Show L c. c Vastness Our Salvation J CERTAINLY the repetitious failures failures of colleG- colleG C CERTAINLY f Ji tive action for peace have given gWen Admiral William D. D Leahy a sound premise for his observation ob ob- observation ob- ob that To believe in the efficacy of pacts and treaties to protect us Us' from international international intern a- a brigandage is a dream of visionaries If he had said that in the days days' when Wilsons Wilson's fourteen points were so widely regarded as the dawn of ot a new day for the world he would have been in danger of being regarded as anold an 1 i old fogy But by the time the covenant of the 4 League of Nations came to us to be signed on the dotted line the whole nation had stepped it the old fogy class and by some mystifying int intuition on seemed to forsee just how far the I League of Nations would get in stopping wars Not to say that the objectives objectives' of the covenant were not noble nor to infer that the United t I States tates does des no not desire to have an active part art in ini i international affairs nor to declare for a policy of such nationalism as is driving Europe to top p tl madness the Americans seemed then as they 5 do today to want to do things in their own way t. t Twenty years' years effort to make the league work L- L haS haS' been bee a di dismal mal failure and has justified the t J predominant judgment judgmentS of this people This was in iii the time of the leagues league's formation r. r and is now a naughty world It still j. j is not prepared preL prepared pre- pre L pared to enjoy the delightful tranquillity the covenant promised You as teachers must dedde dei decide de- de i cide whether education should continue to pickle an old world or whether it should create a new one H. H G. G Wells said to the American I t and the British Associations for the Advancement Advancement Advance- Advance ment of Science the other day Making d deci- deci il i- i 1 l of this very sort spreads far beyond the i realm of education Statesmen financiers workers workers workers work work- ers business leaders agriculturists industrial captains and those in the reasoning segments of ot many other classifications of our society have a apart apart part to play in deciding what kind of world we want then to work for it The old questions of isolation and national- national j 4 d fl tt L f j t l t i ism are in the air again Once more the United States may be called upon to put its reliance upon the judgments of the plain people and the average man It will be an excellent thing if Americans will seek to inform themselves on both sides of the argument In the October Cosmopolitan Cosmopolitan Cos Cos- Stuart Chase liberal economist excellently excellently ex ex- presents the case for noninvolvement non involve ment in Europe's troubles Not many will fail to agree with him on his major joints Few will agree with his argument as a whole Lets Let's stay in our own back yard says Chase We have our problems but thank God we do donot donot not have Europe's problems ems he writes This article is an appeal to my fellow-countrymen fellow to concentrate on urgent domestic problems in instead instead instead in- in S stead of identifying themselves with problems across the sea Now look at the United States What a difference difference dif dif- di- di ference he he says It is a clean band one thousand miles broad straight across the continent continent continent con con- of North America To the south is a big muddy river and beyond it a brown people of a avery avery avery very ancient culture To the north lies some more United States in the territory of Alaska and an imaginary line beyond which is Canada Pointing out that this band is larger than England Germany Germans France Italy and Japan combined and that any anyone one of these nations could be comfortably tucked into the state of Texas Mr Chase maintains it is o our our r vastness that is our salvation Here we are one hundred hundred hun hun- dred and twenty-seven twenty million of us in the grandest slice of continent on earth Mr Chase ase a adds d We dont dont don't need to go out and lane laKe we nave have no vested classes Weare We Weare Weare are steeped in political democracy and we have no domination by a state church We can aford afford af af- ford to do what no other nation can afford to do We can act in ways in which no no other nation can dare to act We can exert strong pressure in the direction of peace but if war comes regardless we do not have to be dragged in |