New-York tribune., 1919-03-17

coach from Chicago to the most
~ attractive small city of Illinois, and
the voice was loud and wrathfu
for all to hear:
II tell you the country won't stand for this
stuff-he's beat right now-the league won't
ever be ratified until it's changed so he won't
know it,"
Two other voices echoed the sentiment, with
equal confidence. The rest of the car went
on calmly looking out the window. Evidently
it was old stuff, regulation anti Wilson
talk, which you can hear anywhere from
Portland Harbor to the Mississippi, but which
for several weeks now, in various regions
farther West, had been strangely lacking
from the landscape.
Several days in Indiana and Ohio have
deepened this impression. Something does
happen at the Mississippi Our habit of
grouping both banks of the great valley
into one unit called the Middle West works
gross violence to the facts. Iowa partakes
of both sections. Otherwise the line is fairly
sharp and clear. Illinois, Chicago, Indiana,
Ohio, have ceased to be Of the West; they
have drifted we'll apart from the states be-
yond the Mississippi, for worse or better
luck, and without touching the invidious
question whether the change is promotion
or demotion.
R0ncOr Ends at the Riuer
The attitude toward President Wilson and
the league of nations is a perfect touchstone.
Beyond the Mississippi the reaction from
President Wilson has gone far, essentially,
every one considers But it is not vocal, or
if vocal is not wrathful or rancorous The
from Kansas City or Des Moines seems
slower to anger and more generous. His
horizon is wider and clearer. The moment
you hit Chicago and thence East, you are
in different and smoky world. You strike
exactly the same intense personal feeling, the
same bitterness, the same explosive debate
that pervades our Atlantic coast In Illinois,
statesmen and brakemen, men and women,
unleash their heavy artillery for the asking.
Ancient Democrats, of the Harvey and Wat
terson type, join in. There is harder sense
of fact, a closer understanding of Europe
here than further West-and also less ideal
ism, more bite of personality.
In these states east of the Mississppi it
often hard to find strong sentiment
either for Mr.. Wilson or for the league
When the President asserted that America
was overwhelmingly in favor of the league
he certainly could not have heard from this
part of the Middle West. Illinois, for in
stance, rejected Mr.. Wilson and went for
Mr.. Hughes by over 100000 plurality in
1916 and probably would do even worse
Senator Shermans utterances as test. He
had earned a good deal of disfavor in H.
linos and something of the reputation of a
scold; yet his most vituperative anti-league
speeches were we'll spoken of. | don't think
there is a doubt that they represented
very large part of Illinois opinion.
Lincoln's Memory Preserved
There are several fundamental obstacles
to the league iii such states as Illinois that
ought to be understood. They exist wholly
apart from the personality of Mr.. Wilson
There are towns in the state, like Spring
field, which are as Lincolnian in their flavor
as if the last half century had never rolled
by. The banks do business not through the
glory of new marble fronts, but by virtue
of the original furniture and the original
brick building of comfortably classic design.
Our East is too changeful, too excited about
the latest everything, to possess the steady,
assured self-confidence of this part of the
country. The Illinois countryman has read
and thought much about the war and about
peace-much more than the farmer from
Iowa or Kansas He has long background
of old Americanism behind him (Ilnois en-
tered the Union in 1S1Stwo years before
Maine). He is not to be stampedcd toward
any new contraption that threatens to alter
our old national security and independence
"No, sir; the people out here don't like
it, We don't see why we should give up
the advantage that God gave US in those
three thousand miles of ocean They try
to tell us that the ocean doesn't count
nowadays. But we know better We're glad
we went into this war, because it was every
body's fight. But as for mussing into
every little scrap around the world, we
won't have it,"
That was the view of highly intelligent
and liberal minded county judge, Repub-