Judge — June 1933 — page 14: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

2N Herriot and MacDe were over here in April, they around at the White How with President Roosevelt like neighbors dropping in to chin about the we The dogs and the grandchildren playe about. In the evenings there were movies in the parlor. Nobody put on any lugs ar to put anything over on anybody else— not in those friendly moments at least. As Albert L. din the New York Hera Tribune, while they looked out over the lawns bright with spring, “they saw a world with more than a third of its commerce lost, mil- lions unemployed, factories idle, ships empty, debts oppressive, currencies fluc- tuating from day to d: ind countries staggering under armament bills.” Yet ey sat there and talked “without docu- ments, without papers, without even jotted figures”. Over at the State De- partment, the experts were dickering But the genial gentlemen at the White House were just trying to together. Such was the spirit and the atmos- phere in which the preparations for the World Economic Conference were cussed, Everybody will do well to re member this while the conference itself is in session. It’s going to take a lot of patience to endure another world con- f So many have gone sour in st that we need all the faith we “ly was tryi the curious way of expe The stakes are tremendous, Consider what we are after: the improvement of world prices, the stabilization of all currencies, the reduction of tariffs, the expansion of credit, the removal of barriers to trade, the wider use of sil- ver, the settlement of the war debts, and disarmament and security. World’s Great Age Begins Anew” Now it cannot be gainsaid that in this there are infinite such an agend possibilities for sharp and selfish deal- ing. It could be a horse-trader’s para- dise. stiators with more shrewd- ness than foresight could probably put over di little brief them to the igno: that would bring them a glory at home and condemn iny not only of the world outside but of their own posterity, oe =< EE» Every internatio the World W the war i of toc conference since ‘ar has proved, as indeed elf proved, that the victor y is the vanquished of tomorrow. In the international game nobody ever wins more than a momentary advan- tage. To take an illustration from our own national experience, see where the policy of isolation has put us. After thirteen years of standing aloof, the United States finds herself the worst victim of her own blind folly. Happily the new deal includes the end of isola- tion. We have formally renounced the conception of neutr: have officially recognized that an outbreak of violenc anywhere in the world concerns us. Every nation that comes to the E ic Conference must come ready to make similar renunciation of old wilful- nesses. Many won't. Many will come, as the n puts it, thinking of exports and imports in terms of experts and im- pertinence. They will have to be shown the light, the new light of a new diplo- macy, cast by men like Roosevelt, Mac- Donald and Herriot in whom burns the authentic flame of a common humanity. It is easy to ridicule MacDonald for his glib mouthing of fair phrases, to make the gibe that Roosevelt tries to crack every hard nut with a boy-scout hand cl. to charge that Herriot’s J fellowship is a mask for the tradi- 12 no! tional G: suaded that here are three statesmen lic cynicism. But we are per- who are sincere internationalists. They may not be the wisest men in the world. But they are wise enough to be thor- ou red by the state into which hy the we got itself. We do not trust individuals like Mus- solini and Hitler. We do not trust the motives of Japan. We know that the delegates of many smaller nations will come to th ¢ conference only to get what n for their own, We know that there are powerful groups in various countries who would be glad to see the conference break up in a row that would lea mad they ca 1 to w s the stupidity, the the old diplomacy So we must take the risk of resting our hopes in the leaders of these three great nations that have inevitably be- come the trustees of civilization. We must take the risk of believing in them, of believing that they mean what they say, that they will act as they talk, that they have the power to ry their peo- ple with them, that this is not just an- other period of illusion and_ pretense, but is in truth the dawn of a new diplo- that MacDonald said, quoting Shelley, re world’s great age begins Perhaps you think the old gentleman on the bench is getting too mellow in his dotage. Well he knows that he has been fooled before. But he is taking a hance on being fooled again, because he sees no hope unless we face the eco- nomic confere with faith in some- body. And looking over a torn and weary world, he sees no place to rest that faith except in this ’ If that be hokum, make the most of it. It’s all we have to g mac