Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1919-03-05
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Hlmposes Burden Upon Us."

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"lmposes Burden Upon U.s." I'd.
"And now do you realize that this
confidence we have established
throughout the world imposes a bur
den upon us-if you choose to call 1t
burden. 1t is one Of those burdens
| which any nation ought to be proud to
carry. Any man who resists the pres
ent tides that run in the world will
find himself thrown upon a shore SO
high and barren that It will seem rs II
he had been separated from his hu-
man kind forever.
"The Europe that left the other
day was full of something that 1t had
never felt fill its heart so full before.
It was full Of hope. The Europe Of
the second year of the war, the Europe
of the third year of the war, was sink
ing to a sort Of stubborn desperation.
They did not see any great thing to be
achieved even when the war should
be won. They hoped there would be
some salvage: they hoped that they
could clear their territories Of invading
armies; they hoped they could set up
their homes and start their industries
afresh.
"But they thought it would simply
be the resumption of the old life that
Europe had led-led in fear, led in
anxiety led in constant suspicious
watchfulness. They never dreamed
that 1t would be a Europe Of settled
peace and of justified hope.
"And now these ideals have wrought
this new magic, that all the peoples of
Europe are buoyed up and confident
in the spirit of hope, because they be-
lieve that we are at the eve of a new
age in the world when nations will bet
ter understand one another, when ma
lions will support one another in every
lust cause, when nations will unite
every moral and every physical
strength to see that the right shall
prevail.
IF America We're at this junction
to fail the world, what would come Of
t? do not mean any disrespect To
any other great people when l say thar
America is the hope of the world; and
If she does not justify that hope the
results are unthinkable.
''Men will be thrown back upon the
bitterness of disappointment not only.
but the bitterness of despair. All ma
tons will be set up as hostile camps
again; the men at the peace confer
ence will 20 home with their heads
upon their breasts, knowing that they
have failed-fOr they were hidden not
to come home from there until they
did something more than sign treaty
Of peace.
"Does Not Know America"
Suppose we sign the treaty Of peace
and that it Is the most satisfactory
treaty of peace that the confusing ele-
ments of the modern world will afford,
and 60 home and think about our Ia
bors; we will know that we have left
written upon the historic table at Yer
sailles, upon which Vergennes and
Benjamin Franklin wrote their names,
nothing but a modern scrap of paper;
no nations united to defend it, no great
forces combined to make it good, no
assurance given to the down-trodden
and fearful people of the world that
they shall be safe.
ANY man who thinks that America
will take part in giving the world any
such rebuff and disappointment as that
does not know America. ------