HOPE FOR THE LEAGUE

Those people who believed that the election of Senator Harding to the Presidency would mean the death of the League of Nations may now take hope. The situation is not nearly so dark as it is painted. The Republican platform pledges the party to work for an international organization in the interests of peace, and it does not condemn as an entirely the present existing league. There is no longer any need for misrepresenting the Republican position which is so evidently at variance with the claims of both Johnson and Cox.

With the greatly increased Republican majority in the Senate, the prospect of getting some kind of a league is greatly improved. There will be enough Democratic senators to offset the votes of the "irreconcilables" and these gentlemen can be mustered for a non-partisan settlement, if those who say they are for a league are really for it.

What sort of a league will it be? That will depend entirely upon circumstances in the Senate and abroad. France expresses her sentiments through her press as being most sympathetic toward any changes in the covenant of the League which America might ask before she joins. On the other hand, she will find it "much more difficult to adhere to proposals for the abandonment of the league entirely, looking forward to the formation of some other form of association." France's attitude is echoed by the other League members.

The easiest way, then, is to enter with proper reservations the league that is. At present, it may be improperly based and crudely put together, but it contains elements which are good. Furthermore the practical difficulties of negotiating for a new association are great. The course to be followed should be not so much a matter of principle between a new organization and the existing one with reservations as of the conditions which will be met with in the pursuance of either course. Practical friends of the League, however, should not despair but should be disposed to accept either plan according as the one or the other seems most likely of success.