Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1919-07-17

must link ourselves up with all of the
lettering nations of the world in order
that we may be loved and revered
This Is not true, for last November we
were the most loved nation in the
world. and now. after seven months
OF dickering into the affairs of other
nations, where are we? italy hates
US, France secretly despises us, Eng
land is using us. and Japan is blufine
US. In seven months we have lost our
moral leadership, we have had a taste
OF to what the League of Nations will
lead u.s.
II don't blame those nations over
there" he said, later on. for sitting
with an eye to the interests of their
own nation. Would to God we had had
some one to sit with an eye to our in
terests." In speaking of article II
in the league covenant he said: THE
gentleman who wrote this article knew
what he was penning. Unfortunately
however we don't know why it was
written or who wrote it. Never be-
FORE he said, have the American peo-
pie been treated with such contempt
as in the last seven months. There is
nothing more infamous than this ar
ticle 10 and if free people accept it
they are not worthy of that freedom
We know what became of Napoleon
when he tried to carve out the map of
Europe. In the same manner have these
gentlemen in Paris tried to portion out
the people and territories"
Senator johnson was loudly applauded
when he read the preamble of the Declare
ton of Independence. saying This is old
fashioned stuff" Then he read article u
OF the League covenant pertaining to the
Monroe doctrine, saying II would rather
have the Declaration of dependence of
Washington, jefferson and our great
men than all Of the internationalism of
Woodrow Wilson,"
Judge G. H. Darling was the chairman
of the meeting. He said in Introducing Or.
]. b. Ferguson, for years consul to the
Chinese government, that all free peoples
have a right to know Just what their rights
are and why they are right. He explained
that DR.. Ferguson had the true American
viewpoint and that four of his sons had
fought on the battlefields of France.
DR.. Ferguson discussed the league from
the viewpoint of China. when the Oldest
nation In the world" said DR. Ferguson.
refused to attend the sessions of the con-
ference and when it refused 10 sign the
treaty Of peace we would consider wheth-
er or not this treaty is what we wan"
DR.. Ferguson explained how this
League Covenant was going to affect
China, saying that by it &c or N
millions Of Cinnamon would be turned
over to Japan to do with as she pleased
Why should we" he said. turn over
all these citizens of a democracy which
we have helped to foster to the only
surviving autocracy on the earth? And
r. a..
Every other country has had to put
into the covenant everything it intends
to do. but Japan does not have to do
that"
He then went on to show what sacri-
noes China had made for the war. 1t
came at time when that country was
all in confusion internally and In spite
of that fact China sent over 1900 work
men who took the place Of many more
French and English men and also had
ready four divisions of fighting men to
send to France II they had had the ships
to transport them. Those $4,000 work
men, too, who worked so hard to help
win the war, he said, came from that
very province that we propose to hand
over to Japan.
In introducing Senator Johnson. Judge
quinn Sdlu lndt tneTe are no more
patriotic people in the country now than
those who are taking their political lives
in their hands and saying: We'll know
what this thing is before we sign"
Preceding the addresses there was an
enthusiastic community sing led by
Lieut.. j. w Crosley. L. s. y.
SENATOR JOHNsoN's ADDRESS
Ladies and Gentlemen:
This is a time for plain speaking. The
man who binks the facts now does a
distinct disservice to his country. The
covenant of the League of Nations trans
cends in Importance, perhaps, any docu-
ment which has ever been presented to
this country 1t not only violently
wrenches the nation from it's traditional
policy. deals with its economic resources,
embarks 1t upon a precarious and per-
iious departure, but commanders, ep-
parently, for all time its blood and its
bone. For every sentence of such a
momentous document there should be
sound reason, and for every clause,
rational and logical explanation and de-
monstration Indeed, the President him
self, after the completion in secrecy of
the document cabed in triumph its adop-
ton with the statement that there was
good and sufficient reason for every
portion of it," And yet to this day neither
the President has shown US reasons for
single article or clause, nor has any
one OF the Americans presumably inter-
ested In Its composition disclosed to the
American people anything at all in
respect to this document. We are COM
PEELED, therefore, from the words of the
instrument itself, often ambiguous and
obscure, to determine what this document.
born in secrecy, denied exposition, and
presented to us with a cynical Indifference
to our right of knowledge. may mean.
and what some of it's particular provisions
portend to the republic
The circumstances surrounding it's crea-
tion are anything but reassuring II was
to be the apotheosis Of ideaism; il was
TO represent the triumph OF right, the
oVerpowring direction Of the conscience
OF mankind, it was to sound the knell
for all time of selfish national ambition
and aggression, of the tyranny of the
strong over the weak, its was to realize
the hopes, and the aspirations, and the
prayers Of peoples; it would throttle for
ever the cunning, greed and avarice of
diplomacy, and curb the grasping selfish
ness or power The phrases in which
lts virtues We're sung were almost as high
sounding and alluring and entcing as the