The daily Alaska citizen., 1919-10-26

Western hemisphere and try to es- tabhsh its power or interfere with the self government of people in this hemisp sphere; that no power shall eX- tend its governing and controlling in- tieunCe in any form to either Ot the Americas. Very well that Is the doc urine of the covenant. No nation shall anywhere extend its power or seek to interfere with the political independence of the people of the world. And inasmuCh as the Monroe ] doctrine had been made the uniyeT- sal doctrine. l did not think that 1t was necessary to mention it par 1 ucularly, but when l suggested that it was the desire ot the United States that il should be explicitly recognized, it was explicitly recog- nized. for it is written in that noth- ing in the covenant shall be inter preted as affecting the validity of the Monroe doctrine. The Monroe doc Urine is left intact, the United States is left free to enforce it.
 Without exception the suggestions of the United States were adopted, want to say. because it may inter est you, that most of these sugges- tions came from republican sources. l l say that, my fellow citizens, not 1 because it seems to me to make the least difference among Americans l in great matter like this, which party such things came from, but i because want to emphasize in l every discussion of this matter the absolutely non-partisan character of 1 the covenant and the treaty. l am not in favor of the ratification of this 1 treaty, including the covenant of the 1 league of nations, because l am a democrat; l am in favor of it be 1 lover of humanity. And. if it will relieve anybody's mind let me add | that it is not my work; that prac- tically every portion of the covenant 1 of the league of nations emanated i from councils running back, ten, twenty, thirty years, among the most thoughtful men in America, and that 1t is the fultillment of a dream which five years ago, when the war began, would have been deemed unattain- able.
 "I draw all this picture of the care with which the covenant was drawn, every phrase scrutinized, every inter est considered, the other nations at the board just as jealous of their sovereignty as We could possibly be these soyereignties in a single, great enterprise of peace, and how the whole thing was not the original | idea of any man in the conference but had grown out of the councils of hopeful and thoughtful and righteous men all over the world
 Germany. at our request-I may almost say at our dictation- signed the treaty and has ratified it. It is a contract, so far as her part in it is 1 concerned. can testify that we l tried to be just to Germany. When
 We had heard her arguments and examined every portions of the cOun- l ter proposals she made, We wrote the treaty in it's final form and then said Sign here
 'I have said, in all frankness, that I do not see a single phrase in the covenant of the league of nations which is of doubtful meaning, but if they want to say what that undOubt- ed meaning is In other words that don't change the undoubted meaning, I have no objection. If they change the meaning of it. then all the other signatures have to consent. And
 what has been evident in the last week or two, is that on the part Oi
 some men-I believe a very few
 
 the, desire is to change the treaty,
 especially the covenant in a way to give America an exceptional footing.
 Now, my fellow countrymen, the principle that America went into this
 was was the principle of the equality of sovereign nations. l am just as
 much opposed to class legislation in
 international matters as in domestic
 matters. do not, l tell you plainly,
 believe that any one nation should be allowed to dominate-even this
 beloved nation of our own and it does not desire to dominate"
 SOME GENERAL OBSERVATION The President declared that while the United States formerly was looked upon as a selfish nation, that opinion has been absolutely Ire versed." It now was America's priv ilge, he said, to lead the world 'un- r less cynical counsels of some of our acquaintances prevail"
 Whether you will or not, our , fortunes are tied In with the rest oi the world and the choice that we