The cause of peace has taken a great many hard rights to the chin recently, but the cruelest swipe of all was to have Arthur Henderson, president of the world Disarmament Conference, lose faith in the good will of the nations assembled. For years Uncle Arthur has maintained that universal reduction of arms was within a reasonable stretch of the hand and would undoubtedly be reached by Monday, at the latest on Tuesday. And after each successive defent of his proposals and everybody else's proposals, he would bob up again with encouraging plans for new round-table meetings, finding the old failures, (when he admitted them) simply "incomprehensible," and letting it go at that. But now he has spoken out loud and bold to the British Commons, telling them that "it is useless for me to remain here for months unless the attitude (of the various delegations) changes." Disheartening as is this indication of the inflammatory material waiting for a fire-bug, it is nonetheless pleasing to see Mr. Henderson take on the unaccustomed garb of realism; he wears it with the surprising air of a tweeded sophomore, but that he wears is at all is enough.

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The instances which doubtless provided the last straw for Uncle Arthur were the point-blank refusals of Japan, Italy, and Hungary to join hands in the ring of happy nations playing the fascinating game of arms control. Japan made herself very clear in avoiding any arrangement by which she would be hampered in her Eastern marauding; Hungary felt safe in following the lead of Mussolini in taking the position of an "interested observer" of the proceedings. MacDonald of England would, apparently, like to withdraw also but does not dare, the peace pressure being as strong as it is at home. This is a comforting thought, however, for it ensures that though the coterie of "interested observers" grows, there will at least be something left to observe.

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Inflating himself with an abundance of fine scorn, Senator King of Utah has huffed, and puffed, and tried to blow Ambassador Welles out of Cuba. Welles, he charges, has bungled the whole job, mistaken conditions on the Island, and in general pursued a cravenly pacifistic course. It is quite possible that Senator King's advice may be of the greatest value to Mr. Welles. The gentleman from Utah is a representative of the dominant beet sugar interests there; if the Ambassador will only make it a principle always to act in Cuba so that he earns the complete antagonism of the Senator, he can rest assured that he will have done the best that could be done for that sugar-ridden country. CASTOR.