token this action of Gov. Roosevelt’s brings us to the other and more real peril to Gov. Roosevelt's fortune. It is not necessary to say that by this Smitn—though in the nature of things they could not have liked it. Mr. Raskob was "engaged in what he con- | celved to be a great pu Gov. | Roosevelt went out of his way to stand with those opposed to the Raskob pur- pose. The South was resisting . Raskob's purpose to make the Demo- was helpi resist. ‘What Mr. Raskob’s emotions Gov. Roosevelt must have can guess. And former undoubtedly, shared both purpose and slso Mr. Raskob’ about Gov. Roosevelt, Necessity of Wet Position. | More broadly than that one episode. one may say that Gov. Roosevelt, in order to have and to keep the support of Mr. Raskob and ex-Gov. Smith, must be wet. He must be all the way wet. by Messrs. Raskob and Smith. Rcosevelt must be wet in the spirlt |and to the extent that the mass of Democratic voters are wet throughout the territory upon which Gov. Roose= velt must rely for his primary . If these Democratic voters and_the minor Democratic leaders of New_York and the New York group of States should suspect Gov. Roosevelt of acting |in a too tolerant spirit toward the dry | South—in that case the wets of the | North would tear him to pieces. One does not need to discuss the sit- | uation.in terms of the three personali- ties, Gov. Roosevelt on the one side |and Messrs. Raskob and Smith on the other; though, in fact, it is commonly so described, because of the tendency of politics to express itself in personalities and symbols. At the present time it would be almost certainly inaccurate to describe Messrs. Raskob and Smith as opposed to Roosevelt. It would be more accurate to describe them as favoring Roosevelt, or as rather taking the nomi- naion of Roosevelt for granted, or at the least as not disposed to stand in the New York Governor's way. But if Gov. Roosevelt should fail to | be sufficiently and orthodoxically wet, |Chairman Raskob and ex-Gov. Smith would be certain to oppose him. They would oppose him because, under that condition opposition would be their natural personal inclination: and also because they would be obliged to. Men who become symbols in_politics, whose personalities take on leadership, ' are obliged to do the things of which they are symbols or else lose their following. Ex-Gov. Smith has a very large follow. ing, much the largest that any Demo- crat has. Chairman Raskob has some following, largely included within ex- Gov. Smith’s. Also, Chairman Raskob stands before the world now as the symbol of and as committed to a cer tain definite action about the eight- eenth amendment. Chairman Raskob and ex-Gov. Smith must go on with this program; and Gov. Roosevelt must go on hand in hand with them. | Smith Support Important. | If Mr. Raskob and ex-Gov. Smith— | which is really to say if Smith—were known to disapprove Roosevelt, the lat- | ter wouldn't have a Chinaman’s chance. | The mass of Democratic voters in the North and East upon whom Gov. Roose- velt must rely are really followers of | Smith, ardent followers of him. So far | as Roosevelt personally has any follow- | ing. that following is largely embraced | within and a part of ex-Gov. Smith's. What personal following Gov. Roose- velt has that is separate from Smith's is hardly worth estimating. Ex-Gov. Smith’s opposition, even ex-Gov. Smith's disapproval, would be utterly fatal to Roosevelt. If ex-Gov. Smith and Chairman Ras- kob and the present national manage. ment of the Democratic party should decide not to support Gov. Roosevelt, whom would they support? To put it more mildly (though with equal fa- tality to Gov. Roosevelt), if Messra, Smith and Raskob should prefer an- other to Roosevelt, who would that other be? As to that, there might be at least two_answers. One of the preferences might be Owen D. Young. might be ex-Gov. Smith himself. ‘What is said here is obviously short of a complete survey of the Democratic presidential situatfon. It does, how- ever, cover the aspect of it that is at this moment most to the front. Where There’s Life. From the Milwaukee Sentinel. Hope springs eternal in the human breast. The Union League Club of New York, we read, is to provide s bar in its new club house. ,fi