POLITICAL NOTES: Diminuendo

A glad tale is dwindling slowly to a colorless finis.

There was a touch of magic in that July morning, 18 months ago, when the front pages of the daily press broke out with the announcement of Edward W. Bok’s largesse—”$100,000 for a peace plan, come all ye dreamers of wealth, ye hopers for peace—$100,000 for a practical peace plan!’

Then followed some months of uneventful labor, the assembling of the organization which should handle the award, the determination of its exact conditions, the receipt of the aspiring plans (22,000 odd) their perusal by the jury of award, the announcement of the winning plan (its author remained unknown), the beginning of a great popular referendum.

Again, almost a year ago, there was another touch of magic when in the Philadelphia Academy of Music, before 3,500 eager citizens, John W. Davis, at that time not the ex-candidate for the presidency, but the ex-Ambassador to Great Britain, stood on the platform and delivered a piece of paper, a check good for $50,000 of Mr. Bok’s legal money, to Professor Charles Herbert Levermore.

The Professor, a man of 68, possessed of an A. B. from Yale in 1879 and a Ph. D. from Johns Hopkins seven years later, a classmate of Wood-row Wilson, first a History teacher, then President of Adelphi College, Brooklyn, then pacifist, then supporter of Woodrow Wilson and in his advancing age a leading member of such organizations as the World Court League, the League of Nations Union, the New York Peace Society, was lifted momentarily from his comparative obscurity into the national limelight. Endowed with a small fortune, sought out by greedy stock-salesmen, he lived in momentary fame. Senators said there was propaganda behind his plan, newspapers took votes on it and paid good money then and since for contributions from his pen.

At the end of several months, the referendum on his plan was completed; 534.177 votes had been cast in favor of it, 76,381 against it. Then gradually less and less was heard of Dr. Levermore and his plan.

Lest memory should not serve, the official summary of the plan was:

I. That the U. S. shall immediately enter the Permanent Court of International Justice, under the conditions stated by Secretary Hughes and President Harding in February, 1923.

II. That without becoming a member of the League of Nations as at present constituted, the U. S. shall, offer to extend its present cooperation with the League and participate in the work of the League as a body of mutual counsel under conditions which

1) Substitute moral force and public opinion for the military and eco-nomic force originally implied in Articles X and XVI.

2) Safeguard the Monroe Doctrine.

3) Accept the fact that the US. will assume no obligations under the Treaty of Versailles except by Act of Congress.

4) Propose that membership in the League should be opened to all nations.

5) Provide for the continuing development of international law.

The provisions of the award were that half of the award ($50,000) should be given when the plan was selected by the jury. This was done. The sec-ond $50,000 was to be given if and when 1) in substance and intent it was approved by the U. S. Senate or 2) the Jury of Award decided that it had an adequate degree of popular support.

Although the plan was presented to several individual Senators, it was never seriously taken up by the Senate as a whole, and the Jury of Award did not deem that the support of 534,177 out of 25,000,000 or 30,000,000 actual voters was sufficient popular response. So Dr. Levermore never got the second $50,000, and unless the necessary conditions are fulfilled before Mar. 5 of this year, the offer will expire.

The organization of The American Peace Award is still in existence. It still maintains a prosperous looking office at No. 565 Fifth Avenue, Manhattan. Mahogany desks, soft carpets and a battery of stenographers still do their daily duties, but their business is less with the Bok prize than with an effort to bring out the resolution that the U. S. should join the World Court for discussion on the floor of the Senate.

What are Dr. Levermore’s chances of getting his second $50,000? They are small. The Peace Award organization admits that there is no time to take a second referendum to determine popular support; and no attempt to hold a referendum is contemplated.

The Senate of the United States might approve Dr. Levermore’s plan before Mar. 5, but if there is anything predictable of that unpredictable body, it is that it will not think of the Bok plan again.

The Jury of Award, which still maintains a formal existence, likewise has two months in which to change its mind, to decide that, after all, the popular response has been adequate.

Doubtless Dr. Levermore has long since abandoned hope. So, heigh-ho, the second $50,000!

When Mar. 5 rolls around, will Mr. Bok sigh and say, as he puts $50,000 back into his pocket, “Ah well, it was a gallant attempt, well worth the price I paid.”

Or will Mr. Bok with a generous gesture turn to Dr. Levermore, holding out a second check, saying: “Your plan did not work, but you did a service to the world”?