The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-10-20

| land. What would emerge from the
 ruin is hardly worth speculat1ng on. But there is one sinister possibility that | should not be forgotten. The Ger man people and the Russian people
 will still be the most numerous and the most formidable nations on the
 Continent. This paper has consist ! entity warned the Allies against fore l ing them into a comradeship of des- pair and revenge. The warning has <, been ignored. Russia and Germany
 are nearer together today than they l have been in history-allied not by l the frail articles of despottc dip1om- acy, but by the agonies of a com 1 mon misery and by undying mem l ories of bitterness.
 That is among the considerations
 which would become pregnant if the | President failed. I do not think he
 will fail. In Paris he did not ac-
 compIish what he purposed-he was 1 beaten by more nimbIe and less scru- 1 DuIous minds-but, as a campaigner,
 as the preacher of a great need, he 1 Is incomparable, and all the evidence | goes to show that his appeal to the | American people is winning, and if i he can carry the American people
 with him, he will not need to fear l the American Senate. The ratifica- l tion vote takes place next month, l and the weL-being of humanity has rarely been so profoundly involved 1 in any single event It Is profitless | to forecast the result, but the inn pression in the most instructed cir 1 cles is that the President will win, i though 1t may be that ratification 1 may be qualified by serious reserva- ! tions
 l The presence in America at this 1 critical time of so powerful and ele- Ivated an influence Lord Grey cannot fail to have weight with American opinion. Himself the most reticent and the least demonstrative
 of men, he has much of that large l simplicity and clarity of purpose that 1 appeal to the American intelligence. He is great Englishman; but, 1 though insular in his habits, he is
 also a good European and a good 1 citizen of the world. No one, not l even the President himself, has moro l clearly realized than he has done i that the world must get out of the ! old rut and make a new start or per : ish; that civilization and milttartsm l can no longer co-exist; that egotistic l nationalism is no basis of settlement, 1 that, in a word, the nations must l hang together or hang separately. l i understanding sympathy with the l American spirit and what is not less 1 vaIua ble, the assurance that the best mind of this nation is not represent ! ed by the orgies of the December l election and it's fatal fruit
 l But something more than his pres l ence will be needed if this momen- ! tous visit is to consolidate the under standing between this country and
 
 ment establish the League of Nations on a sure foundation. He must be, l supported from home, supported not l only by the government but by pub 1 lie opinion, by such votes as that of i the electors of Widnes and the con- 1 gress at Glasgow, which give the lie | to the tragic misrepresentation of the | mind of this country as revealed in | the acts of it's Ministers. The i'm 1 portance of the end in view needs no 1 insistence. If America weighs an- i chor from Europe the disaster will l be primarily ours and the blame will 1 be primarily ours, too, for it Is idle 1 to blink the notorious fact that it 1 was our reactionaries at home who 1 played into the hands of the Presi- 1 dents opponents throughout the l peace negotiations.
 ! We can do something to minimize 1 the bad impression created by the peace In two years. The principal l lions in the path are the sea and Ire 1 land. These lions must be slain be- fore an absolutely clear and endur- l ing understanding can be accom- l plished. It is we who have to sIay l them, and in both cases we have it
 in our power to make a decision no 1 less historic, beneficial and final than 1 that of a, century ago. when we ] agreed with America to leave the Ca nadian frontier unfortified and un- patroIled. It is best to be quite 1 frank in these matters. If, by the i failure of human wisdom at this searching time, the future of the 1 world is left insecure it will be sea- 1 power which will be the peril.
 America, in isolation, will have to 1 build, and she can only build with ! two contingencies in vtew-a con- 1 flict with this country or Japan, or l both. This is the moment to prevent i this dread dfr6 necessity arising. The 1 German fleet is at the bottom of Sea- pa Flow. The British Navy rides the i seas of the world unchallenged and without a rival. Let us take care that no rival ever appears. Let us 1 enter into such a pooling arrange ment with America for policing the seas or the WOFIu III the interests or | the League of Nations that no ques- ton of competition can ever arise l Only in that way can competition be checked at the source. Only in that way can this country give America and the world at large assurance that not supremacy for itself but security for the world is it's aim.
 And the other issue is no less urg- ent. So long as English policy in Ireland is undisguised Prussianism, so long as it is possible for q man in the position of Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson to send such a mes sage to Ulster as that of a short time ago without being cashiered and sent about his business, so long it will be impossible to have that clear and undisturbed relationship with Amer ica which our own necessities and the necessities of the world so inn peratively demand. It is not a mat ter-as the evil genius of Ulster sup poses-of America mfndfng its own business and we ninding ours. This is Americas business. Every cleo tion turns on it. UntiI it is out of the way forever every election must ! 1t