PEACE, PERSONALITIES, AND INTRIGUE
Barnes, Harry Elmer
Peace, Personalities, And Intrigue S. O. LEVIN SON AND THE PACT OF PARIS: A STUDY IN THE TECHNIQUES OF INFLUENCE, by John E. Stoner. University of Chicago Press. $4. SHORTAGE OF VICTORY, by...
...Much light is also thrown on the attitudes and personalities of such associates as Harrison Brown, Charles Clayton Morrison, John Haynes Holmes, James T. Shotwell and, above all, Sen...
...The book by Dr...
...This is probably sound reasoning, if not especially original...
...But, as all informed persons knew at the time, it could far more deservedly be designated as the Levinson Pact...
...The bulk of the book, however, is devoted to a rather violent attack on Nazi Germany and a review of contemporary international relations, especially from the rise of Hitler to the fall of France, with a stinging critique of so-called appeasement...
...Appleton-Century...
...Carter Glass that the treaty was not "worth a postage stamp in the direction of accomplishing permanent international peace...
...SHORTAGE OF VICTORY, by Gabriel Javsicas...
...Stoner has made a valuable contribution to the study of modern history, the strategy of peace efforts, the ways of intrigue, and personality traits, in his scholarly work on the ideals and labors of the distinguished Chicago attorney and publicist, Salmon 0. Levinson...
...These same problems will be faced after the present war...
...Lamentably, history justified the prediction of Sen...
...American policy is analyzed from a vehement interventionist point of view, isolationism being regarded as something "pathological...
...Hence, they are a jump ahead, both materially and psychologically, at the outbreak of war...
...Javsicas contends, must outlaw the establishment of a totalitarian state anywhere in the world—which may be something of a contract...
...The essence of Mr...
...Failing to get his ideas adopted in any complete fashion, Levinson did more than any other person to encourage and develop the series of proposals and movements which eventuated in the Kellogg Pact...
...And the author is sane enough to recognize that it is the Nazis rather than all Germans who are responsible for the Reich of today, a timely rebuke to Paul Winkler's fantastic myth of a "thousand year conspiracy," echoed by John Whitaker...
...And some of the persons who played an important role in the formulation and adoption of the Kellogg Pact are still' alive and will presumably take some part in our postwar ideology and tactics...
...Yet, there is substantial meat in the book, even if the lambasting is a little overdone...
...Any constructive peace plan, Mr...
...Had his conceptions been more fully adopted, the results might have been different...
...More dubious is his contention that the mere establishment of a totalitarian state, in itself alone, constitutes "an act of aggression...
...Even for historians to have revealed that the Lusitania carried ammunition is portrayed as quasi-immoral...
...Thus, he writes, "That Germany has given birth to one Altgeld, if no other man of courage and devotion to the common good, should be proof sufficient that ultimately the enemy is the totalitarian state and not a race or a people...
...Javsicas' book is the presentation of the thesis that totalitarianism is better fitted to prepare for the present type of war than democracies and capitalist economies...
...Levinson, the sincerity of his ideals, and the persistence of his efforts...
...William Borah, whom Levinson nursed along with superhuman patience and agility...
...Reviewed by Harry Elmer Barnes THE TREATY to Renounce War, signed in August, 1928, and proclaimed in July, 1929, is called the Kellogg Pact...
...The Pact actually proved one of the greatest hoaxes and frauds in human history, due mainly to the French and British notes of reservation, the excep-tion and exemptions under the treaty, the lack of fundamental good faith among the signatories, and the absence of adequate provisions for enforcement...
...Stoner is of far more than curioug historical interest today...
...But no one can doubt the vision of Mr...
...Most important is the revelation that it gives of the difficulties involved in working for any practicable plan for peace and the suppression of war...
Vol. 8 • January 1944 • No. 4
