Going to Judgment
GOING TO JUDGMENT SOMEWHERE in his treatise on government, Saint Thomas declares that "when one faces the necessity of choosing between two situations each of which threatens to be dangerous,...
...Beyond demanding what we had coming in the way of debts and professing to love peace, we settled back into a "security" out of which we had no desire to budge...
...We believe the President would like to go much farther than these first steps...
...and unless we are badly mistaken, it will also deserve heartfelt approval...
...When history imposed upon the German people the task of paying for the major costs of the great war, it was simply abiding by what has come to seem one of its fundamental principles...
...This is an eminently sane and simple rule...
...Gibson's address on armaments at Geneva, and the offer to curtail the costs incurred by the army of occupation in Germany...
...The figures compiled are in themselves not very interesting...
...The contemporary world knows the names of Dawes, Gilbert, Young and Gibson much better than it does the name of this or that military leader who, ten years ago, seemed entitled to immortality...
...In the present instance, however, fundamental aspects of well-being are at stake...
...The Germans have maintained all their basic properties...
...Now every new event makes it clear that here, too, a choice between two dangerous situations must be reached...
...Hoover's more or less overt acts...
...Whether the Experts' Committee which has been working to solve the problem of reparations will eventually succeed is a question which we are, therefore, asking hopefully if a little wearily...
...And nothing could have added greater lustre to the nation's name than the courtesy and skill with which its endeavors to promote international conciliation have been carried through by men of integrity and sense...
...During the past twenty years we have watched European civilization tear itself asunder with tremendous rivalries which first prepared for war, then fought it, and finally framed a peace which actually codified the old dissensions...
...Not a few men believed that the Reich should be divided, enslaved, rendered extinct...
...The difficulty lies, however, in the fact that nothing is harder than choosing, particularly when the act depends upon several individuals who must move together...
...Like all the other victorious peoples, we came out of the war convinced that our own rights and our own absolute independence were the matters of primary importance...
...They have surely helped to make illustrious the arts of peace, and America may very justly be grateful for them...
...To him can be traced directly two incidents which have a very definite originality: Mr...
...A national budget never is very interesting, excepting when the individual correlates it with his own tax bill and cost of living...
...But are we not steadily approaching the time when the question whether the propaganda of the United States is to be the same as the policy of the United States must be answered...
...If the French and the British have been able to recover, relatively speaking, from their almost immeasurable sacrifices, it is surely because the Germans have survived...
...The spoils belong to the victor...
...Kellogg's effort was really designed to keep other people from indulging in wars...
...But the Hoover suggestions have been real concessions—genuine offers to get good-will by paying for it...
...Cooperation is the alternative to isolation, and there is no solid middle ground...
...Both differ from Mr...
...They have declared—virtually with Saint Thomas—that even if a nation found it dangerous to mitigate its claims or to curtail the maximum of its independence, the other peril of eventual collapse and war was vastly greater...
...Kellogg's treaty quests, however, in being attempts to influence the international situation from inside out rather than from outside in...
...His further conduct will vastly merit attention...
...Because American representatives have been able to urge this doctrine and to promote its adoption by 114 THE COMMONWEAL June 5, 1929 others, they have occupied a curiously favorable arbitral position...
...All the while it was evident that the success of their efforts was largely dependent upon the universal need for the good-will of the United States...
...Nobody ever believed that we wanted to embark on diverse wars, and Mr...
...Whether he knows his countrymen as well as he might is one question, whether he has caught a first-hand glimpse of the mechanism of modern society is another...
...Gradually that foolhardy notion was abandoned...
...The point at issue is obvious enough from Mr...
...We repudiated cooperation and averred that Europe could go hang for all we cared...
...Neither is, in itself, a momentous move...
...and after their enemies had time for reflection, it became clear that any other eventuality would have been disastrous...
...GOING TO JUDGMENT SOMEWHERE in his treatise on government, Saint Thomas declares that "when one faces the necessity of choosing between two situations each of which threatens to be dangerous, it is absolutely essential to select that one which will result in less evil...
...It was clear that this country occupied the judge's seat, invariably entitled to deference...
...In primitive times conquerors went out to build up empires through successive annexations...
...For a time the theory flourished that all the goods of the vanquished—even the right to live as a nation—could be confiscated...
...Recent weeks have staged a great effort to weld wires which have created what may be termed one short circuit...
...Today the only possible kind of empire is mutual cooperation...
...And this in turn means concerted effort to dispose of existing economic and financial ills in a manner advantageous to all concerned...
Vol. 10 • June 1929 • No. 5
