Egg of Peace

Talking over the radio one night last week President Abbott Lawrence Lowell of Harvard said a number of things so good that soon they were on the way to President Hoover and to Congress in the form of a petition signed by President Woodrow Wilson's peaceful Secretary of War Newton Diehl Baker, and many another.

In Washington the manifesto, as correspondents soon found, was treated by President Hoover and Cabinet as "political dynamite." As the day was Saturday prominent statesmen made all haste to play golf.

In Geneva the Council of the League of Nations had just convoked the League Assembly to meet on March 3 apropos of Japan and it was this fact which had caused the president of Harvard and Cleveland's Baker to hatch their dynamite. Excerpt from this egg, laid metaphorically by the Dove of Peace: "If it shall be found [by the League Assembly] that Japan has resorted to war without submitting the dispute to arbitration, judicial settlement or to the Council--none of which has been done--it will be the covenanted duty of all the members of the League to prohibit trade and financial relations of their countries with the covenant-breaking state, and to prevent all intercourse with that state by the people of any other state whether a member of the League or not.

"Obviously this cannot be done in the case of Japan without the concurrence of the United States; nor will any steps be taken toward it without assurance that, if taken, this country will concur. The United States is not a member of the League, but it is a party to the Kellogg-Briand pact of Paris, and there can be no doubt that Japan, contrary to that pact, has sought to settle a dispute by other than pacific means.

"What will our government do?"

That question was the dynamite. President Hoover knew last week that in New Haven, Conn. Winchester Repeating Arms Co. had just taken on more workers, while in Bridgeport, Conn. Remington Arms Co. had suddenly done the same. Officials of these companies admitted that they had abruptly hired "several hundred" employes, thus relieving unemployment to that extent. To interfere with U. S. business was something the Hoover Administration had to think over. There was also the "political dynamite" that any close alignment of the U. S. with the League might affect Mr. Hoover's popularity just sufficiently to make his re-election impossible.

On Monday experienced Washington correspondents observed "great relief" in Administration quarters when Senator Borah took the limelight once again with another of his pedigreed explosions. "I do not question, of course," said Senator Borah, "the good faith of those who are urging an embargo against Japan, but I certainly question the wisdom of their program. In my opinion, the best way to advance the cause of war between this country and Japan is to do precisely what people are urging in the way of peace."

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