Chicago Citizen

SENATE INTO
WORLD COURT SUPPORT

The most gigantic lobby ever organized in the history of the country to put a single piece of legislation through Congress is at work to procure Senate approval of the measure providing for the adherence of the world court.

This lobby consists of 281 organizations scattered throughout the country, all founded and financed by Edward Bok of Philadelphia, former editor of the Ladies' Home Journal and donor of the $100,000 Bok award for the promotion of world peace.

There are several thousand paid workers in these organizations formed to influence the action of the Senate through mobilized public opinion, and the pay roll, it is estimated, costs Mr. Bok several hundred thousands of dollars a year.

Emigrated from Holland.

Mr. Bok can afford it. He came to this country from Holland a poor boy. but now he is worth millions and has retired to devote the remainder of his life to world uplift. His $100,000 prize for the best world peace plan had a Senate string tied to it. He paid $50,000 to the prize winner with the understanding that he would turn over the other $50,000 when the Senate should adopt the proposal.

The plan proposed a form of close co-operation between the United States and the League of Nations.

Mr. Bok came to Washington last week, surveyed the results of his endeavors to put over the world court and found them good. He is satisfied that the Senate will vote adherence to the court protocol by far more than the requisite two-thirds majority.

The vast scale of Mr. Bok's propaganda operations is exceeded only by that of the Anti-Saloon League. But that organization does not confine its attention to Congress or to one measure. It has 48 legislatures and countless measures on its hands in addition.

Despite the myriad ramifications of 281 organizations devoted to the stimulation of public sentiment favorable to the world court, the precise character of the operations of Mr. Bok's pay roll brigade is shrouded in mystery.

All that is known is that Senators have been inundated with all sorts of appeals from every part of the country to vote for the world court.

Petitions Used as Club.

In ever increasing volume, every Senator has received petitions from churches. commercial bodies, societies and other organizations in his state. letters from his political backers. influential citizens and personal friends, resolutions of public gatherings and telegrams by the bale. All assert that the world court is a burning issue back home urge him to vote for'it and darkly hint the early termination of his political career if he should not heed the appeal.

Likewise Senators have noticed the growing number of newspapers back home that are supporting the world court and printing articles laudatory of the institution, many of which are phrased identically or otherwise bear the earmarks of a propaganda source.

Whether Mr. Bok's 281 organizations are responsible for this deluge of propaganda is not known here but, if they are, it is evident a very complete job is being made of it. Whatever the source the propaganda has been crowned with success.

Our statesmen are exceedingly sensitive to a volume of letters, telegrams, resolutions, and petitions purporting to represent wide-spread sentiment in their constituencies. One after another Senators who were against the world court have been weakening and at last coming out for it.

Afraid to Vote Against It.

Republican leaders in the Senate have been heard to confess in the cloakroom that they are against our adherence to the world court but intend to vote for it because the President wants it, the Republican platform declared for it. the folks back home seem to want it and the best thing to do is to put it through and get it out of the way.

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Senator Reed [Dem., Mo.] is the author of a resolution to investigate the world court propaganda, and if the Senate adopts it there will be an airing of the operations of Mr. Bok's 281 organizations.--Special to the Chicago Tribune, Dec. 27.