VOL. LIX.

Beginnings

at Paris

The cabled survey sent to our readers by Mr. Simonds from Paris, as the League of Nations had been drafted and as President Wilson was sailing for America, reflects something of the anxiety that had followed elation when the difficulties that were to be faced by the Peace Conference had begun to assume concrete shape. It is hard to form just estimates in the midst of current affairs of such bewildering variety and magnitude. The preamble and twenty-six articles of the Covenant of the League of Nations were read and interpreted by President Wilson on Friday, February 14, in a .full session of the Conference. Final adoption will come at a later period. According to one's hopes, one's fears, or one's point of view, the project as drafted is either gratifying or disappointing. In our opinion, it is a commendable beginning and is fraught with high promise. From the practical standpoint of European peace, however, the altered armistice conditions under the leadership of Foch have more immediate significance than the League of Nations.

We shall soon have completed Our Wars, and the four months since the armistice

Aftermath was signed on the 11th of November. The joy and enthusiasm of those November days were beyond any previous American experience with the possible exception of the rejoicing early in April, 1865, when the Civil War ended with the scene at Appomattox. There was a difficult and trying period of reconstruction that followed the surrender of Lee and the death of Lincoln; and some of the political and social problems born in that time of turmoil have not yet been fully solved after half a century. This country was deeply thankful, and also glad and buoyant, with the news of the ending of the war with Spain a little more than twenty years ago. But that epi

No. 3

sode had consequences quite unforeseen; so that the course of our national history in its larger aspects for about sixteen years-a period with which the career of Theodore Roosevelt was especially identified-grew directly out of the war with Spain.

Result of the War With Spain

As a result of this war we annexed Porto Rico and Hawaii; established the Republic of Cuba; assumed leadership in the Caribbean Sea; constructed the Panama Canal and created the Republic of Panama; acquired from Spain the control of the Philippine Islands; led in the so-called "open door" policy in China; became influential in the Pacific; attempted to bring about a reorganization of Central America; and passed from our comparative isolation of the Nineteenth Century to that larger place in world affairs that we were destined to occupy in the Twentieth. It was in the thick of that general situation of twenty years ago that we discovered the value of a good understanding with Great Britain; and it was then that we began to realize the possibility of future trouble with. Germany. Germany. It is generally understood that we retained authority in the Philippines at the urgent request of the British Government, in order to protect all interests in those islands and to prevent the conflict that would have arisen if we had withdrawn and left Spain helpless as against what would have been the demands of the Berlin government.

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HON. FRANCIS BURTON HARRISON, OF NEW YORK (Mr. Harrison has been Governor-General of the Philippines for the past six years, and is now in the United States. He declares that the Filipinos were devotedly loyal to the United States during the war, and were eager to serve in the army and navy and to support Liberty loans and the Red Cross. He makes a fine defense of what he calls American idealism in our Philippine policy and is optimistic of the future)

warning; with President McKinley sturdily defending his own policies, and with Theodore Roosevelt (then Governor of New York and recently Colonel of the Rough Riders), as candidate for Vice-President, making his memorable stumping tour, and preaching the gospel of America's new responsibilities in a world that could not longer permit the isolation of a great power such as the United States had become. Not only Not only have we avoided the dangers of becoming imperialistic ourselves, but it has been our lot to play a prominent part in helping to deliver the world from the menace of a selfish imperialism backed by military power.

Our Our enhanced power in the Guardianship Western Hemisphere has been

of Maturing

Wards used generously, and has helped to bring peace and prosperity into regions that otherwise would have been victims of continuous turmoil. Hardly any country has prospered in recent years more greatly than Cuba; and this has been due to the working out of our policies of twenty years ago. Porto Rico shows a transforming progress. Panama

and Central America have increasingly bright prospects. So much has been accomplished in the Philippines, in the working out of our beneficent policies, that there is little but praise from those who are competent to judge in a large way. There are always details that invite criticism in every governmental or political situation. Through this recent period of five years past the Filipinos, like the Cubans, have realized that it has been fortunate for them to be in close relations with the United States. The movement for Philippine independence in the early future has not died out; it is alive and awake, and influential Filipino leaders have for some time been in the United States urging their views and studying sentiment here.

Philippine Aspirations

In view of unrest in all lands just now, it will be well for the Filipino people if they are not too eager to detach themselves from this country, which has so sincerely endeavored to aid them in creating a national life, and in preparing for the most complete exercise of self-government. There is no serious question of our own welfare that is involved in the future of the Philippine Islands; it is first of all a question of the welfare of the inhabitants themselves. Incidentally, there

are people of many nationalities-including citizens of the United States-who have property interests and rights in the Philippines, which are entitled to the protection of a good government capable of maintaining order. Beyond that, however, it is now the opinion of Republicans as well as of Democrats that the Philippine Islands are not to be retained by the United States as part of an outlying empire, and that our national mission there has been one of guardianship and friendly help, which by virtue of its success is temporary rather than permanent. There may come a time when the League of Nations is so well established that it would be fitted to take over the protection of a young republic such as the Philippine Archipelago is rapidly becoming. But until the League is sufficiently established to assume such responsibilities, it would be unsafe for the Filipinos, and unwise from other standpoints, to have the special protection of the United States withdrawn from the islands and the adjacent waters. Even with Philippine independence, there should exist some such special arrangement as that which now gives Cuba the full benefit of Uncle Sam's protecting friendship.

