LITTLE NATIONS AND BIG NATIONS

T

HE Assembly of the League of Nations at Geneva has closed its 1920 session. That of 1921 will be held next September.

The outstanding events of this year's meeting were the actions taken concerning new members of the League, mandates, disarmament, and an international court.

As to the first, the Assembly dropped Greece from the list of the four smaller nations represented on the Council, elected the other three (Belgium, Brazil, and Spain) already designated by the Council, and substituted China for Greece. An immediate result may be to bring the Shantung issue earlier before the Council. Of the states applying for membership in the League, the Assembly elected Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Finland, and Luxemburg, thus increasing the total membership of states to forty-seven. The selection of the four smaller nations to be represented on the Council and the admission of new members to the League are specific powers that are granted to the Assembly in the League charter.

As regards the other three issues mentioned the Assembly suffered defeat through the influence of the big nations (England, France, Italy, and Japan) who are permanent members of the Council.

As to the Assembly's resolutions concerning mandates, Mr. Balfour, the principal British delegate, declared that the Council did not consider itself bound in the slightest by anything the Assembly did.

As to disarmament, the Assembly passed a meaningless resolution, namely, an appeal to the various governments not to increase their present expenditures for armaments during the next two years.

As to the court, the Assembly decided, as reported in the despatches, that the court would sit at The Hague and would have eleven judges, elected by the League. But it decided against compulsory jurisdiction. The smaller nations favored compulsory jurisdiction; the big nations did not. When it came to a question as to whether there would be a court without compulsory jurisdiction or no court, the big Powers had

DECEMBER 29, 1920

But not entirely. It was provided that any states could enter into conventions and agreements among themselves for accepting compulsory jurisdiction by the new court. Thus those who wish compulsory jurisdiction may be able to get it. Such jurisdiction will comprise disputes concerning the interpretation of treaties or any question of international law, or the existence of any fact which, if established, would constitute a breach of an international obligation, and the nature or extent of reparation for such a breach.

Thus, despite the Assembly's exercise of its right to select the smaller states to be represented on the Council and to elect new members of the League, the 1920 meeting of the Assembly registered a victory of the Council as the controlling body.

IN THE ADRIATIC

T Fiume there has been a bloodless

A war. Following the ratification by

war. Following the ratification by Italy and Jugoslavia of the Treaty of Rapallo, Gabriele d'Annunzio, in power Rapallo, Gabriele d'Annunzio, in power at Fiume, declined to submit to the terms of the treaty and actually declared war on Italy. Possibly overawed by the forces which the Italian Government massed on the border, he called off his proposed war in a few days, but not before he had been encouraged by the disaffection of the crews of several Italian destroyers; the crews mutinied, imprisoned the officers, and took the vessels into Fiume Harbor.

Meanwhile Admiral Andrews, commander of the American warships in the Adriatic, on receiving news of the plight of the Russian refugees who had been disembarked along the coast, immediately began a work of relief, authorizing the fleet to do what it could, telegraphing to the Red Cross

allotment of 250,000 francs, setting up kitchens to provide food, also procuring baths and furnished houses and buying vaccine and other medicines.

THE RESTORATION OF

CONSTANTINE

ING CONSTANTINE, of Greece, has

KING of

years and a half. When he reached Athens, the people waved olive branches, danced about his carriage, and even kissed the harness of the horses. Constantine addressed the people from the balcony of his palace, declaring that he would establish internal unity and external peace by using the army to cultivate good relations with the Allied Powers. At night the celebration continued with thousands of houses illuminated, while from the Lykabettos, the commanding hill northeast of Athens, there flamed from an immense electric construction the words "Long live the King."

In Constantinople, however, the proceedings among the Greeks there caused by the return of the King were of a different nature. The supporters of Venizelos were in the majority. After a rough-and-tumble conflict with the Constantinists, they issued a statement to the effect that if to the votes of the Liberals of Greece were added those of unredeemed Greeks as as well as of Greeks residing in Turkey, who un fortunately could not participate in the elections, it would be evident that the majority of Greater Greece was attached to the ideals embodied in Venizelos and upheld by the Allied Powers.

Constantinople may soon see the return of an American, once Ambassador there-Henry Morgenthau. He has been chosen by President Wilson to act as personal representative in the proposed mediation between the Arme nians and the Turkish nationalists. Certainly if any one could deal with that situation it would doubtless be the diplomat who, when in Turkey, displayed remarkable tact in dealing with men of varying temperaments. He will have a redoubtable personality to deal with when he attempts to transact business with Mustapha Kemal, the Turkish Nationalist leader, who now is reported to have thrown off all disguise and

openly to boast of his alliance with Bolshevist Russia.

FOUR DRIVES

T

HE Christmas season is becoming the season for drives. Certainly drives for the benefit of children ought to "go" at such a time.

