TRUNKS VS. DATHING SUITS

"Tomorrow". M. Barthon is reported to have said after reading the latest Russian billet-doux, "tomorrow we will be packing our trunks or buying bathing suits." At present the choice of the French delegation is not know it does not greatly matter. The Genoa conference seems no nearer its supposed aim, the economic reconstruction of Europe, than when it heard Mr. Lloyd-George's first optimistic speech.

Mr. Frank Vanderlip, who has been on the scene of action since the start, writing to the New York "World" declared that he was daily more thankful that the United States was not represented at the Conference. More recently, that everyone at Genoa is actuated by "a selfish nationalism shaped by domestic political necessities." True, but like most true facts it is not new; and historian will say that selfish nationalism had been the characteristic of European nations for some time. It is cropping out again now because the Genoa meeting is the largest since that at Paris, in which the personalities of nations have figured; if the Washington conference is judged as great as we like to think it, the evidence will be in the fact that selfish national interests were to some degree sublimated. So to hear that Germany is trying to minimize her reparations bill; that France wants to exact an unreasonable sum for Germany and Russia; that the Soviet is attempting to avoid payment of debts and at the same time secure recognition and a large loan; that England and Italy are pursuing a moderate course because it favors their economic interests--to hear this from Mr. Vanderlip and other reporters is to hear the expected.

But--and this is a question of no small moment--what will the outcome be? Is Europe confronted by an "impasse"? Mr. Frank Simonds tells us that a number of wars are imminent. A possible result; economic law will force either war, or some cooperation worthy of the name. Watchful waiting may be adequate in dealing with a Mexico, but for a group of nations so economically interdependent as those on the European continent, it is an economic impossibility. Bankrupt Europe cannot long afford a war or wars, should they break out; all the great governmental representatives--M. Tchitcherin, M. Barthou, Mr. Lloyd-George, Chancellor With--all of them,, like "all the King's horses and all the King's men" are powerless to change this fact. The tragedy is that they are also apparently powerless to effect cooperation.

So it does not matter what the French or the Russians or the Little Entente or any of the rest to at Genoa; except that it is more pleasant to buy bathing suits (and use them) than to swelter over trunk-packing.