Abstract

The Shape of Things

The San Francisco Conference has wound up its work: President Harry S. Truman has pronounced a benediction; and as we write these words the delegates are already preparing to start on their long voyages home. People will answer these questions according to their political predispositions, in the light of their hopes and, even mote, their fears. Certainly the new world organization will not be hampered in its operations by the shining illusions that bedeviled the League of Nations from the beginning. Rather the danger is that it will be impeded by cynicism and political differences. An advantage of enormous practical importance, which the old League did not possess, lies in the membership of Russia and the U.S. Our own view of the new charter is one of very restrained optimism.