Perth Amboy evening news., 1919-08-15
LODGE REFUTES HIMSELF

senate on Tuesday. 1t may be considered the heaviest gun .
all the anti-treaty argument. The senator had spent three
months in its preparation and had brought into play all the line
points that he could muster. Being an orator OF no mean re
pute he made full use of the spread-eage Americanlsms hat
always appeal and they did not fail in their purpose Judging
from the report of the applause from the gallery
But when the speech is searched for real, straightforward
argument against the treaty of peace with the covenant OF 'e
League of Nations it It's disappointing and the senator's own ar
guments are turned against him.
For instance, when the learned Massachusetts senator ac
claims his Americanism and processes his single allegiance TO
the United States, he strikes a popular chord. We are all
Americans first, to be sure. sBut,' as the Philadelphia Public
Ledger asks in commenting on the speech, "does the senator
believe that America would now be worse off if she had been
.entangled' in a League of Nations during the summer of 1914
which would have been able to tell the Hapsburg government
Of Austria Hungary that its ultimatum to Serbia was a war
provoking act which must be withdrawn if it did not desire 10
encounter the condemnation of the League?
aDoes he believe, y the Ledger goes ON to ask, :" II Ger
MANY and Austria had known at that time that any wanton pre-
o;n;totion IF war on their part would bring into the field against
them automatically not only Britain, France and hussla' Dut
1talv and the United States as well, that they would have rushed
on their fate? The same thing would be true if it had been
Russia that then thought of lifting the lid off hell The
sunion of civilized nations with "a controlling force behind the
maintenance of peace which Senator Lodge so eloquently en-
yisaged at Union College, would have kept the peace.
aAnd America, which we must think of first, would have
been the richer today by many tens of thousands OF dead' nun
dreds of thousands of wounded and billions OF dollars, wei
paid a big price to learn the lesson that we live IN the worlo
and no senator can sing sweetly enough to cause US TO forget
for a moment that, so long as America does not lend hr sah's
and power to the proper control of what Mr.. Lodge calls SO
contemptuousIy every controversy and conflict on the lace q
fhe globe, she abstains at the cost of risking the life of every
American lad who leaves his home this morning with a bright
face turned toward the days duty or pleasure"
The philadelphia paper then takes up Senator Lodge's.iEI
1ustration of meddling in foreign affairs in which the senator
recites the troubles that King Hussein is having in Arabia The
senator revolts at the thought of American troops fighting to
save the boundaries of that distant kingdom. The Ledger asks:
.Has it occurred to him 1.-THE senator) that King Hussen
might literally compel American troops to go to war If there
were no League in existence? Less important men than the
new Arabian king have done that. An assassin lurking in a
Doorway in by-no-means metropolitan SarajeVo compelled.
Two million Americans to arm and go to France. Some will
never come back unless in their collins. The same King Hus-
sein has immense powers for mischief under his hand. Does
the senator forget that he is the political heir of Mohammed
and that it was the Arabs who once so seriously frightened
Christendom? He might, for example, take it into his head to
fight the French for Damascus or to try to drive the Armenians
back into the Caucasus. A League of Nations could easily bring
pressure to bear, without asking so much as a company of in
fantry from America, which would dissuade him. But if there
were no League Of Nations, no Big Power unity OF action, rath-
err Big Power jealousies and intrigues, it is just possible that
the conhagration might spread until America must again
buckle on her armor and pour out much of her best blood on
European batlefelds.'
There is the whole thing summed up from Senator
Lodges own speech and using his own arguments to show the
advantages and desirability of a real League of Nations. The
Lodged concludes thusly,
'aThe American people are all with him (the senator, for
America first but men of light and learning ought to unite in
telling the American people frankly that the day of American
Isolation is past forever and that it is only a question on what
particular terms we will join the Parliament of Man.
I'VE cannot stand aloof. We cannot shirk the risks.
Immensely greater risks will menace us if we do. We must
schip ini We must pool our brains and our hearts and our
strong right arms. We must join the forces of prevention as
well as the forces which subsequently fight the flames on dizzy