Life — November 24, 1921 — page 16: what you’re looking at

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

NOVEMBER 24, 1921 London Offices, Rolls House, B: HERE are people who think so far ahead as to wonder, if the conference worked out a scheme for the co-operation of nations, what the Senate would do about it. As to that, nobody knows what the Senate now is. The one that acted on the Treaty of Versailles no longer exists, and it was moved by influences that no longer exist. The Bad Bunch of that time is more or less broken up. If the conference should get so far as to do something important, it will probably be a consequence of senti- ments that have become epidemic in the world, and from which even the Senate will not prove to be immune. The Supreme Court in the long run has to do what public sentiment de- mands and always does it, not promptly but eventually. So with the Senate. It could not balk the country perma- nently, no matter what its disposition was; and whenever the public dispo- sition becomes clear on any point, the Senate will doubtless share it. & \ X JE ought to think of nothing but the conference, or at least of its job. H. G. Wells, in his lively com- munications to the World, says as much as that, but it may be some time before the conference gets really interesting and before we begin to hear much of what it is doing. There will be some work of organization, and committees appointed, and then a vast deal of pri- vate discussion. What all the forward- looking people want is publicity, in due “While there is Life there's Hope” Published by LIFE PUBLISHING COMPANY 598 Madison Avenue, New York time and amount, so that we may know what is being done, and who is doing it—what is suggested, and who favors or defeats it. When the proceedings are ripe enough to yield something, we shall want to know what the yield is and if it is not good enough we shall want to know why it is not better. ( Hp, IR ding, dong, ete! EANTIME, we can read Mr. Wells, which is a much easier and more agreeable entertainment than to follow such details as we get as yet of the conference. In his first letter in the World he rang the alarm bell, making very much such a noise about the condition and prospects of the world and the kind of peril that we are all in, as is made in some of the spiritist books. One thing in particu- lar he said, that New York was the doorway to Europe and that if the trade with Europe ceased, New York would very shortly find herself going the way of St. Petersburg and Vienna. Mr. Wells thought the prospects of New York in the present state of the world were hardly less uncertain than those of London. It is not certain that to tell the United States that New York is in danger unless something is done to help the world, is just the right way to stir the country into activity. New York is not especially popular among the country neighbors, a fair proportion of whom might look with an approach to - favor on the ruin of the world if they were sure it would include New York. All the same, what Mr. Wells is after Vol. 78. No. 2038 ns Bldgs., London, E. C. is to transfer to the minds of other people a conviction that is very lively in his own mind—that things are in a very bad way, that society is disinte- grating, that something must be done to stop the drift of Europe towards ruin or there will be consequences which nobody alive can escape. He feels all that, and he is a good man to impart his feelings. If he can impart them sufficiently, and other people who share them can do the same, there may be a really urgent cry from mankind— What must we do to be saved? To that there must be some answer, and if there is a really active search for it and the common obstacles to finding it are kicked out of the way, it will be found. nN for New York, she is worth a little thought, both on her own ac- count and as a conspicuous and perhaps important part of the country. Pretty nearly one-tenth of the population of the United States lives within com- muting distance of Manhattan Island. The late election here was disappoint- ing, of course, to the voters who wanted Mr. Curran, but even to them it could not have been a surprise. A gentleman with experience in politics, being asked before election who was going to be elected, said “Hylan, of course,” and went on to say that the Republicans can always beat Tammany in New York if they want to, but that the way to do it is to put up an acceptable Dem- ocrat, which, after they have won a national election, they are never willing to do. That sounds like a true opinion. l’os- sibly, there are times when the Repub- comicbooks.com ty Se S3eeie te ol pe be co to th po we