Though the League of Nations has been in the process of quietly passing away for a number of years, it was impossible to find any of the expectant relatives ready either to recognize publicly the imminence of death and suggest a cure, or to bring in the hatchet and make an abrupt end of it. But now comes one from Italy who boldly suggests either of these unpleasant alternatives; the immediate remedy, or the axe. Mussolini is not, of course, too serious in believing that any medicine can be found which will restore a noticeable degree of health to the near corpse. He does go so far as to make a proposal that certain articles be hewed out of the Covenant in order to tempt back into the fold the truant nations, even perhaps, hoping that the United States and Soviet Russia as well will take a snap at the balt. But these diplomatic gestures can only be gestures. Mussolini is perfectly well aware that the Covenant can only be altered by a unanimous decision, and that France and all whom it may concern will certainly vote against any alteration; and on top of these facts he announces that unless "something is done," Italy will walk out on the party. In short, he is giving the paralytic the gracious choice of either doing a hundred-yard dash in ten seconds or suffering a severe amputation.

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The withdrawal of Rome seems then, inevitable, and will undoubtedly assume the role of the last straw. With Italy joining the rest of the Philistines,--Germany, Japan, Russia, the United States--, it will so shift the balance that the outlaws will do the ostracizing, and a nation's presence in the League will be regarded as an eccentricity, pardonable but peculiar. Europe will fall back on her pristine direct negotiations, and the major nations will be disembarrassed of the nagging idealism of the smaller club members, free once more to pursue their devious ways without fear of interruption or inconvenient cross-examination. Il Duce will be rid of a contradiction which has weighed sorely upon him from the first: the contrast of his abhorrence of parliamentarism at home, and his acceptance abroad of the super-parliament of the League. France will be shorn, it appears, of the universal sanction of the Versailles Treaty which the League was to ensure; but with her present military strength and with the political situation on the Continent weighted heavily in her favor, she should not be too disturbed. The last nail has been driven into the coffin of our most ambitious attempt to secure world cooperation of economically national states; it rested on a shifting, essentially unstable foundation and all the king's speeches and all his good premiers couldn't prevent the inevitable crash. If ever another attempt is made, the experience of this effort to link together the jarring atoms of capitalistic units will doubtless be instructive. CASTOR