Suggests Nobel Prize Be Awarded to S. O. Levinson Chicago Jewish Attorney

Chicago Post Urges Prize for Originator of Outlawry of War Idea

The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Salmon O. Levinson, Chicago attorney, was suggested in a recent editorial in the “Chicago Evening Post.” “It is not improbable that the consummation of the multilateral treaty renouncing war will be a big factor in determining the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize at its next awarding,” the paper writes.

“To whom should it go?

“To M. Briand, whose proposal of an outlawry treaty between France and the United States was the immediate cause of the subsequent negotiations ?

“To Secretary Kellogg, who broadened the scope of the Briand proposal, and carried on the official negotiations which have won approval for the treaty from fourteen powers?

“To President Coolidge, who supported his Secretary of State throughout the negotiations, and to whose administration the achievement of the treaty must be credited?

“To Senator Borah, who, as chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, was the urgent political personality behind both Secretary Kellogg and President Coolidge in promoting the negotiations?

“In our belief the award should be made to none of these, commendable and essentially valuable as their efforts have been.

‘It belongs justly, if it be made on the basis of this treaty, to the able and indefatigable Chicagoan with whom the idea of outlawry originated while the Great War was still in progress.

“Salmon O. Levinson should have the Nobel Peace Prize. It is not in any sense an exaggeration to say that had it not been for the forcefulness and persistence with which he advocated his idea, both in this country and in Europe, the multilateral treaty renouncing war would not, today, be on the road to certain ratification.

“An interesting thing about the Levinson campaign to get this idea before the world is the fact that it has been largely a one-man campaign. Most men, when they get an idea that they think of importance to their fellows, either write a book about it or form a propaganda organization. Mr. Levinson has done neither. Others have written books about the Levinson idea, and organizations already existing have helped in a small way to promote it; but Salmon O. Levinson has been his own book and his own organization. He has spent his own time and his own money for the last ten years and more in reaching the ears and the understandings of key men. He has raised no funds, invited no subscriptions, enrolled no members, subsidized no agencies and launched no magazines. But he has been in the capitals of Europe. He has talked with statesmen and publicists. He has commuted between Chicago and Washington.

“We venture to say there are few, if any, parallels in history to this remarkable development of one man’s idea through one man’s effort.

“We want the able and unselfish Chicagoan, who, more than any other one man, is responsible for it to have the honor which is his due, but which he will never seek for himself.”