The Locarno Settlement
October 28, 1925 THE COMMONWEAL 607 for our humbling and remembrance. "The Roman ruins which sprinkle the soil of Algeria," says Louis Bertrand, "teach us modesty by their pomp--we who flatter...
...and we feel that the real advance made at Locarno lies in the circumstance that it has made possible a much wider demilitarization of the continent...
...Indeed, the correspondent of the New York Times does not hesitate to suppose that the United States may "in many instances face United Europe rather than a series of European countries divided habitually and consistently...
...We might, if we really cared to do so, organize the twin Americas into an association of nations cemented by common interests and by love of world amity...
...and both Belgium and Italy are in a position of security quite unique in their history...
...In fact, an international condition has been achieved, which, with the League of Nations as its centre, can reasonably be trusted for the arbitral settlement of difficulties that formerly ran the gamut of intriguing alliances and threatening sabres...
...and since by help- ing to make the Versailles Treaty we alienated Ger- many, by refusing to sign that treaty severed ourselves from the Allied powers, and by refusing to enter the League announced a policy of nationalistic isolation, we scarcely have any good reason for believing that debt negotiations and similar distasteful tasks will strengthen cordiality across the Atlantic...
...THE LOCARNO SETTLEMENT T HE success of the Locarno Conference has na-turally cleared the political horizon of its more imminent clouds...
...Indeed, one loomed pretty largely in the back- ground of their discussionmthe problem of the Polish frontiers...
...A hundred other problems--the consolidation of the Balkans, the disposition of the Sarre Valley, and the pacification of Turkey among them--are vastly more approachable under the circumstances that follow Locarno than they could have been even under the once lamented Geneva protocol...
...A glance at the map brings with it the realization that Poland has become, at least terri-torially, one of the most powerful countries of Europe, and stands guard in her old place at the outposts of Russia and the East...
...They are a per- manent reproach of our mediocrity, and a perpetual exhortation to achieve grandeur and loveliness...
...but if the matters at issue between Poland and the Reich can be successfully disposed of by open- minded arbitration, she may count upon all western Europe as her potential ally because that Europe is now, at least relatively, allied...
...Unless the progress of affairs is halted by unfortunate changes in the gov- ernments, such arbitration may be confidently expected...
...In what manner can the dangers which beset her national integrity be removed or minimized...
...Meeting with a real desire to re-move certain obvious menaces of war, European statesmen have agreed to stabilize the Rhine frontier, to receive Germany into the League of Nations, and to consolidate western Europe against the possible attack of revolutionary Russia...
...Hitherto the answer has lain in the hands of France...
...October 28, 1925 THE COMMONWEAL 607 for our humbling and remembrance...
...Nor does the case of Poland stand alone...
...How can her development go on most satisfactorily...
...This is good news for the United States...
...So far the relationships between the United States and the peoples to the south have been governed by dilatory action and partially absurd assumption of our own utter superiority...
...But while the value of the achievement must be rated very high, it should be borne in mind that the aim of the conference was to lessen materiMly the practicability of war rather than to remove the causes, economic or otherwise, which in Europe lead to war...
...The Versailles Treaty tried to achieve something similar when it ordered the disarmament of Germany...
...There is going to be a great deal of European activity in the neighborhood of Brazil and the Argentine...
...The Roman ruins which sprinkle the soil of Algeria," says Louis Bertrand, "teach us modesty by their pomp--we who flatter ourselves that we have taken up the task of the empire and carried on its tradition...
...Our own share in the work has not been prominent, but we may find--if we care tomthat there is much satisfac- tion in the thought that our r61e as the adjuster of other people's troubles is somewhat outgrown and has been made unnecessary...
...and everyone who reads the con-tinental and English journals will realize that what this activity banks on is the continued alienation of the United States from its sister peoplesman alienation stupid, menacing, but remediable...
...The Europe of today is not yet stripped of barbed wire entanglements, but it is possible to stir out of the trenches and undertake the task of reconstruc- tion...
...There are, it would seem, two courses open to us as a nation-- either to enter the League in spite of our repeated opposition to the venture, or to accept the two Ameri- cas as a separate field of activity and honestly try to join hands with our neighbor republics...
...Yet, seen in another way, they are encouraging reasons for resolution: Christendom, which overbore and suc-ceeded the magnificence of Phidias and the Caesars, is not likely to quail, impotent, before the standards of a secondary and lesser civilization...
...For our-selves, we are inclined to favor the second course...
...France, at the present moment, may possibly revise her conviction that a large standing army is necessary for the defense of her integrity...
...This ideal was fundamental in Coudenhove-Kalergi's scheme of Pan-Europa, for instance...
...We can now more safely find the true American position, which is inevitably im- portant and more closely identified with European in- terests than has been officially admitted during the past few years...
...That many such difficulties exist, the states-men assembled at Locarno would have been the last to deny...
...While it is much too early to affirm that Locarno has even begun to create a "United Europe," there is no doubt that the ideal back of the thought of many continental thinkers is some kind of united opposition to American economic superiority...
Vol. 2 • October 1925 • No. 25
