AMERICA'S STEPS

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 88, 13 April 1923, Page 7

AMERICA'S STEPS

TO ELIMINATION OF WAR WASHINGTON TO WORLD COURT HOOVER ON BUILDING A ROAD TO PEACE. (DKITIB ?MBS ASSOCIATION.—CWTRItHT.) (iUJBT»AUAN-HBW ZBALAND OAILI ASSOCIATION.) (Received l'3th April, 9 a.m.) DES MOINEB (Iowa), 12th April. Mr. Herbert Hoover, Secretary of Commerce, addressing a convention of women, said: "During the past two years the United States Government has placed iteelf .vigorously to the task of advancing organisation in the world for the elimination, of the causes of war. The Washington Conference was one step. The .proposal that the United States should join the World Court of the League of Nations is another step." The'speaker intimated that the United States's rejection of the League does not mean that the United States has lost interest in the search for the solution to end war and that the Court has none of the faults which the League hae. He pointed out that direct negotiations between nations over grave differences often lead to war, but the Court offers a. form of judication eradicating- this danger. "The Hague Arbitration Court," he .said, "has the demerit-that it has settled disputes by compromise rather than by upbuilding a body of principle for the permanent establishment of international relations. The reference of a grave question by a. statesman to such a Court would be of great relief to him, saving him from the heated political opinions in his own nation during direct negotiations. The Court is a sound and sure step, the minimum possible step in eliminating- the causes of war. The Court does not lead the United States into foreign entanglements, and we .do not subscribe to any compulsion, since no nation can summon us into that Court without our consent. The connection of the Court with the League is remote." The speaker expressed admiration for Senator Borah's request that teeth should be put into the Court, but he said that, for reasons familiar to 'all, America was not yet ready to go thus far. "War is too terrible," he concluded, "to warrant any of us to be con-, demned as idealists, if we can but build even a. little to the road to peace."