Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-10-02

president Wilson has, in a single
address, tremendously hardened the
hopes of war-sick humanity that the
mighty struggle whose very magni-
tude has led us to call it 'Armaged-
don may open a blood-stained door
to real millennium of permanent
peace. Permanent peace was but
the other day the unsubstantial vis-
ion of a few far-sighted idealists
The Presidents courageous, concrete
and comprehensive program has
given the vision substance-has
brought it within sure reach of hui
man hands-has gloriously lit the
future with the light that never was
on sea or land.
IF humanity does not shut the
doors of the Temple of Janus as it
closes this war, and seal them with
the seven seals of eternal justice and
brotherly love, it will fail voluntar-
lily from lack of stern purpose,
united councils and universal good
faith. 1t will not fail from lack oil
knowledge; for President Wilson has
stepped out in front of the forward
thinkers of all ages and furnished
| the knowledge of how this miracle
may be wrought. He has made per-
manent peace possible--and no finer
encomium could be served beneath
the name of any man.
This is characteristic of the
! Presidents idealism. He transmutes
it into reality. He sees visions and
/ dreams dreams, if you like; and hG
| comes forward with a considered
J l. HI nfi ,t,I,
! they may be distilled into appliablC
| panaceas for the healing of the ma
tions.
His statement of the issues which
this war is to settle could not be
/ clearer or more complete. 1t is SIM
ply that right shall always anG
! everywhere be right, and shall no
depend on the amount of might be.
hind it, That, as an abstraction
has been preached by moral ,philoso
pliers from time immemorial. The
| advanced thinker has always as
serted it; and then the man of male
VIOLENT, selfish, sinister ard unscru
pulous Might has swept it aside will
naked sword. If President Will
son had paused with it's simple reas
sertion, he would have added moth
ing to humanity's material basis o
hope. But he did not pause there
he proceeded to propose a practica
plan by which superior Might coulC
be enlisted in the service of ascer
tanned Right.
HE took the League of Nations
out of the toy shop of speculative
statecraft and presented it to us az
a workable tool and weapon will
which the police power of organized
civilization can be put squarely be
hind the informed, impartial ant
just judgment of civilization. HI
sees that to make peace withou
making simultaneously a League oi
Nations to protect it would be like
driving a band of bandits out of 6
village they were looting, without
providing any police, law or armed
force to keep them from cominj
back again. He is no impractica
visionary fondly fancying that the
world can be ruled as vet without
force. His slogan is force, force
to the utmost when force /.
needed. But he does believe-and
this is where he leads the best
thought of the world at this moment
that force can be recruited into
the unselfish service of law, order
and justice. and employed to pro-
tect a peace based in every nation
l-even the weakest-on the content
of the peaceful.
"The puzzling problem of the
League of Nations has been how to
get along either with or without
Germany. A League without her
would mean two Leagues-with Ber-
lin always plotting, intriguing, con-
| spring to break the grip of the
worlds police upon her shoulder.
The Allied League must remain
armed to the teeth, ever ready to re-
new the war at moments notice.
But a League with Germany as a
member-how is that thinkable?
president Wilson furnishes the
answer. He says that the govern
ments of the Central Powers
are without honor and observe no
covenants He says that the Ger
man people must by this time be