Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-05-29

sons address Saturday night before
the League to Enforce Peace follows.
the president having been introduced
by Judge William Howard Taft:
when the invitation to be here to-
night came to me | was glad to accept
it-not because it offered me an OPP
portunity to discuss the program of the
league-that you will, / am sure, not
expect Of me-but because the desire of
the whole world now turns eagerly, to-
ward the hope OF peace, and there Is
just reason why we should take our
part in counsel upon this great theme. |
1t is right that |, as spokesman of our
government, should attempt to give ex-
preston to what / believe to- be the /
thought and purpose of the people of !
the United States in this vital matter. |
This great war broke so suddenly |
upon the world two years ago, and |
which has swept within its fame so
great part of the civilized world, has
affected US very profoundly and we are
not only at liberty, it is perhaps our
duty, to speak very frankly of it and
of the great interests Of civilization
which it affects.
with it's causes and its objects we
are not concerned. The obscure foun- |
tains from which its StupendouS flood
has burst forth we are not interested
to search for or explore But so great I
a flood, spread far and wide to every
quarter of the globe, has of necessity
engulfed many fair province Of right
that lies very near to us. Our own
privileges and the property of our
people have been profoundly affected.
I'VE are not mere disconnected look
ers-on. The longer the war lasts the
more deeply do we become concerned
that it should be brought to an end and
the world be permitted to resume its
normal life and course again. And
when it does come to an end we shall
be as much concerned as the nations
at war to see peace assume an aspect
of permanence, give promise OF days
from which the anxiety Of uncertainty
shall be lifted, bring some assurance
that peace and war shall always here
after be reckoned part of the COM
mon interest of mankind.
All Nations Interests Become Our Own
I'VE are participants, whether We
would or not, in the life of the world.
| The interests Of all nations are our
own also. We are partners with the
rest. What affects mankind is inevi-
tably our affair, as we'll as the affair of
| the nations of Europe and of Asia.
| "One observation on the causes OF
the present war we are at liberty to
make, and to make it may throw some
| light forward upon the future, as well
as break with you on the past. 1t IS
plain that this war could have come
only as it did, suddenly and out of Sc
cret councils, without warning to the
world, without any of the deliberate
movements of counsel with which it
would seem natural to approach so
! stupendous contest.
1T is probable that if it had been
| foreSeen just what would happen, just
what alliances would be formed, just
what forces arrayed against one en-
other, those who brought the great
contest on would have been glad to
substitute conference for force.
IF We ourselves had been afforded
some opportunity to apprise the bel
ligerents of the attitude which it would
be our duty to take, of the policies and
practices against which we would feel
bound to use all our moral and eco
nomic strength, and in certain circum-
stances even our physical strength also,
our own contribution to the council
which might have averted the struggle
would have been considered worth
weighing and regarding.
New Diplomacy Needed.
And the lesson which the shock of
being taken by surprise in a matter so
deeply vital to all the nations of the
world has made poignantly clear, is
that the peace of the world must hence
forth depend upon a new and more
wholesome diplomacy.
only when the great nations of the
world have reached some sort Of agree
ment as to what they hold to be funda-
mental to their common interest, and
as to some feasible method of acting in
concert when any nation or group of
nations seek to disturb those funda-
mental things, can we feel that civil
ization is at last in way of Justifying
its existence and claiming to be finally
established. 1t is clear that nations
must in the future be governed by the
same high code of honor that We de-
mand as individuals.
I'VE must, indeed, in the very same
breath with which We avow this con-
viction, admit that we have ourselves
upon occasion in the past been offend
ers against the law Of diplomacy which
we thus forecast; but our conviction
is not the less clear, but rather the
more clear, on that account
IF this war has accomplished moth
ing else for the world, it has at least
disclosed a great moral necessity and
set forward the thinking of the states
, men of the world by a whole age.
Repeated utterances of the leading
statesmen of most Of the great nations
now engaged in war have made it plain
that their thought has come to this
that the principle of the public righl
must henceforth take precedence over
the individual interests of particular
nations, and that the nations of the
world must in some way band them
! selves together to see that right pre-
2 walls, as against any sort of selfish ag
t gression. That henceforth alliance
must not be set up against alliance, TN
uel oIdHuIhS o5alt!ot uilucI StdidiHSr Du
. there must be a common agreement fol
= common object, and that at the hear
of that common object must lie tn,
Y inviolable rights of peoples and of man
e kind.
t Nations Are Only Neighbours.
THE nations OF the world have be
i come each others neighbors. II is Il
their interest that they should under
stand each other. In order that the,
may understand each other, it is i'm
| ebp,,lI az