PARADOXES

That we are living in an age of paradoxes may have been a familiar fact to readers of Mr. Chesterton but it has never been impressed upon the average man as at present. At the end of a war fought to "make the world safe for democracy", Europe is tottering between the dictatorship of the proletariat in the person of Lenin and the dictatorship of the strong man in the persons of Mussolini and Primo Rivera, while German democracy steers a narrow course, apparently doomed to failure, between the Scylla of hungry reds and the Charybdis of angry nationalists. Meanwhile on the Turkish question and to a lesser extent in the problem of the Ruhr, France and England have become so callous to changing positions, that it occasioned only little surprise when a recent French Yellow Book was filled with quotations from Mr. Lloyd-George, who was busy at the time of publication in most unmeasured denunciation of France.

But perhaps the strangest paradox is the League of Nations. Accepted by almost all the nations of the world except the United States, it is probably revered more sincerely and praised more highly in the United States than anywhere else.

For the moment the friends and opponents of the League are joined in hot debate as to the success of the League in handling the Greco-Italian crisis. By its quiet use of the public opinion of the world, say the pro-Leaguers, Geneva brought a restraining influence to bear on Mussolini and saved the situation, establishing its own position as a permanent force for peace. But the critics are up in wrath claiming that the death-knell of the League has been sounded, flouted and defied by Italy, and requiring only the in pace requiescat" or the equivalent pagan expression to send it forever to limbo. It is almost too much for the man on the fence. But perhaps there is light ahead. Some months ago Senator Johnson complained that he had no issue on which to fight President Harding for the Republican nomination; it is possible that Mr. Coolidge will give him a chance. But even if Mr. Coolidge and Mr. Johnson are as mild as two lambs, the presidential election itself is rather likely to offer the supporters and critics of the League an opportunity to vent their wrath and their accumulated knowledge and perhaps to settle at least one of our paradoxes.