The Beatrice Daily Express

NEW WORLD CO-OPERATION

The Philadelphia Public Ledger pretends to see a great significance in the fact that the United States, of all the countries assembled at the Santiago conference, is not a member of the league of nations, and that the president of the conference is also presiding officer of the league. "We are now dealing," says the editor of the Ledger, "with a Latin America which has gone well-nigh bodily, boots and baggage, into the league that sits at Geneva." His enthusiasm for his subject has carried the writer wide of his facts. It is true that the Latin-American republics signed the covenant, but they have no more gone into the league "bodily, boots and baggage," than have any of the great European powers which also subscribed to the covenant.

But if the American republics cannot be censured for their lack of practical effort to carry out the terms of the covenant when such countries as Great Britain, France and Italy have exhibited such a supreme contempt for their obligations thereunder. Since the covenant was signed the Western nations have become convinced of its futility as an effective agent for peace, and have turned to the United States as a guide. The Central American pact, the Tacna Arica arbitration, and the American policies in Cuba and Haiti have revealed the folly of adherence to the league and shown the wisdom of co-operative action by the nations of the New World.