Arizona republican., 1919-09-13
ACCEPTANCE IF PACT WILL PUT 4 LASTING STAIN
 LIN GOVERNMENT I
Senator Johnson Asserts Secret Negotiations of the Allied Powers Were Car ried on Months Before the Wars End

'ST. LOUIS, Sept. 12-Trailing Presi- dent Wilson through the middle west presenting arguments opposing the ratification of the league of nations covenant, Senator Hiram Johnson If California, today addressed two large and enthusiastic audiences in St. Louis,
 At noon he spoke to a gathering If business men at the City club. To- night he addressed a large mass meet ing at the Coliseum, where President Wilson spoke when he visited St Louis week ago.
 At the night meeting Senator John son was introduced by Dr. John H. Simon, a prominent democrat
 In his plea for the defeat of the league of nations in it's present form, Senator Johnson described the treaty of peace as a patchwork of the secret treaties made between the allies, un- known to America, before and during the war and challenged the recent declaration of the president that failure to concur in the settlement of the terms of peace by the United States would put a stain upon our national honor which we never could efface.'
 Does the president intend to say that it will put a stain upon our honor if we do not carry out the secret bar gainings which were, with a duplicity unparalleled in the worlds history, concealed from us?" asked the senator.
 He described the visits to this coun- try after our declaration of war, of the diplomatic representatives of Eng land, France. Italy and Japan.
 Tn the full flush of a righteous ac niF,c we were bending every energy in be- half of just cause" said Senator Johnson. Before the United States senate. in terms as idealistic as those we employed. MT. Balfour for England. MT. Niviani for France, Italy's prince and Japan's representative spoke. Un- til they came no foreigner had ever stood upon the rostrum of the United States senate since La Fayette's visit. While these representatives of the four great powers were speaking to us upon the same plane upon which we were acting and appealing to the same lofty sentiments and altruistic purposes their very pockets were bulging with the secret treaties they had made among themselves for the partition of the world and the distribution of the spells of the war
 During all the period that they were with us, not single one divulged to our government or to any representa- tive of it the treaties they had made. a half dozen in number, and which they had then determined to write into the ultimate treaty of peace. The president said with positiveness, at the recent meeting with the foreign relations committee he had never even heard of these secret treaties until he went to paris. The secretary of state testi- fled in like fashion. Indeed. in 1917, while the treaty between the four great nations, in relation not only to Shantung, but the isles of the Pacific, safely reposed in their archives, Wis count Ishii, the representative of Japan, concluded with our secretary of state an agreement by which the United States government recognized the special interests of Japan 1T China"
 During these negotiations con tinued the senator, mot d word was said, not a syllable lisped, during the time we were pouring out our blood and our treasure, not d hint of a sug- gestion while we were announcing to the world our peace policies, of the . SEtTeL VdIllllOll Ol idHuS III EuFODH. Asia and Africa. The words we uttered as to our purposes in the war. the prin- ciples we laid down upon which peace should be concluded, were re-echoed and assented to by these very powers with whom we were fighting side by side
 Senator Johnson enumerated the presidents wartime declarations of America's 8 peace aims. He quoted the presidents assertion that the processes of peace should be absolutely open and permit no secret understandings of any kind.
 "A general peace cannot be pieced together out of the individual under standings of the powerful states"
 These very principles of peace were accepted by the holders of the secret treaties,p declared the senator We may view their denial now by foreign nations, perhaps, with only passing re- gret, but if we break our faith to the world and to our own people, then our national honor will be stained as in all our proud history it has never been stained before.
 The stain upon our national honor, which we never could efface, would be carried out with our blood should we agree to the Shantung decision of the peace conference, based upon wicked betrayal of China, our friend and ally in the war"
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