INTERNATIONAL STRATEGY

When the tumult and the shouting die away from the palazzo Venezia where Mussolini recently announced his withdrawal from the League of Nations, his action will be seen as merely another maneuver aimed at improving Italy's bargaining position in the world. Although the implications of this action are great, it is not in itself a serious step. Italy has since May of last year been far from Geneva. Nevertheless, the breach between the "isms" and democracy has been widented, and the necessity of cooperation between the great democracies is more urgent than ever before.

That Italy remained nominally in the League for more than two years after sanctions were imposed has been commonly attributed to a lingering hope for British friendship. The final break is presumably an abandonment of that hope; but there is reason to believe that the latch-key is still out. Were the democracies to present Italy a united front, demanding return to active cooperation with the League and offering both sorely needed capital and other economic concessions, she would undoubtedly accept. A similar adjustment of Germany's problems can be made; but the co-operation of the United States is essential.

In fact, America holds the key to the world's difficulties, at least in the economic sphere. For a century and a half, and especially since 1920, she has resolutely refused to contaminate herself with Europe's problems; the "Peace Act of 1937" was the isolationists' crowning achievement. In a series of two editorials to follow, the reasons for the utter impracticality of neutrality legislation and a few of the steps America could take to help prevent war will be briefly discussed.