If the United States is ever visited by a second Alexis de Tocqueville or another Lord Bryce, he will find ample subject matter in the mores of American journalism. One of the most inexplicable events in that profession is the case with which recognized experts in one field soon erect themselves into seers of knowledge in general. The sports columnists have led the parade to omniscience; first it was Ring Lardner, then Westbrook Pegler. Since the war began, Boston's own Bill Cunningham has been proclaimed the master of morale and the captain of the captions. Now Ely Culbertson, of all people, has blossomed forth with a peace plan.

Culbertson is no newcomer to startling ideas. In his youth he was an anarchist and a stalwart member of the I.W.W. During the 1930's, Culbertson collaborated with his wife to produce the system of contract bridge which bears his name, thereby providing entertainment for habitues of everything from the prep-school butt-room to the Walla-Walla chapter of the D.A.R.

The Culbertson "peace plan" is, however, anything but radical. Stripped of the tinsel, it boils down to American domination of the globe, with a "take-it-or-leave-it" label attached. Under this chart of the future, the United States will control twenty percent of the world's military power, with fifteen percent each going to the whole British Empire and Soviet Russia. France, Germany, Italy, and China would get two percent each. Just how this will be achieved without another war is left completely unexplained.

World Government in the Culbertson Commonwealth is simple. Eleven regions will make up the new order, and they will rotate in providing a President to serve for six years. America comes first, then Britain. Stalin won't have a crack at the job for 34 years. Malasia's candidate gets his chance 66 years from now, which means that he probably isn't born yet. These rotating executives will rule with the aid of a 55-man Senate, made up of one representative from each region for labor, agriculture, capital, science, and education. Not a word is included on the problem of defining these groups.

In sum, this solution for the world's ills fails because of its faulty diagnosis and its naive medication. Wars arise from basic instabilities in men's attempts to satisfy their wants, psychological as well as material. Merely setting up a new super-state, or putting sharp teeth in a thoroughly dead corpse, are hopeless. The "post-war world," if it is to get anywhere, must attack specific problems on a broad scale. Details of organization, beyond the initial agreement to attack the seats of infection, will take care of themselves.