One drive for them is that of the National Kindergarten Association for $100,000 with which to extend its work of bringing before the whole country the necessity of establishing kindergartens where there are none. It is a service not only to the children but to the community to implant very early the habits of industry and order in the coming generation. The address of this Association is 8 West Fortieth Street, New York City.

to the children that the American Committee has been of great aid. They have refurnished the schools with proper equipment, and, what is more, they have given thousands of children a hot lunch every school day. They have supervised the children's physical welfare, for almost all of the little ones are suffering from skin disease due to prac tical starvation, and some of them have curvature of the spine because of the excessive work in fields under German taskmasters. Up to the last months the Committee's hospital work had cared for tens of thousands of patients and had established very many dispensaries. The Committee's New York City office is at 16 East Thirty-ninth Street.

"SAVIN' A LITTLE CHILD"

Another drive is that of the Grenfell Association. This also largely for children, are many of them needing hospital treatment in Labrador and North Newfoundland. $1,500,000 is needed to put its hospital work on an endowed basis. Canada has already generously contributed; Newfoundland and England have sent substantial gifts and America is already helping; so far a fifth of the total has been given. The funds are to be invested, and only the interest used, the direction being in the hands of a board whose membership comprises men from all four contributing countries. The splendid work which Dr. Grenfell has built up during the past twenty-nine years will, we are sure, be perpetuated by his success in raising the amount desired. Checks may be sent to the Grenfell Association, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City.

Another drive for practically an equal amount is that of the American Committee for Devastated France. Right now in December, 1920, French refugees are straggling back to their homes in the valleys of the Somme, the Oise, the Aisne, and the Marne. The American Committee's work is in the valley of the Aisne. There are still over half a million devastated homes, but the refugees would rather be unhappy there than be happy anywhere else. They need help. For the most part they are without food, clothes, shelter, farming tools. The French Government helps them all it can. But it cannot help enough. It cannot give them food or clothes. It cannot give them beds to replace those which the Boches have burned. It cannot supply enough agricultural implements to the men. It cannot give schoolbooks to the children. And it is particularly with regard

in this holiday season in behalf of children is the splendid new endeavor of the following organizations working of the following organizations working in common:

The American Relief Administration.

The American Red Cross.

The American Friends' Service Committee (Quakers).

The Federal Council of the Churches of Christ.

The Young Men's Christian Association.

The Young Women's Christian As

sociation.

The Knights of Columbus (Roman
Catholic).

The Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.

These organizations, under the general title of the European Relief Council, have dedicated themselves this winter to protect some 3,500,000 children of central and western Europe from death by starvation or disease, and these 3,500,000 are only the neediest among the 11,000,000 children left orphaned by the war. As Mr. Hoover, at the head of the European Relief Council, tells us:

Children eight years old have not attained the size of a three-year-old baby. Their puny bodies have only a vestige of strength. Many of them cannot stand upon their feet, but crawl like little animals. Of such fuel pestilence makes quick work. Tuberculosis and typhus merely touch them and they are gone.

These children must be saved for the Europe of to-morrow, if it is to be strong in body and sound in mind.

...

These children must, through our aid, be carried through this period of peril and be delivered to the future something more than physical weaklings, mental degenerates, and moral perverts.

Since the Armistice the American

Relief Administration, under Mr. Hoover's direction, has carried the burden of daily food supplies to the undernourished children of Europe. In 1918 it fed six million children and in 1919 about two-thirds as many. The American Red Cross has reached hundreds of thousands of those children with medical help, rendered aid to mothers and new-born babes in makeshift maternity hospitals, and has fought typhus, tuberculosis, rickets, and kindred diseases over thousands of square miles. The other organizations have also done their part.

It will take $33,000,000 to carry their project of child saving through until the next European harvest. Of this, $23,000,000 must be provided for feeding children and $10,000,000 for medical service. The Council pledges itself that not one penny of contributed money will be used for overhead expenses; they will be met from the proceeds of the American Relief Administration's food-draft sales. Moreover, for every dollar contributed two dollars will be furnished in transportation, local food supplies, and labor by the government of the country aided and by local communities throughout that country. Thus the American dollar, plus the native two dollars, will give a child one meal a day for a month.

Your check should go to-day to Franklin K. Lane, Treasurer of the European Relief Council, 42 Broadway, New York City. For we agree with John Hay:

I think that savin' a little child
And bringin' him to his own
Is a derned sight better business
Than loafin' around the throne.

SENTIMENTALISM AND
PREPAREDNESS

of the Navy outlines the work acN the report in which the Secretary complished by that essential organ of our Government during the past year appears a statement with which many will quarrel.

Mr. Daniels recommends the adoption of the building programme advocated by the General Board of the Navy, on the ground that the United States has not entered the League of Nations. He says:

If the United States takes its stand with other countries in an organization to prevent war and promote peace, our present Navy, with the addition of some special types, such as flotilla leaders, airplane carriers, colliers, and tenders, will be adequate for our defense and the prevention of aggression. But if we are not to enter into a covenant with the other Powers

which are pledged to peace, if this country is to stand alone, outside any effective association of nations, we must be prepared to defend our interests against any possible opposition or combination. This will mean continuance of naval construction indefinitely, costly as this will be.

