Imperial Valley press., 1919-10-10
THE LEAGUE or NATIONS
Unstallment Number Three 4.

Except for men whose fortunes are made
greater by war through the manufacture OF
munitions, food sale in huge quantities to the
government manufacturers of rifles and the
thousand and one things the grim business of
war requires, every right thinking man and
woman in the United States does not want to
see another war.
The cost of war is staggering.
The economic waste is terrific and experts
claim it will take Europe one hundred years 10
recover from this last bitter, bloody struggle.
This all having been SO forcibly proven by
the events of the past five years, then we may
start off with the assumption chat no one wants
wars and that all will favor any plan which Will
prevent them
President Wilson declares that the League
of Nations will prevent wars or at least greatly
minimize them Many senator's with equal ear
nestnesS declare that in their opinion the league
as now written will breed disputes and Quarrels
which will increase the number of wars. One CT
the other must be wrong. But only the future
can prove which is right And the future is al
ways filled with uncertainties. We must reason
from the known to the unknown. We can only
Judge the future by the past
And nation is but the man multiplied into
millions and is marked by many OF the Individual
characteristics
Around the peace table, at which the bulk
Of the provisions of the League Of Nations were
determined, sat representatives OF The great pow
ers. From all reports Of the peace conference |
am forced to the conclusion that they were there
save and except the United States, to get what
territory, money and other indcmnities they
could, on the old theory that to the victor belong
the spolis Shantung, the Saar valley, the Ger
man colonies of South Africa and Fiume, all
combine to show that the other nations at The
peace table were determined TO get all they
could get while the getting was good and the
United States is asked to become a guarant0r to
protect the territory thus taken.
Ihe United States went into the war for the
high and lofty purpose of giving enslaVed pe0-
pies a right to choose rulers for themselves.
The United States wanted no territory. 1t
had no motive except to bring to every nation in
the world the blessing of self-government.
But behind all these worthy and lofty mo-
tives lies the fact that we have loaned our allies
billions of dollars; that the bankers of the world
finance the war and expect their money back
with at least reasonable interest. We have been
accused OF going into this war not so much to
free the world as to make Wall Streets millions
safe.
Between these two probably lies The truth
There IS no question but that our boys, reused
to patriotic fervor and what was then real dam
ger, that of a Hun invasion of our Shores en-
listed not caring whether Wall Street got its
money or not.
Youth loves a fight, the glor and pomp of
war, the opportunity to go into new, untried
fields, and is sWayed by all the trappings with
which war bedecks itself. President Wilson told
audiences all over the country that the League
OF Nations IS not only practicable but guaran-
teed it to do all he claims and war is to be ended
by blockade of any nations ports which refuses
to abide by the mandates of the league The
charge is made that if this program is carried out
helpless women and children will starve and that
civilization revolts at making women and chill
dren pay the price of peace. | have not seen
President Wilson's answer to this charge except
very general statements that the end iustifes
the means-that is, the sooner a nation is
brought to its knees the better it is for mankind
generally, and that the innocent usually suffer
along with the guilty during war condition
for which he apparently believes there is no
remedy. That gives US something else to think
about Is the United States to align itself with
the other great powers of the world for the pur-
pose of starving some rebeious nation into sub
mission?
Are we to use the bodies of women and ba-
bies as the means of clubbing some country into
doing what majority Of its citizens believe it
should not do? There is an angle to the situation
that may offset to some extent the undiluted joy
and faith that some people have in the league.
IT'S toll of hunan lives iS aDD9llino