Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1919-09-03
LEAGUE FULFILS
AMERICAN IDEAL
Herbert Hoover Says Demccra-
cies Replaced Autocracies
at Our Bidding.
FOOD ADMINISTRATION CHIEF.
Urges Ratification on Ground That
Peace Treaty VIII Collapse
Without League Of
Nations.

Herbert Hoover is so deeply con-
cerned over the opposition to the
League of Nations in the United
States that he has let himself be in
terviewed at length on the Leaghe sit
slation. In a talk with the New York
Times correspondent in Paris. the
Food Administration Chief asserts that
having caused the League idea TO pre-
vail America cannot abandon IT. We
cannot withdraw, he says, andf leave
europe to chaos. ITO abandGa the
League Covenant now means that the
treaty itself will collapse"
Mr.. Hoover's wide acquaintance
with conditions both here and abroad,
his reputation as an administrator, a
man of great affairs who deals with
facts, not theories, make his state
ment one of the most important con-
tributions to the recent League discus.
sionS.
"There are one or two points in con-
nectlon with the present treaty. said
Mr Hoover. that need careful consId-
GRAFTON by the American public We
need to digest the fact that we have
for century and a half been advo-
eating democracy not only as
remedy for the internal Ills OF all So
ciety, but also as the only real safe
guard against war. We have believed
and proclaimed, in season and out.
hat world In which there was ,
free expression and enforcement OF
the will of the majority was tire real
BASIS of government, was essential for
The advancement of civiiizatioF,- and
hat we have proved its enormous hui
man benefits in our country.
American Ideas Have Prevailed.
1--WE went into the war to destroy
autocracy as a menace to our own and
all other demOcracies. If we hSd not
come into the war every inch of. Euro
aean soil today would be under auto
cratic government. We have imposed
our will on the world Out of this
victory has come the destruction of
The four great autocracies in Ger
.nany, Russia, Turkey and Austria and
the little autocracy in Greece. New
democracies have sprung into being In
Poland, Finland, Letvia, Lithuania.
Esthonia, Czechoslovakia, Greater
Serbia, Greece, Siberia, and even Ger
many and Austria have established
democratic governments. Beyond
these host of small republiess such
as Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaij Jan and
others, have sprung up, and again as
the constitutions Of Spain, Runaania,
and even England, have made az final
ascent to complete franchise and de-
mocracy, although they still masntain
a symbol of royalty.
eve have been the living spring for
this last century and half from which
these ideas have sprung, and we have
triumphed. The world today, except
for a comparatively few reaeti0nary
and communistic autocracies, is DEM
ocratic, and we did it.
M man who takes. a wife and
blesses the world with several infants
cannot go away and leave them on
the claim that there was no Legal mar
rage
'sTheSe infant democracies all have
political. social and economic prob
LENS involving their neighbors that
are fraught with the most Intense
friction. There are no natural bound
aries In Europe. Races are not conf
pact; they blend at every border They
need railway communication an@ sea
outlets through their neighbors' serri-
tory.
MANY Of these states must for the
next few years struggle almost for
bare bones to maintain their very
existence. Every one of them Is go
ing to do its best: TO protect it's own
interests, even to the prejudice OF ia
neighbors.
Governments Lack Experience.
sWs in America should realize that