It is our opinion that a building programme for our Navy must be developed without reference to the existence or the non-existence of the present League of Nations. Even those who are ardent advocates of the League must admit that the League is largely in the status of an international experiment. The building programme of the American Navy must be adjusted to the building programmes of existing navies. If we can agree with other Great Powers for a common reduction of armaments, well and good; or if in time the League can bring about a general reduction of armament, it will be reasonable for us to agree to co-operate with other nations in such a movement.

Perhaps the programme advocated by the General Board is too large, perhaps it is too small, but the determination as to whether or not it is too large or too small must be made upon the consideration of the same factors which existed prior to the formation of the League.

It is not too much to say that the whole attitude of the retiring Administration towards the problem of preparedness has been governed throughout the past seven years by emotion rather than reason.

There is another fallacy in regard to preparedness which is again raising its head among journals of a pacifistic leaning. This is the old argument that because the cost of one battleship would endow a university we should therefore refrain from building a battleship. We may have too many battleships; undoubtedly we have been too niggardly in our support of our schools; but the proposition to stop building battleships

because battleships cost more than schools is about as logical as a suggestion to stop buying overcoats because overcoats cost more than socks. The individual adjusts his expenses for clothing in a manner which will obtain for him the maximum possible amount of comfort and warmth. Various items of clothing are suited for various essential purposes. The individual cannot limit his purchase to any one article of clothing because that particular article is by itself cheaper than another. So the government, which must defend and protect as well as educate its people, cannot afford to neglect any essential function. It must cover the whole

field of necessary governmental activity or it will perish.

VIOLENCE

RDINARY citizens are not likely to

ORDINARY of violence. To all outward appearance life in America seems about as peaceful and as busy as usual. Nevertheless there is evidence that criminals are bolder than usual and are more inclined to use violent measures. Reports from various parts of the

MRS. ELLEN O'GRADY, WHO HAS RESIGNED AS DEPUTY POLICE COMMISSIONER IN NEW YORK CITY

country have excited apprehension in the minds of many who as a rule never think of the underworld.

A few weeks ago Chicago rose to a bad eminence in the matter of crime. The head of the police there was dismissed and his successor put into effect measures which led criminals to believe that Chicago was becoming unsafe for them. Within the last two weeks New York has suffered in reputation because of violence and crime committed there.

Hardly a day passes but some robbery or murder or hold-up is recorded on the front page of the newspapers. Thus

the New York "Times," one of the most conservative journals in America, prints in headlines on Friday, December 17:

BANDITS KILL FIFTH AVENUE JEWELER; BIND AND GAG 3 AND TAKE $50,000 GEMS; VIGILANTES PROPOSED TO HALT CRIMES.

The next day, Saturday, appeared in the same paper the following headlines:

MORE HOLD-UPS, ONE VICTIM DYING;

FIFTH AVE. ORGANIZES FOR DEFENSE;
MAYOR SUGGESTS ARMING MESSENGERS.

In the meantime similar acts of violence have been reported from the Far West. During November newspapers

printed accounts of serious crimes, including attacks on women. Finally, on December 9, three gangsters were seized by a hundred citizens at Santa Rosa, California, and lynched.

This revival of the spirit and method of the old California Vigilance Committees, which in the early days of California served to enforce a measure of order in a frontier community which lacked the more stable processes of government, may be necessary, but it is a grave reflection upon any community that has passed the frontier stage. The serious proposal made by citizens in New York to organize Vigilance Committees there is likewise a reflection on their municipal government. The Mayor of New York, without realizing that it is a confession of the weakness of his own administration, has advised citizens to obtain permits for carrying arms. Declaring that she had been hampered by the Police Commissioner in her efforts to protect women, Mrs. Ellen A. O'Grady, the first woman to be appointed Deputy Police Commissioner in New York, handed in her badge and resigned. Both the Mayor and his Police Commissioner, Enright, tried to discredit at first the reports of the increase in crime, but later issued drastic orders which constitute an acknowledgment of failure hitherto to cope with the situation.

In the meantime one of the bravest and most efficient police officers in New York City, Lieutenant Floyd Horton, lost his life in an attempt to arrest some bandits in a taxicab. The robbers had attacked two men and had started off in their automobile when Lieutenant Horton, in plain clothes and off duty, jumped upon the running-board and ordered the men to stop. When his order was disobeyed, he opened fire, and then one of the bandits shot him. He died within two hours. Though dying. he made a note of the number of the

taxicab, which led to the discovery of

the criminals. The police officers in New York are predominantly brave men and honest public servants. The citizens of New York owe it to them

as well as to themselves to see that such a body of men is not left to the mercy of inefficient politicians.

DEMOCRACY AND ORDER

is alleged that this wave of crime that I seems to be passing over the country

is not unusual. The New York City Police Commissioner has, for example, issued figures which, he argues, show that crime is less prevalent now than it has been. The fact remains, whatever