Norwich bulletin., 1919-05-07
FACTS AND COMMENT

 ference. In its new .forrfa it embodies many of the suggestions madesby Mir. Taft, MT. Root Senators Lodge and i Knox and other helpful critics Thus the right of any nation to withdraw | from the league after two years notice | is now set down in black and white. A | definite statement that a mandate to 1 administer a weak or backward state ! will be imposed only upon a nation i willing to accept the task, will relieve all anxiety lest a dis,astful police job | in a remote land be unloaded on the United States. Our place in America secures the first formal international recognition in the declaration that re- gional understandings like the Monroe Doctrine shall remain unaffected. Thus as far as the league of nations is con-l cerned, the United States will never be forced to police the eastern hemis- phere. and the western hemisphere is left quite as much as ever to our supervision and direction. California,
 too, is freed from her apprehension
 of Oriental immigration by a para
 graph providing that the league of na- tions shall not even make recommenda-
 tions in the matters having to do with domestic jurisdiction. Thus Ameri-1 ca remains as free as ever to go to war in case Japan should attempt to force her nationals On us The revised covenant has an ex- cellent chance of. passing the U. S. senate even though that body will have a republican majority. Three
 months thought and discussion have advanced public sentiment to the place
 where no political party can afford to oppose the league on padty grounds alone. Much of the opposition to the league of nations as at first proposed was not in reality against the project itself, but was directed against it's chief sponsor. Bur Mir Wilson is nearing the end of his administration and the trend of public opinion indi- cates that the chance of his contin- uance in the white house is steadily i growing less, even apart from the established sentiment against a third term. Opposition to MT. Wilson is needless from partisan standpoint and the league will thus appear before the senate on it's oHp merits. In it's new and improved form it can hardly rail of passage.
 Postmaster General Burleson sur i prised the nation last week by rec onmending to the president that the ocean cables be. returned to their owners immediately. Furthermore he promised to recommend that govern l Inent control of the telegraph an dtel- 1 ephone lines he -relir,quished as soon 1 as the needed Legislation could be | passed to enable the companies to eX- i ist under the new conditions that l have arisen during the period of gov i ernment operation The public is l pretty firmly convinced that Burleson's s recommendation though f1ominally 1 coming from the Dcsr office depart ment, was in fact reremptory order 1 to that department and that it came ! direct from Paris. Democratic lead
 PTS had for months viewed with alarm 1 the increasing unpopularity of the 1 increasing unpopularity of the post
 master general: Poor mail service and l high rates and arbtsrary- methods in the wire services were making the sit uation steadily worse, and if Burleson l was to be retained in the adnlinistra- .
 ton at all his powers for evil must be curtailed.
 From his installation as postmaste general in 1913. a recomme ndation 1 that the wires be absorbed by the gov : l ernment and made q part of the post
 office department has been q regular feature of MT. Burleson's reports tc
 congress. Such a proposal by cab lflGs OHlceT caused cOIlSlu6fdDle SenSa- tion at first, implying as it did a milo acquiescence if not indeed a positive
 inclination toward government owner
 ship on the part of the adninistra-
 tion. The Adamson law whereby
 train crews obtained large wage in
 creases by direct act of the democratit
 congress was 8 definite step in tho same direction. But the war, bringing with it the necessity TOT centralized !, control, afforded the. greatest oppor.
 tunity to put the theory into practice I and the. railways of gne country were
 taken over at the end of 1917. From
 a financial viewpoint the results have been far from satisfactory. Highe1 freight and passenger rates and th' } discontinuanee of hundreds of train have not suffieed to prevent steadily
 increasing deficits, ana the end is no yet in sight. The telegraph and tel
 ephone lines were taken over half year later and MT. Burleson's manage naent of them has stirred up genera i dissatisfaction among ooth owners ant patrons, The country is not ready |,
 forgo the good service to which it hat
 become accustomed for the theoretica
 advantage of government ownership. immediately after President WiIso, l issued the statement explaining hi
 reasons for denying Fiumc to ItalN
 the Italian delegates, Orlando ant Sonnino withdrew from the peace con ference and returned home l Having failed to obtain fol their government that which the.
 had been commissioned 70 ob
 tain, it was necessary that they ge } in touch with Rome and secure sane l tion for modifying the demands or ap l
 plete fulfllment. Before leaving Paris
 Orlando isued a, reply to Wilson a statement in which he set forth tn : justice of Italy's claims and at tn T same time mildly took the presiden ! to task for his very undoplomatic ac of apealing to a friendly people directl
 and thereby attempting to iIlf1uenc
 them against their own government a Had President Wilson actually don that, his action would have been mos : representing, This was the very ac D of which Citizen Genet was guilty c
 in 1793, when by direct, appeal to tn
 people of the United States he trie , to stir them to back the revolutionar
 government of France in war wit | England. Washington, who was the n president, had hard work to restrai the overenthusiastic citizens of tn
 infant nation, and very properly aske
 France to recall her officious minis Q ter.
 President Wilson is far too wise t . commit Genets error and quite cleve Il enough to secure his ends without be
 | ing guilty of any breach of diplomac,
 1 The statement explaining his positio f on Plume was not addressed to tn :, Italian people Indeed, it was entirel / without address or caption of an