The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1919-05-31
OUR AUTHORITY IN ITALY

Olh InU
We must confess that we do not see where the American
nrrsid.nt gels his authority to set up his judgment III me
Italian matter. Or where he got his excuse % setting "e
Whole latin world at odds with the United STATES. q
he has an idea, an ideal, a principle eveh' y, Is y ~. fo;
that there are other ideas, other ideals ana oiher Prhop,c'
in The world excent the ones that he happens to have in his
mind? A
~ So =
uonost,, Who, ova we at stake in that Fiume contro-
versy that we should lose the friendship of all the Laun races
of southern Europe and of South America, for a brazlhan q
just returned TO his own country, AFTER v,sl.he Lu,Jp
America, with the alarm that 1.-THE United states
is the Prussia of tomorrow" And it will be a PRUSSIA orheu
of the relentless one-idead announcements That we seem 70
have been making in Europe, around a peace taDle "hete
out modesty ought at least to have been commensurate with
the brevity of our own participation in the great war.
There are fears that we are helping to drive ltaiy Dack
to the alliance out of which it had the courage to INT itself
when the great war began, a single act to which the world,
probably, owes its salvation from the imposition u 'ne frus,
sian system on western Europe, and eventually on ne rs
of the world. And while her blood was flowing In torrents
to make the world safe for democracy" and for u.s. wilson
was asking us to re-elect him to office because ne kept US
out of war"-the war that was ours as much az iai!s
x@*
Italy then acted bravely, nobly, unselfshly and we in
America applauded the act as one OF the braves' II me
Some have said since that Italy was mercenar!' IL u
exacted condition to its own advantage. What were these
conditions exactly? Were they not simply and solely that the
Italian peoples still living under the Austrian rule along the
Adriatic should be relieved of their slavery? Was that mer-
cenary? Was it not a high national aspiration and IDEAL!
. \
The treaty of London. was it a servile treaty? 1t was
made at a time when the balance of civilization was hanging
by a thread. By it England and France agreed that In event
of victory Italy should be permitted to free its oppressed
peoples. Italy was bargaining, if bargaining at all, for human
freedom, for the principle of self determination. That treaty
was made under the most solemn and binding conditions ana
by nations that had a right to make such a treaty as well as
they had the power so to do. 1t was not considered a scrap OF
paper by them. Shall we now call it a scrap of paper by the
ipse dixit of one man? Shall we insist on it being considered
a scrap of paper because this man, speaking for himself, lad
down some points, one of which was a devaluatlon OF so
called secret treaties? Shall solemn and sacred agreements
be broken in order that we may observe the points in ques-
tion-most of which, as a matter of fact, lie already broken
by the way, at least one of them on the sea coast of China?
Must the whole world make scraps of its treaties and agree
ments simply because we helped to do a bit and a small bit
compared with others in the winning of the war? Does our
participation in that victory in the eleventh hour make us thee
dictators of all that must be done?
We do not believe that is the spirit or the attitude Of
America. We really and truly have less to say about Dial
malta than Italy has about the boundary along the Rio Grande.
We would send Italy home if she tried to mix in that matter
Italy does not eventually tell us to go home in the same way.
And is there any reason why we should not come home? Or
shall we stay there insisting on our way in their affairs
until we have the whole of the Latin races arrayed against
us-and not by anything that we as voters have decreed? It's
a question that every one must ask himself, for every one in
this country is as much the government of America as the
president himself, so far as his individual views and ideals are
concerned.
We did not send him to France. He appointed himself
to that position, and made the appointment after his leader
ship had been repudiated by on overwhelming vote of the
people for whom he assumes to speak.