Norwich bulletin., 1919-09-18
Johnson Denounces
 League Covenant
Asserts It Would Deprive the United States of Independ- ence of Action.

Lincoln, NeNb.. Sept. 17.-In ad- dressing a large and enthusiastic gath ering here tonight, Senator Hiram w. Johnson of California denounced the League of Nations covenant as an in famous document and declared that its adoption would result in throwing the eration and deprive the republic of it's future independence of acton. It would, he said, substitute misty in ternationalism for Americanism.
 Senator Johnson said: The pres ident has made, and asked the senate to approve, a league covenant that is to be higher than our constitution. Except the sovereign people. no pow CT on earth can legally change our constitution or make another to override it. The people can do that. but no public servant or servants of these people should be permitted to do it. It is admitted by the president that we lose our independence in the league Misty interna1ionalism has been substituted for AmericaniSm.'
 After enumerating the various burdens which the peace pact i'm poses on the United States, Senator Johnson said:
 The great fundamental question which every American father and mother should answer, is: Should American boys police the world Shall Amercian blood uphold, main tain and perserve Old World govern
 
 the nations which have immensely in creased their boundaries?
 At Omaha the president definitely announced himself against amend ments to the League of Nations or reservations of any sort
 Upon what theory does he thus limit the action of what is supposed to be the great democracy of the world? When did the president of the United States possess the power to fn fS CS You must %
 The senate insists that the Unit ed States shall be protected and that such reservatio as are necessary for the preservation of our institutions and our rights shall be written into the instrument. The president denies this right to the American people and to the senate, while according it to every other nation. The senate may have all the faults which the presi- dent attributes to it, but today it stands the bulwark of American lib erty, stands between the American people and the unholy attempt to foist upon them foreign domination
 The League of Nations comes to us after it's principal members have been gorged with territory, with their boundaries and their hints increased beyond the widest dreams, and with other immense tracts of the worlds s surface yet to be distributed among
 
 eessions- of territory, when each of the four nations possesses lands far greater than ever before, the one going, solvent national. concern on earth undertakes by article ten to guaran- tee forever these extraordinary ter ritOrial limits.
 r How can any man of liberal views agree to article ten? When I speak of men of liberal views, l mean those whose hearts throb in unison with humanity; those who believe gov ernments obligation is first to men and women and children. The section freezes the world into immut biIity. It makes the present generation de- eide the fate Of all future generations. It assumes to put the world in a wherein there can be no movement for betternen or pro- greSS of humanity. But beyond and above all this. the maintenance of this static condition can be accomplished by the blood of just one nation, and that is ours"