Perth Amboy evening news., 1919-03-18
THE VOICE OF REACTION

The New York Suns clarion call to the Republican party to put
.o Marty roan;zahon behind the opposition to the league of nations
scheme is hardly likely to produce many echoes. The Sun, always the
%mouthpiece of The conservative, reactionary element Is hardly "a SAFE
leader in times like these when forward looking men are trying to
lead the world out of the darkness of jealousy and strife into the
light of peace and goodwill between all nations.
Whether The league of nations idea s a success T not it is a won
dcrful thing when representatives Of all the great nations on the earth
" oct together and even discuss such a thing. When they actually
produce a constitution upon which all can agree, outlining a course
Of procedure intending to do away with all future wars, it is, indeed
a marvellous achievement. Even the most doubtful and skeptical ones
must admit that the occasion is most unprecedented and the object to
be attained is something greatly to be desired.
But if the getting together of nations to do away with all wars
is something greatly to be desired. how is it ever to be brought about
If W. do NOT make the most of such opportunities as are now before u.s.
What is the use of longing for something if, when an effort is
made to give MS that which we long for, we reject it as impossibleG
We do not believe that the great Republican party-the party
Of Lincoln, Mckinley and Roosevelt; the party that has always been
in the vanguard as the nation has progressed-wnl permit itself to be-
come the party of obstruction in this the greatest of all forward move
ments.
Just now there is a desperate effort being made within the Repub
Hcan ranks by the OLE guard -thed poStcS VI i0"I"h
their control. We see the fight going on at Washington and it is gong
on right here in New Jersey. II is the life and death struggle OF the
Republican party. Will it follow the leadership of the element OF
which the New York Sun is the m%outhpiecc, or will it respond to the
young, aggressive, ynle spirit Of the new generation that is to carry
1tI great nation forward to the performance of its great mission IN
s e. world? Is it to be merely a party of opposition without any ag
gressiveness of its own, or is it TO continue its great constructive policy
that has marked its progress since the days Of Abraham LincohG
The Sun calls, but who is to responds Even the great leaders IN
the United States senate are ready to accept some form 81 a league OIL
nations. Senator Lodge has said so; Senator Knox has advanced a
proposition of his own along this line; even Senator trelnghuysen
has given up his idea of touring New Jersey against the league idea
and Senator-elect Edge is not so ready to commit himself now, even
though he did sign the round robin opposing the constitution OF the
league as presented by the committee at the peace conference.
That there will be some changes in the draft of that constitution
is admitted on all sides. When these changes are made the American
people, irrespective of party will get behind it and put it through re
CARELESS of such opposition as the reaetonary element under such
leadership as the New York Sun may make. The abolition of all war
is the great ideal toward which America has-been striving for a cen
fury past. Now that there is light ahead, surely we are not going to
turn away from ii.
WIFI PENATN ERE