CONANT QUANDARY

When President Conant spoke in chapel yesterday, he urged in one breath that Americans "recall their mind to the tasks at home," while in his next he warned that this country must guard against the "final disaster" of a "peace" based on bitterness and hate.

There is much in this to bewilder the average hearer. If the President means merely that this country should keep alive the civilized ideals upon which an enduring peace must be based, then it is indeed possible for us to devote ourselves to the "tasks at home," while yet mildly influencing the solution of the problems abroad. But if instead, as his naked words seem to indicate, Mr. Conant visualizes something more definite than this, if he is urging the United States to take a positive leadership in the peace settlement, then his position is untenable. Even the most remote idealist canot believe that a victorious Britain and France, any more than a triumphant Germany, would permit neutral America to dictate the terms upon which the second Great War is to end. This country had its chance in 1918, and had it been as interested in the peace as it was in the war, Versailles and its aftermath might never have happened. If America wishes, as President Conant seems to desire, to participate in the next peace--as it did not do in the last--and to bar a solution based on vindictiveness or unreason, then America must herself go to war.

The president of a great university should make a special effort for clarity, lest his hearers misunderstand.