Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1919-07-16
PEACE COVENANT WITH
LEAGUE CLAUSE LAID
BEFORE THE SENATE.
Continued from Fourth Page.)

guards about tho rights Of racial. na-
tional and religious minorities bv
solemn international covenant; an on.
opportunity to limit and regulate Mill
tary establishments xhere they were
most likely to be mischevious: an on
portunity to effect a complete and sys-
tematlc Observation-Disclosures of water
ways and railways which were neces-
sary to the free economic life of moro
than one nation and to clear manv
OF the normal channels Of commerce.
OF unfair distractions Of law or Of
privilege; and the very welcome op-
portunlty to secure for labor the con-
certed protection Of definite interna-
tional pledges Of principle and prac-
tics.
These we're not tasks which the
conference looked about it to find and
went out Of its way to perform.
They were insepRrable from the set-
Elements Of peace. They were thrust
upon 1t by circumstances which could
not be overlooked. The war had cre-
ated them. They mad to be set right
by applying some uniform principle
OF justice or enlightened expediency
And they could not be adjusted by
merely prescribing in treaty what
should be done New states were to
be set up which could not hope to live
through their first period Of weakness
without assured support by the great
nations that had consented to their
creation and won for .;iem their indie
pendence. Ill-governed colonies could
not be put in the hands Of govern
ments which were to act as trustees
for their people and not as their mas
ters if there was to be no common
authority among the nations to which
they were to be responsible for the
execution Of their trust Future in
ternational conventions with regard
to the control of waterways, with re-
gard to illicit traffic Of many kinds,
in arms or in deadly drugs, or with
regard to the adjustment Of many
varying international administrative
arrangements could not be assured if
the treaty were to provide no perma-
nent common international agency, if
it's execution in such matters was to
be left to the slow and uncertain
processes Of cooperation by ordinary
methods of negotiation. If the peace
conference itself was to be the end Of
cooperative authority and common
counsel among the governments to
which the world was looking to en-
force justice and give pledges Of an
enduring settlement, regions like the
Saar basin could not be put under a
temporary administrative regime
which did not involve a transfer Of
political sovereignty and which con-
templated final determination Of it's
political connections by popular vote
to be taken at a distant date; no free
city like Danzig could be created
which was, under elaborate interna-
tional guarantees, to accept excep-
tional obligations with regard to the
use Of its port and exceptional rela-
tions with state of which it was not
to form a part; properly safeguarded
plebescites could not be provided for
where populations were at some fu-
ture date to make choice what sover-
eighty they would live under; no GER
tain and uniform method of arbitra-
tion could be secured for the settle
ment Of anticipated difficulties Of final
decision with regard to many matters
dealt with in the treaty itself; the
long continued supervision of the task
Of reparation which Germany was to
undertake to complete within the
next generation might entirely break
down; the reconsideration and revis-
ion Of administrative arrangements
and restrictions which the treaty pre-
scribed but which it was recognized
might not prove OF lasting advantage
or entirely fair if too long enforced
would be impracticable. The prcn-
ises governments were making to one
another about the way in which labor
was to be dealt with, by law not only
but in fact AZ we'll. would remain a
mere humane thesis il there was to
be no common tribunal Of opinion
and Judgment to which liberal states
men could resort for the influences
which alone might secure their re-
demption. A league Of free nations
had become a practical necessity. FIX
anime thu treaty Of peace and you
will And that everywhere throughout
its manifold provisions its trainers
have felt obliged to turn to the league
Of nations as an indispensable instru-
mentality for the maintenance of the
new order il has been their purpose
to set up in the world-the world Of
civilized men.
That there should be league of
ma tons TO steady the counscls and
maintain the peaceful understandings
CT TIC world, to make, not treaties
alone. but the accepted principles OF
international law as we'll, the inter
nGtion&l rule Of conduct among the
6 u . laGiitS Of tLa lualll hnd lao,, |