Current Events 
U. S. A. 
5 With the Conference for the Limitation of Armaments still hold- 
ing the attention of the country during the past month, the failure of 
Fiance to agiee to the Hughes proposal respecting the number of 
submarines to be allotted the French republic struck the one discordant 
note and brought the criticism against France that she evinced a no 
less militant spiiit to-day than did the late enemy before defeat brought 
Germany low. CJ The four-power agreement regarding the Pacific 
tenitoiy may be looked on as a step in the direction of permanent 
peace, considering that it spells an end to the British-Japanese entente 
and leads to the solution of the Far East problem. As for the Capital- 
Ship agreement of the powers and a Naval Holiday with respect to 
further battleship construction, here also the Harding administration 
is believed to have pointed the way to lasting peace. CJ That former 
Piesident Wilson has by no means been forgotten since his retirement 
from office, in spite of his silence with regard to the political issues of 
the day, was made evident on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday 
anniversary, when thousands of telegrams and letters reached him, 
expressive of the high esteem in which he was held. The silence of Mr. 
Wilson touching the Harding administration, however, is not to be 
construed as lack of interest in political events and the followers of 
the former President in Congress are likely to reveal that fact before 
long. CJ The release of Eugene Debs at the instance of President 
Harding s commutation of his sentence brought both commendation 
and criticism to bear on the Chief Magistrate for setting at liberty the 
Socialist leader who immediately on being set free came to Washing¬ 
ton to see President Harding and Attorney General Harry M. 
Daugherty. While the conversations have not been made public it 
is said on good authority that there was a frank exchange of ideas. 
Mr. Debs later is reported as saying that he has not changed his views 
with respect to his unaltered opposition to war under all and every 
circumstance. CJ The passing of Henry TCatterson marks the dis¬ 
appearance from the journalistic stage of America of one of its most 
picturesque figures and the last of that famous group which included 
Dana and the elder Bennett. Colonel Watterson was possessed of 
a style at once pungent, vivid, and superlatively personal. At the head 
of the Louisville Courier-Journal he made of that publication much 
more than a local medium for disseminating political ideas. CJ Appro¬ 
priation by Congress of $20,000,000 to be spent in this country for 
Russian famine relief through the purchase of foodstuffs has been the 
means of bringing trade relations between the United States and 
Russia so much closer that apparently it cannot be so very long before 
recognition of the Soviet regime will follow. 