The New

In the working out of the issues

Burdens of and problems following the Administration Spanish War, the people of the United States-as we can now perceivehave had an experience which has done them more good than harm, although for several years we were vexed and anxious. We have now begun once more to experience some of the depression and anxiety that inevitably come, as the aftermath of every great war. Elation is felt in the moment when the carnage ends; and even the vanquished feel a great sense of relief and escape, even though they cannot make public demonstration of joy. Courage for the terrible exactions of war is found in the intensity of the effort that war-time demands. But the ending of war permits a certain relaxation; and the problems of readjustment present themselves at a time when nations grow conscious of their fatigues, and realize the extent of the changes and disturbances that war has produced. In the war struggle, we were ready to incur colossal liabilities, and could not haggle or hesitate. We made profound changes in the structure of economic society. We turned millions of men away from production, to the bearing of arms. But when the war is ended we are compelled to sit down and count the cost; and we have to face the simple, unavoidable fact that all of us-not merely those who are beyond middle life, but even those who have been born since the armistice date-will have to spend all of the rest of our lives bearing burdens of one kind or another imposed upon us in this war period, or arising from it.

Practical

Thoughts like these, in days of Aspects of reaction and fatigue following Relief the end of actual warfare, are not conducive to universal cheerfulness or harmony. The case can be stated in a very gloomy, pessimistic fashion. It can also, however, be dealt with in a sensible and cheerful way. The path of reality lies somewhere between enthusiasm for the millennium that has not arrived, and pessimism on the score of a calamitous future that can and will be avoided. The great, overshadowing loss is that of human life which has brought sorrow to countless millions of people and has deprived nearly all European countries. of a large percentage of their best young citizens. France, for instance, has three million less population than five years ago. Next in order of evils comes the continuing, and prospective human loss due to hunger,

SIR ARTHUR PEARSON, THE ENGLISH PUBLISHER AND PHILANTHROPIST

(After a brilliant career in journalism and in the building-up of a group of newspapers and periodicals, Sir Arthur lost his vision several years ago. Many English soldiers have been blinded in the war period, and Sir Arthur-who is president of the National Institute for the Blind-has developed a great institution, St. Dunstan's Home, for training these disabled men in new and valuable ways to earn their own livings. He is a typical leader in a kind of work for soldiers that is going forward throughout England; and his presence in the United States is stimulating similar undertakings here)

disease, and all the miseries that follow in the train of war. The deadly burdens of starvation and immediate poverty that many parts of Europe and Asia are now bearing must be met in a spirit of unwearied generosity by all who have it in their power to help. The worst phases of this situation car be dealt with in the next few months. There will be a desperate attempt everywhere in Europe to produce food during this approaching crop season. Immediate help with seed and implements, and with surplus food for a brief period, will probably suffice.

Preparing for the

The restoration of more complex

forms of industrial life, and the Steady Pull establishment once more of the comfortable standards of living that had existed before the great war, will require a longer time in various parts of Europe. During the present year 1919 much attention must be given to emergencies; and the longer and steadier pull of "reconstruction," so-called, can hardly make a fair beginning until next year. Meanwhile there is no reason at all for ceasing to rejoice—as we rejoiced three months ago that the war is over and that the movement of American armies is steadily homeward. The questions that have arisen, whether those of the emergency type or those of the long, slow pull, can all be answered successfully. Even if there were grounds for discouragement there would be nothing gained by an attitude of doubt and anxiety. The problems, whether public or private, that concern Americans, have to be met as a part of the day's work and dealt with as they present themselves.

War's Appalling Expenses

Taxes will be heavy, and the tax laws are far from perfect. For the national treasury alone we are now to raise six times as much money in a single year as we were raising only a few years ago. Yet it has been the intention of Congress to apportion the war taxes in such a way that the livelihood of no man would be unduly impaired. The bulk of the taxes must be paid out of the incomes of corporations and of wealthy individuals. The ́system in itself is not one that is designed to impoverish the people of the country. Nevertheless, as the system is applied, it gathers into the Treasury in a given year a great part of the nation's current wealth that would in ordinary times constitute the new capital wherewith to expand productive enterprises. The thing that may well cause anxiety is not the system of taxation but the continuing scale of public expenditure, which requires the raising of such huge sums by taxes and such great additional sums by the further sale of Government bonds.

fighting in November, 1918, found us so committed to military expenditure—with some 4,000,000 men under arms—that it was impossible to make a sudden transition from war-time to peace-time expenditures. Other nations-especially Great Britain, France, and Italy-are in like condition. Victory, as one must understand, brings with it expensive responsibilities. The conquered country may be forced to disarm so completely as to be spared much of the expense of maintaining great armies and navies. One of the chief practical arguments for the League of Nations is the belief that it will permit radical reduction of armaments, and relief from the burdens of war taxation. But such relief can hardly be experienced sooner than the year 1921. It would be poor economy, and bad foresight, to throw away all of our military experience, and to smash forthwith the costly appliances of war that we may yet need in the business of helping the chaotic world to settle down under the sway of law and order.

Costly

In the Past

There is always a tendency to Retrenchment wasteful expenditure of public money at Washington; but there is also a tendency to wasteful kinds of retrenchment. Our refusal to spend a reasonable amount of money for the Army and Navy in the period following the Civil War, when we were paying off the national debt and developing the country, meant that we were carrying nothing like a sufficient insurance policy. If our Navy had been larger, our diplomacy would have liberated Cuba, and the war with Spain would have been avoided. After that war, our international obligations were immensely increased. Our new position required a proper provision of means by which to use our latent strengthnot for aggression, but for justice and safety, in a world that seemed to be approaching a crisis and a turning point. There were many indications favorable to arbitration, disarmament, and the establishment of peace. There were, on the other hand, some very dangerous tendencies toward the growth of militarism and imperialistic rivalry—tendencies especially seen in the policies of Germany.