Perth Amboy evening news., 1919-08-25
TRYING TO BE AUTOCRATIC

IAFO Oul 9 bS IOh h"hSSA $1,000
to rule the world. He dreamed of himself as supreme dictator
surrounded by a few friendly and sympathetic advisers parcel
ing out the spells of war. Just what each nation was to receive
and how the territory of the earth would be divided was to be
decided by him and his council.
But other nations objected. They maintained that no one
country could dominate in such a manner. A great war was
fought to decide whether autocracy or democracy should rule
the world. In this struggle twenty-three nations were arrayed
on the side of democracy. They finally won and the represen-
tatives of these twenty-three nations assembled at Versailles
to arrange the terms of peace. Everybody had a voice In the
proceedings. 1t was as different from the way the kaiser had
planned making peace as democratic methods differ from au-
tocratio methods. No one person sitting in great majesty on
his throne dictated how the world should be divided; no one
nation had all the say.
But where twenty three nations are concerned, each one
having it's own claims and ideas, it stands to reason that there
is not likely to be as much harmony in reaching conclusions
and making decisions as in the case of a single nation presided
over by an autocrat. In the case of the twenty three nations
working along democratic lines it is a case of give and take and
compromise in order that there may be a final agreement with
each nation getting as nearly what it wanted as possible. But
because it is a case of give and take and compromise for all
concerned, no one nation gets exactly what it wants and there
must necessarily be some features that are Objectionable to
some and which, if the nation that objects could have all the
say, as an autocrat would have, it would have an entirely diff
ferent arrangement.
In the peace treaty that has just been drawn up, the United
States, having fought on the side of democracy, was one OF the
twenty-three nations to participate in the conference at YER
sailles. But the United States was one Of the last to get into
the war. Other nations had been fighting for nearly four years
before this country took up arms against Germany. During
that time many understandings and agreements had been made
between the nations already participating and with which the
United States had absolutely nothing to do. In some cases, the
Allies, hard pressed by the enemy and in sore need of help,
myere forced, sometimes against their own better Judgment,
TO promise things that, under any other conditions they would
not have considered,
When the peace conference finally met all of these under
standings and agreements were brought up. Every nation that
had entered the war with certain definite understandings or
with whom certain agreements had been made, naturally in
sisted that the obligations be carried out. Nations that We're
a party to- these agreements and understandings felt morally
bound to live up to their part.
One of these agreements was that Japan, in return for
driving Germany out of the Orient, was to take over for the
time being such territory in China as Germany controlled.
This agreement was clearly unfair to China. But the Allies
not only needed Japan's assistance on their side, but they had
TO keep her, if possible, from going over to the side of Ger
many, which, through active German propaganda at one time,
she was likely to do.
Having made the best of a bad bargain at a time when it
was the only possible thing to do, that bargain became a seri-
/ GUS obstacle in the formulation of a final peace, especially since
the United States entered into the situation with her antagon-
ism to secret diplomacy and the ''abalnce Of power idea.
But the United States was fighting on the side of democ-
racy. 1t had to participate in the conference with Twenty-Five
other powers. There was no one dominant nation, no auto
crat to say that this shall be done and that shall not be done.
it was a case of give and take and compromise.
Now, it so happens that this Shantung award is one of the
compromises that was reached in the give and take method
pursued when treaties are arranged along democratic instead
of autoclatic lines. Contrary to what Senator Lodge and
his fellow Republicans would have the country believe, Japan
under the treaty loes not get Shantung for all time. She
would like to have annexed the province permanently, to be
sure, but the American protest and insistance forced a COM
promise whereby Japan promised to turn the territory over to
China within reasonable time, and the League of Nations is on
duty to decide what is a reasonable time. Without the league
Japan might not get out without another war to force her, but
with the League of Nations backed by the moral and econom-
ic as we'll as the military strength of all the leading powers,
there isn't much doubt about her getting out when the league
says SO.
Republican senators, however, are bent on showing the
world that they are not rubber stamps as Senator Knox ex-
pressed it in an interview published yesterday. They cannot
find any real, legitimate objection to the peace treaty, especi-
ally to the covenant for the League of Nations, so they decide
to play the part of the autocrat and, regardless of what the
other twenty-five nations have to say, regardless of the give
and take policy and the compromises that wade it possible to
get together in a democratic way, Senator Lodge would have
the United States fill the role that Germany tried to fill with
himself emulating the kaiser in debating what the vari-
Gus nations shall get as a result of the war.