Show n Unnoticed Anniversary I TO even the peace societies s seem em to h have vc l t taken kc ken time lime off to cc celebrate an event t which thought was the realization of their fon fondest fond fond- est st dreams It i is j just st 37 years s since nce the Hague treaties a cs we were signed ig ed Perhaps the r reason aso the anniversary was not marked lies in the fact that the he scraps scraps of paper paper di did not prove that th the pen is might mightier er than the sword word sword and ano another her may be that the whole th ng has passed into the real realm of ithe forgotten About the time the Hague idea sprouted routed the was in a pretty bad way Imperialism of of the kind that can lead leac nowhere but to tow war r was in its its its' heyday England vas was gobbling up ther the Boers r America was cut cutting in away the thelast last vestige vestige ves yes tige of Spam's Spain's new world orld empire France was mopping up in t the e Sahara Germany many was looking looking look look- ing restlessly for new worlds to conquer Europe Eu Eu- rope was getting into stride with the greatest of all aU armament races the I German Germon navy was emerging as a rival to the British The world managed to gloss over over the unmistakable unmistakable signs of approaching war The Thc well- well meaning nations built a gr great at peace p palace lace at atThe atThe The Hague signed a long string of treaties which sounded fine finc but meant next to nothing at all and went around assuring one ano another her that a scale large-scale war was henceforth impossible Just how impossible it it was they learned in 1914 The mental attitude embodied ix in th those se Hague tr tf treaties ties ties' was forever discredited Our dire need to avert war is more mor pr pressing today than ever everand and we can can learn something by meditating over the failure of treaties and good intentions as long as the causes o of war remain unchanged Until the world gets smart enough to rearrange its map its economic boundaries and its habit o of seizing and holdi holding g the good things of this earth arth by force of arms it will continue to have wars The reasons at t the e bottom of the Hague formula for ending wars failed because idealism held its head too high There was an essential unreality about it just it-just just as there was when the League of Na Nations ons set itself up in business There was a a bland refusal to face the facts and andt t to see see th th the world as it really was League states should have learned much in its checkered checkered check check- ered red career perhaps career perhaps enough to make mak a fresh start as S soon n as it can 1 get over its present punch- punch drunk condition but not until it recognizes that revision of the he stupid Versailles treaty is the place to begin |